michael diemer
My only criticism is that some of the text is too small for my 60+ eyes. Which causes eyestrain, which limits how long I can work. 

I'm also considering Reaper, and I also care a lot about screen readability. I never found Sonar great in this respect. Even themes that were designed to be easy on the eyes had many lines and numbers small enough that I struggled, It is certainly possible I was using the wrong themes.
 
Anyways, the Reaper forum has a section dedicated to themes, and, from what I've checked out, many of them look fantastic and, to me, more easily readable than the Sonar theme I've been using for a while (don't remember it's name).
 
Perhaps you haven't seen the newer Reaper themes yet. If so, curious what you think about them.

guitarwiz1
I just downloaded the trial for Reaper today and I have to say I'm just as confused as I was when I first started using Sonar.
I've only been using Sonar for about a year and I'm still confused on how everything works. I have been getting a lot of help from the forums when needed, and I hope the Reaper forum is just as helpful and friendly.
 
I don't know what the future holds for the Sonar software, but I'm young enough in my D.A.W experience that the transition shouldn't be too bad.
The price is defiantly right for what I intend to use it for.

The Reaper forum is as helpful as this one, and they have quite a user base. They will not let you fail. I could not get how to do routing for midi, and someone worked with me back and forth until it worked. You can do anything with Reaper. In some way it's simpler than Sonar, in other ways more complicated. But if you give it time and ask for help, you will be making music before too long.

cityrat

michael diemer
I find Reaper adequate for my needs. My only criticism is that some of the text is too small for my 60+ eyes. Which causes eyestrain, which limits how long I can work.

Try going into the "Options - Preferences... - General" dialog box and clicking on the "Advanced UI/system tweaks".
There is a "scale UI elements of track.. (etc)".    You can put in a multiplier to make things "bigger".  You have to check the box and put in something like 1.25 (125%).  Then restart.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Thanks, I've already done all that. The one thing that won't zoom is the instrument list on the right, in notation (or PRV) view. I've brought it to their attention, hopefully it will be improved at some point.

michael diemerThanks, I've already done all that. The one thing that won't zoom is the instrument list on the right, in notation (or PRV) view. I've brought it to their attention, hopefully it will be improved at some point.

Keep mentioning it. From what I've seen over the years there, as soon as Justin or Schwa catch wind of something that doesn't behave as expected (like a UI element doing something different than others when scaling), they put it on the list of things to fix and actually fix it.  I've seen those guys make changes in less than 24 hours for some things before. They strive to have a quality product and are almost as annoyed as the person reporting a problem.
 
I frequently see Schwa asking users for more info until he can reproduce, rather than giving them empty promises that they will look into it sometime in the near future. Those guys remind me of old world craftsman, who take pride in creating a quality product.

michael diemer
Thanks, I've already done all that. The one thing that won't zoom is the instrument list on the right, in notation (or PRV) view. I've brought it to their attention, hopefully it will be improved at some point.

Yeah - I too have older eyes and would like a theme that looks good but larger.  I keep hearing "vector" stuff bantered around but not sure if or when it'll change.

I used Reaper as my second DAW years ago 'til it was time to pay for the next upgrade and by then I was already using Sonar as my main DAW. I demoed its latest version last spring but for my surpise I found it to be a little bit too unstable on my computer. Not sure if it was Superior Drummer or some plugin(s) but it just kept on crashing. So instead of Reaper I bought Cubase Pro because I use Superior Drummer a lot.

Jari
I used Reaper as my second DAW years ago 'til it was time to pay for the next upgrade and by then I was already using Sonar as my main DAW. I demoed its latest version last spring but for my surpise I found it to be a little bit too unstable on my computer. Not sure if it was Superior Drummer or some plugin(s) but it just kept on crashing. So instead of Reaper I bought Cubase Pro because I use Superior Drummer a lot.

I've used Superior Drummer 2 extensively in REAPER from the moment it came out, and before that I was using Drumkit From Hell Superior in REAPER , which was the predecessor to SD2. I do all my mixing in REAPER, bringing individual channels out of Superior onto REAPER's mixer.

Seriously considering Reaper as a backup DAW, after watching quite a lot of theses videos https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq297H7Ca98HlB5mVFHGSsQ I`m very impressed with how much the customization possibilities are, even to just about creating channel strips like Sonars Pro Channel (not as graphical, but just as useful) by using a combination of docking and track controls :-)

Will Melodyne Studio work in it? 
 
What about VST3's? 

The REAPER stash contains scores of alternative themes, including several which look larger, for example, ST or Tonelux ... and there are others.
 
One thing that does take time to get used to is the extent to which this program and interface can be customised. I switched from Sonar to REAPER some time after Sonar 7 and have never looked back.