Hi, I work in video quite a lot and have been using SONAR X3. It works fine for producing music and I will never need SONAR to export video. Here are some suggestions that would make SONAR (for me) very competitive with Digital Performer, Logic, et al when working with video.
What would be great is the ability to create streamers and punches directly in SONAR (right now I have to create them in a separate video program and layer them on any video I import to SONAR). Support for .mp4 (H.264) video playback (making file exchange with video producers much faster and more efficient) or Sony .MXF would be fantastic. Right now I receive an .mp4 file then have to convert it to .AVI or .WMV for use in SONAR.
Another great feature would be to actually see time signatures on the timeline. This would make life so much easier when trying to fit music to a specific video length or match (sync to) a video event. I can type them in as markers, but if I change anything (like moving a 7/8 bar here or there) it would be wonderful if SONAR would automatically update the time signature.
Really that's it. I believe these few features would make SONAR extremely competitive in the music scoring marketplace. I have been with Cakewalk a long, long time and would love to stay much longer. Thanks! Reber Clark