I'm not surprised that Reaper is #1 in a KRV poll.  Reaperites are more dedicated and evangelistic than those folks who knock on your door on Saturday morning and hand you their literature.  

I think most people are going to agree that a poll ranking will hardly guarantee you that any given product will be a good fit for you.  It all depends on your budget and what kind of recording your are going to do.

Online popularity according to what demographic?
FL Studio isn't a traditional DAW app... so it's comparing apples to soda.
 
You can "bend" statistics to support darn near any position.
Politicians do this on a daily basis.   

Jim RoseberryOnline popularity according that what demographic?

kvr users :-) where did bitwig come? :-D

Sonar is the leading DAW as far as I am concerned and I tried reaper but sonar is sooooo much nicer and just has much more to offer. Reaper can be rewired into sonar so it has its uses but I almost never need to do that. 

Apparently the managers of the KVR audio forum are privy to actual DAW sales-figures...
 
At an interview over at KVR with Ernst Nathorst, who is one of the head honchos over at Reason DAW land 
 
The interview starts-out with this statement... "What is the second best-selling cross platform DAW in the world (after Pro Tools)? OK, Pencils down. The answer is  Reason from Propellerhead software" 
 
So, Pro Tools, then Reason, my oh my, and apparently it has been exactly this way for the last 8 years, very interesting. Does anyone know where Sonar is on the list?

LA2A
So, Pro Tools, then Reason, my oh my, and apparently it has been exactly this way for the last 8 years, very interesting. Does anyone know where Sonar is on the list?

You sound concerned.

Sonar is my personal "best daw" and I have quite a few. 
 
If there was a survey of hotshot producers in million dollar studios ProTools would clean house though. There's not many of those guys however and I don't think they would hang around the KVR forums. 

LA2A
Apparently the managers of the KVR audio forum are privy to actual DAW sales-figures...
 
At an interview over at KVR with Ernst Nathorst, who is one of the head honchos over at Reason DAW land 
 
The interview starts-out with this statement... "What is the second best-selling cross platform DAW in the world (after Pro Tools)? OK, Pencils down. The answer is  Reason from Propellerhead software" 
 
So, Pro Tools, then Reason, my oh my, and apparently it has been exactly this way for the last 8 years, very interesting. Does anyone know where Sonar is on the list?

this has troll written all over it but I will ignore tha trollish aspects and go straight to what matters:
 
https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/appeal-to-authority
 
I won't go into all the details as to why this logical fallacy sucks so hard but left you a link that does it for me.   I have no idea if Reason is the second best selling cross-platform DAW and i doubt you do either. It would seem if there are people who have accurate info into actual sales numbers of every DAW it would likely  leak.
 
Furthermore raw sales numbers comparing these products are somewhat meaningless.  Apple computers still have a small market share compared to PCs but who uses them and what they are used for makes that smaller percentage a lot more significant.  I would actually be shocked if Pro Tools is number one in raw sales, especially if you are talking about flagship products and not including le type editions..  I would be more surprised if an expensive product that is best used with expensive hardware is somehow outselling cheaper products that work on modestly powered laptops.
 
I think people who care too much about polls like this have a deep seeded psychological need to be on bandwagons as if the results of a poll somehow justify their purchases.  The best DAW is the one that works for you.  All solutions do not fit all needs. I would not use FL Studio to mix a symphony but it is easily the preferred DAW for certain styles of pop music. Truth be told, many producers end up using several DAWs.  A song produced in Reason for an artist on a major label is likely to end up in Pro tools for final mixing and mastering anyway. Bottomline, these polls can either be a fun thing or a bunch of insecure people making themselves feel better.

I myself much prefer Sonar and Cubase. Both Sonar X3 and Cubase 7.5 have a lot of maturity, refinement and features plus relevant music-making tools, these two DAWs are certainly refined and good bang-for-buck, not to mention highly capable.
 
I do look forward to Sonar X4 and Cubase 8, these should be something to be reckoned with. To some extent it seems that Pro Tools might be overpriced, even the standalone version. Sonar and Cubase are more complete packages, either of these can do the job and do it well. But i must say that official DAW popularity as stated by KVR is interesting. How is it that AVID is struggling financially when they have the world's most popular DAW? In raw numbers it sells more than any other DAW, and Reason is not far behind. Mere curiosity leads me to wonder where Sonar stands in the official sales-figures list. One thing is for sure from an industry insider, Presonus Studio One is higher up the list than Sonar apparently, and maybe the upcoming Studio One ver III will cement its position.
 
What do you think Cakewalk opps i mean Gibson could do to increase Sonar sales, it is surely a worthy DAW. Actually, that begs the question... why do users here find they prefer Sonar over every other DAW? The fact it is bristling with features and competent plugins is the gem for me, and the Pro Channel is the icing on the cake, but things like the grid-sequencer and the matrix view are also compelling reasons to stay with Sonar, these are very handy...

