Hello All -
Well now that my kid is reaching toddler stage I can finally dedicate some time to learning Sonar Producer 8.5 and I must say I'm a little bit overwhelmed.  I've managed to record a few bars of decent sounding stuff thus far but that has been very much using anything that will work for me. 
 
SO...I would first like to apologize ahead of time for the level of noob questions i will have for quite some time....and the fact that i'm somewhat computer illiterate :(
That said....I used a DAW back in '95 at college and I have what I think is a great musical mind.  I just need to bring my understanding and technical skillset up to speed in the year well....2014 at this point :)
 
Can anyone give some links to great tutorials?
I read around here and people mention "read the tutorial/watch the tutorial" but I feel like I'm missing the page where all of this info is linked up?
 
OK......so like i said....I'm going to have a lot of totally random and hopefully not annoying questions.  I truly promise you I am working very hard at understanding as much as I can on my own.  I have an awesome Sonar book that I've been reading through but today I'm feeling like I need to turn back to page 1 and remember all I read!
 
Random questions 1 and 2 :)
-I would like to create drum tracks hopefully using something that has a different instrument on every key of my keyboard.  Right now the only thing i've used for drums is session drummer 3 and with this I find that I only have about 20 keys or so available to use.  How to I expand this to have a different sound on each key?
What is the deal with setting up a "drum map" when I have things like dimension pro that includes drum sounds? 
 
-My old buddy set everything up for me and sadly I don't hear from him anymore.  With that I have no idea how cleanly everything was set up at all.  I have 64bit stuff, 32bit.....tons of names of this and that but I don't know where to find or use them in Sonar half the time.  For all I know I have certain things that are completely unusable because they are not in the proper directory or something.  So.....I would like to add these VSTs asap but I'm really not sure where to put them unpack them etc. or whether or not they'll even be compatible.
Here is the link to the VSTs I would like to add:

 
 
 
OK that does it for this round.  Thanks so much to anyone that can offer some guidance.  I really appreciate good peeps like you that help us noobs out.  Hopefully I'll be able to do the same one day :)

Cakewalk YouTube collection: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL184BF0D2A0DC1124
 
There's enough there to keep you occupied for a few weeks! There's also Scott Garrigus' SONAR Power books, although you might have to find the SONAR 8.5 version second-hand via Amazon.

my goodness bitflipper.....i remember your face from when i was reading this forum about 3 years ago right before my son was born!  Cheers to you for being a constant source of support here :)
 
 
ok those videos will surely give me a good chunk to absorb.
also the scott garrigus book is what i have though it's for sonar 7 and not 8.5.  i have the regular "sonar power" book which i'm nearly done reading and also a sonar synths book which i haven't even cracked yet.
 
 
any advice you can offer on my two questions?  that will help me keep moving forward and getting the hands on experience while at the same time trying to absorb and learn as much as i can
 
thanks again for being here....i feel like i can't do this on my own without the direction of you good folks so it's really comforting to have some hope!

#1) With the software you have, you could create an sfz file to load into Dimension Pro to play the samples you have. Between "Calkwalk Synthesizers" and the hunderds of sfz examples included with DimPro, you have enough to get you start in creating your own sfz files. Alternately, for free you can install TX16Wx a sampler. You may find it easier than working with sfz files.
 
#2) Since you do not have enough posts, the links are not visible. I think you need more than 25 posts to be able to create links. In any event, first you should determine where you VST files are already installed. You can see the paths scanned by opening the Plug-in Manager and looking at the options. You can either add the new VST plug-ins in the paths already defined in the Plug-in Manager or add new paths to the Plug-in manager. I prefer to keep everything in the paths that already exist in the Plug-in Manager so when asked by a new plug-in installer, I put the new plug-ins in an existing path. I also like to put the plug-ins into separate directories by vendor in the VST plug-in path but that is not necessary.

seed
 
 
Random questions 1 and 2 :)
-I would like to create drum tracks hopefully using something that has a different instrument on every key of my keyboard.  Right now the only thing i've used for drums is session drummer 3 and with this I find that I only have about 20 keys or so available to use.  How to I expand this to have a different sound on each key?
What is the deal with setting up a "drum map" when I have things like dimension pro that includes drum sounds? 
 
