Jeff Evans
The Studio One Arranger track as far as I know is different to the Cubase play order tracks.  In Cubase the music never changes in terms of how it looks on the main arrange window...
In Studio One V3 you also create the song sections above the music as per Cubase. They can be colored and named. The difference is however you can click and drag the arranger sections around.  So all the tracks below are cut neatly and moved.  Sections can be repeated and ordered in any way.  As you move sections around all the tracks below move as well.  It is one thing to hear different arrangements but to see them is better still...

 
I suggested a way that incoprorates both approaches in this earlier thread:
http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/3257302

John
... no slicing or dicing is done. You draw a section on the time line then once you have enough sections you place them into order of execution. The audio is untouched. You can turn it off too.  What the now time does is jump around under the control of the play list. You do not cut and paste anything. It will repeat a section too. I have not tried Studio 1's method but I don't see a lot of difference.  

I understand how this feature works, I've seen their promo video. But what will you do when you feel, you need to change the order? That's right! You'll have to stop playback, redraw markers, rearrange the scratchpad. That's not very efficient. To quickly jump between sections I can just click on a particular marker in the Markers view. Cubase style arranger track, which works like a playlist, is certainly nice to have, but this Scratchpad concept is just not for everyone. Feels very unsafe to experiment within the main project. What if you get some error that will crush the DAW? Will you be able to (re-)store your work? What if you start getting constant crashes in the same project due to some edits? I had some troubles of this kind with the Reaper. It took me almost two days to recover the project that caused crashes. Since then I prefer more simple, safe, stable and predictable workflow to advanced auto-correctors and other questionable "time savers" (not bashing Reaper here, just used my experience as an example).

Soundwise

John
... no slicing or dicing is done. You draw a section on the time line then once you have enough sections you place them into order of execution. The audio is untouched. You can turn it off too.  What the now time does is jump around under the control of the play list. You do not cut and paste anything. It will repeat a section too. I have not tried Studio 1's method but I don't see a lot of difference.  

I understand how this feature works, I've seen their promo video. But what will you do when you feel, you need to change the order? That's right! You'll have to stop playback, redraw markers, rearrange the scratchpad. That's not very efficient. To quickly jump between sections I can just click on a particular marker in the Markers view. Cubase style arranger track, which works like a playlist, is certainly nice to have, but this Scratchpad concept is just not for everyone. Feels very unsafe to experiment within the main project. What if you get some error that will crush the DAW? Will you be able to (re-)store your work? What if you start getting constant crashes in the same project due to some edits? I had some troubles of this kind with the Reaper. It took me almost two days to recover the project that caused crashes. Since then I prefer more simple, safe, stable and predictable workflow to advanced auto-correctors and other questionable "time savers" (not bashing Reaper here, just used my experience as an example).

I agree with you. I really like how Cubase does this. To rearrange just rearrange the play list. Jeff may be right about it cutting tracks up in S1 3. I don't see the need for that. 

Anderton
loathe to duplicate sections within a song, even if the parts are the same. I prefer to play new versions because in live performance, you don't copy and paste, you play. I like music that feels more "live."

I loath having to listen repeatedly to a song that I'm writing or working on that is still somewhat linear w crap musical parts still left in it as "placeholders " …having to substitute in my head the parts I want to hear can be a real buzzkill and energy drain .
 
This is the biggest reason why the nonlinear approach seems to work pretty good for me ..
 
Whatever the sections of my song may have happened to be when they were first started , are only that , a starting off point that exists only to get the creative juices flowing  .
Once the songs arrangements  / sections are slid along the timeline to a safe place, I can go a lot deeper into experimenting as to what I'm looking to express in the song or music…
 
Nowadays my workflow is to play all the parts myself . This can be a pretty tedious process . 
The fretted string family of instruments is my comfort zone . With all other instruments , my playing consistency is just not there yet …
I may drop in a loop that is "close but no cigar " as a " placeholder " .
Then I will exert the effort of playing and paying tribute to it with only one goal in mind …to come up with my own part that fits what i want to do much better. 
 
This approach allows the freedom to no longer have to settle for a second rate musical performance on the instruments I'm playing or editing.
It also allows me the opportunity to add and remove different musical instruments texturally during the arrangement to keep things interesting as the song progresses  .
 
My experience has been , putting the song back together is much easier when you have exciting dynamic parts that gel together to listen too…
 
Sure hope to get there some day w my mixing …
 
Kenny

Here's a statement, and a question, from a CW developer that is highly relevant to this discussion:
http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/3256876

mudgel
I use StudioOne at times. I tried the arranger track and the Scratchpad and as much as I like it, it doesn't come anywhere near Mix Recall when you really now how to make use of it properly. Would I like the arranger view? Sure but I have a way to do that and with Mix Recall added to the mix, I think Sonar is still the better fit for me.

I use both Studio One 3 and Sonar Platinum, and first off, I agree there's no need to slag off either one, particularly Sonar on Sonar's own site!  With that aside, I don't think I see how Mix Recall matches up to the Arranger track (by that I mean they really seem to be two different things).  I like the Arranger for moving parts around and not having to worry whether midi, automation, markers, time changes, etc. all move with it.  Mix Recall is great for different "mixes" (hence the name).  The matrix can get you part way there, but hopefully Sonar will add something similar to the Arranger track.
 
The Scratch Pad -- if you haven't seen it in action -- is fantastic and clever.  Which means it's probably being examined by everyone (the same as Presonus watching what everyone else does  ).  For what it's worth, it seemed incongruous to elevate Sonar users above everyone else and soon after read a post that "Presonus must be desperate".  That just seemed uncalled for.  I've been with Sonar since the 90's (so not as long as some) but have been through many iterations, and I give S1 credit for some major workflow enhancements.  I sense Cakewalk will then improve on those and the battle begins again!  
 
Let's keep it civil (and accept the possibility another DAW may have a game-changing feature that we look forward to being installed into Sonar).
 
Carry on...

Can it be done in a different manner?
 
Instead of GUI, a simple window with a 2-column structure [Marker Name, No of times]
In the main track view we can put as many markers we need and then we can call up the windows which initially will have the table of list of markers and default number of times=1.
 We can then rearrange the sequence dragging each marker and if required we can change the number of times.  Also Control+drag-drop will copy a marker.
 
Play back from within this window will be according to this sequence.
 
We can save sequences and recall.
 
I am not sure.
Regards.

Actually that's something I've suggested - having what I call "play markers" where you could create a list of the markers and SONAR would jump to them as appropriate. The problem is having a totally gapless transition among the various sections.

Anderton
Actually that's something I've suggested - having what I call "play markers" where you could create a list of the markers and SONAR would jump to them as appropriate. The problem is having a totally gapless transition among the various sections.

As I understand it "jump"ing around the playback of an audio file is exactly what happens when you split a clip and move part or copy part to another place on the timeline. Unless you apply trimming the edit is not destructive and you have access to all or part of the audio file by dragging the clip start or end.
 
The only trouble I see happening is the zero crossing thing unless you have a ship load of audio tracks all diced up.

Anderton
Actually that's something I've suggested - having what I call "play markers" where you could create a list of the markers and SONAR would jump to them as appropriate. The problem is having a totally gapless transition among the various sections.

Yup - on my first day with Sonar, I had all my markers set and said, "Ok now where is the menu for my marker arrangement window... it's gotta be like the event viewer......no, not here... maybe...."
 
Ya know, I'm still looking?  :=)