I love Sonar, I've been using it forever, great stuff. But...
I hate Sonar, it's complicated, you have to know all kinds of stuff about your windows box to get it to work reasonably well. Sure, it's a problem with most DAWs but Sonar seems to be a lot more sensitive than the rest. Everyone has a problem using it at some point (just look at all the posts here). Yeah, people **** about their issues on all the forums but this one has a lot more technical issues than the others I've seen. The argument that Sonar uses deep windows mojo that makes it much better doesn't stand because Sonar blows up for so many regularly. Yeah, I've got some bug reports that only I can reproduce (missing patch 54) and maybe it's a problem with my graphics card but no one else is missing patch 54 (Pro Tools, Live, Reason, etc).
With Sonar, I can use the best plugins available, Waves, Omnisphere, Komplete, etc and they integrate seamlessly. Unfortunately the stuff that comes with it hasn't been updated in a long time (None of the signature synths have been updated in years). The only new stuff is from 3rdParty vendors. Even if you're old school, good luck finding a good B3 in the std distro.
Finally at last glance, who are the artists endorsing and using Sonar? With the exception of Craig who I've been following since the 80's, who are these guys? When was the last time they charted?
 

oh whatever.

fascinating thread.  never seen these issued raised before.  Wonder how it will end.

People don't come to forums to say "Hey, I turned on SONAR, and it's working. I'm doing some recording." I don't think saying "Sonar blows up for so many regularly" is based on anything other than anecdotal evidence from this forum, which is populated by a small fraction of SONAR users. What does seem interesting is that, again based on anecdotal evidence, certain people seem to have a lot more problems than others. 
 
SONAR is a very affordable solution for Windows computers, which means you're going to get people new to computer recording. Look at how many posts are about issues involved in using onboard audio, or not knowing something basic like turning off wi-fi when trying to steam audio in real time. Yes, it's complicated. So was running an analog studio.
 
Even Logic Pro X, which runs on hardware owned by the company that makes the software, has problems but yes, running on Windows machines is more problematic. For example, from the front page of the Samplitude forum (also Windows only):
 
Needing Video Help
Waves Tune & ProX...odd sync behavior?
Elastic Audio - why i get a square curves?
Pro X 12 Midi Clock output not working?
Track suddenly changes itself into four Surround Subs
Something changed....... Can't move tracks in Manager Window
Problems with latency compensation with external effects
Is Samp overloading your audio interface
Elastic Audio crashing Samp Pro X
ProX Track Bouncing - is uselessness (AUX,BUS)
IMHO Independence gives less added value to Samplitude Pro X Suite tha
tracks disappearing from view on timeline
CD tray not opening after import cd tracks
undo recording don't erase audio   
 
These are just the ones with obvious problems in the titles. There are others that ask problem-based questions.
 

TomHelvey
Finally at last glance, who are the artists endorsing and using Sonar? With the exception of Craig who I've been following since the 80's, who are these guys? When was the last time they charted?

Lots of them have bought into the "you have to have a Mac and Pro Tools." But not everyone. For example, "Call of Duty" was scored with SONAR, and game sound design is pretty complex. There's a major studio here in Nashville that has Pro Tools for the clients, but does most of its work behind the scenes in SONAR. That's what I did with the classical projects at Maricam Studios. As soon as I captured the WAV files in PT, I took them home for editing. This was back in the days when PT didn't do adult crossfades and all bounces had to be real-time.
 
I have virtually every DAW on the planet installed on either my Mac or PC. I use SONAR as my primary DAW because I'm very productive with it. I use Ableton Live for live performance, and ReWire Reason into SONAR. I have a PC Audio Labs computer so I don't have very many technical problems. A friend of mine who is a high-profile bass player in a band with platinum albums recently switched from the Mac and [a different program] after being fed up with the unreliability. He bought a Windows machine and SONAR, and has lived happily ever after.
 
This is why different products exist. You choose the one that works best for you. None of them is perfect, so you have to choose one where the imperfections don't matter to you as much. For example, if you have Omnisphere and Komplete, I don't think you really need a whole lot of other instruments anyway; and still, nothing does what Rapture does. If Rapture hadn't existed and was introduced last week, it would still be considered innovative IMHO.
 
I get frustrated with all software, and that includes SONAR. On balance, though, it works best for me. When asked for advice from others, I don't always recommend SONAR. I recommend what I think will work best for them. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Anderton
People don't come to forums to say "Hey, I turned on SONAR, and it's working. I'm doing some recording." I don't think saying "Sonar blows up for so many regularly" is based on anything other than anecdotal evidence from this forum, which is populated by a small fraction of SONAR users. What does seem interesting is that, again based on anecdotal evidence, certain people seem to have a lot more problems than others. 
 
SONAR is a very affordable solution for Windows computers, which means you're going to get people new to computer recording. Look at how many posts are about issues involved in using onboard audio, or not knowing something basic like turning off wi-fi when trying to steam audio in real time. Yes, it's complicated. So was running an analog studio.
 
