AnthonyMangos
No luck.  I have the Addictive Drums drum map, no sound.  I closed the file in frustration and re-opened it.  An error message said I was missing a console emulator.  Per cakewalk help and looking at my directory it turns out my computer wasn't set to recognize short and long names of files.  Went into the command prompt and fixed that.  I still get the error message.  Some of the drums will sound in the step sequencer and then they don't.  Set the output for both master and Quadcapture - no difference.
 
I only bought Sonar because I wanted to collaborate with an old college friend - PA9 wasn't good enough for him. 
 
I initially begged off a few months ago and then he e-mailed about a month ago and I decided to do it.  He should have just left well enough alone.
 
I am going to wait the weekend.  After that, I am going to uninstall Sonar and give ProTools a try via their trail period.  If I can't get 20 seconds of recorded professional sounding music within a week, then the problem is me.  If I can, I will switch. 
 
I was up half of the night, and have to drive 8 hours today.    

 
Man, it's really painful reading this thread, I feel for ya dude. I imagine everyone posting here would head straight to your place and fix the problem for you if that were possible.
 
For what it's worth, your experience is not at all like mine was when I followed the upgrade path to the X series. In fact, I'd say your experience is not typical at all, so there's something else besides just the new software in play here, I think. As I recall (and I could be wrong), drum maps shouldn't have much to do with whether or not you're generating sound at all, they simply provide a nice labelling of patches for the specific virtual instrument. In fact I've never used drum maps because I hate the UI :)  but I still manage to use both Session Drummer and Addictive Drums just fine.
 
FYI, I've never used any books or videos or anything like that, and I've never used any other DAW so I'm not some digital recording expert just new to Sonar. Once I figured out the ASIO and interface drivers, it was pretty much arm, record, export. Sonar isn't that different from previous versions. Yeah, there are new instruments and new capabilities, but those weren't too hard to figure out. A streamlined UI and window layout model, sure, which can make finding stuff that you know is there a bit time consuming and frustrating initially, but a lot of the basic dialogs are very similar to older versions and the underlying concepts of simply recording and generating output are pretty much the same, imho.
 
All of this is meant to suggest that you might well have some issues with configuration. If I recall correctly, Cake support has been known do a remote troubleshooting session which might help you figure out what is probably a very simple issue in short order.
 
I just can't imagine pro tools being any less complex for you if Sonar has been such a challenge.
 
Best of luck to you, I hope you figure out some way to start making some tunes.
 
Kevin

I have seen only a small number (2-3) that I can recall, where someone did indeed have some sort of conflict where turning off their on-board sound resolved it.
 
The far more usual things (in my opinion) that I have seen is where folks:
 
1) Had ASIO4ALL installed from some attempt at using it, but left it on their machine after moving on to the ASIO drivers of an actual audio interface, where ASIO4ALL somehow had interfered with the other ASIO drivers.
2)  Were having issues trying to use ASIO with multiple audio interfaces from different manufacturers at the same time.
3) Were using the ASIO drivers of their audio interface, BUT also had the Windows Default Audio Device trying to access the ASIO drivers of their audio interface, and conflicts arose.
4) Had ASIO drivers available for an audio interface, (which others were using successfully), but for some reason were using WDM/MME (non-ASIO) drivers, and getting poor performance.  (please note that for some, better success has been reported using WDM rather than ASIO for their particular audio interface)/
 
Some folks also choose to go into Windows Device Manager, and disable their on-board audio drivers there, rather than going into the BIOS.
 
Others, like myself, run using the ASIO drivers for their audio interface, and have their Windows Default Audio Device set to the on-board audio, and then run the output from the computer's audio to 1 of 3 places: 1st - a set of separate speakers than what the audio interface uses, 2nd - they feed the computer's audio output back into the audio interface into an input channel on the interface (sacrificing an input for the sake of better sound than computer speakers), or 3rd - (and this is what I do), I use multiple HDTV's as display monitors, and I select an HDMI output for my Windows Default Audio Device, and it sends the audio through the HDMI cable to one of the monitors - using its built-in speakers.
 
I think that when the original poster becomes available, and perhaps with your assistance, as well as others here in the forum, that we can methodically go through a review of the connections, settings, and such, and likely get his computer up and running properly.  The fact that there are not bunches of people posting about Sonar failing to produce audio output is a good indicator that the issues are local to that computer and its setup/configuration for audio streaming with Sonar, and therefore quite likely able to be resolved with some interactive guidance.
 
 
There will still be a learning curve, but really, for basic recording, playback, and editing, many of the functions are the same, it's just a matter of remapping the 'how to do them' that is needed.  Newer features can be learned after figuring out the basics of it all in the new user interface.
 
