dwardzala
But what exactly does that mean  What is limited about it or what does Sonar have that S1 doesn't?

support for real hardware with Midi, for starters.  You may have a need to slave an external sequencer to your DAW.  You simply cannot do it in Studio One.
 
Another example would be when I output my V-drums to multi out in Addictive Drums.  In Sonar it's a snap, just adding an instrument track with AD and selecting all synth outputs, then in AD, I just select which midi output to send each instrument to.  In Studio One I have to go to every freaking track and select the midi output for each track.
 
You have to keep in mind, S1 was build as a primary audio recorder for PreSonus hardware, where most of the time you are capturing real Audio.  Midi was just slapped on as an afterthought.

I find setting up MIDI and instruments in SO3 is a bit convoluted compared with Sonar. It can be done but there's a learning curve. It's nowhere near as intuitive as Sonar. The top 3 MIDI DAWs are probably Sonar, ProTools, and Cubase. Not necessarily in that order.
 
Somewhere else on this forum a user posted a video link comparing the PRV of 3 or 4 DAWs that was useful.

soens
I find setting up MIDI and instruments in SO3 is a bit convoluted compared with Sonar. It can be done but there's a learning curve. It's nowhere near as intuitive as Sonar. The top 3 MIDI DAWs are probably Sonar, ProTools, and Cubase. Not necessarily in that order.
 
Somewhere else on this forum a user posted a video link comparing the PRV of 3 or 4 DAWs that was useful.

You hit the nail on the head.  A lot of stuff can be done in SO3, but not without a lot of tinkering.
 
I would disagree that Pro Tools is a Midi DAW, in fact Pro Tools is one of the worst Midi DAW's.  Pro Tools is more similar to S1 in that it was built primarily for mixing audio, and added Midi later on.  Editing velocities in ProTools is an exercise in futility, you have to individually click and drag the velocities on each individual note.
 

Well, I did say probably. And only after watching the video, which put Cubase on top. I'll know more after trying out the demos.

I was fiddling around with midi in Studio One this evening, and while I've had worse experiences, I still wasn't overly impressed with it. This is no small thing, as I am almost entirely in the box - I do symphonic and hybrid stuff, virtually 100% soft-synths. I think I picked up a microphone and recorded an audio track once, last year. So, solid midi implementation is utterly essential for me.
 
It wasn't that hard to get one instance of Kontakt going with four patches from 8dio legato strings and four corresponding midi tracks; along with an instance of Play and one French horn patch. I do like the drag and drop routine - just pull Kontakt onto the track view and there it is. I put the Kontakt midi tracks into their own folder. It worked ok, but it was not as elegant as Sonar, nor was the visual layout and organization as clear to look at. Trying to bounce the tracks down was a PIA, and I still can't figure out how to print a midi track to audio with the effects send included (I was using one effects bus for reverb). I did a bit of editing in the PRV, and it was ok-ish. It was intuitive enough, but clunky and imprecise. And the results just did not sound the same. I don't mean audio quality, but I just couldn't quite get the same midi playback that I'm used to in Sonar. I loaded up a violin run patch from Hollywood strings, and did a few James Horner-esque Wrath of Khan violin runs, and while they worked well enough, they didn't sound the same as when I build them in Sonar. They lacked a certain dynamic flair, and were too smeary. Or something. I dunno. Probably, I simply need to get used to how SO3's midi implementation is calibrated, and adjust my midi input accordingly. 
 
I realize that part of my frustration is simply a matter of learning curve, combined - I suspect - with no small amount of unhappiness over why I am trying Studio One at all. But Sonar makes it so easy to do stuff -- bounce tracks, edit the PRV, setup multitimbral instances of Kontakt and Play, etc. -- and I am utterly comfortable using it. I don't want to learn a new program. I have been planning to stick with Sonar for the time being anyway, but when we got confirmation that Sonar refugee pricing for SO3 was going to be offered, I felt that I should at least try it out. Well, it did not change my mind. I will stay the course until Sonar breaks.
 
So, to sum up: SO3 has a reasonably full set of tools for ITB midi stuff, but they are not nearly as refined or well thought out as Sonar's, and they require more work to setup and fine-tune. 
 
For what it is worth, though, SO3's midi implementation is an exercise in concise brilliance when compared to Samplitude's. I own Samplitude, and have used it enough to develop a good basic understanding of it, so I figured it might be worth trying as a primary replacement for Sonar. So I've been really digging into the program this week. Tonight, I spent an hour trying to figure out how to set up a multitimbral instance of Kontakt, and I thought at one point I was going to have an aneurism. The GUI designers at Samplitude put extra effort into making the process as unintuitive as possible without actually breaking the software. 
 
