To me, the two biggest midi improvements that Cakewalk could make are:
 
1) Better handling for articulations/keyswitches. If you want a cool example, see this plugin for FL/Reaper
 
http://www.syntheticorchestra.com/articulatereaper/
 
Doing this natively in Sonar would be huge.
 
2) Improved note/drum maps, naming of notes.
 
There are already feature requests for both of these that go back a good while.
 
Regards,
Dan

RD9
After reading the posts above regarding CW's future focus (touch screen and no MIDI editing mentioned) I am now considering augmenting my system capabilities with either Cubase or Studio One to improve my MIDI editing capabilities since it would be unfair to expect that CW change their plans to suit me.

Is touch screen actually a focus for CW, or is that just what some people on the forum suppose?
 
Personally I see touch screens as a dead-end. They exist on phones and tablets out of necessity, but on the desktop they're more trouble than benefit.
 
I too expect to add an additional DAW next year. After some reluctance I paid for a year of Platinum and although I am in no way diminishing the things they did deliver, hardly any of it fixed long-standing issues I had, and none of them are mentioned in the planned updates either. So, instead of me coming here every month or so and complaining about how bad Sonar is for the things I need to do, I just need to start migrating over to a different tool.

mmorgan

John

charlyg
Dumb question and OT but I gotta know. would it be possible, or be any advantage, to using one of those new Lenovo pc/tablets or any laptop for a touch screen, and still be using desktop for Sonar program? I don't know if the HDMI is 2 way or not, meaning would accept input from video card.....There must be a way........ or not

HDMI is as far as I know is one way. I don't think there is a way to have another computer control Sonar without a network involved. 

I've used Remote Desktop with my DAW as primary and a MS Surface as the controller. Admittedly the Surface was connected via a WiFi network but that is very simple to implement.

That was my point. A network is needed to do this. Heck I too have controlled Sonar with a separate computer but I needed a network to do it. 

 A network is no issue, it's seeing both screens at the same time that is.... And I agree about monitors...tablets make the most sense to me for normal ad especially self recording...

Kylotan
Personally I see touch screens as a dead-end. They exist on phones and tablets out of necessity, but on the desktop they're more trouble than benefit.

I used to think that way, until I got a big touch-screen monitor and laid it on my desk like a mixer. I'm left-handed, and "mouse in left hand/right hand doing touch" makes everything go so much faster.
 
Remember, the studios of the past had touch control...you moved knobs and faders . I for one welcome a return to that mentality compared to using a mouse and QWERTY keyboard.
 
I do want to comment on the "long-standing issues." I agree there are issues that have been festering in the background for some time, in some cases a long time, because they've been perceived as important to a lesser number of people than things that have been fixed. However, based on the last couple updates it seems that CW is concentrating on optimizations and fixes. Because that emphasis has in general been well-received, I expect it will continue. Then as the major fixes get done, that leaves more bandwidth to fix the "minority" issues. 

Anderton
 
Remember, the studios of the past had touch control...you moved knobs and faders .

Nicely said.
But don't you think that a good control surface will give much more realistic feel than a touch screen? Of course I am not mentioning about controlling VST parameters.
 
Regards
Snehankur

^^^ Depends on what you have and would need to spend to get a decent control surface.

jpetersen
After all these years of working with the X-series and now Platinum, I still prefer Sonar 8.5 for its economic use of screen space and way of working in real-life situations.
 
I sometimes wonder how much further Sonar would be today if the resources put into getting X1 and X2 to work had been put toward moving Sonar 8.5 forward instead.
 
Ah, well.

Probably in the same place all other products that get stuck in the pastend up.....extinct. Sonar 8.5 was decent for it's time but was universally panned as hideous by all but the most ardent supporters. I don't  know how many times I read and heard "not bad, but I can't get past the way it looks". Yes, functionality would trump aesthetics in a perfect world, but obviously it is not a perfect world. Sonar 8 was born in a world where windows made programs with no regard for style to be run on computers with even less regard for looks. 

Not sure if it is as lopsided in audio world, but it is difficult to earn a living as an editor  (aside from working for yourself) without mastering keyboard shortcuts. It is physically impossible to carry out the most basic and common tasks on a mouse anywhere near the speed of keyboard. Yes, there are simple tasks better suited for mouse, but overall kb is king. I will also admit that I don't use kb shortcuts as much as I probably should in Sonar, but still recognize it would speed workflow if I did.

Anderton
I used to think that way, until I got a big touch-screen monitor and laid it on my desk like a mixer. I'm left-handed, and "mouse in left hand/right hand doing touch" makes everything go so much faster.
 
Remember, the studios of the past had touch control...you moved knobs and faders . I for one welcome a return to that mentality compared to using a mouse and QWERTY keyboard.

 
I think there's certainly an argument there for DAWs to move towards a touch screen focus. But I don't think most people who use DAW software have a dedicated audio machine, and even if they do, many of them are not just mixers but also arrangers and composers who need that desk space for a keyboard or similar. Also, touch screen monitors are pricey. So while I'm sure there's a market there, I don't think it's a mainstream one - especially since the reception to Windows 8 showed just how few people really want their main computer to feel like a tablet.
 

I do want to comment on the "long-standing issues." I agree there are issues that have been festering in the background for some time, in some cases a long time, because they've been perceived as important to a lesser number of people than things that have been fixed. However, based on the last couple updates it seems that CW is concentrating on optimizations and fixes. Because that emphasis has in general been well-received, I expect it will continue. Then as the major fixes get done, that leaves more bandwidth to fix the "minority" issues.

 
When I say 'long standing issues' I often mean something half-way between a new feature and a bug fix. Stuff like making the drum map manager significantly more usable, smoothing out various issues with track templates, cut-with-crossfade to help drum editing, an arranger track or equivalent, an end to me having to micromanage my plugin menus any time I install something new, etc. I did get one wish granted - the aux tracks - but sadly not in a state where they do more good than harm to my workflow, sadly.
 
Ultimately I've had to consider whether people are right when they basically say, "if you don't like Sonar, and don't want to use it the normal way, why are you here?" I can try and argue here for the inclusion of features that I like in other DAWs... or I could just use the other DAWs and stop complaining. :)