"I also have a bizarre issue with the third note in the PRV not sounding, and yet a copy/paste of that data played normally."
 
That could be the old buffer size issue. You need to go and manually make it bigger. IIRC, the default size was increased some versions back, but nearly everybody stumbles over this one first time.
 
I agree the midi implementation, whilst improved, is problematic in many respects. Cakewalk 4 for DOS kinda set the tone for me. I came from Voyetra which was fluid by comparison (but unstable). In my next midi-driven project, I'll make a list and post it in the suggestions forum.
 
Thanks for the heads-up on FL, I will definitely give it a closer look.
 
I agree with Craig Anderton, use the DAWs that give you what you need.
 
Audio recording, as you say, is Sonar's strongest suit. It is a huge grab-bag of some amazingly powerful tools covering totally different styles of music and working, just waiting to be discovered (but see the recent Cave Man thread).

kevinwal
Posts like the OP's have always bothered me, perhaps unreasonably so, but there ya go. To me it's like the decision to stop using a piece of software is some kind of major news event rather than what it actually is: a choice akin to paper or plastic, wool or cotton or Coke or Pepsi. I mean who cares, really? I blame Facebook.

 
I take this kind of post as a venting of built up frustration. By the time someone is willing to abandon their investment in money and more importantly time in using an application, he is probably pretty darn fed up. This forum looks like a place that will at least allow the OP to express himself. But it is not a very good place to contact the people who make Sonar work (or not) the way he wants. Sonar is not an easy application to master. I, for one, do not think it should be. Simple apps do simple things in simple ways and if the most important thing to you in the creation of music is that it be simple, well twinkle twinkle little star. In spite of the steady commercial drumbeat of users like this, it is still possible to do serious work in Sonar. It is clearly not the difference between using plastic or paper which takes perhaps two seconds to master; it is the commitment to spending dozens to hundreds of hours learning the application. Ask skook. Clearly Cakewalk will get more customers if they dumb their app down to the lowest common denominator. The trick is to retain the depth and flexibility to be a truly useful tool. 
 
 

Beepster
BTW... Sonar CAN do that stuff if you learn how to use it properly but not exactly in that way

Exactly. I've worked with SONAR long enough that if I can't do something, I simply assume there's some way to do it that I haven't figured out yet. So I check the documentation and the forums. Almost invariably, there's some nugget inside SONAR that does what I want, or a workaround that's not problematic. Many of these are the basis of the "Friday Tip of the Week" because I assume if I didn't know something, at least some other people don't.

twelvetone
I agree the midi implementation, whilst improved, is problematic in many respects. 

ADAT and hard disk recording turned MIDI into an endangered species for a while, and a lot of companies decelerated MIDI development. Then VST brought it back, and now multi-core, fast computers have made virtual instruments affordable and fluid. It wouldn't surprise me if the companies that left MIDI alone for a while, including Cakewalk, turn their attention to that next.
 

In my next midi-driven project, I'll make a list and post it in the suggestions forum.

 
...and that's how improvements happen . I was thinking of doing the same. I actually don't have much trouble with MIDI because I take full advantage of SONAR offering three distinct ways to work with MIDI. However, there's always room for improvement, and some of the recent MIDI improvements have been very welcome.

I've been with Cakewalk since the late '90s. I have also found Reason to be intuitive and fun. But even though I put good money into FL Studio Signature, trying to work with it is remarkably frustrating. So I can imagine why coming the other direction might be just as challenging. BTW, I never record ANYTHING, nothing but VSTs and midi.

slartabartfast
...it is the commitment to spending dozens to hundreds of hours learning the application. 

I started playing guitar when I was 10. I still haven't mastered it, and it's only six monophonic oscillators on a plank of wood with three presets and four continuous controllers 
 
People need to remember that a program like SONAR does the equivalent of a studio that cost a million dollars not that long ago. No one would have walked into Record Plant and expected to be able to anything significant after a few weeks. It would take them that long just to learn the patch bay. And SONAR's backline...well, I never walked into any studio with anything equivalent.
 
 

Okay, I was too harsh in my reply, my apologies for the snarky tone, OP, and I should acknowledge your efforts in providing actionable feedback. Guess I was having a cranky moment and fired with both barrels without thinking.
 
That said, I stand by the essential point of my post. A misperception on your part of the nature and depth of a software system should probably not be laid at the feet of the designers. Sonar amazes and delights me every time I use it and I am regularly astounded by the sheer comprehensiveness of its feature set. It's an industrial strength studio in a box and if it seems complex, it's because the process it's enabling is a complex one.
 
I suggest you visit the songs sub-forum for a taste of what can be accomplished with a moderate understanding of how Sonar works. It's eye-opening, I assure you.

Anderton

slartabartfast
...it is the commitment to spending dozens to hundreds of hours learning the application. 

I started playing guitar when I was 10. I still haven't mastered it, and it's only six monophonic oscillators on a plank of wood with three presets and four continuous controllers 
 

This is how you think after playing a guitar with robo tuners for any length of time. 

in cakewalks defence i also own Flstudio  , while it's pianoroll functions are great there is no comparing to sonar
regarding audioquality and slicing up beatmaterial , also Fl tends to mess up in the project timestretching department  , they are very much two different programs with Sonar coming more from a classic background and the other firmly in techno territory.