So, even tho I'm one of the people that believes that sonar will contine to work for quite some time, I made some major purchases around the holidays. 
Some research showed that the new Series III StudioLive mixers are designed to be tightly integrated control surfaces for Studio 1.  These digital mixers are usb 3 interfaces and control surfaces all in one unit.  I ordered one and took the crossgrade offer.
 
The unit is very well designed. I've never been able to do so much mixing without touching the mouse.
 
The software is good (studio 1) but it is not as feature-rich as sonar.  It does ARA just as well as sonar, but the settings dont go as deep, and visually, it's "muddy".  The track view in Sonar combined with the multidock is extremely well implemented.
 
The one thing studio one does better than sonar is time and pitch stretching.  Sonar has always been a little behind the curve in this area (even if they made some ground in recent years).
 
If i had my way, i'd be using sonar with this StudioLive series III.  Instead of the FAT channel, it'd be the pro channel.
 
I've always been willing to pay top dollar to buy a control surface that could handle most DAW parameters.  I owned the Mackie MCU and C4, but these never were well or fully implemented (at least in sonar).  I want plugin control.  I want to neglect my mouse.   I want the flexibility of digital, with the feel and workflow of analog.
 
So, I've been cheating.  The Presonus hardware (series III) is amazing, but  I miss my sonar software.  I'm discovering more and more things that were easy in Sonar that are needlessly complicated or hidden in Studio 1.  
 
I still hope that Sonar is bought by another company.  It makes no sense for it to die.  None.

Don't worry, she's not going anywhere...

michael diemer
Don't worry, she's not going anywhere...

..and hasn't for some time.

CakeAlexSHere

michael diemer
Don't worry, she's not going anywhere...

..and hasn't for some time.

and wont be ever again!!!

Yep. Cubase 9.5 Pro leaves me more than a bit cold... 

Sounds like a sweet combination! Presonus is on a roll with this kind of thing and I suspect they will continue to be a force to be reckoned with as the software evolves. I tried S1P in December when evaluating possible DAWs to transition to and was generally impressed with its snappy, logical layout and some unique and cool features. I also spent some time with Samplitude, and briefly tried Mixcraft and Waveform as well but they didn't click for various reasons.

However the 'cheating' that quickly became serious for me was with Reaper. I know it's not everybody's cup of DAW but for me it just felt like the clear path... And now I am finding more and more that I don't even need to fire Sonar up. I'm more excited to work in Reaper and discover it's many hidden secrets. Shameful, I know, no loyalty at all, but I mean... Sonar quit me first, right?

BlixYZ
So, even tho I'm one of the people that believes that sonar will contine to work for quite some time, I made some major purchases around the holidays. 
Some research showed that the new Series III StudioLive mixers are designed to be tightly integrated control surfaces for Studio 1.  These digital mixers are usb 3 interfaces and control surfaces all in one unit.  I ordered one and took the crossgrade offer.
 
The unit is very well designed. I've never been able to do so much mixing without touching the mouse.
 
The software is good (studio 1) but it is not as feature-rich as sonar.  It does ARA just as well as sonar, but the settings dont go as deep, and visually, it's "muddy".  The track view in Sonar combined with the multidock is extremely well implemented.
 
The one thing studio one does better than sonar is time and pitch stretching.  Sonar has always been a little behind the curve in this area (even if they made some ground in recent years).
 
If i had my way, i'd be using sonar with this StudioLive series III.  Instead of the FAT channel, it'd be the pro channel.
 
I've always been willing to pay top dollar to buy a control surface that could handle most DAW parameters.  I owned the Mackie MCU and C4, but these never were well or fully implemented (at least in sonar).  I want plugin control.  I want to neglect my mouse.   I want the flexibility of digital, with the feel and workflow of analog.
 
So, I've been cheating.  The Presonus hardware (series III) is amazing, but  I miss my sonar software.  I'm discovering more and more things that were easy in Sonar that are needlessly complicated or hidden in Studio 1.  
 
I still hope that Sonar is bought by another company.  It makes no sense for it to die.  None.

I too bought Studio One 3 and I can't say I am happy with it. I have started using it but with an eye to the future. For now I find Sonar more than reasonable for the work I wish to do. Studio 1 just does not seem very intuitive to me. Many others like it and I am glad they have found a DAW they like.
 
I am on the brink of also trying Mixcraft 8. 

I've been using 2 studiolive boards as well as an audio box 1818 vsl with Sonar for many years. It doesn't give me the hands on hardware you're looking for but it has served me well...

I have also had S1 just as long. It's a very good DAW with some things Sonar doesn't have (such as the mastering setup) but it's unimportant to me as I use CDArchitecht for my disk creation...

Presonus did great with a first release (and updates) and maybe in another 10-20 years they will catch up to where Sonar is. But they have now dropped vsl for their hardware because OSX 11 will no longer support it. As a windows user (who also has a Mac), that changed my ability to trust them.

As long as I don't update their driver, I still have vsl which is a major item for me... zero latency multiple monitor mixing even with the audio box is necessary for me as I don't always have the studiolive hardware to do this.

Still hoping for some Sonar savior to come out of the darkness!

Keni
As long as I don't update their driver, I still have vsl which is a major item for me... zero latency multiple monitor mixing even with the audio box is necessary for me as I don't always have the studiolive hardware to do this.

Still hoping for some Sonar savior to come out of the darkness!

Those VSL drivers stopped me cold when I was looking for an interface with built-in reverb. I had to read up on just what VSL was and it left me feeling like I just had been to a sleazy used-car salesman. I went with a Motu and am glad I did.
 
I've gone over to Cubase since I'm mostly about midi, but I still use Sonar for some mixing duties and for tracking. The prochannel sounds good as always, and I'm used to multiple takes behaviors.

I first bought Sonar "Cakewalk" when it was called Cakewalk. I love the interface but just have to move on. For me it is S1, nothing fancy but seems pretty solid and fast. Still getting used to the console, really don't like the pan sliders. Don't care much for the track colors either, pretty neon.
 
On the plus side computer hasn't crashed once while using it, latency is non-existent with my Scarlett 2i2.
 
This could be the best thing that has happened to sonar. Hopefully any new owner would clean up the core, but don't mess with the interface. It was far ahead of the others for sure.