I'm working on my second million
didn't get the 1st one

mritenburg
Look, none of us owes any loyalty to Sonar, Cakewalk, or Gibson... We are paying customers.  They owe loyalty to us.  Gibson has decided to breach that loyalty.  Every single Sonar owner should jump ship on principle alone.  Maybe not now, maybe not while Sonar still works, but eventually and forever.

Don't tell me what I should do.... It's not about loyalty. I'll continue to use Splat as long as I want, because I know it best, and I love the workflow. I'm not going to drop a bunch of money on another DAW to spite Gibson.

doncolga

35mm
Every other DAW literally wanted to be like Sonar. Studio One? No, anyone who has gone in that direction will regret it. 

Respectfully, this has definitely not been my experience at all.  In fact my workflow is much faster in Studio One and to this day, I can't get over how convenient and well thought out many of the features are.  I definitely do not regret it.  I love Sonar, but honestly have barely opened it once I learned how S1 did all the things I did in Sonar.

+inf
It is much easier, quicker, involving much less frustration to get things done in Studio One3 than SONAR ever was. Over the last 3 years I have had zero regrets, and wouldn't go back for anything. (Especially now lol . . . )

Cactus Music
I'm not paying 1 cent for another DAW. Possibly never. I have the best DAW and it will still run 10 years from now,,, I'll be 74..
Actually let me add that I will pay for a new DAW if that new DAW is the res-erected Sonar. I'm more optimistic than ever. Sonars code is priceless and we WILL see it return. 
 
So like many of you I kicked the tires on a bunch of DAW's, for me it was just something I do from time to time to re confirm my loyalty to Sonar. And reading all the latest posts is also a great insight into what is what. I've learned more about these other DAW's in the last 2 days than I have in the last decade. 
 
Bottom line- Every DAW I either demoed or looked at on web pages was like going back to Sonar 8.5 GUI and midi editing wise. 
So I see it as a huge waste of time and money to even think about a different DAW, Some are pretty cheap, like Mix Craft but what am I getting? I'm getting a DAW that is like Sonar 8.5.... I still have 8.5 so why would I spend $100 to buy what I have? 
 
I know some of you are all worked up and feel this is a good time to buy into an alternative while they are offering deals, But those deals will probably always be there in one way or another. And ask yourself this.. why would I want to stop using Sonar? You already have what you want. 
 
The bottom line is Sonar 23.10 is years ahead of all these alternatives as far as my brief foray showed me. I guess it comes down to what tools you were using.  But for me MIDI editing and the new PVR is just something I cannot be without. None of the DAW's I tried, including Cubase are as advanced as Sonar for using VST's and midi. Even Home Studio is more advanced than most these DAWs and it was a bargain @ $50. 
 
So I have 5 new Daw's installed on my computer some make noises, some expire in 14 days and some 30. I'll poke around a bit more later but right now I've got work to get done so I'm back to Sonar until I'm feeling the urge to explore again.  
 
Here's to a long road ahead using Sonar. 
 

I can't say this enough, but Sonar, for me, is the only one that provides full screenreader accessibility. I'm staying with Sonar as long as I have music and virtual instruments in my heart and my mind!

I'll continue to work in Sonar.  I've spent the last couple of days demoing trials of various DAWs and it only made me want to work in Sonar more.  It's the only DAW I've ever worked in (unless you consider Garage Band a DAW) and it just works.  I'll be interested to see what the Presonus offer on S1 is next week.  If its reasonable, I'll pick it up as a backup. Who knows...maybe I'll love it someday but right now all of these demos solidify my decision to upgrade to Splat when it was first announced.   
 
S1 looks really intriguing and I put together a project with no problem, but between the two, I just see no reason to leave Sonar...but I'll be prepared if I HAVE to.  Really looking forward to continuing the forum experience in whatever space we can all agree on.  I don't have the time or desire to check in on two...

I've had SONAR Platinum since June of 2016 back then it wasn't on sale for a big discount, but I did the upfront Lifetime purchase. I have SONAR X3 Studio from before that - it still works (mothballed while SLPLAT keeps working). I got that in late 2014 that was at a hefty discount. Then there was SONAR X1 Studio before that since 2011, at a reasonable price. And somewhere in there I got Home Studio (Command Center Edition) to use on my laptop (which has since died... the laptop, not home studio). This was pretty inexpensive - since it is the 'basic' version (I think). Then before that in 2010 was SONAR Home Studio 7 XL and in 2002 was Cakewalk Home Studio 2002, and in late 2000 I got Music Creator and shortly before that in early 2000 Cakewalk Express 8 for Windows, before that in 1996 was Cakewalk 5.0 for MS-DOS, and the very first version and the only one I got as part of a bundle was Cakewalk 2.0 for Dos in 1990. The point of all this is all of these were paid for and put money in to the company. Granted, the Lifetime Update would have stopped that, for 18 months, I guess...
 
I don't actually plan to change DAWS right now. For this music industry that can barely support the DAWs that get infusions from their hardware side, I don't think I want to spend any more of my money. Others can and will AND SHOULD, obviously, but SONAR works, will work, and probably for a long while. I may never use some of the bundles (and that might be good as thirdparty things might disappear regardless of what the activation server solution is). Other third party stuff can still be bought and used, like Melodyne, as it updates.

I'm a musical hobbyist. I don't need to deliver projects to ProTools. I very likely never will. If it continues to work, I will continue to use SONAR. If it ever stops - I am thinking Open Source if such options still exist then - there are some out there that are pretty good though perhaps not great, and if still only suited for the hobbyist - since that is what I need. 
 
I deeply and truly appreciate this community. I only joined when I got Platinum - so about 18 months ago. I very seldom, if ever, needed to post a question because they were mostly already answered. But I've come to respect the Bakers and the Hosts here and wish them every success going forward. I'm not blind to SONARS faults - but I can work around them. I know other software is equally and sometimes surpassingly as good as SONAR. But I would need to learn them and their work flows (and around their flaws). I've tried Tracktion (version 5), CuBase Elements (version 6), and a handful that I no longer remember. I always found Cakewalk, eventually even SONAR, more to my liking.

Parting thoughts on the above: I will use a Score Editor for making sheet music because that is THE fault in SONAR I really don't like working around. I'm trying several. I have the cheap version of Finale, the full version of Forte 9 on it's way, and some freeware like MuseScore. MuseScore is surprisingly powerful - but also amazingly frustrating. Forte, which I've had the basic versions of for a long while (though no spreadsheet that actually tracks that), is good and hopefully the latest version is the one I can stick to (Since I'm paying their full, if introductory, price). Again, there are others I've forgotten. As SONAR works with most VST3 and VST1 and VST2 and at 32 and 64 bit, I'm sure I'll be able to deal with software instruments for a long time. I don't do Live, so I don't need Ableton (would be fun to try, but probably expensive). I do have Adobe Audition and the free Audacity, which I use for quick scrubbing of noise and hiss (nothing like Izotope or even Melodyne, but useful still).  Basically, I'm at a point, having gotten the latest Forte for working with Scores, that I should not NEED to spend any more money - I have what I need, pretty much.
 
I've backed up my Command Center downloads three times (three separate media types and locations), and redownloaded everything still available to download and backed that up the same three ways as Command Center. Ah, and backed up Command Center, too - just in case. Even if you never plan to use SONAR again, it would be smart to backup yours too, just in case.
 
Thanks.