Isn't it obvious, that Sonar needs a Metering Suite? Just like in T-Racks CS, iZotope RX, Magix Samplitude, etc.
It can be implemented as;
1) a set of Pro Channel modules;
2) a dockable Metering View with a set of metes, including Loudness Meter, Phase Meter, Correlation Meter, Vectroscope, Guitar Tuner, etc.
 
Please, vote!

To play devil's advocate, Voxengo SPAN is an excellent set of free metering tools that cover most (if not all) of what's needed, and there are some good free and very cheap VU meter emulators around as well.

I'm not opposed to Sonar coming with its own suite, but I could understand Cakewalk not wanting to invest much time (and therefore money) when one of the best regarded tools is already available for free. Plus if you use more than one DAW, and many people do, using the same metering tools irrespective of which DAW is in use helps with consistency.

Well, besides Voxengo SPAN there are other software solutions for metering, as well as there are other plugins and instruments, yet Cakewalk invests in developing new plugins and VIs or integrating third party ones into Skylight interface. Finally, there are other DAWs, which doesn't mean Cakewalk should stop developing the Sonar line.
In a nutshell, adding functionality is always beneficial to software product and I don't see any reason to overlook the need for a Metering Suite integrated with Sonar.

TTT
 
I happen to think you have a good feature request
 
SONAR needs an on-board Pro Style Metering Suite .
 
I don't need to use 3rd party metering when I use Samplitude Pro X2 or Mixbus 3.1
 
Why do I have to use 3rd party for SPlat ?
 
Kenny

add k metering option and i'll be happy

Thanks for your reply, Kenny!
Samplitude has a nice metering suite indeed. I have Sampltude Music Studio and find its metering outstanding. Pretty sure, bakers can come up with some great Metering View, hence the proposal: why don't we suggest design variants for the Cakewalk Metering Suite?

Soundwise
Thanks for your reply, Kenny!
Samplitude has a nice metering suite indeed. I have Sampltude Music Studio and find its metering outstanding. Pretty sure, bakers can come up with some great Metering View, hence the proposal: why don't we suggest design variants for the Cakewalk Metering Suite?

 
Hi Soundwise ,
 
I had Samplitude Music Studio ,  I was pretty happy with it enough to upgrade to Pro X2 .
 
OK here's a few pics ...Pro X2 and Music Studio pretty much share the same Metering .
 
on my pic I have a K-14 bottom right , then the visualization view is showing a few additional metering tools .
I know you know what all that is since you have it ....
 

 
I thought you may like to see the Mixbus 3 .1.66 metering ...the newest release .
 
I happen to love this metering bridge in the next pic ...
I have the track view open ( w only a few tracks ) and the metering bridge docked to the left ...
 
IMHO it tells me everything I need to know when I'm editing while in the track view .
Who knows , maybe Cakewalk can come up with a Light compact meter bridge " Cakewalk style " so we can edit audio while staying  in track view and keep track of what is going on with all our levels during play back 
 

 
In this pic I have the Mixing Console view open ...the aux buses aren't receiving anything  ...
Had known I would be posting screen shots I would have dug out my external HD and fired up a tune w a bunch of tracks ...
for what we are talking about it , I feel it is not all that important ...
I left the meter bridge in the console view to show how easy it is to see the levels fast and uncluttered while a tune is playing
The Master on the far right before the monitoring section has a K -14 meter + a phase correlation meter above the K -14....
( there is other metering that  it is included , it goes into demo mode , I could unlock once I purchase ...)
 
The monitor section to the right of the master is one of my favorite things about this program .....
I seriously considered starting a feature request here on the forum requesting a SONAR version of that
I'm sure some folks here know how versatile the monitor feature is because there are a number of hard core SONAR users that also use this program .
not to go too OT ....take a good look at what's in there  
 
BTW that whole monitor section has just received the ability to run plugs totally independent of the mix  ..
With out having them effect the mix ...As we all know that can be very useful ....
 
 
 

Soundwise , I have tried my best to stay on topic and not go all Rouge OT on you ....lol
it has been nice talking with you .
all the best ,
 
Kenny

Kenny, I agree that Samplitude's metering is outstanding.
 

 
just as IK's T-Racks.
 
I also like iZotope's Insight layout
 

 
Flux
 

 
and this
 

 
Wish we had a dockable Metering View hosting some analyzers of this kind.

Confused - whom to support!!
Yes Metering will be nice at one place - undockable. But as TLW mentioned when s good one already available free then why put effort on developing. Kenny's view - why 3rd party? But for many a thing we use third party plugins/vst/vsti etc etc for all DAW not only SONAR.
 
But if I have understood, it would be nice to have  a meter bridge LED Bar on top and Faders BELOW [not side by side] in a separate undockable window so that will be narrowest strip and large number of channels can be accommodated. Just another type of view of the Mixer view - Click, CTRL+Click, ALT+Click on the track name can be Solo, Mute etc..
 
In addition in the present channel strip there can be VU Meter - they will look nice and useful. 
 
Both VU meter and LED bars to be configurable to show a particular type of data/value.
 
This is my personal view inspired by the last picture shared by Kenny.
 
Regards
Snehankur

Aye Carrumba wtf ....Snehankur ,  now you are getting me confused
 
Ok , REAL FAST I'm in agreement w Soundwise that SONAR could benefit from having and on board metering suite 
SONAR Splat does cost over $500 dollars for a new user ...
 
The two DAW's I mentioned do have a nice set of features when it comes to metering IHMO ...
 
Snehankur since I don't recall ever rapping with you before ,  it may be totally possible that you may not be aware that when I upgraded to SPlat that I took on a personal challenge ...
The short story is I wanted to get more chops using SPlat only for a time so I took my 4 other fully featured computer based DAW 's  both PC and Mac and put them away so I could concentrate on only working in The Generic as installed SPlat environment w little or any 3rd party additions ...
FWIW I have all the big players in both platforms including a modest amount of 3rd party additions (plugs and synths )
anyway sorry to go OT
 
OK back to this topic ...sure we can go 3rd party for metering ..both paid and free ...
 
IMHO it is not an elegant solution unless you ARE RUNNING SOME HIGH POWERED plugs you absolutely must have .
Please allow me to take this a step further using free 3rd party metering inside SONAR SPlat
 
To replicate what Soundwise and I have discussed (about Samp ) the first step would be "one would have to create a group of metering effects "  ...
 
I have drawn up example for our discussion ...
the  first steps over here were to place the metering effects on my Master Buss ..
 
 
Then I created an effects device chain
 
btw if i had spent more time I would have created a send from the master buss to another buss just for the visaul end of things color me lazy
 
here's the pics
Effects Chain Master Buss Metering ...everything is self contained

 
Span

 
Blue Cat

 
T Racks

 
MTuner

 
 
MLOUDNESSANALYZER

 
OK for those that feel 3rd party is the answer I have made a compromise to appease that opinion ..
 
My Rub is this , this may be a solution and it is not an elegant solution .
 
Why ? because in SONAR using an effects chain of ones own creation , unless I'm missing something I can only open up one effect at a time . That means my screen real estate has gotten pretty clogged up ....
 
You Dig ?
 
all the best ,
 
Kenny