I had a real belly laugh as I was using Platinum tonight.

I realized I was actually making music without worrying about the tools.

It's been a long journey. I've been using Sonar since about 2002. Learning how to do things like fixing a poorly recorded vocal with eq has been fun. Now I can, with confidence, fix unwanted slurs with Melodyne. Note: I thought the upgrade from Melodyne 2 to 4 messed up a lot of my projects, but I was wrong. I had many projects with v-vocal on up to 12 clips. I thought my vocal recordings were good, but Melodyne showed me otherwise and gave me the tools to fix them. Now the harmonies really shine.

Along the way I upgraded my instruments and fixed some medical issues(tremor). I'm getting a good 3 hours of practice in a day on 3 instruments, and my picking has improved.

Now I go into a recording session confident I can get the sound I hear in my head, and it's very close to the cd's I use as reference.

Thanks, Cake, for giving me a tool that means so much to me. Yeah, I got the lifetime update.

That's great to hear! However, a word of advice (well several words, but you know what I mean)...once you use a program for days or weeks at a time without incident, you get lulled into a sense of complacency and forget to save periodically. Then your computer freezes, or a hard drive hiccups, or a drunk hits a utility power pole a few blocks away...just remember that no matter how well-behaved SONAR is - and I've gone through about six months now of continuous use without crashes or freezes - it's important to save periodically. SONAR is only one cog in the gear.
 
Aside from that that, though, I know what you mean about reaching a point where you know what you're doing well enough that you don't have to think about what you're doing any more...you just do it. That's when it all really comes together. Keep laughing and keep making music! I think the two are related. 

That was a very positive post 
I am getting there myself regarding being able to do what I hear in my head, but only just 
It is very stable on my end as well.
Keep laughing, and making music 
All the best.

And what a feeling it is Bluegrasser! Great job:)

This is exactly why I've never switched to another DAW, even when other products might have offered some advantages.
 
SONAR doesn't have to be the greatest DAW on earth, just the one I know well enough that it doesn't get in the way of making music. The first time you finish a project and realize that you never once had to stop and figure out how to do something, that's the moment when the software truly becomes an empowering tool.
 
To those who are still struggling with the basics, who are periodically frustrated by non-intuitive features or new concepts, I say hang in there - that moment of transparency is coming.

Its nice to read a post like the OPs from time to time. I'm sure CW likes the hear this too.