When comparing DAWs, most of excitements or disappointments are about HOW you can use it. GUI (in some DAWs almost completely customizable, no point to compare just one theme), shortcuts, how you achieve something, which "wonderful" screens it has. FXes/Synth included.
 
Compatibility is for sure is important point for particular use cases. And at least I see some comparison in the area.
I mean 32bit, DX, MIDI VST, hardware.
 
Stability and performance
 
But what is hard to find is WHAT you can produce. I mean which features of the information inside your project file are the same / different / exist / omitted.   Making such comparison during Sonar->Reaper conversion, where I had to found how Sonar project feature A can be mapped to the Reaper project feature B, I have discovered:
1) unlike almost infinite list of "how" you can do things, the list of "resulting features" is rather short
2) the difference in what is saved as "your work"  is even shorter
3) the list of "DAW B can not save the following results you can produced in DAW A" can be posted in several lines.
 
So, the following "project features" of Sonar can NOT be transposed to Reaper:
a) no grove pitch markers and so loops can not follow them
b) not found yet
 
I have nothing explicit to put into the reverse list (Reaper -> Sonar). There is one "too buggy" area in Sonar to use in practice: intensive in project MIDI routing, but it "exists".
 
Note that I have not converted/compared Stretch Markers (Reaper) with AudioSnap (Sonar). Almost everything else is converted or at least analyzed.
 
Since after closing the DAW the project is the only thing which persist, I think when something is not there, that can be the major "show stopper" when using the DAW. So, how such list looks for Studio One?
 

Jeff Evans
 V4 is coming with some seriously amazing features. 

Looking forward and I hope V4 includes OMF.
The studio I collaborate with prefers that for transfer.
 
Since the Studio One guys came from Cubase, I always found it a surprising omission...

I had responded to some of these comments. My post went away and I'm not going to post it again. I want to believe it was a technical forum error. If not, can someone explain how a post just vanishes into thin air?

could be the anti-spam thingy, always been a bit random

Thanks pwalpwal. I guess it was for the best. I'm not running away from Sonar as my main daw and I'm in a group of people here who have gone from Sonar to Studio One. 
I also like a few things about Studio One, just not enough to change over. I'll keep and use both.

Starise
I had responded to some of these comments. My post went away and I'm not going to post it again. I want to believe it was a technical forum error. If not, can someone explain how a post just vanishes into thin air?

There is an AI that patrols these forums.  Something named Akismet...  https://akismet.com/
 
Bitflipper has commented on several threads about it.  You can PM a forum host to restore your post if it was deleted due to a false positive.
 
In my experience, it has usually been a post that I have just edited that disappears.  Or sometimes posting certain links.  Or sometimes just totally random ... 
 
If that is the only thing that gets abandoned when we get a new forum, I will say well done, Meng!

jpetersen

batsbrew
why have you not bothered to learn how to change the colors?
dead simple.

This is my issue exactly. Having to re-learning everything, just to do the same thing.

I posted a few days ago in the Sonar forum as I was wrestling with this too.  I haven't launched SPlat in weeks, but there are times when S1 frustrates me and I'm ready to forget it, as in a few days ago.
 
I really miss SPlat's Console View.  I'm getting used to S1's Mixer, but I'm constantly trying to make it feel like Sonar.  I got a Faderport 8 to use with S1, it's awesome, and I know it works fairly well with Sonar.  So......one day I lean toward S1 and the next day back toward SPlat.
 
'Highlander' was on the other night.  When it comes to DAWs, perhaps there 'can't' be only one.

After finishing tracking for a new project in S1 over the last couple of months, and then working on the mix this weekend, I can say there is nothing I miss from Sonar anymore. Once you get the layout of the console setup in a way that works for you, you won't miss the way Sonar handles plugins on tracks. The console in S1 is actually very smooth to use, and you can see everything at a glance once you get things setup. I found myself switching back to the track less and less except for editing automation.
 
I was sad when Cakewalk folded; after 20+ years, who wouldn't be. But S1 has been an eye-opening experience in just how far other DAWs have come. No glitches, no crashes, and I didn't have to do a single "workaround"...
 
Dan
 

I'm one of those that switched over to Studio One gradually, before the big Gibson announcement. Yeah, it took a little time to learn the new ways of doing things.  At this point the only thing I kind of miss is some of the MIDI capabilities, but I can get around OK in Studio One even for that.  Piano roll in SONAR is a bit easier to manipulate and do what I want than it is in Studio One, but really, that is about the only thing I find better in SONAR.
 
The low-latency mode with dropout protection is one thing that stands out above and beyond.  I remember those days of getting an idea late in the mixing phase for adding in another synth track, and the latency being ridiculous and unusable until you disable a bunch of plugins and lower the buffers down to tracking settings.  (Not to mention figuring out which plugin is adding extra buffers that increase that latency)
 
And the mixer... there are really people who prefer SONAR?  Once I got used to resizable fader lengths and being able to size the effects bins and send blocks so that I can actually see what I want to see, I could never go back.  Not flaming people on this, but can anyone really explain what they don't like?  Colors? Appearance? Or just set in your ways?

Genghis
Not flaming people on this, but can anyone really explain what they don't like?  Colors? Appearance? Or just set in your ways?

Yes.  All of the above.  I do think SONAR looks very professional and PS1 looks like a box of gummy bears.  And yes, I'm set in my ways (which I admit painfully). 
 
One thing I really liked about SONAR was the fx bin.  If you wanted to see your fx, even in track view, you enlarged the track and there you are.  In PS1 if you're in track view you have to switch to console view then double click on the track icon (or click the tiny arrow).  That's certainly not a catastrophe, but that process just seems cumbersome to me.  Is there an easier way?  Plus, in SONAR in track view you could manage both pan and volume, in PS1 you only have volume in the track view, to get both you have to go back to console view. 
 
I admit these are niggles and there is much I REALLY like about PS1, primarily the fact that it handles low-latency and an ton of tracks and plugins with ease.