I was able to get through all the hoops and downloads for the Cubase Elements demo. It will work when Sonar finally fails but it didn't blow my doors off. There seems to be a lot of legacy bloat, meaning that there are UI pieces that are there for no seemingly practical reason. Do I really care about the instrument preload memory?
 
16 instrument slots, really? The TTS-1 handles that in 1 instrument. What I have heard of the included instruments have not impressed either. Some sounded ok but most sound thin. Not crazy about the small type in the UI on 43" @ 3840x2160.
 
Meh, the trial works for 29 more days but I'm not as impressed as I was hoping. Maybe that will change.

JonD

JohnEgan
... but I dont think I need or want anything too complex or have to totally reprogram my brains thinking process. LOL.

John, have you checked out Mixcraft?  Solid set of features, no bloat.  MIDI is fairly basic (compared to Sonar/Cubase), but probably enough for most users. 
Also, the GUI could definitely use a face-lift compared to the cool, refined GUIs of the competition... Still, it's worth a tryout.

Yea Hi, I have checked it out I believe I had it installed and using it within 5 minutes, also you can drag and drop midi and audio from Sonar into MC tracks, and most all Sonar VI's and plugins work except those requiring unlock codes. Its definitely not Sonar, but like it, its geared to musicians to easily making and recording music, where Cubase to me is a somewhat of a complex machine geared to producing a product, not to say thats a bad thing if thats where your at.
I will say, while I find CuBase a bit intimidating as it represents for me reinventing the wheel, its also intriguing as it represents a challenge, just not sure I want to take my time away from making music to learn a new process.
If your into serious production and fully documenting your product and process CuBase may be the best alternative choice, albeit in that case you probably already have it. 
 
Cheers.    

abacab

Amicus717
 
I'm actually quite surprised at how complete the midi toolset is in Elements. 

Exactly!  I took the Elements demo earlier this year, as soon as 9.0 arrived.  I was very impressed with the Cubase Elements composition toolset.  The Arranger track and the chord track alone blows Sonar Platinum away as far as MIDI composition is concerned!!! 

I've got the Cubase Elements 9.5 demo installed. Looks pretty good so far, however, in the chord track, I am only able to add one chord. After that, nada.

Also, it appears there is no way to zoom in the score editor.

I think there are two major categories of DAWs out there today.  Of course, some cross over these lines, but here are my thoughts.  This is not intended to be a complete list, rather an example of my thought process as I look for a possible Sonar replacement. 
 
I either own, or have tried a demo version of, everything listed here except for Bitwig and Logic.
 
1. Traditional DAW - linear track timeline with a deep toolset for recording, mixing, & mastering a music project. Modeled on the traditional tape based recording studio and console workflow.
 
2. Music making DAW - a toolset that inspires music creation on the computer, often with a non-traditional UI and workflow that does not necessarily have the steep learning curve of a traditional DAW.  Very friendly to in the box production.  But you may still need a full DAW to finish a professional project.  I don't think you will likely find a fully satisfactory replacement for Platinum in this group.  But there is nothing wrong with using more that one DAW in your workflow.  And I'm sure some folks are very happy with only one of these, rather than the other type!
 
Category #1 examples: Sonar Professional/Platinum, Cubase Pro, Studio One Pro, Reaper, Logic, etc.
 
Category #2 examples: Cubase Elements, FL-Studio, Reason, Ableton Live, Bitwig, Tracktion, Mixcraft, etc.
 
So what I suggest as you demo other products, realize that it is a short list of full Sonar replacements.  And none of them are likely to have a 100% workflow that you are used to with Sonar.  Switching DAWs, or adding secondary DAWs, always requires an investment in time and frustrations as you climb the learning curve.  Don't blame the product for being different from what you are used to.  Blame Gibson! 

JClosed
The same goes for things like Native Instruments Kontakt. So - If you combine for instance Omnisphere 2 and Kontakt, You have a wealth of sounds and instruments with only two slots occupied.

 
That's good to know. I'm really just surprised there was a limit. One could probably do same with the same synth and a bunch of in-track program changes. What a mess that would be. Geez, I haven't used a program change in years. From what I have seen I would have to go the pro version so no real cost savings - particularly if I have to go a buy some $500 virtual synths.
 

abacab
I think there are two major categories of DAWs out there today.  Of course, some cross over these lines, but here are my thoughts.  This is not intended to be a complete list, rather an example of my thought process as I look for a possible Sonar replacement. 
 
I either own, or have tried a demo version of, everything listed here except for Bitwig and Logic.
 
1. Traditional DAW - linear track timeline with a deep toolset for recording, mixing, & mastering a music project. Modeled on the traditional tape based recording studio and console workflow.
 
2. Music making DAW - a toolset that inspires music creation on the computer, often with a non-traditional UI and workflow that does not necessarily have the steep learning curve of a traditional DAW.  Very friendly to in the box production.  But you may still need a full DAW to finish a professional project.  I don't think you will likely find a fully satisfactory replacement for Platinum in this group.  But there is nothing wrong with using more that one DAW in your workflow.  And I'm sure some folks are very happy with only one of these, rather than the other type!
 
Category #1 examples: Sonar Professional/Platinum, Cubase Pro, Studio One Pro, Reaper, Logic, etc.
 
Category #2 examples: Cubase Elements, FL-Studio, Reason, Ableton Live, Bitwig, Tracktion, Mixcraft, etc.
 