Bob Bone
 

To use Drum Maps they have to be setup right. You get to them via the Drum Map manager.
 

 
 The picture is the default outs for the drum map. Clearly it will not trigger AD 2. It is set for in this case to my XV5080 Roland hardware synth.
 

 
Now you see it set to Addictive Drums. The way I do this is while holding down Shift + Ctrl and clicking on the drop down arrow I set it to AD and all the outs will set to the same. From there when you open the SS or the PRV (Piano Roll View) you will see the names of drums not notes. 

AnthonyMangos

Getting drum names and then getting the step sequencer patterns to a track are my hurdles now.
 

Another thing occurred to me that has not been mentioned yet. AD2 uses it own proprietary drum map (internally) to take advantage of its entire kit. Realistically (and especially first starting out and wanting to make something), you may be more familiar with General MIDI (GM format). In the upper right of the AD2 UI, the "?" has a "Map Window" option. In the upper left of that window, you can change "Map Preset" from "AD2 Standard" to "GM"
 
A few options to expedite things:

1. Open an old project you made and save it with a new project name (so the original is not altered). With AD2 set to GM per above, you can insert an instance of AD2, choose a kit, and set the Output of your original drum MIDI track to AD2. Play the project, and should sound with the AD2 kit (versus what you originally used).
2. If creating a new project, leave the AD2 internal drum map set to its default (AD2 Standard). On the Beats tab in AD2, "Sync Tempo" in the lower right allows you to change SONAR tempo and have AD2 stay synced. Two things you can do:
   1. Drag a beat pattern from the left pane into your AD2 MIDI track for editing. Doing this, you will then need to right click that clip and "Convert MIDI Clip(s) to Step Sequencer" and a popup will give you resolution. Just choose default initially, and then double clicking that clip should open the Step Sequencer (but no names). If you then output the AD2 MIDI track to ->New drum Map->AD2 Standard (for the templates in the blog above), the names should then appear.
   2. Alternatively, can use a MIDI controller to enter notes. Unfortunately, just clicking on kit pieces in AD2 does not create any MIDI track data (which would be simplest).
3. I am also not a drum map fan, but IIRC, there used to be an issue that drum map names did not show unless at least one MIDI event existed on the track.

Having said that, I do copy/paste a lot for MIDI events using Piano Roll View (PRV). After inserting an instance of AD2, again set the output to "New Drum Map"-->AD2 Standard (and leave AD2's internal map to "AD2 Standard" as well). If you have already been playing around, that with actually be in the first-tier output options.

1. Right click the empty MIDI track for AD2->View->Piano Roll View (PRV).
2. Hit Shift-D to maximize this view.
3. Tricky part (but important you know this) - by default, the PRV will only show you keys, and is not obvious that there is another pane ABOVE those keys. Hover the mouse over the top key until you get an "=" with and arrow at top/bottom (will drag the pane divider). When you get that cursor, left click and drag it to the bottom of the PRV... now the left pane should show kit piece names.
4. Single clicking in that left pane will "fire" any pieces mapped in the kit... can even left click and move the mouse up/down the kit to find pieces.
5. Double clicking in the right pane will add transient events based on your snap-to-grid settings.
6. With a few notes added, you can right click and drag to lasso-select things, then copy (ctrl-c), select a new time position at the top, then paste (ctrl-v).
7. "D" will restore/minimize the Multidock (containing the PRV) to help you jump back and forth between Track View (TV) and PRV.
8. Say you have created 2 bars that you like and want to loop it (as you would with Step Sequencer)... hit D to see the Track View, then left click/drag through your looping content. Right click and "Bounce to Clip(s)" to meld them into one unit (needed if you used copy/paste in the PRV). Then right click again and select "Groove Clip Looping" - this creates a loop and visually will lop the corners off the clip. If you hover over the right edge, you will see a "<-|->" cursor... left click that and you can drag your loop to any length and it will auto repeat as it fills. Right click and bouncing to clip(s) will render a single clip to easily chop/swap things in the middle, add transients/fills, etc.
9. You can also copy/paste into the track view, and bouncing/groove clip looping is convenient.
10. You can also use multiple MIDI tracks to feed the same AD2 instance, so can keep Hi Hats/Cymbals on one, Kick/Snare on another, or whatever you choose.

I just wanted to throw that second option out for you, as I typically use TV/PRV combo to lay down drums (even if pulling a MIDI clip from AD2's "Beats" tab initially).
 
The Step Sequencer and I have not gotten along well, so I admittedly have not used it seriously for some time.