M_Glenn_M
It's still hard to reply "Sonar" and have everyone look blank and say "Huh, never heard of it" when they ask what you are using.Most seem to think Garageband, Cubase or Logic are the main alternatives to PT. I feel like the underdog.

Yes but how many of the people who say "huh?" will have nonetheless heard of Cakewalk? When I was researching DAW's I had never heard of Sonar, but as soon as I learned it was the offspring of Cakewalk I had an immediate respect for it, the name being familiar to me from when I used to dabble in music in the early 90's and everyone seemed to use that or Cubase.

Among my circle, I make more recordings than my friends. I don't know anyone spinning close to as much tape as I do. Now, I'm talking all amateurs, but still. Lots of people have DAWs of varying types. I have had no success at encouraging people towards any kind of standard. I've often hoped my friends would pick up the DAW I picked but few do. They aren't coalescing around some other software either. It's a random hodge podge. Most people seem to go with whatever free disc came with an interface they bought 10 years ago. (me too btw - giggle).
 
I've noticed that people do pay attention when I say I use Sonar as much because it's me saying I use it and they hear my recordings. It isn't lost on my friends at the music stores. It isn't lost on my friends in the performing communities.
 
The only other girl I've got eyes for is Linux Ubuntu Studio and Ardour, but that's just cause she's loose and has low standards. ;-)
 http://ubuntustudio.org/tour/audio/

Perhaps some of the PT is "standard" position could be related to marketing. I would have thought that Cakewalk try to market themselves  to the big studios, and try to sell to them, so why aren't they making an impression? Is the industry in such a deep rut that the studios are afraid to be the first to change their ways? Well, I don't know the answer to those questions, but marketing must play a role in it.
 
I would have thought that Cakewalk could take a bigger market share with Sonar X3 if, by what I've read here, seems to be comparable if not better in various areas.
M_Glenn_M and John T should not be getting "What's that?" reactions. The new user base needs to expand.
 
I hope Cakewalk can make some headway with X3.

leebut
Perhaps some of the PT is "standard" position could be related to marketing. I would have thought that Cakewalk try to market themselves  to the big studios, and try to sell to them, so why aren't they making an impression?

As a relative newcomer to the DAW world and SONAR is particular, I may have an advantage of being able to look from the outside in.  It is clear there were several forces that Avid exploited to put them into the dominant position for "professional studios", so to speak.  They had reliability and scalability, owing to dedicated hardware at a time when the software-only products really couldn't get the job done.  Once you achieve a critical mass, inertia tends to maintain status quo until a major change occurs in the environment.
 
It seems there are now major changes in the environment.  One is simply the progress of hardware and software to the point that the dedicated hardware is no longer necessary, and not really even desirable.  But another big change is that, because the "soft DAW" has made recording so affordable, musicians are doing a lot of this themselves.  And if they do deal with a "professional studio" then no longer look upon that as a temple of the gods.  They may even want to bring partially completed projects to the studio to reduce the cost of their pro sessions.  And chances are, they won't be coming in with PT projects.
 
Based on comments up-thread, it seems that a) lots of the "professional studios" have simply disappeared.  and b) the survivors no longer consider themselves "PT shops" per se.  They now figure they have to work with whatever platform their clients bring in.  That is a huge change.
 
How does this affect Cakewalk marketing?  Well, without reliability, you just aren't going to be very welcome in a professional environment.  And it seems reliability has been elusive, so it probably would not have been productive to try to market overtly to professional studios.  But with X3 and the move to Gibson, it seems to be a whole new day and things that were not possible 4 months ago really are possible now.
 
My sense is that it will still be an organic process.  SONAR will rise based on how well musicians like it at the grass roots level.  And as it rises, professional studios will take note.  It seems to me this process is well underway now.
 
I would rather be Cakewalk than Avid right now.  Avid will not grow downward to the professional musician and hobbyist base.  There are too many better products that cost a lot less.  And professional studios are going away.  They really have nowhere to go but down.  Cakewalk is in the opposite position.  They are at the right price point to capture a large share of the fast-growing serious-hobbyist and professional-musician market, and that will drive SONAR's footprint into professional studios over time -- not displacing Cubase or PT, but running alongside them.

cparmerlee
...But with X3 and the move to Gibson, it seems to be a whole new day and things that were not possible 4 months ago really are possible now.
 

