help an old newbie - its good kharma

a) I'd GUESS that the signal going into Sonar is too hot. Check the levels going out of whatever's between your guitar and Emu (you need a preamp of some sort between those) to ensure that the signal isn't overloading there. If that's not it, check the Emu's input levels to make sure they're not red-lining there. After that, check the volume on the track you're recording in Sonar LE.
One of those should cover it.

b) Is it RECORDING wet, or are you just HEARING wet? I've never used Sonar LE, but is there an option for 'Input Monitoring'? Input monitoring would allow you to hear the wet version, so if you disable that, you'll hear exactly what's going into the program.

c) I don't know if Sonar LE comes with the VST wrapper. If it does, run it to select any plugins that didn't come with Sonar. After that, those can be popped into the FX Bin of an audio track. The effects that come with Sonar can simply be put into the FX Bin of an audio track.

hey - thanks for the tips...i'll check them out. i kinda know what to do in some of these cases, but don't yet know where to find the tools on the system. i'll let you know how i make out along the way - thanks again for the help.