Well, fellow Sonar users, I've been using Cakewalk software for a year now. it's been an amazing ride so far! My very first experience in music composition was in 1996 with Voyetra's Digital Orchestrator. (Anyone remember this product?) I've taken a long break since then.
 
On June 15th of last year, I bought Music Creator 6 at my local Best Buy for about $30. I spent the next several months learning the basics of music, sequencing, mixing techniques and starting several new projects. I'm so extremely impressed by the versatility of this software over Digital Orchestrator from so many years ago. The variety of features and realism of the synths amazes me! I've learned much about the software and I feel I've accomplished great things with it.
 
Of course, there were a few hiccups, dilemmas and concerns along the way. I had an elaborate series of operational questions which weren't clearly documented in all the sources available to me. My very first issue was the latency problem. "Why are my notes being dropped/delayed? What's an audio interface?" And then, "What's going on with the TTS mixer window? What's with this automation feature? Why is my SoundCenter Examples Pack not working? What's a Master bus, and why? And what's with the Audio Engine light not coming on?" Although quite frustrating at times, these individual issues/questions all found solid resolution and caused no obstruction to my progression whatsoever. I thank the Forum users for answering my questions on all these issues.
 
In April 2014 (ten months later), I upgraded to Music Creator 6 Touch for free. The next week, I purchased Sonar X3 for $29. The drastic improvement in functionality/features between Music Creator and Sonar was astonishing. In addition, all of my experience and education over the past year came at a very affordable cost.
 
And so, here I am, still at it. This has been challenging, rewarding and fun! I would like to thank the fellow users of the Music Creator and Sonar X3 Series forums for your knowledge and assistance. I still consider myself an amateur, but I'm eager to further my experience in the hopes of creating some amazing work!
 

Hey - take a giant deep breath, and simply enjoy it all coming together for you.
 
The things we are able to do these days, even if some tasks have PITA parts to them, are simply extraordinary, and being able to express ourselves, or help others express themselves, is a fantastic feeling, and really what it is all about, for me.
 
I LOVE that you are liking this moment amid the chaos, to simply be happy with it.
 
Way kewl, 
 
Bob Bone
 

Congratulations man, I hope you have decades of satisfaction creating your music.
 
In my experience you will reap what you sow.
 
Regards,
 

We all are very fortunate, beginner and expert alike, to have this forum as a resource. Compared to other forums, it's even pretty troll- free.

I live in backwoods Kentucky, and most musician types I know around here, can't even make and email a MP3 file.  These forums have been invaluable and the rate answers come back, seems like I'm asking the obvious too much, even though I've attempted research.  It makes for great casual reading too.

mixmkr
seems like I'm asking the obvious too much

If it's not obvious to you, it's not obvious to other people as well...they benefit too.