+1   For whatever reason I had this feeling from day one when the accouncement was made. And what's really odd about that for me, is that I've always been much more of Roland fan than Gibson.   I can't really explain why so I just go with it.
 
As far as PT goes, it's had more than it's fair share of issues and errors and unhappy campers over the years, just like every other DAW.   Go browse the DUC and it's not hard to find negative threads.   However, other users absolutely love PT and would never switch.   That says something too - that PT is (again) like every other DAW. 
 
I only have PTLE 7.4, but haven't opened it in quite a while.  It just feels "antiquated".   If I had the $$ I would upgrade to 11, but Avid's prices are definitely out of my realm. 
 

I believe we all agree to disagree about Music software Workstations.
I believe there should be a challenge. If someone chose 1 song to mix and give it to a PT user and to a Studio1 user and to a Sonar user and give them a week to mix the song and then post the finished song then we would be on the right track.
MAKING MUSIC AND HAVING FUN.
 
Think about it. Maybe BAPU as ringleader?

Hey can we get back to fighting about which is better X3 or PT 11? I am bored with the TV and was looking for some fight action here? Let me throw out a bone.
 
Protools sounds better.

I have always found this discussion interesting.  From a price to value perspective it appears that Sonar is hands down the better choice.  It does seem however that AVID or PT have the marketing budget to keep control.  Go to a large store like Guitar Center and talk Cakewalk and most of the reps look uninterested.  Look at there training video's and books and Sonar Power is all you will find (probably all you need from that perspective but that is a different thing entirely), Search the web and you will find quite a few recording training video's with Power Tools as the base though they normally will talk about you can apply these things (whatever things are) to any DAW. Go to your local book store and look at the magazines and you will see Protools tutorials and Garage Band but very few Sonar. (They do exist just not in the same ratio).  I then stop and think about the dollars that it takes to make this appearance in all of these places, the bonuses or incentives that have to be paid to stores and realize that this costs lot's of money that have to be passed on to the consumer.  Pro shops always invest more money in their equipment than the local guy in most cases that is just normal business. 
 
At the end of the day, no matter how many pieces of software I look at I always upgrade to Sonar, partially because of it's features and partially because of it's familiarity.  The training availability online has improved immensely over the years thanks to companies like Groove 3 and Cakewalks own team.  I am for one amazed at how the Bakers have stayed focused on improving the product through transition after transition.  I have been through quite a few acquisitions in my career and they always create a distraction so good job guys and girls for staying focused on your first love of music. 
 
So is it perfect; no, but then no software that runs' on multiple versions and configuration of computers is.  Is Cakewalk responsive, they have always been for me.  9 out of 10 times I have had problems it is because of something I have configured or added to my system that causes the problem.  
 
I do think with the great equalizer of the internet you will start to see shifts.  The indie artist that is writer, singer, producer and engineer is becoming a more common commodity and a normal path to music production.  These artists normally have very tight budgets so I think the cost to value ratio is going to be of much higher consideration going forth in the future.
 
Whew.............Glad I got all of those thoughts out of my head.  Think I will just go strum the guitar while waiting for a back up to finish for a clean install so I can get rid of all of those stupid things I have done that will cause Sonar problems.
 
Terry
 

control surfaces is where they got CW beat hands down.

Every studio I have been in during the last year or so was running Protools. And I don't see tons of icons displaying other DAW software either except for Reaper which does seem to be everywhere. These are studios recording many tracks of mostly real instruments and musicians real time and not loopers and beatz boys cutting and pasting their way to fame and fortune though. When you have a 40 piece jazz band on the clock you need to have a proven product that does what it is designed to do rather than accommodating everything including the kitchen sink and maybe not doing too much of it as well as should be expected.
 
That being said, would I recommend Protools for a project studio? Probably not unless you do a good deal of sharing work with other studios. In terms of features, every DAW on the planet (well just about) tops ProTools and has for many years. My personal favorite is Studio One because it is just so logical to me. I'm a long time Cake/Sonar user but after X2 I've moved on. Maybe I'll try X3, I dunno.