I use Sonar Home Studio 6, and I have a few questions that I'd like to toss out to the resident experts on this board....
 
1. I just noticed that Z3TA+ is now only $20.  I played around with the demo, and I have to say that I really like the sound of it (in some ways, I think it surpasses the synth sounds included with Dimension Pro, especially in terms of brightness/liveliness of the sounds.)  But, I'm wondering how it compares to Rapture.  Any thoughts from those of you who have worked with both z3TA+ and Rapture?  I should point out that I'm a preset junkie.  I rarely design my own sounds, so I need something that has a bunch of good/useful presets.
 
2. Is there a demo version of Rapture that actually works?  I can't find a link to one on the Cakewalk website, so I tried googling it, and there is a link to a Rapture 1.0 Demo that actually IS on the Cakewalk site, but I keep getting install errors.
 
3. I'm looking for some good electronic drum sounds.  I thought about getting EZX Electronic, but I'm wondering if Rapture includes good electronic drums.  
 
4. Finally, this is a little bit off-topic, but I currently use a desktop computer, and I'm thinking of eventually switching to a laptop.  Any suggestions on which laptops out there can handle music software well?  (I'm not a professional or anything-- this is purely a hobby-- so I don't need something that's top-of-the-line, but I do want something that won't crash on a regular basis, and that will allow me to get good sounding recordings.)
 
Thanks a lot!
     

1.  Z3Ta is a good synth.  I prefer Rapture, which is more modern, but Z3TA 2 is fixing to come out, so who knows what improvements will be made.  If you like presets, it is hard to say.  There are about 700 presets for Z3ta -plus a lot more at KRV etc.  I think there are more of Z3TA than Rapture.

2.  Email Cake and look through the past threads.

3.  None of the three cake synths include great drums, esp. as you can only get 6 sounds (4 for dimpro) for each kit.  Of course, if you can get by w/ that limitation or work around it, there are some OK sounds.  If you want more industrial drums, look at UGO's Ironhead drum synth.  Cheap and unique but not sample based.

4.  Ask on the hardware platform - that's where that question usually ends up.

@

you have to remember DP is sample based NOT like the other 2 , so it's not so fair to compare..

z3ta I bought on it's own as I liked it for far more.. it's decent .. BUT rapture is better still..

get the free sound packs for it, muz3um etc :)

drums , I use samples / sampler and loops.. and battery amongst other things.