So what I suggest as you demo other products, realize that it is a short list of full Sonar replacements.  And none of them are likely to have a 100% workflow that you are used to with Sonar.  Switching DAWs, or adding secondary DAWs, always requires an investment in time and frustrations as you climb the learning curve.  Don't blame the product for being different from what you are used to.  Blame Gibson! 

Abacab, I have tried some other DAWs over the years and I was thinking about a similar issue. Maybe, perhaps, people like me that are used to the more linear layout DAWs are dinosaurs. When the various website polls are published on the use of the various music software programs show the likes of Ableton or Fruity Loops as the most used, I have to think that maybe my workflow may be outdated. Maybe I'm too much of a control freak and need to re-examine my paradigm. While I have never been one to play or try to compose EDM like stuff, maybe that is my real problem. In essence, PDQ Bach having an iphone instead of pen and paper.

abacab

DrLumen
 
Abacab, I have tried some other DAWs over the years and I was thinking about a similar issue. Maybe, perhaps, people like me that are used to the more linear layout DAWs are dinosaurs. When the various website polls are published on the use of the various music software programs show the likes of Ableton or Fruity Loops as the most used, I have to think that maybe my workflow may be outdated. Maybe I'm too much of a control freak and need to re-examine my paradigm. While I have never been one to play or try to compose EDM like stuff, maybe that is my real problem. In essence, PDQ Bach having an iphone instead of pen and paper.

I just grabbed the "sonar50" ($50) special for Overture 5, and I am liking it.  It's a good notation program with VST instrument support, linear track view, mixer, and a MIDI editor.  No audio yet, though ... but it's a great way to channel your "Bach"! 
 
**Message from Don Williams - Overture 5 - Updated**
http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/3699129

Thanks for the info but I'll probably stick with SPlat until one if us dies - either SPlat from a forced OS change or me from old age. :)

Well sonarman1 - The point is that all this stuff is implemented in Cubase now at this very moment.
 
You could argue that it "will undoubtedly implemented in other DAW's", but until now it has not. Should you buy software because somewhere in the future it will maybe, if I am lucky,  have the things that I want to use now? That's "buying on speculation", and not a very smart thing to do to be honest.
 
Bottom line - You must compare DAW's on the specs they have now at this very moment, and not what they "might" have somewhere in the future... Maybe.
 
I personally have chosen Cubase for very strong MIDI implementation. I have simply found no software that does this better. The audio department is far from weak either. You know that Chord tracks also work on audio (granted - on "solo" material primarily, but still handy)? And dragging MIDI loop in a sample track creates an audio loop? For me Cubase Pro has a lot of features that I found very valuable for me.
 
For instance - I love the Control Room. I can have the master output signal routed to my monitors with ARC 2 room correction (on audio 1-2 on my MOTU Trav) while at the same time output to my headphone (on Phones 1-2) with TB Isone monitor simulation, and output the final mix to file without having any of those plugins interfering with the output to file. This is just an example, because the Control Room can do much more, but you get the picture.
 
I do not miss ARA that much, because Cubase Pro has his own version of pitch correction called VariAudio. There you can do pitch and time corection, and it works very well and fast because it's integrated. Granted - Melodyne works better if those corrections must be extreme, but that's not very often. As we got Melodyne for free already with Sonar Platinum, we can use it as VST plugin in these extreme cases, but to be honest - I use it seldom.
 
Granted - Most of the things I am talking about are not present in the Elements version, but that's the case in most "bottom line" versions of DAW software (take for instance Ableton Live Intro that has only an 8x8 matrix, 8 Scenes and only 2 send/return tracks to work with).

I'm still waiting fro the USB key to come in the mail.

Well sonarman1 - The point is that all this stuff is implemented in Cubase now at this very moment.
 
You could argue that it "will undoubtedly implemented in other DAW's", but until now it has not. Should you buy software because somewhere in the future it will maybe, if I am lucky,  have the things that I want to use now? That's "buying on speculation", and not a very smart thing to do to be honest.
 
Bottom line - You must compare DAW's on the specs they have now at this very moment, and not what they "might" have somewhere in the future... Maybe.
 
I personally have chosen Cubase for very strong MIDI implementation. I have simply found no software that does this better. The audio department is far from weak either. You know that Chord tracks also work on audio (granted - on "solo" material primarily, but still handy)? And dragging MIDI loop in a sample track creates an audio loop? For me Cubase Pro has a lot of features that I found very valuable for me.
 
For instance - I love the Control Room. I can have the master output signal routed to my monitors with ARC 2 room correction (on audio 1-2 on my MOTU Trav) while at the same time output to my headphone (on Phones 1-2) with TB Isone monitor simulation, and output the final mix to file without having any of those plugins interfering with the output to file. This is just an example, because the Control Room can do much more, but you get the picture.
 
I do not miss ARA that much, because Cubase Pro has his own version of pitch correction called VariAudio. There you can do pitch and time corection, and it works very well and fast because it's integrated. Granted - Melodyne works better if those corrections must be extreme, but that's not very often. As we got Melodyne for free already with Sonar Platinum, we can use it as VST plugin in these extreme cases, but to be honest - I use it seldom.
 
Granted - Most of the things I am talking about are not present in the Elements version, but that's the case in most "bottom line" versions of DAW software (take for instance Ableton Live Intro that has only an 8x8 matrix, 8 Scenes and only 2 send/return tracks to work with).

Great. I would like to know more of what cubase can do which other daws don't. Other than the ones listed above. It will help me in trying it out. Thanks for the post. I'm also checking out some youtube videos to get a glimpse of midi workflow in cubase.