DAW Deals & Comparisons

So like many others, I have had to seek a replacement for Sonar, even though Sonar may work as it is into the future - you just never know when it may suddenly stop working. Let's face it. Unless a miracle happens, Sonar will eventually fade away into history. It's time to move on.
 
I don't have a lot of money and can't afford to waste what I do have making expensive mistakes, so I have dug deep into other DAWs and deals in the past couple of weeks since Cakewalk made that horrible announcement and here is what I have found. I hope this will be useful for others who are struggling to move on and are feeling orphaned, alone and confused in the big DAW world.
 
Firstly, if you are a hobbyist, Sonar is still a working, functioning DAW who's last update was only a month ago so it will be current for some time to come. Your cheapest option is to continue to use it! However, it is no longer supported and will no longer be updated, so there will eventually come a time when it stops being able to support your needs or suddenly stops working altogether. When that time comes you may suddenly find yourself unable to get into any of your projects. So it is a good idea to have a backup plan. Every DAW is different and has a learning curve associated with it. So to remain productive you need to be learning your next DAW now and porting any important projects over to it so that you can eventually transition over from Sonar.
 
The death of Cakewalk has led some rival companies to make deals available to Sonar users partly through empathy and concern and partly because that's a good commercial strategy! However, it is advantageous for us to have so many deals available to us right now. It does, however, create a lot of panic and confusion as time-limited deals force you into making a rushed decision.
 
The deals are;

• Cubase Pro 9.5 - $250 - crossgrade available from the steinberg.net web store in the EU/UK, Sweetwater in the US or your local Yamaha distributor elsewhere. Deal ends at the end of the year.
• Presonus Studio One 3.5 Pro - $150 - crossgrade available direct from Presonus' web store (maybe more expensive) or from JJRShop. Deal ends at the end of the year.
• Samplitude Pro X3 Suite - $150 - while not specifically a crossgrade deal for Sonar, this is a great deal from Magix for a bundle of software that would normally cost $1400. Deal ends 6th December.
• MixBus - not specifically a deal for Sonar users, but there is a deal on for the next day or so where you can get MixBus for as little as $29.

Other related deals are;
For those who need notation, Don Williams has reached out to Sonar users with a special offer of Overture 5 for $50. It turns out that Overture features were going to be added to Sonar to replace the long complained about Staff view, but Gibson gibbons put a stop to that on various occasions.
 
 There are many DAWs out there to choose from. They are all different and will suit different users in different ways, but let's explore the ones that currently have deals.
 
Cubase Pro 9.5
Cubase was Cakewalk's main rival for decades. It is the leading pro grade DAW out there. Its feature set is huge and from that aspect is on par or more with Sonar. It is a market leader so there is plenty of help available from the web community as well as support for hardware etc. Cubase has always required a dongle - USB e-licenser hardware in order to use it. It does not currently support ARA for using tools like Melodyne directly within clip sections, but Melodyne can still be used in Cubase as a plugin. Cubase also has its own inbuilt system very similar to Melodyne that can do some great things. Cubase has the most substantial midi support in the DAW world. The makers of Cubase, Steinberg invented ASIO and VST so Cubase's pedigree is right up there. Cubase gets updated fairly infrequently. My personal experience of Cubase (I first used it on an Atari ST in the 80's) is that it is packed with industry-leading features and has a flexible workflow. It comes bundled with great instruments and effects. But it was let down by bugs for me. I have always had some kind of stability issue when trying Cubase in the past. Updates don't come cheap. You have to pay for most x.5 updates. If you take your music production very seriously, have serious midi requirements and have a healthy budget then Cubase is probably for you.
 
Cubase support and community
I was in touch with Steinberg support and I had friendly helpful replies. There is a huge community of users and tutorials all over the place. The forums, however, are a little regimental and serious - none of the banter that we are used to here. Their forum software is also very dated and the font is far too small for my eyes.
 
Studio One 3.5 Pro
The pro audio hardware company, Presonus, develop Studio One in Germany in the same city as Steinberg develop Cubase. In fact Studio One was started by developers who previously worked on Cubase. It is a fairly new DAW who's feature set is not as deep as Cubase or Sonar, but they use that to their advantage because its learning curve is not as steep and it's easier to just get on and be creative without the software getting in your way. Having said that though, it does have some really great features and is a very capable DAW. It comes packaged with a good selection of instruments and effects. What it lacks in deep features it makes up for in speed and stability, but it also has features that were never in Sonar such as an arranger track, scratch pad, and a dedicated mastering section. Studio One has rapidly grown in popularity, has a fairly regular update cycle and really seems to be going places.
 
