DAW Comparisons - best fit for Sonarians

Re STUDIO ONE 3 being the younger Brat ..
 
That means it will only improve as it has not matured yet. OK it might not have all Sonar or Cubase has at the moment, but if one buys in now I am sure in a year or two or three it will have caught up a bit more.

For me to buy S1 now is PURELY a financial decision - Black Friday significant reductions, Special crossgrade prices. In 6 months time IF I need a Sonar replacement I dont want to look back at this and say I could have saved 100s by buying back then. I stress I will keep using Sonar as prime DAW for the moment but then would have S1 on the shelf whenever i need it if Sonar goes rogue due to win updates etc.
 
Again .. I have said elsewhere, keep in mind the Presonus site cart / checkout includes VAT in your price. VAT is charged at your countries rate. If you have a VAT Num you can add it in the right of checkout page to get the VAT off the price ( buying from another country ). 
 
Note this is not the case at AUDIODELUXE. At the moment its $168 with all discounts, no mention of VAT right through to your payment gateway.
 
So factor that in if you are waiting for the special Presonus crossgrade price next Tuesday. Will that be cheaper inc vat than the current Audiodeluxe price?
 
 

Same thought here. But if it's all the rage it purports to be, you'll need it for the retail version when you buy it. 
 
I may wait for the 9.5 demo as it has a lot of new features 8.5 omits.

I got the light version of Bitwig with my Nektar LX 88 keyboard. I had a quick play with it. I found it a bit, hmm, teenager, new skool, EDM orientated. That was my impression. That was a year ago and to be honest I am old school so maybe it's just me. I didn't play with it for long. I had a quick look, couldn't find many features I would want then uninstalled it. I did hear somewhere that it has rapidly become one of the most popular DAWs though. Even though, at the time I had never heard of it before.

Riojazz, I'm still waiting for the Cubase demo to arrive. I downloaded an 8.5 version earlier but haven't run it as I think quite a bit has changed since then. Did you find a more recent demo? I heard there should be one in a day or two. 

sharke
Anyone had any experience with Bitwig? It has features that I like but I'm turned off with the lack of support for time sig changes. At least that's what I read - maybe it's changed since then?

Bitwig is probably my favorite new DAW. The workflow is a little different than a traditional DAW, but I really like it, and it really promotes creativity. The best part is the Bitwig developers have a great relationship with the folks at Microsoft. Probably the best Windows DAW next to Sonar, in terms of supporting all the latest Windows 10 and Surface features.

Reaper all the way.  It just works

HI:)
 
I worked now 31 years with Cakewalk and I will go on working with Sonar, but I want to be weaponed for the worst case and now I bought a Crossgrade  Cubase 9.5 at Sweetwater for 255$!
 
I've looked a lot of Youtube Videos from different DAWs, especially Studio One, but the best I solution for me for the future will be Cubase.
 
Steinberg Software was the very first Sequenzer I worked with on C64, years before Cakewalk came up on PC:)
 
So I started with Steinberg, and with Steinberg it will end maybe:)
 
But my first choice is Sonar and it ever will be!!
 
Bassman.
 

Basseman
HI:)

I worked now 31 years with Cakewalk and I will go on working with Sonar, but I want to be weaponed for the worst case and now I bought a Crossgrade Cubase 9.5 at Sweetwater for 255$!

I've looked a lot of Youtube Videos from different DAWs, especially Studio One, but the best I solution for me for the future will be Cubase.

Steinberg Software was the very first Sequenzer I worked with on C64, years before Cakewalk came up on PC:)

So I started with Steinberg, and with Steinberg it will end maybe:)

But my first choice is Sonar and it ever will be!!

Bassman.

 
https://www.sweetwater.co.store/detail/CubaseP95CG

bitflipper
The surprise dark horse candidate is Mixcraft. It's far more sophisticated than I expected, given that it's been awhile since I last looked at it. If cost is a major factor, Mixcraft is the least-expensive alternative at the moment.
 

I took a quick tour of the forum for Mixcraft and couldn't find and answer to this issue.  I hope you can answer off the top of your head.
 
I have a Studio One Professional V3.5 upgrade in the pipeline; up from V2.x Professional (that I never used).  However, I took a look at the Mixcraft (acoustica.com) site and as a big fan of iZotope products, the Mastering Essentials caught my eye.  Do you happen to know if it's 'trapped' inside MixCraft like the Adaptive Limiter is trapped inside of Sonar?  In addition, the Ferox Tape Emulator and the Pianissimo VSTi seem to be excellent things that would push me to buy if they aren't proprietary to Mixcraft.  

