skitch_84
It just goes to show that it's very hard to recuperate a company or product's image in the minds of people who may have had a bad experience at one time in the past. I really do hope that the overall opinion of Sonar goes up in the general music production sphere. It doesn't deserve all the hate it gets from people who don't use it and don't realize how great it really is. 

Marketing could DEFINATELY fix this. Sonar as a product is getting it's act together, hopefully the message will do as well. It might take some money from Gibson though to spread the message. Come on Gibson why not put a leaflet in with every Gibson guitar for instance..

The amount of Sonar bashing that goes on over at Gearslutz is enough to make a monkey blush.
 
There are some VERY ignorant people over there who have totally closed minds. I can picture them with their hands over their ears saying "I can't hear you, I can't hear you".

Splat

skitch_84
It just goes to show that it's very hard to recuperate a company or product's image in the minds of people who may have had a bad experience at one time in the past. I really do hope that the overall opinion of Sonar goes up in the general music production sphere. It doesn't deserve all the hate it gets from people who don't use it and don't realize how great it really is. 

Marketing could DEFINATELY fix this. Sonar as a product is getting it's act together, hopefully the message will do as well. It might take some money from Gibson though to spread the message. Come on Gibson why not put a leaflet in with every Gibson guitar for instance..

Agreed,
this and the fact that Cakewalk is nearly never  advertising in music magazines
is imo the cause why Sonar is that much underrated.

Funny, when I saw "rbosco" I thought "tbosco" and figured there would be a connection.
 
Do some "homework" before labeling members!

Pragi
this and the fact that Cakewalk is nearly never  advertising in music magazines
is imo the cause why Sonar is that much underrated.

we shouldn't care if they don't advertise, we bought already ... ads are expensive, so they do use all a favour by investing money in development rather than magazines ...

Notice I wrote Gibson, profit of course is also expensive ;)

One of the biggest issues is Mac-only. Some people consider the Mac the only "real" computer for music. Although the market share of OS X is about 8% in the general market, estimates in the music industry place it at between 50% and 65%. Samplitude, Acid, and Mixcraft are other Windows-only programs...they don't get much attention either, and the Windows version of Digital Performer hasn't gotten much traction. (The exception has been FL Studio, which sells very well, but it's a very different kind of program.)
 
Windows is perceived by the "Gearslutz mentality" as not a serious solution. Therefore, anything that runs only on it is not a serious solution...guilt by association.
 
Advertising in magazines is not the answer because people who are prejudiced against SONAR will not be swayed by an ad. People are swayed by experiencing it. Much of SONAR's marketing is "in the trenches" at the store and distributor level (some of those people are clueless about SONAR, and actually dissuade people who want to buy it). For example, you'll see ads for SONAR in Sweetwater's catalog. You'll also see Gibson's product specialists in stores evangelizing the salespeople at, for example, Guitar Center. Cakewalk just did a big press event and store tour in Japan, where for whatever reason SONAR does very well. "Big in Japan" 
 
The music industry is slow and conservative. The membership program has been out for about six weeks and the push will continue. Of course it also doesn't help when a forum has thread titles like "SONAR BROKEN!! Automation DOESN'T work!!!!!" and it turns out to be pilot error, but there's nothing that can be done about that.
 
Also note that more and more companies do have SONAR on their radar. Universal Audio used to pay no attention to it but does now. Nektar's Panorama keyboard has a SONAR template, as do more keyboards and controllers. Finally, SONAR's sales keep increasing steadily, mostly from new users as opposed to "switchers," which is where "the rubber meets the road." I think part of that is because of the perception that Cakewalk is no longer in danger, and is here to stay. Marketing efforts will continue and expand, because if nothing else, they're having results.

FreeFlyBertl
we shouldn't care if they don't advertise, we bought already ... ads are expensive, so they do use all a favour by investing money in development rather than magazines ...

I have a feeling Cakewalk would have trouble surviving on upgrades alone.  New users must be brought onboard and they have to be convinced to spend big money.
 
I like Alex's idea of bringing the big Gibson machine into play.  It's already there, so just feed it Cakewalk information and it will blanket the world.
 

FreeFlyBertl

Pragi
this and the fact that Cakewalk is nearly never  advertising in music magazines
is imo the cause why Sonar is that much underrated.

we shouldn't care if they don't advertise, we bought already ... ads are expensive, so they do use all a favour by investing money in development rather than magazines ...

Agreed,
I don´t care about it.
It´s only an answer for the question why sonar is that much underrated.
regards

I'm always surprised to see comments that Sonar/PA prior to the X series had some sort of problems.  I never had any real problems, and I've been using since Win95 (which was a bug farm).  I don't think there was a stable Windows platform until XP.  So maybe the problems people report are due to 32 bit and crappy machine maintenance/setup.
 
As to "popularity" and "not listed in magazines", you've got to remember that the majority of DAW users are one form or another of a MUSICIAN.  I am an artist, this is my art form, and as such I can be an opinionated ass, like all the rest of the musicians I've ever known!!  If you've been in this business as long as I have, you know how musicians rave about such and such guitar, or amp, or strings, or microphone ... none of which makes a hill of beans difference as to whether the claimant is actually good at his/her craft or not.  Just silliness.  Part of the territory.  So in this instance, whether you like Sonar, ProTools, or the new DAW I am developing* ... doesn't make a damn bit of difference whether -or not- you are coming up with professionally competitive final products.  Sonar is a FULLY CAPABLE music platform for either the professional or the amateur dabbler.
 
* please send $1500 cash to my Swiss account #4PLEASE3RIP7ME9OFF5CUZ9IAMDUMB and I will get my DAW out to you "real soon".