Sylvan
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I took some recent drum tracks (real acoustic drums that I miced up myself) and used them as my test.
I imported the raw tracks into Studio One and SONAR. No effects at all. I made a crude balancing mix and made notes of exact levels. I duplicated that crude mix in both SONAR and Studio One, then exported.

I imported those two crude mixes side by side so I could compare. I can swear that the SONAR mix has more depth and an extended low end. I thought that maybe this could be a bias or some kind of placebo effect.

I flipped the phase on each mix, after making sure they are 100% sample aligned. The should null, but did not. There is indeed a difference. I don't think it is pan laws either.

I am really worried that Studio One is not as good at summing as SONAR, and I really want it to be because I just spent the money on it.

Also, I HATE that fact that in order to flip the phase on a track I have to actually use a plugin as opposed to SONAR having it built in. Do you suppose Studio One could ever implement a phase flipping switch like SONAR?"

I found the same thing when  I started transfering projects over, but I dont believe it neccesarily means one is better than the other. The projects I was using were all recorded and mixed in Sonar. They sounded different in Studio one, but it was not difficult at all to tweak them and have them sound just as good.  I believe the same thing would happen if you poroduced a track in Studio One then transfered it to Sonar.
 
I too was surprised at the marked difference though!

I always thought that ones and zeros were simply ones and zeros and I NEVER participated in all those endless debates about sound quality between one DAW and another. But now that Gibson has surgically separated my soul from the fibers of my being, I tested other DAWS in a serious way. What I found so far is shocking. There really IS a difference. Yes you can clearly hear the difference between SONAR and Studio One. You could argue that one is not better than the other, just different. But to my taste, the deeper low end clarity is better and that is what I hear in SONAR. I will move on to Studio One, but in the back of my mind I will know that the SONAR mix engine will sound better to my ears. I can still make good mixes, but I have to admit this will bug me a bit. Hopefully future updates can get S1 sounding closer to SONAR.

Sylvan
I always thought that ones and zeros were simply ones and zeros and I NEVER participated in all those endless debates about sound quality between one DAW and another. But now that Gibson has surgically separated my soul from the fibers of my being, I tested other DAWS in a serious way. What I found so far is shocking. There really IS a difference. Yes you can clearly hear the difference between SONAR and Studio One. You could argue that one is not better than the other, just different. But to my taste, the deeper low end clarity is better and that is what I hear in SONAR. I will move on to Studio One, but in the back of my mind I will know that the SONAR mix engine will sound better to my ears. I can still make good mixes, but I have to admit this will bug me a bit. Hopefully future updates can get S1 sounding closer to SONAR.

This is mainly rubbish. Time to debunk a few myths. I tested 4 DAW's in summing mode only some time back. Logic, Studio One, Sonar and Pro Tools. I maintained pan laws and level settings only. Got perfect nulls with all of them and a room full of experts could not pick one DAW over another. So we have sorted that summing wise now thanks. 
 
The plugins are the things that tend to separate more. Studio One stock plugins are excellent and in the right hands can create a killer mix all by themselves. If you want more you simply load up your third party plugins to which I have many. They will sound the same in all DAW's.  End mix quality is down to you. If you are having problems getting a fantastic mix in any DAW then problem lies with you and only you. I am creating killer mixes in Studio One end of story.
 
So much mis information has been spread about Studio One in these parts already.  It is way powerful, very deep under the hood, midi wise is excellent and it goes on. The problem is many don't really have a deep understanding of it so you think it can't do most of what you could do but in fact in most cases you can.  It is just a matter of learning it properly and using it everyday.
 
Many DAW's can do what Sonar does and on some levels they go way beyond. 
 
Recently I have had the nice experience of working with the latest version of Logic on the iMac.  It is also wonderful and if you want pedigree then this goes back further than Sonar did in fact.  It is way serious. 
 
Just find the DAW that is going to do it for you.  Studio One is seriously capable.  There is also a whole website devoted to it as well. Studio One expert. 