All this just drives home how much we've lost with Cakewalk's demise, frankly. 

When CW offered lifetime subscriptions, I started looking at other DAW's. Today, I can tell you that the latest up date of Studio One 3.5 is no slouch. Midi implementation, especially for composition in arrangement mode and scratch pads are ridiculous. Plugs are drag and drop (everything is drag and drop). Plugs are solid, the included sampler is very good, and for the low price of half off (and rumours of a discount for CW refugees) at the moment.

I will say that my work is very much either audio or MIDI composition/production. Studio One 3 is better at most things that count for me (stability, latency, support etc - the PreSonus community is good).

I've been through it before (not with a DAW) and I'm sure I'll have to go through it again. Cakewalk is fine, but it's on the stagnation path. The product's stability isn't matched by the company's stability, and for me (especially since I'm starting a two year project), that really matters. So I'm formally finishing up my last projects in SPlat. Everything new will be done in S1. 

All that said, is S1 all that and a bag of chips? Yeah, it's pretty solid. The interface is infinitely more navigable. There are multiple ways to navigate, I love the zero latency mode, latency monitoring, project mode. Like, it's a really serious tool. I have to say, for me personally, the interface delivers on a really smooth workflow. I used to record simple tracks in Sound Forge because I found Sonar really cranky about attaching to my outboard gear. The few times I did, I still exported to Sound Forge to speed up editing interviews. In S1 I do everything in S1. There's no need to round trip...I just go into edit mode and use the editor (which as some pretty slick features).

As for MIDI, I'm not sure what MIDI features you're missing, but it might be advisable to do a deep dive before you discount S1. I'm finding the quantize, and other performance tools really interesting (the equivalent of Sonar's midi process tools are the same, but a little different).
 
That's the best way to explain the difference between any two DAWs: the same, but different. Professionals use both. Amateurs use both. You can do 99.8% of exactly the same things between them. The difference is how the software lets you do your job, and how it handles its job. To me S1 is superior, but that's just me.

I've been with Cakewalk since whatever the DOS version bundled with a Soundblaster was. Seriously, like, 26ish years? I'm comfortable with it. It's fun. It's easy. It's mostly reliable (though progressively less in the last couple updates). I'm a little nostaglic, but mostly I worry about the staff. 

As for the company, I found it interesting the CTO (head code monkey) made the announcement. I wonder if it wasn't a matter of "we can re-fresh the code, but we need to invest in it." Gibson is like the borg: acquire, consume, expel.

In any case, we're all in the same boat. It's not like Sonar is suddenly dead. It's just not going to develop. As I've said, my past and archive access will be Sonar. Sadly, but not very, the future will be with S1.

Cheers to everyone for the help over the years (I still may need some as I retrieve old projects). And all the best to the Bakers and Staff and Cakewalk. You're definitely in our thoughts this Thanksgiving.

I don't do a ton of MIDI stuff, just editing VST drum tracks, but for what I do actually do, Studio One has been more reliable than Sonar. Sonar would drive me mad by moving notes into different clips when I nudge them, and similar glitches like that.

soens
I find setting up MIDI and instruments in SO3 is a bit convoluted compared with Sonar. It can be done but there's a learning curve.

Huh? Are we working with the same software? I downloaded the studio one demo tonight, grabbed an instrument, dragged it into the workspace and instantly created a track - it is literally a hundred times easier and more intuitive than sonar.

I will be honest here and say I have only a limited experience with Studio One. I have run some trials, but was not overly impressed by the MIDI handling. It is possible things have improved since then though.
 
For me the trial period with Cubase (Pro) was enough to switch from Sonar to Cubase. MIDI in Cubase is a breeze, and things like note expression (only with VST's that are capable of doing so) is great. Add things like the chord track, chord pads and chord assistant to it, and you have a lot of power under your fingers. It's true Cubase has no ARA, but Cubase has it's own implementation called VariAudio, where you are capable (with limited success though) to create MIDI from audio.
 
Keep in mind that there is one thing that Sonar does better than Cubase, and that's bouncing. In Sonar you can bounce on the same track, while in Cubase all audio goes to a separate audio track. This give you more control over the bouncing process, but at the same time it creates extra tracks that can take some extra effort to sort out.

I have found nothing in the midi department so far that Sonar did that S1 can't do.
The problem is layout and execution of editing, routing, etc.  A different mind created S1 and it took me some video watching to see where everything was laid out.