I'm finding the same in Bitwig and Reaper. Bitwig is a bit of an unfair comparison because it's a whole different DAW paradigm to Sonar, but even so, it's just so much leaner and snappier. Reaper I'm finding to be very well designed and intuitive - to be honest I don't even think I'll bother looking into different themes for it because I'm finding that I like the default one just fine. Apart from one or two gripes, it's working a whole lot better than Sonar. No plugin problems, and it seems to be a lot more efficient CPU wise. I'm busy transferring across a synth-heavy project which is only working in Sonar because I bounced all the synths to audio (a lot of instances of Reaktor). I've set up the synths in Reaper with a view to recording them again with Reaktor set to 96Khz, and I'm finding that I can play the project just fine with nothing bounced, even at a lower buffer size. It's incredible that such an amazingly powerful and snappy DAW is only $60 and is developed by a company with only 2 programmers. 

sharke
I don't know why the need to pooh pooh videos in general though. They have their place and are definitely better than a manual for certain things.

i consider videos supplemental to a good manual (or two - user guide and reference), for demonstrating particular things - but stepping through a detailed written "how to" and executing each step yourself provides a deeper learning experience that watching someone else do it... good technical documentation is becoming a lost art
 
and you can't watch a video in the bath (well, ok... )

sharke
 
I've set up the synths in Reaper with a view to recording them again with Reaktor set to 96Khz, and I'm finding that I can play the project just fine with nothing bounced, even at a lower buffer size. It's incredible that such an amazingly powerful and snappy DAW is only $60 and is developed by a company with only 2 programmers. 

All that in an 11MB installer...  Amazing!!! 

abacab

sharke
 
I've set up the synths in Reaper with a view to recording them again with Reaktor set to 96Khz, and I'm finding that I can play the project just fine with nothing bounced, even at a lower buffer size. It's incredible that such an amazingly powerful and snappy DAW is only $60 and is developed by a company with only 2 programmers. 

All that in an 11MB installer...  Amazing!!! 

 
I'm guessing that 11MB installer is also downloading extra data as part of the installation though? 

i guess so, since the installed Reaper.exe is 12.2MB and the entire Reaper folder is 61.6MB.  Gonna need a new hard drive for all that, LOL!

abacab
i guess so, since the installed Reaper.exe is 12.2MB and the entire Reaper folder is 61.6MB.  Gonna need a new hard drive for all that, LOL!

If you are shopping for a new hard drive, please consider larger one in case you plan to open Sonar projects in Reaper. That extension is huge. It is already 70kB and you will not believe it, it is still growing! I do not exclude that when it is able to convert everything, it can cross 100kB border!
 

Time for more assembly language, bro! 

Speaking of Reaper, why is it so efficient with CPU use? A friend who is a programmer said it may be because it was built on assembly language. I don't know if that's true or even what that means. But it must be doing something under the hood. I also have been using Samplitude, but it's a hog on resources compared to Reaper. 

I should imagine Reaper is mostly C++, although I wouldn't be surprised if there were some CPU critical routines written in assembly. I doubt whether many large consumer apps like Reaper are coded entirely in assembly these days. It would slow down the development cycle considerably. 
 
As far as I know, there is only one DAW in existence which is programmed entirely in assembly language - SAW Studio. And that thing looks like it's stuck in the mid 1990's  

The man behind Reaper (Justin Frankel) is a genius when it comes to software/programming.
No different than a musical prodigy...
Take that skill... and start with a clean slate. 
Take some of the best bits from all the top DAWs (especially early on) and put an improved spin on them.
Reaper started as a "spin-off" of Vegas Pro (Justin was frustrated with lack of audio specific features/development when Sony bought it and shifted focus to Video).
"Necessity is the mother of invention"
 
Small dynamic company that can incorporate changes/improvements quickly.
Their situation business-wise is very unique.  They're not reliant on Reaper turning X amount of profit.