This entire situation is just sad. Gibson's decision to kill Sonar is just plain reprehensible. There are many folks out here (like myself) that have come to depend on Sonar exclusively over the years. We have been loyal consumers and, this is how we are rewarded.
Unfortunately, this is the sorry state that corporate business has fallen to. Solely profit driven. No loyalty to their customers. No REAL pride in their product. Just profit margins.

Studio One testing: Setting Up Midi Devices
 
Is anyone else having trouble getting Studio One to recognize your midi device?
 
I've got a Yamaha KX8 ( thru an RME UCX traditional midi port)
and a little Alesis Q25 ( via USB) for quick midi input.
 
Videos and tutorials make it look fairly simple but S1 thinks they are disconnected.
SONAR still sees them just fine. 
 
Sure it's newbie pilot error, but..any advice?

This is one area that can cause confusion. Midi Devices have to be set up. There are icons that represent both. One receiving the midi and the other for sending it. The little icon with the slider and two knobs on it is a Receiving device. Hence a hardware instrument say.  The keyboard icons represent the controllers sending midi data. 
 
People get these mixed up. Very advanced and complex device setups can be created in Studio One.

Jeff Evans
This is one area that can cause confusion. Midi Devices have to be set up. There are icons that represent both. One receiving the midi and the other for sending it. The little icon with the slider and two knobs on it is a Receiving device. Hence a hardware instrument say.  The keyboard icons represent the controllers sending midi data. 
 
People get these mixed up. Very advanced and complex device setups can be created in Studio One.

Just to be clear though, and correct me if I'm wrong, patch and bank select functions are not supported without embedding sysex command in the midi stream, correct?
 
Dan

Sylvan
I always thought that ones and zeros were simply ones and zeros and I NEVER participated in all those endless debates about sound quality between one DAW and another. But now that Gibson has surgically separated my soul from the fibers of my being, I tested other DAWS in a serious way. What I found so far is shocking. There really IS a difference. Yes you can clearly hear the difference between SONAR and Studio One. You could argue that one is not better than the other, just different. But to my taste, the deeper low end clarity is better and that is what I hear in SONAR. I will move on to Studio One, but in the back of my mind I will know that the SONAR mix engine will sound better to my ears. I can still make good mixes, but I have to admit this will bug me a bit. Hopefully future updates can get S1 sounding closer to SONAR.

My advice to you is to use 3rd party plugins.  Craig had a post on how to get the sonitus plugins to work in Studio One.  The unfortunate thing is pro channel can't work in SO3.  There are some great 3rd party channel strips and console emulators out on the market, some of them free.

Yes, you can send bank and program change commands. See here:
 
https://support.presonus.com/hc/en-us/articles/210040493-MIDI-Bank-Program-Change-External-MIDI-Hardware-Devices-
 
It is the patch names that are not supported. i.e. instrument definitions. It does not worry me because if you are serious about using hardware synths you should know what patches you have loaded into any memory at any time. One should not in fact have the same sounds in your synths all the time.  You should be loading up many banks/sounds into the synth memories and auditioning and using sounds from any other stored banks you may have. e.g. My Roland JD800 only holds 64 patches but I have got like 3000 sounds for it.

I downloaded the demo and found that MIDI setup for me was easier than in Splat.  I have an MPK61, M-AUDIO Axiom 25, and a Yamaha CVP-204 and I was able to get them up and running in no time.  One thing that caught me off-guard was the checklist in the instrument setup window is used to exclude things.  So if like me you naturally checked all the items, your knobs and faders won't do anything.  Uncheck the list and everything works fine.
 
The biggest surprise was that transport controls on my MPK were automatically mapped and useable.  Sonar never did that.  I had to use the Generic Surface and manually assign each button via sysex - but maybe I was doing it wrong.
 
Some of the Cakewalk plugins seem to work, some don't, so I'm assuming there's a mixed bag of license agreements there.  No more built in SPK Bus compressor or console emulator.  :( 
 
I'm torn on whether to take advantage of the sale price.  There are still a few more hours before it expires.