I am currently am on a medical retirement and have too much time to fill and I had often thought about trying to get back into doing something more serious with music for quite a while and when Cakewalk started selling some of their software via steam I purchased the Music Creator Touch on a steep discounted sale back in November and then purchased X3 Studio in December when they also had this on an irresistible upgrade for owners of Music Creator Touch so I bought it mostly on a whim. I used to play clarinet and oboe years ago when I was in school but I lost interest like an idiot after a family relocation and the new school band was awful, I have regretted this for many years. I am a complete newbie when it comes to all of this including doing anything with music other than listen to it. You have done this by giving me a direction in which to start looking and I will be availing myself of the things you directed me to search for about Sonar.
And to reply to Thomas Barnes, I appreciate your answer and I knew that I would not receive a complete guide on how to do this in a reply to a post only perhaps some links on how to do this. That is why I asked about perhaps setting up the keyboard manually with Sonar.
One of the problems I am encountering is that I purchased my Sonar X3 via Steam, because of this Sonar is in a non standard install location, it is in my Steam account folder that has its own drive due to the number of games I currently own on Steam which are currently occupying 1.2TB of space on a 2TB drive so Novations Automap software does not even detect it on my system. Thanks to you both for taking the time to reply to my post, at least I know that there is nothing fundamentally wrong with my Impulse 61 and that with some continued learning on my part I should be able to get it working satisfactorily. To try to explain to you how to setup your controller using SONAR would mean I would have to write as much as is in the SONAR Reference manual or the SONAR Help file to come close to conveying the capabilities accessible through these technologies (ACT and the Cakewalk Generic Surface Plug In.) The SONAR manual and Help contain detailed instructions for using both. That may require more reading and hands on experience. You also need to know the features and capabilities of your controller good. There is a learning curve for setting up your MIDI controller to get the most out of it using SONAR, but your efforts will be positively rewarded, and many of us had to go through this. Not trying to be a smart alec, but you really have to read this stuff and get some hands on use. These controller technologies are feature rich and take some effort of reading and practical hands on application on the part of the user to see the benefits. Search for "Active Controller Technology" (ACT) and the "Cakewalk Generic Surface Plug In" in the SONAR Reference manual or the SONAR Help file.