Can anyone point me to some objective reviews of Sonar Professional. I'm just on the brink of ordering, but the only two reviews I found were far from complimentary. Although I realise that there have been quite a few fixes and add-ons since release. I'm a Cakewalk user of long standing, (currently MC5 but going back to 1!). It's time I upgraded.  I'm pretty confident that my Dim Pro, Rapture, TTs-1 add -ons will all be fine but I need to know in particular that all my cwp files can be seamlessly imported etc etc.
any advice or reviews welcome
 
Dave T  

http://www.musictech.net/2015/01/cakewalk-sonar-platinum-review/
 
Curious what you've read that were "Far from complimentary". Usually the criticism of reviews is that they are too complimentary and gloss over issues. I personally think the one above mirrors my experience (their rating is an 8/10) - (Platinum, not Professional - but the core program is the same and only difference is in included plugins).

Cheers Brando. Just what I was after.

Welcome Yuker to the forum. Let us know what you decide. 

Sound on Sound also did a review recently IIRC.

The new Sonar is quite brilliant as was X3.
 
However if you are coming from such old versions it should be mentioned that...
 
a) There is going to be a MASSIVE learning curve. There are tons of great vids and tutorials out the there. First off do the tutorials in the manual. They only take about 20 minutes or so for a reasonably experienced user (as in you have used a daw extensively before). For more in depth stuff I'd recommend the SWA X2/X3 video series (which you have to pay for) or if you don't have the dough just scour the CakeTV section of the site and read the manual using keywords to search for topics.
 
b) I would not expect your projects to transfer over "seamlessly". My X3 project seems to be doing okay in the new Sonar and your old projects MAY be fine but expect problems. My recommendation is to either finish your current projects in the versions you have installed and start new projects in the new Sonar OR create a plan so that you export your work as tracks and then import them as WAVs into the newer version. You could do this by simply exporting the raw files with no effects or with some crucial effects that you no longer need to tweak then continueing from there in the new Sonar. If you are dealing with MIDI... well I don't do much of that but I'm guessing it would be better to export the MIDI files and set them back up again in a new project.
 
That's not to say just opening those old files WON'T work and by all means go ahead and try but seriously... I would not count on it.
 
Fair warning and all that, yanno.
 
Welcome to the forum. Cheers.

I would like to add that these forums, minus the occasional squabbles (hee hee), are a real strength for the software, as there are not many situations you will face that haven't been seen already by a bunch of folks willing to help you through them.
 
I have used Sonar and its pre-Sonar iterations since before Windows was popular, and yet there isn't a day that goes by that someone here in the forums doesn't teach me something new or better.  I, in turn, try to help out when I can, out of motivation for all the help/knowledge I receive.  That is really a big deal, as there are a bunch of things to learn with this, or any, DAW.
 
I hope you do jump into picking up Sonar - and hope you too will engage in these forums.  In any case, best of it all to you - hope you find something that helps you with whatever aspects of music you are involved with. :)
 
Bob Bone
 

Isn't there a Demo that Yuker T. can test out before buying? (I've briefly seen Demo threads in here, but never read them as I have to real deal. :))

 Keeping current with the majority of the Forum members is a great reason for getting into SONAR Plat or Pro now.

Can't thank all you guys enough for you positivity and warm welcome. Looking forward to dipping my toes and hopefully in due course even contributing in similar fashion, but a just a tad daunted by Beepsters 'MASSIVE learning curve'! Have remembered my DAW experience goes back to Cadenza, and Cadenza 1.1 at that. You'd have thought i'd have an awful lot more answers than i have!. Many thanks again.