As a big berlin school fan I was wondering if it would be possible to enhance the step sequencer inside cakewalk a bit further. What I was thinking of is adding a Ratchet effect that a lot of those analogue step sequencer have. If there was a way to implement this I would be electronic music heaven.

You can kind of ratchet if you set up the sequencer with 4 or more subdivisions/beat then add in extra notes where you want the ratchet. You have to work it all out in advance though which is creatively a very different process than using a sequencer as an instrument in its' own right. Another way of doing sort-of ratcheting is to use a delay and automate the mix control. Again, not entirely satisfactory.

I'd go further than you and in a request that the step sequencer be further developed so it has at least the basic functions found on most hardware sequencers such as the ability to miss steps out, jump locations in the sequence, reverse or randomise the direction of sequence travel, jump octaves etc.

Unlike hardware sequencers, Sonar's step sequencer is very easy to work with, has the ability to send as many MIDI continuous controllers as you want, and can handle as many steps and sub-divisions of beats as you need, it seems strange it's missing so many functions regarded as step-sequencing standard tools.

I'd be fairly surprised if anyone working at cakewalk had used a step sequencer to make music in the past decade, I'm afraid. Still, as barebones as our step sequencer is, it's better than nothing for sure, and I enjoy it as a companion to Battery and AD2.
 
If you're into serious ratcheting, by all means give Breaktweaker a try. But the sonar stepseq can at least split a note in two if you doubleclick.
 
@tlw, whenyou say the ability to miss steps out, is that not what the Step Play Probability does, or do you mean something else? not too familiar with hardware sequencers to be frank.

Most hardware step sequencers have the ability to determine whether a step sounds, does not sound or is skipped altogether.

As an example, the Doepfer Dark Time has two three way switches per step.

One of those switches has the functions on/off/skip and the other stop/jump/continue.

The first switch controls whether that step is on (sounds), off (no sound/trigger) or is missed out and the sequencer goes directly to the next step without waiting for the clock to advance.

The second switch is used to tell the sequencer to continue to the next step, jump to another location in the sequence or stop.

The switches turn a sequencer from a simple playback device into an instrument in its' own right.

Most hardware sequencers have these functions. The Sonar sequencer's randomise function is useful for adding a bit of variety but does not allow that kind of control.

I see, very interesting. Definitely something that should be added.