+1 on Reaper
 
I have been tinkering with it for the last couple of weeks and its clearly an engineering centric product. (as the guy running Cockos would say) but routing is really powerful and there is a lot of really powerful functionality in there. My thinking is if I had to steer someone brand new to recording to a DAW I might not choose Reaper (not for sure) but for someone who knows recording its great stuff. I'm finding it very stable and lean performance wise on my kick around laptop (not optimised for audio in any way)
 
I am thinking of changing my whole philosophy from the all eggs in one basket like I did with Sonar Platinum to spending 60 bucks on Reaper and blowing the rest of my budget on plugins. I always knew it was possible to get marooned plugin wise with the locked down stuff in Sonar, but its really irking me now.

Jeff Evans
Hi Andrew. The trial version is nothing like the Pro version of Studio One. What midi editing features do you need? Studio One is much deeper midi wise than most people around here actually realise. Audio editing is seriously powerful.
 
Sure midi may not be as deep as Cubase or Sonar but still way powerful none the less.  I compose music (for a living) and have a big hardware setup as well as a large range of VST's.  Never had a problem yet realising my ideas. 
 
Studio One can also do multitrack midi editing for Dave's interest.

 
Things that I use in SONAR in the MIDI side of things, and have not (yet) found using the trial of Studio One:

• MIDI events list/editing - a useful tool to fine tweak some sequences
• step sequencer, although probably could do this with plugins anyway
• MIDI FX plugins of any form, either using Cubase-style, Sonar-style MFX or VST (and using bridge)
• advanced copy and paste of linked clips that SONAR had, although duplicate seems to be pretty clos

And looking further, the lack of proper MPE support for my ROLI Seaboard has become the deal breaker - the current solution (16 tracks under one instrument) isn't great and, from the forums, seems to have issues with some of the features of the ROLI Seaboard as well. And the list of MPE supporting DAWs is actually pretty limited (wish I'd seen that earlier - would have saved me doing a lot of testing of different software) which probably lands up pretty much making the decision for me!
 
... so it seems, Cubase here I come :-)

THx a lot !:) all you people. It feels wistfully, ot leave a platform like this, sadly saying farewell, after 20 years . I decided to send back CUBASE, and I unsinstalled Studio One . They simply dont have the sound on sound ( like in SONAR ). Exaclty like Glennbo is saying. As a guitarist, imagine case : The chord just befor the Bridge : Add another layer, athat blends in with previous audio, and not having to set up a new trask , or some timeconsuming "fixes " .
 
To my BIG surpris very few have this feature. And, when you hav gotten used to it, you will FOREVER need it !:) Why should a sudio track be less functional recordingwise that a MIDI track ?
   I now finally figured out that Reaper have this feature, thank GOD . Stuoi One, can dub record, somehow, but, its muting the prev. recorded meterial, when in rec. mode.  I think also the Aurdor ( or whats the name ) can, but its ,what I hear, very unsatable in Win .   an a "becoming of age man".
 
I in the last year, recorded som of my song, writteen about 15-20 year ago, and published this year ...... mostly into jazz, this waas like a "young dream of popstar"-release, but anyway.  thanks for you company. Plsz dont "glide" and lure yourself into EDM-spolished, nonsens, industry, non-organic , plasticsounding music production ! Do some real playing, dont stop to play guitar ! . . . . best regards from Per merakerli, Norway .
https://open.spotify.com/album/4AIgvAeKEiDkb50oQ74UIe
 
I also have hte BULLaH prject, ambient ( techno - www.bullahmusic.com 

to Glennbo : I am also a jazzman :) palying guitar here : thanks for sharing your thougts on my Thread : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTLjx_-Z3V4