I figure its going to take me a while to become proficient with a new DAW, I would like to have a contingency plan in place if the worst does happen.

I just finished my purchase of Studio One 3 Prof.  
It was a hard road...but made it happen.  Total
cost was $125...I couldn't get a response from 
Presonus support, and Uncle E even emailed the
Presonus Regional Rep, but still got nothing.  So
someone had a copy of S1-2 Producer for $40 on
KVR.  Bought that, and then the upgrade at JRR for
$83.16 making the total $123.16 for my "Crossgrade",
and Galaxy X-FX free.

I now have 2 copies of Studio One Producer.  I'd sell 
the one I couldn't upgrade, but the $25 transfer fee
would kill it.  I could sell it for $30 and make $5 back.
Bright side is, since it would be new to the buyer, they could
upgrade from it immediately.  And, since I already own Melodyne,
I can sell the new license too!


Less than half the price of the Crossgrade to Cubase, and, sadly, I had to
use my Property Tax money to do it, but had to before the sale
ends.

Anyways...it's done...I'm officially on Studio One 3 Pro now.

If by some miracle Cake survives, I've still got it.  If not...then
it gets relegated to the scrap heap.

cclarry
I'm just about there...I'm going S1 3 Pro...

I came from Cubase and don't want to go 
back.  Too expensive.
 

Waaaaay too expensive.  I just don't use enough of the features to justify the cost.

I am switching to Cubase. As mostly midi in-the-box, that seemed like the best approach for me.
I"ll keep both running for as long as Sonar remains functional. I wanted to prepare for the inevitable migration when either a Microsoft update or Sonar licensing hicks up.
 
 
 

In response to Danny...WHY?
 
While Sonar will continue to work for a while, if it does not get
picked up, it most CERTAINLY will die.  So, why wait until the 
LAST MINUTE?  Continue working it what you already know
while LEARNING the new one, and then make the transition
slowly.  Better than to wake up one day in the middle of a MAJOR
PROJECT, and find that your DAW no longer works...

I'm 95% gonna go Studio One. Still considering Cubase, but the lack of ARA is very dissapointing.

I have not updated my sonar in at least a year and it works fine

My 2 cents on a part of this journey.
 
Can’t really comment with authority on DAW’s alien to my understanding. They may be Allah’s gift to the last generation of humanity, but if I can’t get something to work out of frustration, got to stay open that it may be operator error, ignorance on my part and not the fault of the program. Reed survives change because it is flexible, that kind of esoteric crap and the like.
 
My opinion only, if Splat or Splunk or whatever the hell they call it is working, no need to jump ship. Probability is that the program will function as is for many years. You are secure, up and running for a long time to come. Sonar as it is may outlast any of us.
 
If there is a hard on failure, bug in your workflow that Sonar has not resolved (and there are many of them), sinking of the Titanic should not be a big issue. If you laid down the full admission price for lifetime upgrades in the last week or so, yeah, lot to get upset about and I don’t see a penny coming back to compensate you for your trust.
 
Only know about Reaper and a small bit about Studio 1.
 
As said in truth, Reaper has evolved by tweekers for the tweekers especially over the last several years. Fast and furious point updates with a myriad of fixes and implementations that I can’t follow or see how the improvements will do anything for my workflow.
 
This said, the sublime workflow in Reaper is unique across all DAWs. Will frustrate you severely if you are doing the demo and don’t have a lot of initial patience to absorb Reaper’s bigger picture. It just ain’t civilized, it ain’t christian.
 
Agree that the midi editing needs some more love, but the unisex attribution of a track, neither midi nor audio, is pure genius once we get beyond the prejudice we have been beaten into accepting and expecting.
 
I’d advise to do what I did. Get yourself sequestered in the bomb shelter. Shut off all distractions. Fire up the Reaper demo. Get frustrated, swear at the thing because it don’t work like Sonar. Curse the product. Curse idiots like me recommending the demo. Go the extra step and fight with the thing for awhile. The Aha moment will happen when things start to make sense and fall into place with elegance. You will not look back.
 
Thank you guys for your respected input on Cubase, Mixbus, Bitwig, Mixcraft. others. I got a lot to learn. Only thing I am certain about is that the future is brighter than bright for every one of us.
 
John

As long as Allah stays out of it, John, things will be pretty, pretty good. Or at least bearable.

Fleer,
Have just returned from the mountain top.
Allah has delegated all things relating to DAWs to Buddha.
We are spiritually safe, but of far greater importance, politically correct.
Best to you brother,
John