In spite of the fact that music schools are churning out staff-and-blot literate musicians at an unprecedented rate, and that the expectation of literacy for professional popular musicians has never been higher, it is probable that a fully functioning staff view is not a priority for most Sonar customers. I expect that most buyers are not going to manuscript paper and pen as their preferred method of capturing a musical idea. After years of unrewarded hoping for a staff view that would work superbly either as input or output, I have pretty much given up. Amateur loopsters and wannabee professionals with more interest in stardom than discipline drive the market for this kind of software. Many more wallets will open for a step sequencer than for a staff view. For most users Sonar is a recording device or a musical instrument, not primarily a method of preserving music for the post digital age when flesh-eating rappers rule the streets and computers can only show cat videos.
 
As for classical/unpopular musicians, well you chose to walk a higher path. Don't expect the masses to support your needs, or those who take the masses cash to pay you your well-deserved respect if it costs them money.
 
I was able to pick up Notion for about 50 bucks on sale for integration, and you can get Lilypond free if you need a pretty printer.

Bill Jackson [Cakewalk]
In the spirit of being totally honest, though... I will admit that there are no current developments to the Staff View in progress.

i mean this with all sincere honesty and no disrespect to cakewalk intended; can it be fixed?....

.

In answer to an earlier post: It is indeed possible to rewire sonar to a Notation program and then redirect the midi or the audio from the notation program back into sonar. 
 
I bought into Notion for that and it worked ok. It limitation at the time was it only used 44.1k audio and I work in 48K. Non the less I was able to bounce the audio to a 44.1 file and import it into Notion and then export the audio from Notion and then import back into Sonar.
 
A bit clumsy but it worked. 
 
The new version, Notion 5, supports 48k but I have been reluctant to jump on it since most my work is not with notation and not ready to deal with Presonus yet.

I didn't mean to sound desperate for change here. I have used Notion with Sonar since the ReWire got fixed in Sonar. No problems there. It just has been offsetting to see Sonar held up as the one and only DAW that has everything you need in it with one of the primary features as weak as the Staff View. I have other DAWs but I am an absolute Sonar addict and it would be nice to have an integrated Staff View that is as world class as the rest of the DAW. For all these years using Sonar, the Staff View has been shoddy to say the least. But not shoddy enough for me not to upgrade every year. I am comforted that Bill said that it is still on the list of things to tackle.

Don't forget to update your .sig

Anderton

Jimbo 88
You know it would not be so bad if you could rewire a notation software so that notation you create (say thru midi) would transfer into Sonar.

Don't people do that already with Notion or some other program?
 
And FWIW, the last time this was brought I'm pretty sure someone from Cakewalk said it was not a priority for the next update.

Can Notion 5 send MIDI into Sonar X3 PE by rewire? I own both but not aware of this capability.

musichoo
Can Notion 5 send MIDI into Sonar X3 PE by rewire? I own both but not aware of this capability.

No, rewire doesn't work that way, it's MIDI in audio out. I would have grabbed a 3rd party notation tool a long time ago if it could do that.

Anderton

Jimbo 88
You know it would not be so bad if you could rewire a notation software so that notation you create (say thru midi) would transfer into Sonar.

Don't people do that already with Notion or some other program?
 
And FWIW, the last time this was brought I'm pretty sure someone from Cakewalk said it was not a priority for the next update.

Craig--
With no disrespect meant (FWIW) it's not worth a whole not, because Cakewalk has been saying now for many years that the staff view is "not a priority for the next update.".   If CW cannot support its own software (by fixing known bugs reported by numerous users over an extended period of time) why even have the staff view?  There are many composers who read and write music and who don't want to, or cannot, work in the PR view.  Why add signal processor after signal processor after signal processor as though the collecting of plugins is more important than using the one or two or three best ones?   Why is there not a sense at CW that the staff view deserves as much (I am not saying more, I am saying as much) attention as any other aspect of the program?   Many loyal customers have been supporting CW for years (I started with Cakewalk for DOS in 1991) and have purchased many upgrades and plugins for many years.  Don't we count?   Shouldn't the support be mutual?  
 
Best,
Jerry
www.jerrygerber.com
 

Sylvan
Cakewalk has plenty of pride in their craftsmanship. I don't agree with your feelings on that. In my opinion, SONAR excels as an audio and MIDI editor; a DAW which is what SONAR is. I realize that SONAR may not have some notation features that some other DAWS may have, but there are 3rd party products or there that specialize in that area. I know, SONAR can't be everything for everyone and it can't make everyone happy all the time. But all in all, it's quite a package with exceptional value. Maybe they will get around to notation later on. I hope they do for people like you. But for now, I am happy they are concentrating on the core of being a audio and MIDI recorder/editor/mixer.

I've been using Cakewalk since 1991.  I know what "Maybe they will get around to notation later on." actually means.   There are no 3rd party notation packages that can integrate seamlessly into Sonar's MIDI editor. Maybe you haven't realized this, but a DAW's notation window IS a MIDI editor, in fact, that's all it is.  For producing publishable quality output most people use Sibelius as I do.  I'm not talking about making the notation editor anything close to what a stand-alone notation program does, that's not necessary or even desirable.  I'm referring to bugs like the snap function gets screwed up, and the order of the track pane gets confused, basic operations and display issues.  I could be wrong, but it difficult to conclude that CW cares much about their staff view, even their own advertisements never mention it as do similar ads for Pro Tools, Cubase, Digital Performer and Logic.  What I don't really know or understand is why this indifference to this part of the program exists and why, update after update and version after version, they make few improvements (making the staff view track pane dark was a welcome change) and add new bugs.  It makes no sense.