The Giant DAW MIDI Comparison Page - Sonar, Cubase and Reaper compared

Hi Guys,

I've posted a detailed comparison of the MIDI features of Sonar, Cubase and Reaper, for your scrutiny and enjoyment. The goal is definitely in part to help those who are interested, and perhaps help all the DAW apps improve. It started as an analysis of what Reaper could do MIDI-wise, and it's already been helpful for me too, as I've learned in detail what I can and can't do in the apps I use. There have been some interesting surprises. I may eventually add other DAW apps to the comparison that I use (or have used in the past), and I definitely want it to be as accurate as possible.

Please feel free to point out any mistakes I have made, and I'll correct them. This is a work in progress! While I'm a pretty knowledgeable DAW/MIDI user (especially with a few of the apps that I use more regularly in my studio), I don't pretend to know everything about every feature in all of them, and I might have missed some details, so please do let me know (either via email or this thread) if you spot any inaccuracies -- after all, this is just a work in progress right now!

Here's the big list:

http://www.fetidus.com/DAWstuff/GiantMIDIcomparison.html

Take care and enjoy!

Best, Eratu

EDIT: 7-21-08 -- I am moving servers and domains around and temporarily messed up the link. Sorry folks! I will post an update to this thread when this is live again in a new URL. Thanks for your patience......

EDIT: 7-22-08 -- It's back up! I have now moved the old page to a new location: http://www.daw.me/articles/GiantMIDIcomparison.html -- I'll be editing this in the near future to take into account some recent developments and I'll also be adding Live 7 at some point in the near future.

Eratu,
I second the WOW!!!!!!

I like the part of bringing out CAL. I only have used it a little bit. If Cakewalk could make it more user friendly with a marco recorder plus work on the notation side with XML support, Sonar would really get to the next level

Plus upgrade ACT

Ed

That was a lot of effort I really appreciate it. Nice job. I even found features I had no idea were there.

Awesome.

Agreed about CAL. It's missed by a lot of power users. Maybe if they update it they'll change the language it's based on as well, so it's more standards-based.

In "Step input" under the Reaper section you wrote "Yes, but not the same as Sonar or Reaper". I'm assuming you meant Sonar or Cubase, no?

Not a big deal, but you said to mention any possible mistakes or oversights.

ORIGINAL: Monkey23

In "Step input" under the Reaper section you wrote "Yes, but not the same as Sonar or Reaper". I'm assuming you meant Sonar or Cubase, no?

Not a big deal, but you said to mention any possible mistakes or oversights.

Thank you! Got it! Now updated.

ORIGINAL: ...wicked

Awesome.

Agreed about CAL. It's missed by a lot of power users. Maybe if they update it they'll change the language it's based on as well, so it's more standards-based.

That would be really cool. I think a lot of DAW apps/sequencers spent years letting the advanced MIDI features kind of stagnate a bit as they focused on audio features. Fortunately, Cakewalk spent some good effort on MIDI in the last release, raising the bar in several areas. :) I would love it if they invested even more time for the MIDI power users, though.

As I went through all the features, I was definitely surprised what was (and was not) in each app. Heck, if I were to do a historical comparison, there would be a lot of lost MIDI features from Cubase VST, for example, which when it went through its huge rewrite as Cubase SX several years ago, Steinberg removed a lot of essential MIDI tools. Now several of them are back as time has progressed, and some new ideas too, but not all of the old classics.

I seem to recall some shifting around of CAL as well... wasn't there a version or two of Sonar that omitted CAL? I can't recall. Anyway, it's back and I hope FOR GOOD.

Nice work, eratu.
A very informative and, on first scan, unbiased report. I'll have to read the entire thing later, since I'm at work now and we're actually busy.

You listed upgrading the page eventually with coverage of Ableton Live and Logic Pro.
I use both of those as well, so if you want some input I'd be happy to do so. Just PM me when you want.

I'm actually going through my DAW software one at a time right now, reading manuals, going through tutorials, making test projects designed to force feature-awareness and trying to get to mastery with each one. Live has focus at the moment, to be followed by Sonar and Logic Pro, so I'm becoming quite familiar with their similarities and differences.

Later,
- zevo

Hey dude!

Long time no see. Just wanted to thank you for all your efforts here, pretty cool info. I can't wait to see how Sonar compares to the other DAWs you plan on adding. Keep up the good work bro.

Take care!

Thanks guys -- I've been getting good feedback so far, so maybe I'll spend a little more time on it for other DAW apps sooner than I was thinking.

The next one I was thinking of doing would be Live 7, which I happen to really like as well. It has a few really innovative features in it that nothing else has. It will be a learning experience for me just to see how it stacks up.

@inmazevo: I might take you up on your offer of help, particularly on Live 7!

@Jose: Yeah, I've been distracted. Good to hear from you as always. I've been assisting a bit with Vin on a new benchmark which has yielded some pretty fascinating results. I think he'll be posting something in the near future about it. I'll be seeing you around!

@dewdman42: I totally agree... Samplitude used to be one of my favorite DAW apps, and I know it's a good one. I own an ancient license of it (I'm sure it's lightyears away from what it is now), but I've added it to the potential list to go through again. I know they've upgraded the sequencer quite a bit, so it will be interesting to see how far they've come in the last several years. It really was lacking in the MIDI department but now I understand they have (or had) a guy there working quite extensively on it.

ORIGINAL: Krosstalk Kris

eratu, I've searched for ways to use CAL scripts in hs6XL. Can't find any. Suggestions?

cal scripts will run in SHS6. just hit CTRL-R (IIRC), or choose PROCESS>>>RUN CAL SCRIPT (the arrows at the very bottom of the menu)

ORIGINAL: jcschild

Hey Eratu,
me thinks you should work here!
ever need a job?

LOL! Actually, with all the business I keep sending your way with my forum recommendations for you, maybe I should get the "employee discount!" ;)

ORIGINAL: jungfriend

Many thanks for a great job! I just learned a great deal about the MIDI features of these programs. I think I will print this out for easy reference.

Paul

You're welcome! Just remember it's still a draft version! :) It's far from perfect!

A great contribution to the forum. Great job! This needs to be a sticky.

One thing Sonar has real native MIDI file support both load and save. Cubaes does not. It can only import a MIDI file and export one. Sonar sees MIDI flies as a native format and handles them as such. I don't know about Reaper.

Also the Sysex Editor can load and save system exclusive data or dump it to or receive it from a hardware module.
Cubase can do much the same thing but without the ability to save and load independently from a project.