There are a couple of freeware soft synths that have some pretty good sounds.
There are a couple of drawbacks though - please note that even with the couple of drawbacks, I still chose to use them until literally just yesterday.
PLEASE NOTE -both the MinimoogVA and the ARP2600VA are 32-bit, so they must either be used in a 32-bit Sonar, or with BitBridge/JBridge in a 64-bit Sonar.
They do have great sounds, though, and since they are free, I recommend you take a look at them - download and listen. They both work well with ASIO from your interface, so the sound quality is good, on top of which they are really good free creations of a Minimoog and an ARP200.
I JUST literally purchased the Arturia V Collection - which is an INCREDIBLE collection of 64-bit classic synths - 9 synths and 30 drum machines - It was on sale for $199 for all of these, and the regular price is back up to its normal $399 - here is the link to what is included, in case you want to look at these someday, particularly if they go on sale again:
http://www.arturia.com/evolution/en/products/v-collection/details.html Here are links to the MinimogueVA and the ARP2600VA, which you can get now for free:
MinimogueVA:
http://home.no/gunnare/downloads.htm ARP2600VA:
http://glenstegner.com/softsynths.html By the way, if you ever pick up a synth called FM 8. from Native Instruments, either by itself or as part of one of their Komplete bundles, send me a Private Message with your email address, and I will cheerfully send you LITERALLY tens of thousands of presets for FM 8, that represent LITERALLY every single factory sound EVER released by Yamaha for any of the DX-type synths, such as DX7, DX8, DX100, DX1, DX5, DX21, GS1, GS2, TX-series, etc.
These sounds are amazing enough on their own, but unlike the limitations the originals had, you can add all kinds of effects to each sound, resulting in lush, authentic digital pianos, and all of those unique sounds. I posted a thread some months ago, offering to email all of the DX presets to whoever wanted them, and I did end up sending them all to 6-7 different folks.
Also, Native Instruments offers a couple of free synths - they call them 'Players', including a great-sounding "taster" synth that allow you to play a small number of representative sounds from their flagship Kontakt synth. They hope you love the sound quality enough to purchase the real Kontakt, which IS the gold standard Sampler.
The other one 'plays' a representative number of presets from another incredible synth of theirs, Reaktor 5. That synth allows you to assemble synths from 'building block components' of all of the different kinds of synthesis out there, so you can combine FM, additive, subtractive, etc types of synths, into a brand new kind of synth.
There are thousands of free synths that folks have built with this synth 'factory'.
Here are links to these two free synthesizers, Kontakt 5 Player and Reaktor 5 Player:
Kontakt 5 Player:
http://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/synths-samplers/kontakt-5-player/free-download/ Reaktor 5 Player:
http://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/synths-samplers/reaktor-5-player/ I hope you enjoy the free stuff. The other Sonar-included synths may grow on you, in time, as well.
Bob Bone