I also said in the future let's hope it will change into something more youth-friendly than just an old mans DAW. I for one welcome change. It may not come in the form of the Cross grade but I suspect that Bandlab will also put their mark on it seeing that some of their staff will be working on it. 
 
People learn to comprehend, it is not really that difficult lol

Phoen1xPJ
Youth friendly? Old man's DAW? Geesh! 

If they're (re)-launching TheDAWFormerlyKnownAsSonar in a few weeks I would have thought that's only sufficient time for a quick buff, polish and name change.  Didn't the actual programmers all leave?  I don't know how this sort of thing works, bit even with Noel on board won't it take quite a while for new programmers to get in a position to safely add/change code?  From a marketing point of view it's got to be right though to do a quick buff and polish and start selling units and shouting about it in the marketplace.  Looking forward to it!

I`m thankful that BandLab have taken it over, but it will take time to get the new DAW up to scratch. There are so many bugs and issues that need sorting out, then take the HQ tempo stretching, midi and stability from S1, couple it with "Sonars" ProChannel, GUI and workflow and you'll have the perfect DAW IMO.

Skyline_UK
... TheDAWFormerlyKnownAsSonar ...

I like that, lol!

marled

Skyline_UK
... TheDAWFormerlyKnownAsSonar ...

I like that, lol!

That was a quote from Meng. I wish people would read his post especially his update titled update 03/03/18

marled

cparmerlee

dappa1
 I also said some of the code will be revamped (why) because of the bugs that Sonar had previous. These I presume are the things that will be worked on.

I think it is a question of time scale.  Some of your comments seemed to imply you expected major changes and bug fixes with the initial launch.  I think they have been very clear that the priority is to get the product rebranded and launched.  This will probably involve minimal code changes, and nothing in the core of the product -- at the outset.  Of course, one hopes that there will be priority on bug fixes as the product proceeds after re-launch.
 
I do share your view about "old man's DAW."  I guess at 62, and a person who started hanging around studios when all they had was 4-track and 8-track tape with lots of ping-pong action for every production, I might quality as an old man.  But I hope to be walking this planet for another generation if I am lucky.  And I think there are major opportunities to come from migrating away from an emulation of the ancient hardware studios and to really embrace the universe of possibilities that come from a totally "in the box" solution.  In that respect, it is encouraging to see the ownership move from a company whose strategic vision was Phillips Electronics to the kinds of thins Bandlab does.
 
In particular, I visited the Bandlab website and didn't see a single screen shot that was trying to depict some old piece of hardware that 99.9% of today's customers have never seen anyway.  It really is time to leave the 1970s hardware behind and embrace user interfaces that are directly connected with the task at hand and much easier to see than the fake brushed aluminum images and magic knobs that are poorly labeled and only understood through years of folklore.
 
Don't get too comfortable with anything, other than a casket.

But it is like in Nature, most of the changes prove that they're worse than the old stuff, so they die away right now! There is only a small percentage of changes that show real improvement!
Other does not always mean better!

Studio One3, Bitwig are relatively new and I guess they are here to stay. Studio One may even take over from Pro Tools as the industry standard, not everything that is old is better. Just that better stuff come out every day and then we start to reminisce about what was good for us. I would like the newly named DAW to progress and move forward and improve.

Brian Walton

dappa1
It would be really sad if they are basing their new Flagship DAW based on the bugs that are still in the old DAW. I would expect some change to the code in its new form. I would not expect it to look similar but have similar features that we all know and love. But I do expect it to be a NEW DAW. There would be no incentive for new customers if it is solely based on what we have already.

dappa1
Yes I have SPLAT I also paid for lifetime updates. I will be happy with the crossgrade. I also have Studio One 3 
So I guess I'm winning all the way around.
 
BTW. Brian Walton i am sharing ideas no need to be so touchy. However, in the future I would like to see a radical change in the way Sonar acts and performs. Don't you?
 

Many of your posts suggest an overhaul.  You say things like "new DAW"  most people would argue that Sonar 2017.05 and 2017.07 did not constitute a new DAW, but an update.  
 
That is what most of us expect this new product to be generally speaking.  Not a GUI overhaul, not a bunch of major new workflows, or major changes to the code.  These are all assets to what Sonar was, it would be foolish to change them.  Not to mention impossible in a short amount of time.  It is safe to say you don't work as a Programmer.  
 
As for the question would you like to see a radical change in the way sonar acts and performs....tweaks for it to run more efficiently (such as the load balancing idea they came up with), of course, but I don't experience a bunch of bugs or inefficiencies in my workflow using the product, so why would I want a major change?   
 
I certainly don't want to learn a brand new system, otherwise I would have jumped ship with the cross grade offers that were being thrown around.  
 
I expect future development, not a complete overhaul that throws away the last 7 years of progress with the Skylight interface, which is class leading, IMO.  

Brian, Brian, Brian...have you read Meng's update. This is what I am referring to when I put up this post. Rebranding to some is classified as new with a new signature doesnt mean the content will change but they will be some variation. In the future they will be changes. Obviously if Meng is saying they maybe a cross grade withing four weeks then it goes with out saying that it is not an overhaul. Hence I asked the question in the FIRST PLACE will it include new VST's and Plugins. They may be additional but I do expect a new DAW to not be as buggy as the old one. 

