Moving on from Twelve Tone Systems

Well,
Now that I have moved on to Studio One 3 professional software, I'd like to thank all of the helpful folks in this forum who have guided me over the years with Cakewalk/Sonar.  I bought the very first DOS based version of the software and have owned every version since then.  Those of you who have contributed to the improvements of the software by airing you concerns and complaints with Twelve Tone/Cakewalk at every release made the program what it is today.  I have watched the fan boys who ardently defended the company whenever one of you pushed back on a lack of hardware support or the lack of functionality decry your critical posts, yet you kept demanding more for your money from the bakers.  It is you dyed in the wool users and beta testers who should have pride in what Sonar became.  Thank you for answering all of my stupid questions and helping me make music when the software wasn't quite perfect or when I just didn't understand it.  You guys are the best.  Good luck to you all in everything you do.  Oh, and I would be remiss if I didn't thank Greg Hendershott.  The man who not only started it all but who even answered emails from schmucks like me.  Thanks for all you did Greg.
Barry

Hi Barry,
 
You and I are on similar routes, past and present.  We even joined this forum in the same month/year, LOL!
 
I bought S1 as a safety net, but so far, I'm finding it difficult to move off of SPlat.  I think I'll just stick with it as long as possible...
 
Maybe I'll see you over at the S1 forums!  Also, I will try to be a nuisance at the offshoot forums.  (Can't remember the first one, but the second one I have bookmarked as "Bapu's Tax Write-off Domain", which must be its legal name... I could be wrong).

I agree completely bnwitt.
 
I started with Pro Audio 9 and ended with Splat.  I have moved on to S1 also.  I am slowly learning S1 wishing that it had some of the features of Splat.  But I have stopped using Splat because I  feel it is dead.  Even if someone buys it a lot of us have moved on and many may not come back, thus limiting an already low customer base. YMMV

Another "me too" here. Started out with Pro Audio 8 and it looks like I'll be ending things with SPlat. But only in terms of buying CW products. As long as I can make music with SPlat, I will continue to do so. I have a copy of S1v3 and it's a nice product, which I find to be more intuitive than Sonar. But I'm old school in one important way: I compose and arrange on the staff, so this is one feature I've always been glad that CW kept in subsequent releases. S1v3 doesn't have any staff capabilities, although if one owns a copy of their latest version of Notion, it can be used as a rewire device with their latest version of S1. All it takes is more money.
 
Meanwhile, I kept hearing this one word that always brings up images of that brief but very cool Scifi series, "Firefly": Reaper. So the other day I finally decide to look them up, and I d/l a demo version and have a look around. Well, first thing I can say is it isn't as intuitive as S1. More like Sonar in that regard. And when I attempt to load a MIDI file into Reaper I hit my first roadblock. I mean, why do they have to make it so complicated to load a MIDI file for pete's sake? I finally figure out how to do it and it still mystifies me why it had to be so complicated, but one thing it did force me to do was assign instruments and/or VSTis right off the bat -- something I probably would have wanted to do anyway. Reaper has a rather minimalist appearance for the most part -- except for its staff view, which looks quite robust. I'm loving that much already at least. But even though it may appear rather minimalist, what I'm discovering is there exists a healthy amount of flexibility and customizability lurking just beneath the surface. So this is definitely a product I'm gonna have to spend some more time with. But it won't be wasted time spent on a package I can not easily afford. One of the really big things Reaper has going for it is its price, which is incredibly low, compared to . . . well, everybody.
 
So if I feel the real need to retire Sonar someday, I hope that I will have gotten comfortable enough with another product where I can sidestep into it with minimal disruptions. And right now, it looks like it just might be Reaper. Now, if I can just get past that name!

Started on Cakelive for DOS. Finished on Platinum. Another who has moved on to S1. As others have said, very unlikely to come back now. Absolutely no complaints though - Sonar has been good to me:) 

Ive used Cakewalk products since 1998 when I got Pro Audio 8. In the last month or so I purchased several DAWs and have been working with all of them to some extent. For me, S1 is as close to Sonar as it gets and it is the only DAW besides Sonar to integrate the Console 1.
 
I have been having a blasty the last month moving projects from Sonar into the other DAW's to see how it all works but it look like S1 is where I am going.
 
Love Mixbus and Samplitude as well. Both great but just a few things on each will keep it from being my main DAW.
 
I purchased a touch screen monitor too so if ya know anyone who wants to buy 24 channels of Mackie Control let me know heh.