The last few weeks I bought and tried out many programs. My copy of Sonar still works great, so I'll continue to use it for the time I can. I also acquired Notion and Sound Forge, which I will also use a lot. My backup DAW will be Mixcraft, because it's so easy to use. Occasionally I'll use DP 9.5. My time spent with other DAW's was a good experience as I've learned what else is available and has left me with a new appreciation of Sonar's capabilities, work flow, and ease of use, compared to other products. Sonar is working good for me in it's present state, so upgrades really aren't necessary for me. As long as it keeps working on my new computer I'll be happy. So far it's working fine now. Hopefully it'll keep working with future versions of Windows. We'll see.

That's a perfectly reasonable strategy, Wayne.
 
Some folks think I'm nuts in saying so, including many here that work in IT who believe it's just a matter of time before Microsoft does something to break SONAR.
 
Their pessimism isn't baseless. IT peoples' lives and livelihoods are dominated by the fragility of complex software ecosystems, and by the daily challenges of responding to abrupt changes that break the delicate balance between the literally millions of interconnected pieces that make up that ecosystem. Developers are constantly chasing moving targets, continually adapting to unforeseen changes. As one who has slogged in the IT trenches and been a software developer, I would be foolish to deny any of that.
 
And yet, I am unconcerned about SONAR's future. At least, not for another decade or more.
 
I still use Adobe Audition 3, the last version of Audition before they went to a subscription model. It's now 8 years old, ancient by software standards. It's survived Windows 7, 8 and 10, the move to 64-bit operating systems, changes to Windows security, forced updates, obsoleted hardware and the complete abandonment by Adobe. But it still works great! In fact, many are still using Cool Edit Pro, the shareware version before Adobe bought it and renamed it Audition. That program has been around since the 90's.
 
So why do those programs still function?
 
The reason is that SONAR and Audition are just user applications. They do not rely on any obscure O/S services or libraries that aren't also common to thousands of other user applications. Like most applications, they communicate with Windows via drivers and libraries, and as long as those pieces continue to be supported, the danger that a change to some external dependency might kill SONAR is minimal.
 
 
 

Another point is that who's to say Gibson won't release an upgrade to make Sonar compatible with the next big OS change ?? They did that with Opcode Vision program long after they stopped development of that program. They released one last OS upgrade, which gave the program a little longer life.

Same here....sticking with Sonar as long as possible. Like you said, Sonar's work flow, capabilities, ease of use (my comfort zone), and of course being a long time user of Sonar, I also have a sentimental soft spot for it.
  
However, I just got Samplitude Pro as my backup.....didn't want to lose out on the deal.

Mesh
Same here....sticking with Sonar as long as possible. Like you said, Sonar's work flow, capabilities, ease of use (my comfort zone), and of course being a long time user of Sonar, I also have a sentimental soft spot for it.
  
However, I just got Samplitude Pro as my backup.....didn't want to lose out on the deal.

I'm with you. I got the Samplitude deal, and I think it is a very powerful DAW, but I'm still going to use Sonar, and learn Samp a little a time. There are a lot of great features in Samplitude. I think if you could combined Samplitude, and Sonar, you would have almost a perfect DAW!

ditto
I did add SoundForge 11 and SpectraLayers Pro 4 to the SONAR utilities menu.

+1
 
Sonar will always be the best.... crashes and all. Mixcraft #2. Samplitude #3 but it just can't do MIDI like I like. and it froze on me today for no reason.
 
Note: Samplitude plugins don't work in Sonar.

scook
ditto
I did add SoundForge 11 and SpectraLayers Pro 4 to the SONAR utilities menu.

Very cool! I'll have to try adding SpectraLayers today...
 
I haven't been able to get overly excited by it because Adobe Audition already does that stuff, and then some. But invoking SpecraLayers from SONAR would save a keystroke and might come up faster. Worth a test.

Mesh
Same here....sticking with Sonar as long as possible. Like you said, Sonar's work flow, capabilities, ease of use (my comfort zone), and of course being a long time user of Sonar, I also have a sentimental soft spot for it.
  
However, I just got Samplitude Pro as my backup.....didn't want to lose out on the deal.

This is exactly what I have done. Hopefully Noel finds a way to let us activate Platinum offline otherwise will just have to make do with X3e :)
 
 

I’m sticking with Sonar as well but picked up the Samplitude deal, Reaper, and Mixbus and will learn the ins and outs of them over time so I’m good if Sonar happens to break down the line. Lots of good advice on this forum regarding the wisdom in learning other programs.