jude77
Man what a question!!  Asking if SONAR should keep midi is liking asking if the Louvre should keep the Mona Lisa. 

WallyG
I'm both an audio and a heavy MIDI guy. I switched to Studio One when Sonar development bit the dust. I personally find Studio One's MIDI superior to Sonar. I've heard people bash Studio One's MIDI capabilities, but when I posted "WHY" on the SO site, no one could give specifics. Plenty of SO users love it, but NO specifics. SYSEDIT? Don't use it.
 
What in your opinion does SO miss some advanced MIDI editing capabilities?
 
Thanks,
 
Walt

jude77
Man what a question!!  Asking if SONAR should keep midi is liking asking if the Louvre should keep the Mona Lisa. 

slartabartfast
The key element with MIDI is that it allows you to program a sequencer that can control an enormous variety of instruments, many simultaneously in what sounds like real time. Without a sequencer, you do not have a DAW, you have an audio editor.
 

Brian Walton

slartabartfast
The key element with MIDI is that it allows you to program a sequencer that can control an enormous variety of instruments, many simultaneously in what sounds like real time. Without a sequencer, you do not have a DAW, you have an audio editor.
 

You can still have a Digital Audio Workstation without MIDI.  
You have digital recording, mixing, effects, console, etc all without the need for MIDI.  
 
MIDI dramatically adds to the capabilities of the DAW, but it is not a pre-requisite to function as a digital audio workstation.  
 
I wasn't' even using MIDI until a few years ago when the VSTi could actually hang with hardware sound quality.  

slartabartfast

Brian Walton

slartabartfast
The key element with MIDI is that it allows you to program a sequencer that can control an enormous variety of instruments, many simultaneously in what sounds like real time. Without a sequencer, you do not have a DAW, you have an audio editor.
 

You can still have a Digital Audio Workstation without MIDI.  
You have digital recording, mixing, effects, console, etc all without the need for MIDI.  
 
MIDI dramatically adds to the capabilities of the DAW, but it is not a pre-requisite to function as a digital audio workstation.  
 
I wasn't' even using MIDI until a few years ago when the VSTi could actually hang with hardware sound quality.  

I do not see how any of the not MIDI features you mention are not part of an audio editor. If you were going to claim that you can have a DAW without a sequencer, then you would have a stronger argument if you had mentioned the addition of automation recording for those features. Audio editors these days usually have automation as well. Even something as simple as Audacity can do what you have listed under recorded automation, and I do not think anyone is claiming it is a full fledged DAW. The simplest audio editors can usually do basic effects and mixing. It is easier to define a sequencer, of which there are not many any more, by saying that it does not record and manipulate audio than it is to distinguish what the difference between an audio editor and a DAW are, but MIDI capability seems to be a good place to start.

Anderton
There are several advances in the works for MIDI. MPE was the tip of the iceberg. I think the question to ask isn't whether MIDI is the future, but which DAWs will be the first to take advantage of the enhancements.

BRuys
Bit of a silly question by the OP in my opinion.  I'm a 95% audio guy who does maybe 5% or less in Midi these days.  But a DAW that either had no or poor midi implementation would not interest me at all.  There are some times when the ability to interface with and edit midi is an absolute must, and the lack of good midi integration would be an absolute show-stopper.  If ever I'm recording keyboard, even via audio, I capture the midi - the possibility to do all kinds of interesting stuff would be lost without it.  More and more now, I am putting triggers on drum kits and capturing midi data along with the acoustic performance.  And how many controller devices of all types rely on midi?  Pretty much all of them.
 
Losing capable midi editing would be a HUGE loss, even for me who does mainly audio-only projects.  Can't quite believe anyone would even ask the question.