I'm also looking for a DAW replacement that'll have the following:
 
- Cross-Platform (we never know)
- strong hardware / software relationship that has a long history... kind of hoping that regular cashflow is being injected to those collaborating companies...
- Strong "Ableton live"-like features (mainly, a performance pannel able to support key / time signature / tempo / controllers from the performance pannel's cells... Live looks like the only one viable out there, even if i'm a hopeless beginner in that aspect of things...)
 
So besides the obvious Ableton Live, the only runner ups for me are still the usual Cubase / Studio One / and now maybe even ARDOUR (still was not able to confirm that regular windows VSTs are running on it's windows version...)
 
Anyway, i'm sticking with SPLAT (and X3 as a "authorised backup" for at least a year...)

Anderton
To try to put perspective on things...it so depends on what you want to do and what you need to do. 

Totally, obviously there's many people still using much earlier versions of Sonar and are perfectly content with it getting them from point A to Z. Coincidentally, I was content with 2017.06 and Id thought Id stay with that for some time as I didn't really see any new features I wanted or needed since, guess this pretty much happened without my choice as it turns out, LOL. My bigger dread perhaps more so now is moving to Win10.
 
If I move to a secondary DAW system, my criteria may be more based on sustainability, using this as a lesson, it may be which product supplier is least likely to go belly up and remain consistent in the long term. and yet still introduce new technologies and features, I think Sonar was doing this well for the 30 years it lasted. I would think its a somewhat costly business to support effectively and efficiently, if your offering innovation, good support and have a first class team of developers and programmers employed. You would have to be consistently attracting new clients to buy your products, and/or maintain income through high subscription costs, and/or have other primary and more profitable product lines to help sustain the DAW software product line, which may actually represent a net loss.
I guess in terms of sustainability, Pro-Tools may be a good but costly option, sustained by their Avid mother product lines, and having established their "industry standard" foothold. Studio 1 may be a cheaper option, sustained by Pre-Sonus and its integration with their hardware product lines, as long as these remain prosperous. Im not sure where Steinberg's CuBase fits in here, i.e., in terms of other product lines that may sustain their DAW software products, perhaps they may have a large enough user base and update costs to maintain them , Im also not sure of Ableton or other smaller DAW suppliers sustainability (or other corporate affiliations), perhaps they're actually small enough to survive, or their technologies will be bought out by corporate giants eventually.
 
Having recently tried out free Pro-Tools/First and Studio 1 versions, I thought Id died and gone to DAW hell in both cases, LOL. Having started with and always stayed with Sonar, perhaps in part it was a familiarity bias and resistance to change habits.            
 
Im sure with Gibson, it was a losing proposition to sustain Sonar, even with costs of their instruments skyrocketing,  Im not sure how many struggling musicians can afford to buy them these days, and there's only so many "rock stars" to sell to who can afford them, in any case I dont imagine they could justify maintaining an unprofitable DAW software. As good as it is, Cakewalk/Sonar has been stomped on by the corporate giants, as happens with most smaller companies, to take that share of the market away from the small guy. Then I guess all are at the mercy of having to constantly adapt and integrate with changing MS and Apple operating systems and where they decide go with them, and not to mention ever changing physical computer hardware technology advancements, these must represent significant costs, aside from the continued development of the DAW itself. I guess there's probably few DAW suppliers that will weather this storm in the long run, if that's the only product they have to offer. Perhaps its all part of a bigger corporate strategy to take back this part of the market from small software developers and home music producers, by overpricing DAW softwares and too take them out of realm of the small guy, and yet on the other hand people are producing music from their smartphones these days.
 
Its likely the only way Cakewalk/Sonar could be resurrected, and still be a leader in introducing innovative technologies into their DAW regularly, as in the petition thread, is if some corporate giant like MS takes it under their wing as a pet project to cater to what may be considered us, the last devoted and elite group of Sonarians, destined to extinction. 
 
As for me, since Im not relying on this as a career, or need to conform or be assimilated to industry standards Ill be perfectly fine continuing using what may be the last version of Sonar and using Win7 OS, for as long as it allows me to do what I want and need to do.
 
Cheers