New Name, a New company, equals New...

BlixYZ
After using studio one for the last few months, I REALLY appreciate the layout and look if sonar. Studio 1 is terrible looking. Particularly the track view. It's a mess.
My two cents:
Sonar is only lacking when it comes to time and pitch stretching. Studio 1 excels at this.
The only other thing is stability. I use Ctrl left and right arrow to zoom in and out -constantly. Every one in a while this caused a crash. Studio one has never crashed since I got it in December.
But sonar is a recording studio, and a great one.
The editing tools are so easy to use.
Between the included tools and the 3rd party plugins, it's damn near perfect.

Honestly, I don't want them to change much.

I've taken advantage of The  Dark Period of Great Uncertainty to become very familiar with Studio One's Song page (I've always used the Project page in parallel with Sonar). The bottom line is that while all DAWs share many features that make them seem similar superficially, the deeper you dig the more you find out what the differences are. Over the years, Studio One and Sonar have gone in quite different directions and I suspect they will diverge further in the years ahead. Ableton Live, my other mainstay, always had a different direction and has been true to it.
 
I don't think anyone who got into using a different DAW while Sonar took a rest will regret being proficient in more than one DAW. Now when I start a project, I pick the DAW based on the nature of the project, similarly to how some songs start on guitar and some on keyboards. I'm also becoming quite good at transferring projects among programs so I can take advantage of what each one does best.
 

dappa1
New Name, a New company, equals New...

No, it doesn't!

35mm

dappa1
New Name, a New company, equals New...

No, it doesn't!

Whatever son, maybe you are stuck but I am seeing things from a market perspective it will be new. However, if you want to call it old without knowing the ins and outs that's up to you lol

I took advantage of the crossgrade specials on Magix Samplitude, Tracktion Waveform and Presonus Studio One 3.
As Craig said they all strengths and weaknesses. Tracktion has been growing on me.
Samplitude was worth it to me just for SpectralLayer Pro and SoundForge Pro. But I'm liking this DAW with a nice staff view :)  Presonus right now I have only played with the demo version. Hoping I can get a free upgrade to version 4 by registering my product later. I got it from JRR Shop, so I'm hoping that will pan out.
Mixcraft Pro 8 I'm still on the fence with. Have to the end of March for crossgrade offer to decide.
 
Glad to see this DAW live on and I will still use it as my primary DAW, but it is nice to have options now.
 
YMMV

Brian Walton
There would be plenty of incentive for new customers if it is based on what we already have.

 
If that were true, then Sonar would not have been offloaded first by Roland and then by Gibson. "What we already have" was not selling enough, which is one of the main reasons why Cakewalk was closed down. 
 

The last version of Sonar is without a doubt one of the best DAWs ever made.  Why do you think we had all the outcries when Gibson decided not to invest in the continual updates?  Many of us didn't even jump ship, hoping that another company would be smart enough buy it to continue with updates....even if those updates are just to ensure compatibility with Windows releases.  
 
They don't need to change anything about the look or feel.  

Having had the chance to try a couple of other DAW's since the closure of Cakewalk, I can quite honestly say that Sonar could, with some work, be one of the best DAW's ever made. But in its present form, it's just not. Then again, I made the effort to acclimatize to the workflows of the other DAW's I tried instead of blindly groping around for a day or two and getting annoyed that things didn't work exactly the same way as in Sonar. When you do that, it's not hard to see how much greener the grass is on the other side. 
 
Sonar has an image problem in the world of DAW's. It doesn't have the "cool" factor of things like Ableton and FL Studio, which means that the kids aren't asking their parents to buy it for them. And even in the world of people who aren't looking for "hip," it has a reputation for being buggy and unstable, more so than other DAW's. All of them have bugs and oddities and workflow annoyances, but if you were to go on a forum like Gearslutz or KVR and ask "Would you guys recommend Sonar?" you'll hear a lot of replies from people saying they used to use it but jumped ship because of unworkable problems they endured. Much more so than if you ask "Would you guys recommend Studio One?" Much of that reputation is a result of the bugfest that was X1, but the fact remains that Sonar still has some very serious issues that will have to be fixed if it's ever going to get its reputation back on track. Hopefully that will happen under BandLab, and hopefully they'll prioritize the repair of the program first before they start thinking about major new features.
 
But even more so than the bugs, I think if Sonar is going to attract new users it has to be polished up a lot. There are so many areas of the program that are either outdated or confusing to a beginner. The documentation doesn't exactly help - they need a complete rewrite of the manual and a complete overhaul of the online documentation, both of which were full of inaccuracies and in a lot of ways badly organized. Many long time users of Sonar don't realize how unnecessarily confusing and frustrating it can be to a beginner, and a lot of the older users don't realize how much easier the kind of modern production techniques kids are getting into are in other DAW's. When I look at how much easier this kind of stuff is in a DAW like Bitwig, and also how much better the manual is, Sonar doesn't even begin to get a look in. It just doesn't have the design or the polish in this context. Dappa1 is right, it needs modernizing in many respects if it's going to compete in today's tough DAW market. It needs some extra pizazz to set it apart from the others and get its reputation back on track.