Hope springs eternal.

Anderton
FWIW there were two Staff View fixes in the Dorchester. They're obviously baby steps, but at least it seems like Staff view is popping up on the radar. \

* Tracks are now listed numerically in the Staff View

* Staff View Track Pane no longer forgets picked tracks when changing screensets

Unfortunately in software development, "baby steps" forward often result in a step backward.     This refers to CWBRN-32843 "View>Staff view will not update an open staff view with new track selection" (details in  http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/3215769).
 
Ron

After fooling around with Cubase AI for awhile: If the higher versions are no better, I must admit that Sonar (8.5) is far superior. One down and a few more to go...maybe the new Reaper version with notation will be the one (but I kind of doubt it). As has been said, you get what you pay for. Sonar on the whole is incredible. Which makes this so frustrating. Just minor, really doable improvements in notation, and it would be light years ahead of the competition. Sigh...

michael diemer
After fooling around with Cubase AI for awhile: If the higher versions are no better, I must admit that Sonar (8.5) is far superior.

 
Dude you need to fool around some more.  I left Sonar X3 for Cubase about a year ago (for notation) and there is no comparison.  Sonar 8.5 is a toy compared to Cubase 8 Pro in regards to notation.  Comparing Cubase AI to Cubase 8 Pro is like comparing Music Creator to Sonar X3 (or whatever they call it now).  Cubase 8 Pro has notation features that even Sibelius doesn't have.  Score View is a serious set of notation tools.  Even the notation in Cubase 8 Elements that I have on my laptop is far superior to Sonar's.  The section of the manual for notation in Cubase 8 Pro is 175 pages!

Thanks Vintagevibe for that info, it is very helpful. But I ran into a big problem in AI when I tried the step record function. Yikes! It's hideous. Maybe it's better in Elements, but I love sonar's step record, because you can use it in staff view, which is what I do. I know that it leads to robotic results, but I can live with that. My music is too complex for me to enter any other way, I'm just not a good enough keyboardist. so any DAW is going to have to have a step record at least as good as Sonar's, or I can't use it.
 
I might check out Studio One next. It's supposed to be built on the Logic model. If sonar can just do triplets right, and have a better printing function (as in condensing an orchestral score so that only instruments actually playing are shown on each page), I will be happy to remain in the fold, and even upgrade from 8.5. But I'm going to continue checking out other options just in case.

michael, I don't use step record so I really can't comment on it. Cubase may not be the right choice for you but I would at lease try Cubase 8 Elements.  AI is the total beginner hobbyist version and probably a few versions behind.  The Chord Pad function in Elements 8 is seriously cool.

I have been using (originally Cakewalk) Overture with Sonar.  LoopBe30 provides the bridge from Overture's score editor to Sonar via MIDI tracks on separate channels, and is soooo simple to set up.  Just be sure to accept all of the MIDI tracks into Sonar as Omni, not the actual MIDI channel since this confuses Sonar.
-Mike

I recommend a separate forum for Cakewalk notation, although you may need to purchase more storage.

When even Finale and Sibelius have limitations, I don't even think about looking at Sonar's notation view, nor, for that matter, Cubase's.    It hasn't happened yet, but for us who use musical scores, I'm betting the notation programs will get good enough with VST's, FX's, etc, before the DAWs will get good at notation. 

I think also some human playback features could be thought about. So definitely vst3 and script compatable.