I just had a look at the Cakewalk Command Centre and it's listed under "Platinum Instrument Collection".... Pentagon is among the instruments listed therein (between Cyclone and PSYN II).

I use Adobe Audition (V4 in CS5.5) a lot for noise reduction, normalizing, and end-point mastering. Ozone 5 (and Nectar 2) get a lot of usage not because SONAR is incapable, but because they save entire effect chains in one visual format for me.
 
I had a sad day a month ago when I was just re-mastering old tapes. I was recording to SONAR then popping off Audition and doing the rest of the work there. I didn't really care to keep the wav files anyway so I began recording into Audition (first time ever), and the rendering functions within Audtion are significantly quicker than within SONAR (FX need to be rendered prior to other file functions, and even Ozone renders in 2-4 seconds most times).
 
I had seen someone comment on Audition being their preferred wave editor a couple years ago, and due to the speed of its processing I am beginning to lean that way as well., but is only "good" for mastering-level functions.
 
Edit: Need to clarify the above since the OP asked MIXING... with the exception of paragraph one, all mixing is done within SONAR.

Anderton
I still need to go outside SONAR for a vocoder. 

Curious which one you have settled on. I am currently a fan of the xlis 5000.

I do all the recording & mixing etc. with whatever Sonar has as standard.
I only really go "elsewhere" for extra, alternative synths and amp simulators.

Just curious, you all use a vocoder that much in your music?
 
I love them, I just never worked them into anything.

For now, all PC for mixing, Ozone for Master, SoundForge to trim and maximize and CD Architect for burning.  I don't even begin to use all of the stuff bundled with Sonar, and am still on X3e.
 
t
 

When I went "DAW" in 2001, I traded studio time/studio+guitar lessons to a young IT genius for "computer lessons". He used ProAudio 9 into Sound Forge (to Master),and I was so impressed by what he could do (especially after I would explain how I did things in hardware). I used to use Cool Edit Pro for NR and occasional other stuff, too, but mostly mastered in SF with CD Architect for copies (and a pair of MicroBoards QD2's which I'd love to get another).
 
I hope to do the next project (2/3 to 3/4 of the way now)all "in Sonar" and feel confident it can be done well. I do have other vendors' VSTs and use them, like IK, NI's The Giant, 10 of PSP's stuff, BFD2, (still have Groove Agent2 on my XP/P4 where SF 8 "lives"), GPO and some others. I haven't needed a Vocoder for a long time and want to explore it again at some point, but don't recall what I use last time....probably one of Craig's suggestions).
 
On the whole, CW has certainly plowed into this concept! They seem to strive for us being able to do it all in Sonar and I am eager to see what they add next!
Michael

Yes, and also Finale.

jb101
If we're only covering mixing (so not third party soft synths., etc.), then I do mix mostly with Sonar/Cakewalk.
 
I do use all the optional ProChannel plugs, including Softube, Overloud, Boz modules a lot.
 
Apart from those, the only one I can think of is the Nomad Factory PusleTec EQ.  Fantastic plug, and couldn't do without it.

JB
 
Is the Nomad PulseTec EQ suppose to be part of the Nomad stuff we have-with X2,X3 both producer and Platinum?
Thanks

stratman70

jb101
If we're only covering mixing (so not third party soft synths., etc.), then I do mix mostly with Sonar/Cakewalk.
 
I do use all the optional ProChannel plugs, including Softube, Overloud, Boz modules a lot.
 
Apart from those, the only one I can think of is the Nomad Factory PusleTec EQ.  Fantastic plug, and couldn't do without it.

JB
 
Is the Nomad PulseTec EQ suppose to be part of the Nomad stuff we have-with X2,X3 both producer and Platinum?
Thanks

No, it isn't.  It does go on sale from time to time.  It is almost the only plugin that I use that isn't either in Sonar Platinum, or sold as an extra for Sonar (e.g.. Boz, Softube, Ca-2a etc.).
 
I love it - check it out - I think there is a demo.