I've been a Cakewalk user since Pro Audio 6 circa 1989 so had to think long and hard about which DAW I would migrate/defect to in light of recent developments (or lack of, moving forward...) Reaper, Cubase, Mixcraft, Podium, Fruity Loops, Ableton Live and Bitwig all have their strengths and weaknesses certainly but it's Studio One which strikes me as the one DAW closest in lineage, feel and methodology to SONAR. The bundled instruments in S1 are not on a par with SPLAT but they do have a dedicated sampler (Presence XT) which ships with > 13 gig of high quality sounds which are easily on a par with Kontakt's factory content. Most of the functionality is drag and drop including a very intuitive groove quantise window for MIDI and AUDIO which is a joy to use. Despite what many in these forums have stated to the contrary, I feel that S1's MIDI editing capabilities match those of SONAR (or are at least sufficient for my MIDI oriented needs, despite their being no MIDI event list view). It even has a 'Transform' tool and multi-track PRV which are spookily similar to those found in SONAR. On the down side, there is nothing to match the console emulation and aesthetic delights of the Cakewalk Pro Channels/Console view alas. However, all that said, the real game changer for me is the dual buffer settings that Presonus allow you to set up on installation. I don't know the technicalities behind this approach but long story short, you ramp up buffer size for mixing and ramp down for recording and it's done automatically 'under the hood' via hardware low latency monitoring (if your sound card supports it) or software low latency monitoring, otherwise. Unlike SONAR, I can have very large projects open with loads of tracks, FX, VSTs and tracks with no crackling or popping or prohibitive latency when either recording or mixing. Studio One strikes me as the DAW that Cakewalk were never quite able to bring to fruition.
 

exitthelemming
I've been a Cakewalk user since Pro Audio 6 circa 1989 so had to think long and hard about which DAW I would migrate/defect to in light of recent developments (or lack of, moving forward...) Reaper, Cubase, Mixcraft, Podium, Fruity Loops, Ableton Live and Bitwig all have their strengths and weaknesses certainly but it's Studio One which strikes me as the one DAW closest in lineage, feel and methodology to SONAR. The bundled instruments in S1 are not on a par with SPLAT but they do have a dedicated sampler (Presence XT) which ships with > 13 gig of high quality sounds which are easily on a par with Kontakt's factory content. Most of the functionality is drag and drop including a very intuitive groove quantise window for MIDI and AUDIO which is a joy to use. Despite what many in these forums have stated to the contrary, I feel that S1's MIDI editing capabilities match those of SONAR (or are at least sufficient for my MIDI oriented needs, despite their being no MIDI event list view). It even has a 'Transform' tool and multi-track PRV which are spookily similar to those found in SONAR. On the down side, there is nothing to match the console emulation and aesthetic delights of the Cakewalk Pro Channels/Console view alas. However, all that said, the real game changer for me is the dual buffer settings that Presonus allow you to set up on installation. I don't know the technicalities behind this approach but long story short, you ramp up buffer size for mixing and ramp down for recording and it's done automatically 'under the hood' via hardware low latency monitoring (if your sound card supports it) or software low latency monitoring, otherwise. Unlike SONAR, I can have very large projects open with loads of tracks, FX, VSTs and tracks with no crackling or popping or prohibitive latency when either recording or mixing. Studio One strikes me as the DAW that Cakewalk were never quite able to bring to fruition.
 

If you want an awesome console experience in the box, pick up Mixbus. I use it in conjunction with Sonar (and soon S1).

GIM Productions

Zo
Call me when they propose Oversampling , X ray , plugin menu layout and plugin permanet renaming , screensets , icons , templates ect .....:( love Studio one as a owner but a lot of simple stuff here and there makes me wanna quite and go back to sonar quikly ....

+1000000
Indeed!
I will work with Sonar Platinum for many years in my studio.....it's the best daw on the market,I do not want to get up on this hysterical wagon

Er, um, not sure it's fair to call this a "hysterical wagon"....

outland144k
 
I'm assuming that no one could trace down from where the rumor of a $149 crossgrade for Studio One originated?

Yeah, I've tried to no avail. Somebody just thought it was the "right" price and suggested it, and now it's official. (NOT!)

It's maddening. I suppose what they're trying to do is create what's called in retail a "buying frenzy." They hint that there will be a special price, they occasionally show their faces here, they talk up their product, but they pretend they know nothing about the special pricing. They expect a virtual crowd outside their virtual doors on Tuesday morning, made up of people eager to buy. The offer, when they finally say what it is, will probably come festooned with provisos and gotchas, not to mention a bunch of ancillary offers to tempt you to spend more dough. Meanwhile the clock ticks on the half-off Black Friday deal. You are a chump if you buy today and discover a better deal tomorrow, you are a chump if you wait till tomorrow and the deal is not as good or you can't satisfy the ownership requirements -- which still haven't been made clear.
 
I know "it's not that much money." But it is for me.

Larry Jones
I suppose what they're trying to do is create what's called in retail a "buying frenzy." They hint that there will be a special price, they occasionally show their faces here, they talk up their product, but they pretend they know nothing about the special pricing.

Actually I don't think anyone from PreSonus has appeared here. However, I have talked to a representative who's high up in the company. He was shocked and unhappy about the announcement of Cakewalk being shuttered. The people at PreSonus have a great deal of respect for Cakewalk, and recognized that SONAR pioneered a lot of very cool technology. IIRC the Cakewalk devs worked with the PreSonus folks to make sure ARA was up to spec. Conversely, SONAR added quite a few features that were in SOP.
 
PreSonus completely understood that the community would be devastated and wanted to do something. Sure, ultimately it will get them business but I can assure you that wasn't the only motivation. There was a lot of "there must be something we can do to help" and they thought that giving a special crossgrade price that was exclusive to SONAR users would be helpful since there was already chatter in the forums about switching to SOP because of it being fairly "SONAR-like." 
 
At the time we talked they were working out how to deal with the issue of retailers who sold both SONAR and SOP. Although most retailers are honest, some could take their unsold copies of SONAR, claim to be a poor homeless DAW user, and get a copy of SOP for under dealer cost. Yet PreSonus didn't want to let a few bad apples spoil it for everyone else. The reason for delaying until Tuesday was to get all the details sorted out.
 
He had mentioned $149 as the target price. Whether that's what it will be or not I don't know, but I suspect it will. 
 
 

cityrat
Anyone know if Studio One can do "fit improvisation" tempo mapping like sonar?>

 
I don't know about Studio One... but Harrison's Mixbus is on offer until Dec 5th I do believe. It has awesome tempo mapping features.
 
Great community and support team, and built on-top of Ardour (the open source DAW with huge following) as well.
 
Mixbus is on offer for $29 ($249 if you want to purchase every plugin too)
Mixbus32C is on offer for $99 ($349 for all the plugs included)
 
Check it out on their specials page (can't post links because I'm new)
 

PreSonus offer has been announced.
 
http://blog.presonus.com/index.php/presonus-cakewalk-crossgrade-offer/
 
50% until the end of the year.

I'll jump when it goes south of a C-note. 
Don't really need another DAW as I'm happy with Logic, but I'm also using Notion and Progression. So we'll see. 

I wrote this on a different thread but Sweetwater will be offering the Sonar to Studio One Crossgrade.  Cool for me because I have one of their credit cards and it's 48 months interest free!...  I haven't seen it as of this writing but it was just announced on Tuesday.