A paper manual will depend on how you buy the software. If you purchase it online from the Cakewalk download store, you will not get a manual on paper. If you purchase it in a sealed box from a retail store, you will get a paper manual.

Music Creator 5 also comes with a couple of really neat VST instruments. I don't know about pricing in your locale, but at my store, we sell this for £42.49. It is a very cheap piece of software and does most/lots of the good stuff that a full copy of Sonar does. Nothing too fancy mind!

With regard to PDF manuals... again there are many advantages to them. First, you haven't had to chop a tree down to print it, and you don't need to waste all that expensive ink the printer manufacturers make you buy. Second... and here's the great bit... modern pdf manuals have hyperlinks in them. So if you see a reference to another page, you can just click where it says it, and it automatically jumps to the correct page. I have PDF manuals for all my Roland gear as a result, because it is very handy too. Unfortunately the PDF manual for the Yamaha HX-1 I own is just a scanned copy of an old paper manual, so there are no hyperlinks and no search of the text etc. Just as well I know it pretty well inside out!