Studio One support and community
Support doesn't seem bad. There are a lot of users and plenty of tutorials around. The forums seem friendly and well populated.
 
MixBus
MixBus is developed by Harrison Consoles, a long established manufacturer of large format, analog mixing desks. Their idea with MixBus was to create a DAW with a similar workflow and sound of an old-school analog studio. They replicated every detail of the channel strips on their hardware consoles and reproduced them in software form within MixBus where they are the prominent feature. MixBus its self is built on top of the open source, cross-platform DAW, Ardour. So MixBus can be run on Windows, Mac and Linux and supports all major plugin architectures although due to licensing it does not currently support VST3 although that is rumored to be coming in 2018. MixBus is not a gimmick. It does what it set out to do. It has that analog sound of wires, transformers, and magnetic tape and it has a workflow which revolves around the mixer. On top of that, it is also a very capable DAW for tracking, mixing and general midi/softsynth use. It is not a generalist. It is a specialist so it may not be the best choice for your one and only DAW, but certainly worth considering as an addition to your musical arsenal, and it is particularly good for mixing music exported as stems from your main DAW.
 
MixBus support and community
I haven't had any reason to contact support. There are quite a lot of tutorials out there. There is a forum, and I had a very quick look, but I didn't feel much of a thriving community vibe there, but I could be rong!
 
Samplitude Pro X3 Suite
Samplitude has been around for some time and is a DAW with a deep feature set. The suite also includes some top-notch software such as Sound Forge Pro 11 advanced audio editor and SpectraLayers Pro 4 spectral editor. The Samplitude DAW its self comes bundled with many instruments and effects including Melodyne (yes it has ARA), Izotope cleaning and restoration tools and Elastique Pro built right in. In addition to that, it has some of the best metering and analyzers I have ever seen built right into the DAW. It has strong, customizable support for hardware controllers and generally appears to do many things much more comprehensively than other DAWs. At first, it appears a little alian to someone used to working in Sonar, so that combined with the depth of its feature set means you should expect a fairly steep learning curve to begin with. However, that learning curve looks like it will pay off. I have heard it said by different sources that Samplitude is one of the most bug-free and stable DAWs there is. It is definitely a DAW for the pros, but while it has plenty of midi tools, it may not be ideal for the very serious midi users.
 
Samplitude support and community
Samplitude is owned by Magix. They have grown into a huge software giant over the years. I have had other software from them and their support has been fine. While it isn't the most popular or hyped DAW out there, there are a lot of users and plenty of tutorials available. The forum looks pretty good although I have only taken a quick look. I get the vibe that there are plenty of happy, contented users that are very enthusiastic about Samplitude.
 
In summary
While I don't want to stop using Sonar I also don't want to lose all my hard work from an unsupported DAW suddenly going dead on me. I do have other DAWs such as FL Studio and MixBus, but they for me have specific things that they are good at and I need a new main, all-purpose DAW to replace Sonar. My first choice was Cubase because it has the depth of features I need and was prepared to forgive it for the hard times it gave me in the distant past which is why I ended up with Cakewalk. However, it spat in my face once again because the GUI was very slow and unresponsive on my machine to the extent that I wouldn't be able to use it seriously, but don't let that put you off - I seem to be the only person with that problem and it has hundreds of thousands of happy users including many big names.
 
Eventually, I plumped for Studio One Pro. I say plumped because it was my second choice and I wasn't too impressed with the demo at first, but having dug deeper I think it does have some good features and I can adapt to the workflow and it's not a huge learning curve. I also feel like I am backing a winning horse with Studio One as its development really seems to have a sense of direction and purpose behind it. I also purchased Overture at the discounted rate after being wowed by the demo and as an owner of that, I was able to get the crossgrade for Notion too with the combined cost of Overture and Notion crossgrade being less than Notion on its own.
 
Now, having blown all my pennies on a new DAW I am finding it hard to pass up on the Samplitude Pro X3 suite because, well, because it's a hell of a deal for a bundle of great software including a DAW that really looks like the biz. I think I am going to have to drop some more cash (that I don't have) on that. Even if I only use Studio One as my main DAW and don't get into Samplitude, the other software it comes with is worth it alone! 
 
