With everyone waiting for official news, and now considering their options, I don't see much mention of FL Studio, here.
Is there a reason, or are some of you secretly in the closet?

I like FL Studio, but it does things quite a bit differently than Sonar so that might be why it hasn't been thrown around as much. In fact, it is in a whole other realm.  But it does have some cool features.
 
They do have lifetime updates and, unlike Cakewalk, they've maintained that model for years and years.
 
Watch a few vids and give the demo a whirl. 

Thanks, SmokeyJ628,
 
I have the demo installed. I remember it from the Fruity Loops years, so I've seen it evolve over time.
I might well run it alongside Sonar and see how it goes. I really want to get a copy of Rapture Pro and Z3TA+ 2 too, before the boat goes down, if that's somehow going to be possible.
In the meantime, I look forward to a final file or word from Cake, with regards to our installations of Sonar.
 
Cheers.
 

Fl studio is awesome but workflow may be a huge system shock to most of the posters here. The piano roll is superior to most for pop music. The integration of step sequencer to sampler is unmatched as well. The plugins are high quality.

I was just over at KVR and saw this guy selling his Cakewalk account with Z3TA 2 for $35. If you do plan to buy, just make sure he's been posting for awhile and has good feedback in the "Feedback" thread.
Good luck!!
 
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=491274&p=6923277&hilit=z3ta+2#p6923277

I have been an FL Studio user and have had their flagship version for many years. It is a really great bit of software and of course, you get lifetime updates with it too. The flagship version also comes with heaps of additional cool stuff. I personally don't quite class it as a full DAW though. Of course, it is a DAW, but really aimed at the electronic music, pattern making, and looping tasks. I have recorded audio-only projects with it several times though and with great success, but the workflow isn't really dedicated to that in the same way that a traditional DAW like Sonar or Cubase is. I tend to use it along side a fully baked DAW like Sonar where I can use it almost like an instrument via rewire into Sonar. I certainly recommend it as a powerful tool to add to your setup, but not so much as a dedicated DAW unless your main thing is EDM style, or just playing with loops. It is also very good for developing ideas quickly because for that task it doesn't get in the way like other DAWs do and it's very quick and easy to just launch and start bashing away.

I like FL Studio quite a bit honestly. It's a wonderful writing medium and has really quick fast editing, but mixing is... an issue. So is multitrack recording.
 
Certainly you can get great sound out of it, but quite why you would bother instead of going to something else is beyond me.
 
 

I tried the F L demo in the past . At the time I was still new to X3 and Splat ...
Back then it was just a little too much for me to adjust to the FL way of doing things while trying to learn Slat ... 
I had a beta download installed on my i Mac ...I liked having it over there and I did have fun with it occasionally in my free spare time .
The sad news is somehow I lost or deleted the F L DMG install file ...
Now the problem with that is I can no longer demo the Mac version unless I buy the program ..
Image Line no longer seems to have a F L  Mac Beta  demo unless you are a registered user ...
It's too bad because the F L  beta demo did seem to run very nice when I had it on my i Mac....
I may after doing a little computer house cleaning try the Win version of FL on one of my PCs  again .
FL is a super cool DAW , I just don't know if I can wrap my head totally around it's workflow  .
 
all the best,
 
Kenny
 
 

If you are into a linear DAW it's probably not for you.  It is geared toward dance genres.  Its' the most popular DAW out there.  It is in some ways like Reaper with a lot of customized way of doing things.  Don't let it'd looks fool you. It's a very deep DAW.

dubdisciple
Fl studio is awesome but workflow may be a huge system shock to most of the posters here. The piano roll is superior to most for pop music. The integration of step sequencer to sampler is unmatched as well. The plugins are high quality.

Thanks, dubdisciple. The plugins do interest me. I especially like the quick way to search and choose the plugins by thumbnail.
It's quite an intuitive interface for me. I'm mostly an electronic type of music guy, too.