I'm now using a pricey alternative to Sonar....

REAPER. 
 
Cost me $60 more than Sonar, but it was worth it. 

sharke
REAPER.
Cost me $60 more than Sonar, but it was worth it.

I've always felt like Reaper's price worked against it.  I think, rightly or wrongly, people associate price with value.  IMHO if Reaper were priced like other DAW's it would be highly esteemed.  As it is I feel like it gets dismissed out of hand.  Sad.

I am officially dumping Sonar today. Giving it away just makes pirates look like visionaries. Anderton was applauding this move but he always said pirates were killing the industry. What a steaming pile this has become. 

Just did a bunch of things for a friend in Reaper that could have not been done in anything else without introducing deterioration and artifacts. Heathen christian shifting previous CD tracks of missionary songs to the Solfeggio reference to get everybody healed and washed in the blood. Can do it in Reaper with no deterioration since Reaper controls the computer clock and requires no resampling in a pitch shift. Nothing else currently can do this task. Nothing.
 
GUI and price comments are correct. Sell Reaper for $400 dollars and it will be up there with whatever.
GUI of the included effects mostly a chuckle, specific with the Jesusonic plugs native to the install. Idea is if Jesus were alive now and a guitar banger, what quality of plugins would he expect. Thus the JS line. Really interesting things. Bare bones footprint and you can easily edit the text files to tweak or create your own plug.
 
Downside from the aesthetic point is that the stripped down JS plugs are butt ugly. Just some sliders. Same appearance JS to JS and only a step above DOS.
 
Many users have written hi class cloaks for some of the JS plugs, a top quality flanger glowing like a 1950's Cadillac, really elegant. Now the JS plug is up there with the best professional commercial products. Not because it works better but because it looks better.
 
Reaper is way more cool than cool if you can get past some of the looks that turn off so many.
 
John
 

I took a year and a half sojourn with Reaper, paid the 60.00 license fee. To this day, the orchestral project I did with it is the best sounding piece I have done, but that's probably because the others were all done in Sonar 8.5 or earlier. Now that I have an up to date version of sonar, hopefully I can match that. But Reaper is indeed impressive. It's the only DAW besides Sonar I can use. Sonar's workflow is just easier for me.
 
Reaper devs are working on a Linux version. If they ever get it to the point where it works with Windows VSTs, it will be extremely tempting. I am on Windows only because of music. I use Linux for everything else. I'm even fooling around with a BSD system. But for many folks, it will soon be possible to do on Linux what they now do with Reaper on Windows, and that is amazing. Those guys are geniuses.

michael diemer
I took a year and a half sojourn with Reaper, paid the 60.00 license fee. To this day, the orchestral project I did with it is the best sounding piece I have done, but that's probably because the others were all done in Sonar 8.5 or earlier. Now that I have an up to date version of sonar, hopefully I can match that. But Reaper is indeed impressive. It's the only DAW besides Sonar I can use. Sonar's workflow is just easier for me.
 

How does the DAW affect the sound of the project, in your opinion, if you have used the same interface and same third party virtual instruments or live instruments?? Are the FX and other VSTs so much better in Reaper? Sounds hard to believe.
Or did a nicer workflow lead to a better results? I've always taken it for a 99,9% fact that there's no way you can tell the sound of different DAWs from each other.

S.L.I.P.
Loving Reaper, could care less about the new free cake

So you care a bit then?

michael diemer
Post deleted while editing, but to your point Kalle, I can't explain why my piece sounded better in Reaper. It could be that a different workflow forced me to do some things differently, and that somehow resulted in better sound.

 
I think it was miracle.  Miracle happen, especially when working with audio.  I would chalk up all your better result to the enigma that is the universe

Linear Phase

michael diemer
Post deleted while editing, but to your point Kalle, I can't explain why my piece sounded better in Reaper. It could be that a different workflow forced me to do some things differently, and that somehow resulted in better sound.

 
I think it was miracle.  Miracle happen, especially when working with audio.  I would chalk up all your better result to the enigma that is the universe

When I first used Presonus Studio after CW crashed and burned I thought PS sounded "better" than CW.  Recently, I had to open an old project in CW.  When I did I thought it sounded "better" than Presonus!!  I wonder if I switched to Reaper now how it would sound? 

Matron Landslide
Considering the bugs the quirks, the inconsistencies, the flakiness etc etc etc, I still think they are asking to much for SONAR/Cakewalk By Bandlab, but it is closer to being the right price, if they would give it to you for free and also slip $100 in your pocket I'd say that's a fair deal

Fascinating.

ampfixer
 
Simple answer. I installed it because I still need Sonar to finish a project I've been working on for over a year. It has been made clear that joining up with Bandlab was the only way I could assure a link to all my legacy software. As soon as this project is done it comes off the system. Until then Meng the merciless has me by the short hairs.
 
Now go stalk somebody else.

Question...how about Azlow's tool to pull Cakewalk projects in Reaper?  I haven't used it yet, which is partly why I'm asking.  
 
I have no intention of downloading and installing this free version of Cakewalk at all.  It's Reaper all the way.  It's not even a contest anymore.   

Beepster

Matron Landslide
Considering the bugs the quirks, the inconsistencies, the flakiness etc etc etc, I still think they are asking to much for SONAR/Cakewalk By Bandlab, but it is closer to being the right price, if they would give it to you for free and also slip $100 in your pocket I'd say that's a fair deal

Fascinating.

Agreed - though in an utterly predictable, stale, repetitive and tiresome kind of way.