One thing is certain. There is no other DAW quite like Sonar and I will miss it. It went because Cakewalk was axed by Gibson. The DAWs featured above seem to be pretty well protected from a similar thing happening to them. They are all owned by stable audio hardware companies and a software Giant. So hopefully we won't have to go through this again anytime soon!

35mm many thanks for the comparison!
Cubase is the more unintuitive Daw on the market...i ll buy the Samplitude Pro deal but i stay with my love Sonar for long time!
Best

Very well said Tony!

That's a great write-up and some good follow up info too. I am in the fence still though I have begun to see the allure of S1's sleek, modern interface - quicker and more responsive than pretty much anything else on my system, including Sonar quite frankly. I wanted to like Samplitude and if the deal gets extended I may give it another chance but it was a combination of cluttered, confusing and sluggish for me / on my system and no deal is too good for that not to be a turnoff. I was glad to see someone mention Reason which nobody talks about much around here but which I find a very fun creative environment and way more capable and full-featured than most people seem to realize. I tried Mixcraft and I think it has great promise but seems a bit too limited still - I'll be keeping my eyes on it for sure. Mixbus is cool but I don't think it can be my all-rounder. Ableton Live is also *amazing* in many ways but I can't imagine mixing in it. It's tough because I really can do pretty much everything i need to in Sonar...

Oops, can’t seem to find the German Samplitude Pro X3 Suite deal link myself.

Here is the current extension link I did find for Dec 10 expiration date on KVR
https://www.kvraudio.com/...c.php?f=7&t=495714

35mm
...
The deals are;

• Cubase Pro 9.5 - $250 - crossgrade available from the steinberg.net web store in the EU/UK, Sweetwater in the US or your local Yamaha distributor elsewhere. Deal ends at the end of the year.

...

No deal here in the UK.  If I go to Steinberg's crossgrade page the price is £248.  £1=$1 ?!?!  And there's no special deal for Sonar users. 
I can't afford that sort of cash, so I'll pass.
https://www.steinberg.net/en/shop/crossgrades.html

Tony Shaffer
This was marvelously helpful.

You've been watching too many "Produce Like A Pro" videos on Youtube :)

Wow that is an awesome price for Sammy, Man that is the best deal! But that crossgrade to Cubase is
an awesome price especially if your a midi user

Great job of covering this hot topic. I bet half of the forum members have been demoing away all week.
I tried Cubase, Mix Craft, Studio 1 and Mix bus. 
 
Out of them all I bought Mixbus4 because @ $29 USD ( 36 CAN ) I felt it was more than worth the price.
 
Note: You can use the demo forever and there's just a very easily ignored low level noise. 
 
I'm looking forward to mixing down Sonar created audio files on my next album. 
Forget using midi it's real bad at that, but it's a gem with handling audio. Everyone should grab a copy at this price. 
 
Cubase: I own Elements 7 and have poked around on and off over time. I tried the 8 demo and found nothing new or exciting has been added. Big waste of 9 GB of downloading. And my take is even though people say it's a good midi editor, midi is where I have always had a bad experience with Cubase. I'm sorry but it's like using Sonar 6.  Bottom line is I already own Cubase if I need it and can take advantage of upgrade pricing if need be. 
 
Mix Craft; I liked it and if it's all I had could get by,  but it's not worth the money to me, nothing gained, once again, I can always use an old version of Sonar and have more features than offered here. 
 
Studio 1: I already have the free version from 2 years ago, and played around, didn't try the full demo as my bandwidth is limited and not sure I need to go there. I like the looks and feel of it but once again, it's like opening Sonar 8.5 and not worth the price to me. 
 
So I have a few back ups already and better deals will always happen. If you read the latest news we got today it sounds like there is a 33.3% chance of Sonar carrying on. 
 
http://forum.cakewalk.com...tatement-m3705824.aspx

Question is, what you need to do with your DAW. I work with Videos too, and it's nice to have the possibility to create surround Sound. There are only Cubase, Pro Tools, Digital Performer and Samplitude that can do the job. But I won't buy any of these, don't like Cubase, not the money for Pro Tools, don't want to work through Digital Performer (no Vst3!!) or Samplitude actually - so I'll better stay with Sonar for this. But I like Studio One from what I see, quick, easy, fun. Mixcraft is not so bad too, but Video - ok, you can do some edits in the footage, but it only opens mp4. And of course, I already have Videosoftware to edit . . . hmmmm.
 
