azslow3
* prefer to use programs written by concrete, known and top professional people (and only by them, without subcontracted, periodically exchanged, anonymous developers with unclear origins)

 
you must have a hard time with commercial software

If you're looking for a replacement for Sonar that's almost an exact "feature-for-feature" equivalent, there isn't one.
 
There are numerous great DAW software choices. 
No matter which you choose, there will be some areas that exceed Sonar... and others that fall short.
 
If more elaborate/esoteric MIDI features are paramount, then Cubase should be on your short-list.
Studio One has a clean UI with focus on drag/drop, gap-less audio engine, and a nice balance of audio/MIDI features.
If you're primarily working with audio, Samplitude's Object based editing is amazing.
I'd also checkout ProTools 2018.  Over the past several years, Avid has been slowly refining and catching up with some of the better features available in other native DAWs.
Reaper is another amazing DAW application.  The most CPU efficient of all DAW apps.  Configurable almost to a fault.
Reaper is the closest DAW you'll find to one that's, "everything to everybody". 
That amazing flexibility can be daunting at first... especially for those who are less DAW/tech savvy.
 
You'll be making a compromise no matter which you choose...
It's a matter of finding the best "compromise" for your situation.
 
 

I've been using Sonar for several years and loved it! When Cakewalk closed their doors, I was depressed for about a week. (Ask my wife!) Then I purchased Studio One Pro, watched the videos, and decided to transfer the remaining songs I'm working on for our latest CD into SO. Quite honestly even if Sonar was bought by someone else and started supporting it, I would not go back.
 
I do learn from this forum though and will continue to check it out every morning.
 
Walt

pwalpwal

azslow3
* prefer to use programs written by concrete, known and top professional people (and only by them, without subcontracted, periodically exchanged, anonymous developers with unclear origins)

you must have a hard time with commercial software

I was never thinking about it that way... But you are absolutely right!

No.  And that's why I'm still baffled that Cakewalk failed.
 
I have Presonus Studio One 3 (and why in the hell don't they just call it Studio 3????).  Anyway, it's easy-peasy to use.  But with ease comes lack of features.  I find the midi down right painful to work with, and I need midi to be quick and easy.  Plus, the darn thing looks like a box of gummy bears.  It seems like it's aimed at kids.  Whenever I use it I feel like I need to be in K-Fed's bedroom making beats.
 
Samplitude.  it's deep.  Complex.  Will probably do anything.  But it's a pain the the rear to use.  Get ready for lots of mouse-clicks.  It's the very opposite of PS1-3.  In PS1-3 you drag everything.  In Samplitude you click.  And click.  And click.  You get the idea.  Plus, everything is so blasted tiny.  It makes me wonder how in the world SONAR managed to put so much on the screen without everything being itty-bitty?  Anyway, SONAR has a learning curve, but it will do anything.  And the basics take about an hour to learn.  And it's beautiful.  That counts.

LJB
In my experience, Sonar wins hands-down on most fronts. It just does.

Perfectly said.

Reaper is another amazing DAW application.  The most CPU efficient of all DAW apps.  Configurable almost to a fault.
Reaper is the closest DAW you'll find to one that's, "everything to everybody". 
That amazing flexibility can be daunting at first... especially for those who are less DAW/tech savvy.
 
It took me 2 weeks to get Reaper adjusted to my workflow, but since turning that corner I'm very happy with it. It sees all my DX effects and synths, allows me to launch external editors like Adobe and Sound Forge with ease. That is very important to my broadcast work. The Item Editing coupled with Reapitch are on par with Samplitude's object editing, just not as elegant and not rolled into one window. But Reaper and Samplitude both use algorithms from Elastique for pitch correction. It's audio quantize functions are better implemented than either Sonar or Samplitude especially with stretch markers.
 
What I miss in Reaper from Sonar is relatively simple for my needs. I would love it if Reaper had a smart tool for the mouse for muting sections of clips. I rely a lot on Sonar's mute tool. I also miss how with Sonar you can click on a clip and it automatically sets a range for looping purposes, or highlight several clips for rendering without having to set a range if you only want to render/export just those clips. None of these are deal breakers, and once Cockos gets ARA 2 integration it will be as complete to me as Sonar. 
 
 

I think they all have their strengths and weaknesses.
 
I have bought Cubase as my future DAW based on the apparently superior MIDI features. So far I have not got too deeply into it and I am still mostly using Sonar. I have Reaper installed and intend to evaluate it as a candidate for second backup but I have not looked deeply at it yet
 
Yes, there is a dongle, but I already had a eLicencer for XILS4. 

Since I read the announcement in the beginning of December, I have been depressed over and over again. IMHO there is no DAW that is nearly as good as Sonar (and I tested quite a lot). So instead of making music I am doing a lot of other things like upgrading hardware and so on and being depressed, f--- !
 
It is true, like someone said above, actually you could do the job with any other DAW. But I am not happy at all working with another DAW and missing things like emwhy said:
"I also miss how with Sonar you can click on a clip and it automatically sets a range for looping purposes, or highlight several clips for rendering without having to set a range if you only want to render/export just those clips."
And there are too many such small things that make working in any of the other DAWs painful, really!

emwhy
What I miss in Reaper from Sonar is relatively simple for my needs. I would love it if Reaper had a smart tool for the mouse for muting sections of clips. I rely a lot on Sonar's mute tool. I also miss how with Sonar you can click on a clip and it automatically sets a range for looping purposes, or highlight several clips for rendering without having to set a range if you only want to render/export just those clips. None of these are deal breakers, and once Cockos gets ARA 2 integration it will be as complete to me as Sonar.

Have you already checked Preferences/Editor Behaviour/Mouse Modifiers?
Notice different region / different gestures / different modifiers combinations. You can assign any action to any combination. F.e: Shift + DblClick default to "set time selection to item" (one!). But you can reassigne to "set time selection to items" (all selected). And so on...