After a good 3 months of hunkering down with X3e Studio and 2 albums being worked on, I miss the way 8.5 worked. Xseries as Randy has said is a little overboard on the features that will remain hidden but sneak up on you all the time when you DON'T want them. My list of things I don't like while editing both audio and midi is growing. I'm entrenched right now but I have half a mind to return to 8.5 for the next project to see if I'm correct. 
We all work in a different way and we all need different features, so for for me life is not better. 
The point of what I say, is they seem to have chosen a path that Sonar will have a long, long list of features equating to a very steep learning curve,when what the market might be looking for is ease of use and stability. 
 
PS. You often see newbies asking on Gear slutz the question "what DAW should I buy?" 
And 9 out of 10 replies the list will not include Sonar. Sonar is not on the Radar of the status- quo. 

Cactus Music
PS. You often see newbies asking on Gear slutz the question "what DAW should I buy?" 
And 9 out of 10 replies the list will not include Sonar. Sonar is not on the Radar of the status- quo. 

The thing that I've seen cited over and over again for that is stability issues, which unfortunately I encountered myself with X1/2 but muddled through anyway. X3 has been absolutely awesome in this regard so hopefully that reputation can be worn away over time... but it might take a long time. Memories are long with musicians/audio dudes and the internet is forever. I have seen quite a few of the more objective "non-believers" changing their tune with X3 though and there are more people flooding the DAW market than ever before, many of whom will never have heard of Pre-Sonus, Steinberg, Proppelerhead, etc and can't afford the one thing they WILL have heard of (Pro Tools) but WILL have heard of Gibson so there is certainly hope some of those beginners will gravitate toward Sonar.
 
I've been saying it for a while now... with the Gibson acquisition and the maturity/stability of X3 I have a feeling Sonar will end up taking a larger share of the market. It is a really cool program with lots of the things a beginner needs for full production which is I why I bought it after heavily researching all the competitors in its price bracket. I MIGHT have gone with Cubase but the version at the time had a LOT of complaints about stability and the package did not seem to be nearly as robust as Sonar X1. When they released the current version and I was on X2 I was kicking myself for NOT going with Cubase (because X2 was peeving me off to no end) but NOW with X3 my original choice turned out to be the best choice.
 
Funny how that all worked out but it goes to show how finicky all this crap can be and how different folks have different needs. I just hope Cake keeps the momentum going which by all indications they are and will. FULL SPEED AHEAD!!!

GremI will have disagree with Randy and Cactus in regards to the GUI...

I understand you're a fan, Grem, and your enthusiasm is sincere.  I submit that it was an error and fairly pointless to completely re-do the program so that it required learning a new way to do the same routines.  Actual bonafide improvements are always welcome, but to have this disconnect in design and programming from one well-established version to a new one is, IMHO, arbitrary and counter productive.  I'm schlepping my way through, learning the new version, but I resent the time I'm having to put into it, because it's not as if I'm given a better program - it's just a different program.  I could have purchased an entirely different DAW program if I wanted to learn something from square one.
 
Randy

dubdisciple
Randy, I think the catch-22 with your stance for cakewalk was whether to cater predominantly to the people like you who thought everything was fine the way it was or cater to the chorus of reviews that criticized cakewalk for things like having an unattractive GUI...

Thanks for the post, dubdisciple - I'm hip - A lot of people like X3 very much, and wanted change.  You were very right to mention the GUI first - It seems to me that mere cosmetics were indeed a Major consideration for the developers.  Me - I could not care less what a program looks like.  I just want functioning tools, and Sonar 8.5 was extremely functional.
 
All I can speak to are my own feelings - I'm just saying that IMHO (H="honest" more than "humble"--hehe)- all these changes in X3 were arbitrary and unnecessary - I didn't want a new program.  I would probably simply go back to 8.5 - except I can't.  The X3 installation literally killed my 8.5 so it won't open anymore, and nobody can figure out what the problem is.  When X3 is uninstalled, I still get a runtime error.  If I re-install 8.5, same problem.  Here I am in X3land.
 
I'm getting work done, it's not so horrible, but, returning to the thread topic, I wouldn't have been able to vote Sonar as "the best" DAW - but I could have done that just a few years ago.
 
Randy

dubdisciple
 
BTW, have you tried doing a complete uninstall where you wipe out all the cakewalk registry entries?  I have not had 8.5 installed in forever but it did work alongside X1 for me.

Randy, if you really want to go back to 8.5, and if it were me, I'd do a clean install of the OS and start over. Really nothing like a good clean window!!
 
But I would suggest sticking it out with X3. Now that you have the real manual, you can find out how to do what you want.