aspenleaf
The OP wanted to know if Sonar Platinum comes with everything needed to get a handle on audio engineering.  No, it doesn't.

So the question still stands - what is lacking?

It's not lacking anything that is needed to produce a finished recording.  I use Sonar Platinum and I like it.  But it's just a tool, used to perform a task.  It doesn't provide everything needed to get a handle on being an audio engineer any more than owning a microphone does. 

aspenleaf
No. 
 
All the plugins in the world won't make a poorly recorded track sound good.  Start with the basics.  Learn to use your mics to make recordings that sound good without any plugins, then you can learn to use plugins or external processors in a creative way, not as a way to fix a poor recording.

this isn't anything that any daw manufacturer sells =-)

dwardzala

aspenleaf
The OP wanted to know if Sonar Platinum comes with everything needed to get a handle on audio engineering.  No, it doesn't.

So the question still stands - what is lacking?

I gathered that, given my experience level that nothing is lacking :)

aspenleaf
It's not lacking anything that is needed to produce a finished recording.  I use Sonar Platinum and I like it.  But it's just a tool, used to perform a task.  It doesn't provide everything needed to get a handle on being an audio engineer any more than owning a microphone does. 

I'm not sure about the distinction you're making. Owning a microphone wont make one and audio engineer but owning a studio may do just that. Sonar is a studio.

By way of explanation for my question(s) here, part of my "problem" if you will is that I have been trying to ride two horses with one ass and the time had come for me to choose.  Let me explain.  By circumstance, I started with both SONAR Studio (later upgraded to Platinum) and Reason 6.5 (now up to version 9).  I like them both but for very different reasons.  With Reason, it's a rack metaphor and since I worked on telephones key systems and tech control systems for a long time in the Air Force, racks with wiring on the back just seem like home to me.  I also have learned to appreciate synths a lot since I got Reason, plus it's frankly pretty simple to wrap one's head around the basics of it's use.  Of course the downside is that as a guitarist, the "amp modeling" is sub par (IMHO) and I'm still trying to figure out CV inputs and how I can make use of them.  Also, the community is largely into EDM which I am OK with, but not where I want to be in my life musically.  But I digress.

SONAR on the other hand is far more technical in nature (to me) and it wasn't immediately approachable to me because I couldn't figure out at first how to make my controllers work (later realized I don't really need them lol), and the sheer plethora of options in the Preferences section had my head spinning at first.  Throw in concepts like Pro Channels, Sends, Buses, Patch Points and Aux tracks and I was simply a bit overwhelmed by it.  But the amp sims and drum offerings are excellent and once I began to see things clearer, I really started to like it a lot and I feel it is probably far more capable and is therefore the one I'd like to settle into learning the actual art and science of audio engineering.

I am nearly 58 years old and this will never be a career and I know that.  I am doing it because I love music, I love working on complex problems and figuring them out.  I am a self taught programmer for example, getting my degree in CompSci after I was already employed as one.  I like complex problems so much in fact, I have been learning two DAWs literally at once and I think it's just time I REALLY learned one or the other (because they both are remarkably different from one another functionally) and the one one I am settling into is SONAR.  It is better supported in my opinion, this forum is very helpful and a lot less snarky in my opinion (they eventually closed the PH forum for all the bickering that went on there) and now that I have been finally getting to really know SONAR, I really like SONAR better.  So that's why I asked, and have been asking other questions so I can get off the fence and get down to learning the trade, not the tools.

SiberianKhatru59
I started with both SONAR Studio (later upgraded to Platinum) and Reason 6.5 (now up to version 9).  

I remember in early version of Reason, it couldn't record Audio :-)
It has come a long way now though.
You know the DAW software just comes down to what you are more comfortable with.
I will say this, even though I am an experienced engineer, producer, I still find the learning curve is the hardest part of any Digital audio software. To be honest, I guess that could go for any other kind of software out there.
 
When a person becomes comfortable with the software they are using, that's when the magic happens.
The thought process used to have to think about your next move is gone and you are left to use only that same thought process on one thing, creating music.
 
Having to search around a manual looking for a shortcut or a button can single handedly rob your creative process blind.
 

chuckebaby
When a person becomes comfortable with the software they are using, that's when the magic happens.
The thought process used to have to think about your next move is gone and you are left to use only that same thought process on one thing, creating music.
 
Having to search around a manual looking for a shortcut or a button can single handedly rob your creative process blind.

All of which is exactly why I decided to, for lack of a better term specialize in SONAR going forward.  

SiberianKhatru59
SONAR on the other hand is far more technical in nature (to me) and it wasn't immediately approachable to me because I couldn't figure out at first how to make my controllers work (later realized I don't really need them lol), and the sheer plethora of options in the Preferences section had my head spinning at first.  Throw in concepts like Pro Channels, Sends, Buses, Patch Points and Aux tracks and I was simply a bit overwhelmed by it.  But the amp sims and drum offerings are excellent and once I began to see things clearer, I really started to like it a lot and I feel it is probably far more capable and is therefore the one I'd like to settle into learning the actual art and science of audio engineering.

Not for nothing, but sends, buses, patch points and aux tracks are all concepts that existed and were routinely used in recording consoles long before Sonar thought to model them. They are all concepts that are still routinely used in the recording industry both on the digital side and on the analog side for those still making recordings that way. 

If your goal is to gain a better understanding of audio engineering as it applies to creating music, having a good grasp on what each of those things does and how to properly make use of them is kind of audio engineering 101. So if Reason doesn't really do any of that (I'm not familiar with reason at all so I have no idea) then I think you have your answer. Because Sonar most definitely does do all those things. And it does all of them more or less the same way they're done in the analog world. In other words, if you can gain a good understanding of how to use sends and buses in Sonar, you will have no trouble making effective use of them when you suddenly find yourself sitting behind a large swanky SSL board should that ever come to pass. 

If you do any vocals you will need to pay for Melodyne, at least the Editor level, in my opinion.
 
The version that comes with Sonar is not viable.
 
And BTW be prepared to spend a bunch of time learning to use Melodyne. Its not intuitive in my book, but its the only game in town if you are using Sonar.