Even Logic Pro X, which runs on hardware owned by the company that makes the software, has problems but yes, running on Windows machines is more problematic. For example, from the front page of the Samplitude forum (also Windows only):
 
Needing Video Help
Waves Tune & ProX...odd sync behavior?
Elastic Audio - why i get a square curves?
Pro X 12 Midi Clock output not working?
Track suddenly changes itself into four Surround Subs
Something changed....... Can't move tracks in Manager Window
Problems with latency compensation with external effects
Is Samp overloading your audio interface
Elastic Audio crashing Samp Pro X
ProX Track Bouncing - is uselessness (AUX,BUS)
IMHO Independence gives less added value to Samplitude Pro X Suite tha
tracks disappearing from view on timeline
CD tray not opening after import cd tracks
undo recording don't erase audio   
 
These are just the ones with obvious problems in the titles. There are others that ask problem-based questions.
 

TomHelvey
Finally at last glance, who are the artists endorsing and using Sonar? With the exception of Craig who I've been following since the 80's, who are these guys? When was the last time they charted?

Lots of them have bought into the "you have to have a Mac and Pro Tools." But not everyone. For example, "Call of Duty" was scored with SONAR, and game sound design is pretty complex. There's a major studio here in Nashville that has Pro Tools for the clients, but does most of its work behind the scenes in SONAR. That's what I did with the classical projects at Maricam Studios. As soon as I captured the WAV files in PT, I took them home for editing. This was back in the days when PT didn't do adult crossfades and all bounces had to be real-time.
 
I have virtually every DAW on the planet installed on either my Mac or PC. I use SONAR as my primary DAW because I'm very productive with it. I use Ableton Live for live performance, and ReWire Reason into SONAR. I have a PC Audio Labs computer so I don't have very many technical problems. A friend of mine who is a high-profile bass player in a band with platinum albums recently switched from the Mac and [a different program] after being fed up with the unreliability. He bought a Windows machine and SONAR, and has lived happily ever after.
 
This is why different products exist. You choose the one that works best for you. None of them are perfect, so you have to choose one where the imperfections don't matter to you as much. For example, if you have Omnisphere and Komplete, I don't think you really need a whole lot of other instruments anyway; and still, nothing does what Rapture does. If Rapture hadn't existed and was introduced last week, it would still be considered innovative IMHO.
 
I get frustrated with all software, and that includes SONAR. On balance, though, it works best for me. When asked for advice from others, I don't always recommend SONAR. I recommend what I think will work best for them. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
Craig, this is pretty low, copying thread titles from the Samplitude forum to make sonar look better in comparison.  
 
As a long term member of that forum, I can tell you that Samplitude is more stable than Sonar but also more complicated.  Also consider that the latest version of their app was a major rewrite - Pro-X is the first 64 bit version so the bugs they have had last couple years probably equivalent to the X1 bugs.
 
 
 
 

TomHelvey The argument that Sonar uses deep windows mojo that makes it much better doesn't stand because Sonar blows up for so many regularly.

A huge generalisation. If I commit a crime I wouldn't want you on the jury, you might find the wrong person guilty.

TomHelvey Yeah, I've got some bug reports that only I can reproduce (missing patch 54) and maybe it's a problem with my graphics card but no one else is missing patch 54 (Pro Tools, Live, Reason, etc).

 
Yup issue is most likely with your environment and not Sonar if nobody can repro, logical if you think about it. People post issues with their environment almost every day.
 
Here is a bug report thread with validated issues:
http://forum.cakewalk.com/Outstanding-Issues-as-of-X3E-UNOFFICIAL-m3009969.aspx

Here is a bug report forums, the threads that didn't get moved are mostly validated:
http://forum.cakewalk.com/Problem-Reports-f77.aspx
 
Those links are issues to do with Sonar... So if you want ammunition there it is (trying to be balanced here).
 

TomHelvey Finally at last glance, who are the artists endorsing and using Sonar? With the exception of Craig who I've been following since the 80's, who are these guys? When was the last time they charted?

Who cares. Just because Simon Cowell or the kewl kids in town may not use my software doesn't mean it isn't any good. I'm not going to throw down my bass guitar just because John Entwistle didn't use it. I like my bass and I use it. It works.

Ta.
 
 

I'm coming up on 20,000 posts, and I can count on one hand the number of times I've complained here about a SONAR bug or a Windows configuration issue.
 
But I can also count on one hand, and have five fingers remaining, the number of times I've posted what a great job SONAR is doing for me.

200bpm
Craig, this is pretty low, copying thread titles from the Samplitude forum to make sonar look better in comparison.  
 
As a long term member of that forum, I can tell you that Samplitude is more stable than Sonar but also more complicated.  Also consider that the latest version of their app was a major rewrite - Pro-X is the first 64 bit version so the bugs they have had last couple years probably equivalent to the X1 bugs.

Shock horror!
I guess it's better than creating more than one user account to get your point across Teal....

200bpm
Craig, this is pretty low, copying thread titles from the Samplitude forum to make sonar look better in comparison.

 
If you'd read what I wrote, you would have realized I was making the point that Windows-only machines are more prone to technical issues. I clearly wasn't blaming Samplitude for these problems. I'm sure that like many of your problems with SONAR, they are due to user error or a lack of understanding of the program.
 
I personally find Samplitude a stable and professional program. The mastering features are great, and so is the Comparisonics feature--you might want to check out the tip I wrote on how to use it. And in the Annual Anderton Awards I write for Pro Sound News, I said the following about Samplitude: "Go ahead, download the demo—I dare you not to be impressed." But it's Windows-only, and that will cause problems--as detailed by users in the Samplitude forum, no matter how stable and professional the software is.

I wish SONAR had VCA style fader control.