Maybe I just take the unique opportunity with Studio one as an (incredible small) Investment in the future . . .  

Cactus Music
Great job of covering this hot topic. I bet half of the forum members have been demoing away all week.
I tried Cubase, Mix Craft, Studio 1 and Mix bus. 
 
Out of them all I bought Mixbus4 because @ $29 USD ( 36 CAN ) I felt it was more than worth the price.
 
Note: You can use the demo forever and there's just a very easily ignored low level noise. 
 
I'm looking forward to mixing down Sonar created audio files on my next album. 
Forget using midi it's real bad at that, but it's a gem with handling audio. Everyone should grab a copy at this price. 
 
Cubase: I own Elements 7 and have poked around on and off over time. I tried the 8 demo and found nothing new or exciting has been added. Big waste of 9 GB of downloading. And my take is even though people say it's a good midi editor, midi is where I have always had a bad experience with Cubase. I'm sorry but it's like using Sonar 6.  Bottom line is I already own Cubase if I need it and can take advantage of upgrade pricing if need be. 
 
Mix Craft; I liked it and if it's all I had could get by,  but it's not worth the money to me, nothing gained, once again, I can always use an old version of Sonar and have more features than offered here. 
 
Studio 1: I already have the free version from 2 years ago, and played around, didn't try the full demo as my bandwidth is limited and not sure I need to go there. I like the looks and feel of it but once again, it's like opening Sonar 8.5 and not worth the price to me. 
 
So I have a few back ups already and better deals will always happen. If you read the latest news we got today it sounds like there is a 33.3% chance of Sonar carrying on. 
 
http://forum.cakewalk.com...tatement-m3705824.aspx

That so called “latest news we got today” was a copy and paste from the original which was posted 10+ days ago. Nothing new and hasn’t been updated since.

mkerl

abacab
You can import video into Studio One, sync it up, and/or extract audio from it.  https://ask.audio/articles/working-with-video-in-presonus-studio-one
 
The manual covers the details.  Here is info on supported formats.

Yes, I did that with mp4 and mov - files (my camera produces mov-files). Works fine. Maybe one day S1 will be able to create Surround- Sound. But that is not really important, just wouldt be nice. Since my Videoeditor handles different Audiotracks and spreads them in a virtual room (not real 5.1, but not so bad), maybe I find a way . . . and meanwhile, I have Sonar :)
 
Thanks for your help
 
Cheers :)

Ran across this surround sound DAW comparison.  Sonar got a vote! 
>> https://vi-control.net/community/threads/a-definitive-topic-surround-sound-daw-comparison.51025/

35mm
Firstly, if you are a hobbyist,

35mm and all, I am a hobbyist, I have several tracks I've started on Sonar 2. It is all wav tracks with no midi. I am looking again to finish these tracks with vocals. Also create some new recordings on guitar. My input device is an old Line 6 Guitar Port.
 
I guess my question I would get to the point is which would be a good fit for me? I also use Windows 10.
Thanks
Dave

Don't forget that Waveform is also half off right now...and, with the code CAKEWALK
it's another half off
 
https://www.tracktion.com/products/waveform

Dirtbagg

35mm
Firstly, if you are a hobbyist,

35mm and all, I am a hobbyist, I have several tracks I've started on Sonar 2. It is all wav tracks with no midi. I am looking again to finish these tracks with vocals. Also create some new recordings on guitar. My input device is an old Line 6 Guitar Port.
 
I guess my question I would get to the point is which would be a good fit for me? I also use Windows 10.
Thanks
Dave

For a hobbyist with modest requirements that just wants to record a few audio tracks, I would suggest starting with one of the free options, or at least one of the very inexpensive ones. 
 
Most of them are cut down versions of pro DAWs, but without the extra (and possibly unnecessary) features, and steeper learning curve.  Most of them have upgrade paths if you need to grow into something.  They would all offer a better experience than an outdated version of Sonar.
 
1. Tracktion T6 (free - full version) https://www.tracktion.com/products/t6-daw
2. Studio One Prime (free)  https://shop.presonus.com...ods/Studio-One-3-Prime
3. Pro Tools First (free) http://www.avid.com/pro-tools-first
4. Ableton Live Lite (bundled with many interfaces and controllers) https://www.ableton.com/en/products/live-lite/
 
Cubase Elements is only $99 and would probably offer everything you would need at this time. https://www.steinberg.net...ubase-elements-95.html