I need some very basic advice in order to get started.  At present, I just wish to use my copy of Sonar LE 8.5 that came with my UA-1G, to record stereo audio from line-ins (i.e. from external playback devices LP/Vinyl, Cassette, CD or DVD-Audio).  I am sure the first response from some of you will be 'why use Sonar for that', but I do have reasons, and I will not only be doing this in future, plus it seemed an easy way to start.  However, I am more confused than ever after reading some of the 'tutorial' stuff.

Is there, anywhere, a simple introduction to Sonar (LE preferably) aimed at recording from external playback devices through a USB/ADC?  Or just a very simple introduction to Sonar for stereo recording of any kind?

  

Welcome to the forum.
Connect your playback device to the line-in of your sound card.
Open SONAR LE.
Select an audio track and set it's inputs to your sound card. You should have three options; Left, Right and Stereo. You could record each channel of the stereo source on different tracks if you wanted to, but a single stereo track is usually enough.
Click the Arm button for the track(s). Start the playback device. You should see the record level meters moving. Adjust the input as necessary with the sound card's controls. Do this during the loudest part of the song otherwise you may clip if you set the record level to LOUD while not much is going on in the song. The Gain and Volume controls in SONAR are for output only and won't affect the level of the recording.
Stop/rewind the playback device.
Click the Record button in SONAR's transport. When the Now line starts moving, start the playback device.
 
What have you tried so far? And are you having any specific problems?

Sorry for not responding for so long 57Gregy, but I never got around to trying LE again for reasons too complicated to go into here. But thanks for trying to help anyway. I have now just started recording some LPs with LE, and I can export the files to Wave files, BUT the export is SO damn slow! It seems to be writing the file out at the same speed as it would play it, so to export one side of an LP takes 20minutes plus. I have looked for an option relevant to this but maybe I have missed something; is there any way I can speed things up. I am recording in 16bit/44.1KHz and saving/exporting unchanged.

In the Export menu, is there a button labelled 'Fast Bounce' and is it checked?

Hello again 57Gregy. Now, I was just thinking of those things down to the bottom right of the export menu... I turned everything off that I thought I did not need, to simplify things (hoping to speed things up not the reverse) and to help ensure that I did not click something inadvertently and screw up a recording. But, after I packed up late, very late, last night I thought 'maybe I shouldn't have done that'; especially as I don't know what I'm doing! In short, yes 'Fast Bounce' is OFF; does that tell Sonar to 'write at normal speed' or something? Anyway, I am not on the recording laptop at the moment, but I should be trying something in an hour or two, and I will set Fast Bounce on again. Thanks for the reply.

OK, I just did another album and left everything checked and, yes, it was back up to speed. Thank you 57Gregy - thank you very much. Before I stop pestering you, can I ask one last question? Is there any way to turn off the metronome permanently, i.e. for all recording. It seems that you have to do this every time you start a project; I really want to be monitoring, not just listening to the source through the Hi-Fi for all my recording. Hum... maybe there's a project template or something - I must have another look - I was a bit confused earlier... Thanks again.

Good deal.
 
I created a kind of template with the metronome off and a MIDI drum track playing. The drum track responds to changes in tempo for different songs at different speeds. I could never hear the metronome anyway.
When I finish the first session with the template, I give it a name other than 'My Template', thus saving the template as it was and making the new song a different file.
You can create a custom template without the met and use it every time you want to record an LP.
 

Thanks Greg; I'm away for a few days but will try out the templates when I next record. Thank you once again for the help, Regards, Arthur.