-My old buddy set everything up for me and sadly I don't hear from him anymore.  With that I have no idea how cleanly everything was set up at all.  I have 64bit stuff, 32bit.....tons of names of this and that but I don't know where to find or use them in Sonar half the time.  For all I know I have certain things that are completely unusable because they are not in the proper directory or something.  So.....I would like to add these VSTs asap but I'm really not sure where to put them unpack them etc. or whether or not they'll even be compatible.
Here is the link to the VSTs I would like to add:
 
 
 
 
OK that does it for this round.  Thanks so much to anyone that can offer some guidance.  I really appreciate good peeps like you that help us noobs out.  Hopefully I'll be able to do the same one day :)

1/ not even Mike Portnoy would have 88 different bits on his kit (well, maybe...)! are you wanting to play drums in real time? because there's no need to assign different sounds to different keys as you can multi-track/create new drum maps and templates etc. i assume you're referring to the old GM channel 10 standard where there are 127 sounds such as bongos, maracas etc...you can get that with TTs-1 soft-synth, but the quality of sounds aren't as good.
 
2/ go into the VST plug-in manager and add the folders where your .dlls are (often they default to program files>steinberg> vst) to the VST scan, then do a rescan - that process will be covered in Sonar Power!
 
good luck!

When you installed Sonar, it should have come with some tutorials. And in the manual there should be some reading that goes along with each tutorial.

The tutorials might be in c:\Cakewalk Content. Look in there. At work right now and can't double check to be sure.

Jonesey -
I'm in the USA and cannot PM you yet as my status here is still too noob  =P
 
scook -
1) i wish i could understand what you are suggesting.  right now i'm struggling with the concepts of "drum maps" and all of the drum samples i see in the various soft synths i have.  i'm not sure how these two "communicate" or if they do at all. 
2) maybe this link will work:
interruptorDOTch/vst_donationware.shtml
 
mgh-
1) my main experience is from like 20 years ago so yes i'm probably referring to an ancient standard ;)  back then i had a full keyboard and every single key contained a different drum or percussion sound.  i just loved having that much readily available at my fingertips and it gave me the option of a lot to play around with avoiding the need to keep loading things to pull new sounds.  right now with my basic understanding i'm using session drummer and only like 20 keys have a sound assigned to them.  i get that i could open multiple soft synths etc. to ultimately have all the sounds i want but ideally i would have a bunch all available within the same track or drum kit or whatever.  seems weird that i would need to create say 10 different drum tracks in order to pull sounds from various pieces.  then again....everything is "weird" to me at the moment :)
 
 
 
really appreciate you folks chiming in
happy holiday to anyone soon to celebrate :)
 
 
 

The page has quite a few plug-ins on it. The ones I looked at where zip files without installers. To install these plug-ins, unzip files in a directory in your VST path and run the plug-in scanner.

seed
 
 
mgh-
1) my main experience is from like 20 years ago so yes i'm probably referring to an ancient standard ;)  back then i had a full keyboard and every single key contained a different drum or percussion sound.  i just loved having that much readily available at my fingertips and it gave me the option of a lot to play around with avoiding the need to keep loading things to pull new sounds.  right now with my basic understanding i'm using session drummer and only like 20 keys have a sound assigned to them.  i get that i could open multiple soft synths etc. to ultimately have all the sounds i want but ideally i would have a bunch all available within the same track or drum kit or whatever.  seems weird that i would need to create say 10 different drum tracks in order to pull sounds from various pieces.  then again....everything is "weird" to me at the moment :)
 
 
 
really appreciate you folks chiming in
happy holiday to anyone soon to celebrate :)
 
 
 

ah, then you do need to use TTS-1 - insert it via the synth rack or Insert command, then use channel 10 which will be set to GM drums - all those whistles, gunfire etc...
 

awesome thanks much scook
i'm really excited to try these out....hopefully they are compatible and i can pull off a proper install :)
 
i guess i'll know more when i'm back at home (at work now), but do i have to distinguish between an "instrument" plugin and an "effects" plugin when installing these?
 
sorry ....my terminology will surely grow as this stuff soaks in deeper