I gotta tell you.
I have been working with a number of DAWs lately and sometimes I'm tempted to migrate a bit of my work on them (I need a flexible score editor, dammit! ). But I keep coming back to Sonar because I can't stand the colour schemes of any of them. Also, it sounds better. But that's another story.
You know a lot of DAWs look like they've been designed by someone with a Star Trek: the next generation fetish.
It's also true that maybe I'm old school and you need that visual feedback to create dance music.
Example: Cubase, not to name names. Terrific program with a fantastic audio engine and great workflow. I can't look at the damned thing for more than 30 minutes without wanting to switch it off. The colour gradients are an eyesore and give the screen a bit of a Fischer - Price vibe. Again maybe it's me. Probably I need more neutral looking environments to create my stuff; I prefer to use organic sounds augmented by the sporadic textural synth so take that in consideration.
I can tell what bothers me about the Sonar GUI as well (it's fair to move critiques to all the players in the game).
The menus still have that Win 95 look to them and the same you can say for the quantize window and the such.
I find it spoils the awesome high class polished vibe of Skylight. Aside from that the GUI is one of the reasons why I prefer Sonar over other products.

I ask for only one thing regarding colors.  Please make the contrast between the background color and the writing (text) greater regardless of which color scheme is used!  PLEASE  How hard can that be?

trtzbass
I gotta tell you.
I have been working with a number of DAWs lately and sometimes I'm tempted to migrate a bit of my work on them (I need a flexible score editor, dammit! ). But I keep coming back to Sonar because I can't stand the colour schemes of any of them. Also, it sounds better. But that's another story.

I gotta tell you its a pain really arguing with friends in college. I do try to make them understand but they are very intellectual people to only follow the industry standard, blindfolded nonsense. I give up sometimes and try to be like that. Its safer to follow what everyone follows ha ha. I try a lot to work on all those DAW's, I cant stand it, I simply can't. Everything works awesome once I am into Sonar. Infact I was kind of using them before I started using Sonar. But Sonar has this magic abt its interface or sound engine. Yes amazing features and workflow too. But its the sound engine and interface that make its impossible to move away. It feels like back home. Recently tried s1. Was tempted really I gotta say its an awesome program. I was madly in love with it for a week. Although it doesn't do all the stuffs sonar do, it certainly does many things better. Nice interface as well. What ever I couldn't do anything good with it. May be its the audio engine of s1 that doesn't go well with me. imo Sonar and Cubase has the best audio engines. Just moving the final mix into some other daw's ruins it.  But that's an entirely vast and different topic let's not move away from OP.   

trtzbass
 

trtzbass
I gotta tell you.
I have been working with a number of DAWs lately and sometimes I'm tempted to migrate a bit of my work on them (I need a flexible score editor, dammit! ). But I keep coming back to Sonar because I can't stand the colour schemes of any of them. Also, it sounds better. But that's another story.
You know a lot of DAWs look like they've been designed by someone with a Star Trek: the next generation fetish.
It's also true that maybe I'm old school and you need that visual feedback to create dance music.
Example: Cubase, not to name names. Terrific program with a fantastic audio engine and great workflow. I can't look at the damned thing for more than 30 minutes without wanting to switch it off. The colour gradients are an eyesore and give the screen a bit of a Fischer - Price vibe. Again maybe it's me. Probably I need more neutral looking environments to create my stuff; I prefer to use organic sounds augmented by the sporadic textural synth so take that in consideration.
I can tell what bothers me about the Sonar GUI as well (it's fair to move critiques to all the players in the game).
The menus still have that Win 95 look to them and the same you can say for the quantize window and the such.
I find it spoils the awesome high class polished vibe of Skylight. Aside from that the GUI is one of the reasons why I prefer Sonar over other products.

 
Call me a fool, but cakewalk just makes sense to me.  The other Daws are too strange to compose on, esp Pro Tools.  I've been trying to migrate to Pro Tools, and some of the things are so counterinituitive.Either that  or  YOU JUST CAN"T GET THERE FROM HERE.  (If you know what I mean.).

As for plainly the interface, its a matter of personal preference, where would you like to sit and mix(do not get into the technical details just think of the place you would like to sit)

here



or here




I will go with the second one.. Unless I am remixing a club song. 

trtzbass
I can tell what bothers me about the Sonar GUI as well (it's fair to move critiques to all the players in the game).
The menus still have that Win 95 look to them and the same you can say for the quantize window and the such.
I find it spoils the awesome high class polished vibe of Skylight. Aside from that the GUI is one of the reasons why I prefer Sonar over other products.

Yes totally. But I can adjust to that. There are many things abt the interface that might need tweaking. The grid lines in track view really bothers me, but as long as they don't spoil it from this neutral friendly environment I am fine. When every corner of the screen tries to capture your attention with some garbing interface. It's only a distraction to your inspiration and work friendliness. Remember how logic which was much better and friendly in v9 got ruined in X.

sonarman1
As for plainly the interface, its a matter of personal preference, where would you like to sit and mix(do not get into the technical details just think of the place you would like to sit)

here



or here




I will go with the second one.. Unless I am remixing a club song. 

That's actually an interesting comparison!
I would also prefer the second one but that Space Shuttle in the first pic is cooool...
 

HA HA have both.

As for Sonar it is the combination of this audio friendly interface and other complete features and workflow. Makes it the best daw to go for.

Lynn
I ask for only one thing regarding colors.  Please make the contrast between the background color and the writing (text) greater regardless of which color scheme is used!  PLEASE  How hard can that be?

Meanwhile, consider bumping up contrast and/or brightness on your monitor.