Just finished a song... 
 
https://soundcloud.com/sean-peifer/because-of-you
 
I'd appreciate any suggestions, especially on how to get the drums to sound better. Thanks.

I can't tell you what to do with the drums.  I've never figured that out.  I like your song and you did a nice job on it.  I keep thinking there's something I'm hearing that shouldn't be there but I can't figure it out so I would say that everything there belongs.  I actually liked it the more I listened.  

Thanks for the reply evadianepug. And for your kind words. I'm not sure what shouldn't be there--maybe it's the acoustic guitars(?). 

keep the acoustic gt in! It helps fill the tune out nicely. One thing thing that pops out to me is that the vox are a little too up front in the mix. Lead solos is very nice, perhaps bring the vox down to that level. Good work. :)

The drums seem fine to me. I'd consider raising the "dug dug dug" guitar (What IS that called anyway?) as it is a big part of the rhythm function.
Not necessarily volume but clarity/definition?
Perhaps less compression or some NY comp to let the attack thru a bit?
Nice song

gusrogers - Thanks for taking time to listen and for the advice. (I was thinking that maybe the acoustic guitars were making the recording sound muddied--there's a lot more acoustic than electric). After listening again with fresh ears, it really does sound like the vox are really loud--especially on the chorus. Maybe I'll try bringing down the vox a bit and repost it later. (Unfortunately, when I work on song I get kind of sick of it and need a bit of a break =-P).
 
M_Glenn_M - Thanks for the listen and the reply. I hadn't thought about the chunka-chunka guitar being turned up. Maybe I'll try that and see how it sounds. About the compression, though... I've read up on compressors, and I've experimented with them but they seem a bit ethereal to me. Not quite sure how to use them correctly. Pardon my ignorance, but what is "NY comp?" (I looked it up on Google and found: New York State Compensation Board--pretty sure that's not it). By letting the attack through, do you mean decreasing it? 

The good news is that the song is catchy, the performances are very good.  The arrangement gives it a nice modern but classic sound.  As for the drums, I don't know what version of Sonar you are using, but there are some very good compressors for the ProChannel that can make these drums fatter and sit in the mix better.  I think if you get the drums to pop more, the levels on everything else will fall into place.  I give each drum in my kit (virtual) its own track, process each drum separately, then send them to their own bus and glue it all together with one of PC's bus compressors.  EQ to taste.  With just a little tweaking, this song will be a gem!

Lynn - Thanks for listening and for the helpful comments about the drums. I'm using X2a Producer, with Session Drummer 3. I have all the instruments separate (on ten tracks I think). I use the PX-64 Percussion Strip on each separate drum track. Then I route it all to a drum bus. I'm having a bit of a problem figuring out compression though. It seems like I'm squishing everything. Thanks for the comments on the song.   

Compression reduces the peaks so you can raise the levels allowing you to hear the rest of the track better.
It will dull down the impact.
New york compression is a trick whereby you blend an uncompressed track with a copy that is heavily compressed.
That way you keep the initial impact (like the crack of the drum or the initial hit of the guitar) while also bringing up the subtleties of the rest of the sound.
Lots of compressors and other plugins have a blend function like the Prochannel compressors (wet/Dry) that does the same thing only easier.
The attack is about how soon you want the compressor to start compressing.
If you slow it down, more initial hit gets thru.

I like your song and the arrangement a lot!!  As for the drums I've never found Session Drummer to sound very good (but that may just be me-others are welcome to disagree).  If you upgrade to X3 it adds XLN Addictive Drums which, to me, sound much better.  Also, I noticed you have your snare hit on the 4th beat of each measure.  That is very interesting musically, but have you considered adding a hit on the second beat of every other bar, to add some motion to the track?  Just a thought.
 
I hope you have great success with your music!!