Hi,
   i think i asked this question before but i am just coming back to sonar x2 as i have been really busy and not had much free time.
so heres my question: a friend gave me some cd's which are full of individual sounds in wav format, what i want to know is what is the easiest way to put the sound into a full instrument so that it spans my midi keyboard through sonar.
do i need a third party product or is there a way of doing it in sonar i am running sonar x2 essential but will be upgrading to producer once i get paid.
 
any help would be greatly appreciated
regards  
Generate_R

also is there an  easy way of mapping my pcr-500 to sonar so all pads and dials work without following the 200 page booklet that comes with it?
 
regards
Generate_R

Dropzone is the sampler in SONAR. IIRC it does not support multi-layer samples (different sample for different velocity spans), though.
 
I've never studied the Instrument Definitions-part, but I assume that's the direction to look for regarding the PCR-500 issue.

Generate_R:
 
You can create your own instrument.
 
Use a softsynth like SFZ+ Professional which is available free from the Cakewalk store for free.  Then define your own mappings to sounds using the SFZ format.  A specification which is available here: http://www.cakewalk.com/DevXchange/article.aspx?aid=108
 
Hope this helps,
Paul

Building sfz files is not hard but is time consuming. I think the easiest solution would be TX16Wx a free sampler.

apologies if i am barking up the wrong tree here...
 
perhaps you may want to experiment with The Martix View. personally i do not use this function however, it allows for a some what efficient way to lay out WAV files to be used multiple times within a track... its some thing like a loop, trigger and player thinngy. seeing this in action once, allows control in terms of rows and columns, individual cells...etc. 
 
its relatively easy to drag and drop the WAV into the cells and then use the MIDI Learn to assign to the keyboard.
 
as mentioned above, there are plenty of sample playback devices avail, however, its extremely time consuming to really map out an entire keyboard range. (61 keys is bad enough, let alone 88 keys... ) i am not sure if your samples are keyed and tagged correctly, if not you may need to also specify the pitch ranges and quite a few other stuff... 
 
good news is when you are done with it all, you'd be the resident expert in the ADSR, Pitch and Formant Department. 

hope it helps... and all the very best... cheers!!!

If creating your own sample-based instruments/sounds is something you'll be doing regularly, I'd highly recommend getting Native Instrument's Kontakt.
It's not a cheap solution... but it's one that you can grow into... and it'll be around for years to come.
You can create instruments as simple or as complex as your creativity/imagination allow.
 
If you're new to DAWs (don't have a lot of software/plugins), consider the Komplete 9 bundle.
You get a LOT of bang-for-the-buck.  Instruments and sounds...

Although it may be overkill for what you want now, I agree with Jim that Kontakt is the gold standard.  It will cost you a few bucks but 1-you will get a large library of instruments (both the library that comes with the free Kontakt player and the library that comes with the paid version), 2-you will have a very pro sampler, and 3-you will be able to get a lot of free or very reasonably priced soft synths / instruments that require the full Kontakt player.  Almost any serious company that sells samples will have Kontakt format (even if they have other formats as well).
 
I actually put that purchase off for a while because it was not critical, but now that I have it, I love it.