I thank you all for the fantastic insights...I spent the night struggling with this, tried a whole bunch of different things, running down dead ends, then spent the time to do as you suggested and somehow found track templates and thought I'd discovered a whole new world of "ease" and was jumping around like an excited dog! My own lack of awareness of all the amazing things Sonar can do is my worst enemy and now that I'm spending more time and learning it's true power I am becoming sooooo excited. This year, my mantra is to learn this beautiful beast! Stumbling around, as I've done for years, gets in the way of creating music... while understanding and learning how to use it's amazing tools makes it easier...
I spent time even looking at how other DAWs handle this on youtube and in the end realize how fortunate I am to have started and stayed with Sonar... as the whole track template system makes it all soooo simple once you spend the time to set things up...
Was a real eye opener for me and I thank you guys for confirming my epiphany moments last night. Robert and lawajava, your tips make total sense to me now that I've realized how things work and I'm just STOKED!
Thank you Thank You Thank YOU!!!