The sky is not actually falling...

+1
 
Same here.
Im still using Sonar. Many people are hitting the panic button. While everyone is surely free to make their own choices, Running out to buy a new DAW right now seems a little pointless to me.
Take some time to study the different features of different DAW's before making hasty decisions.
 

It's an hysterical world......Sonar is perfect in w10....i'm finishing two vinyl project and i really can't understand all this fear...working hard with the music...it will be all right!!

35mm
Sonar is great, but now no longer developed or supported. While it may go on working for a while, and I will go on working with it for a while, I need to get learning something that is still being developed and supported and will take me into the future and I don't want to lose a load of work if/when sonar does suddenly go foobar. I think that is the reason a lot of people are buying into a new DAW and especially now while there are special deals to make the cost of entry lower than any usual deals.

I think that approach would be warranted even if Sonar was still a live product with active development - especially if it involves paying work. That is one thing that has been driven home to me over the past week or so: always have a contingency plan, and having ownership -- and solid knowledge -- of another DAW is really sensible.  

shawker
 
and then there is the boy scout approach (always be prepared).  There are some good deals for alternative DAWs until the end of the year, like Studio One pro for $125 for example.  If one of these appeal to you, why not pick it up now, and start learning it, before the sky falls?  This makes the learning a lot easier/less stressful, and you can start doing new projects in the new DAW sooner rather than later.  This may reduce the risk of being stuck with a bunch of Sonar projects that can't be finished when the inevitable happens (hopefully many years from now).

Exactly right. 
 
But then again I was a scout and took the oath, so I don't have a choice.

I certainly could be happy using Sonar for the rest of my life. My concern is my current computer is nearly ten years old, and I plan on outliving it. So at the least I feel I must prepare all the the important projects to me by exporting wav and mid files. No small task.
 
 

 authorized on-line only could be a prelude to the sky is falling

Mystic38
 
 
I see nothing compelling about any other DAW out there.
 
Sonar is relatively bug free, feature rich, and highly stable.. 

 
As a very long time Sonar user I believed both of these statements until a week ago when I started spending serious time and attention on what else is out there. Sonar has hertitage, but it comes at a price.
 
That said, I would be thrilled to still be plugging along with Sonar still alive and updating whilst reading the speculative posts on this months release over my morning coffee, wondering why Studio One users even bother to visit this forum, much less post about how much they love their shiny new toy:)  Those were the days!

My copy did not break because Sonar's been broken for a long time.  

The bottom line is that with the end of Sonar, there's a fact that many things are never going to be fixed.  A lot of us stayed with Sonar in the hopes that each new release would either fix a long standing bug or return functionality that the bakers in their endless talent at bad decisions, took out in their attempt to redirect Sonar from being used in a Professional environment to a home one. 

So now there's a period at the end of the sentence.  The long standing bugs that you're forced to work around?  Never gonna be fixed.  The program being crippled by removing features?  The bakers are never gonna smarten up and put them back.  

I'm not leaving because I'm afraid it's gonna break.  I'm leaving because it's broken and I know now it will never be fixed.  

To that end though I've been using Studio One for a few days and I'm blown away at how snappy it runs and how well the features work.  I can't believe I put up with the amount of crap that Sonar dished out for as long as I did.  It really is true - you have no idea how bad your abusive relationship is until you get away from it!  I should have abandoned this sinking ship as soon as I realized it hit the iceberg like much smarter people before me did.  I'm just happy there was a lifeboat when I finally wised up and got off the ship just before it went under.

Mystic38
Fine, no more Sonar development.
 
Did your copy break?.. nope.

You know I keep hearing this argument, and it is kind of unfair. Did my copy break? Yes it did. It was always broken. While I am not worried about windows updates like some other folks were (there's ways around that), there are many serious bugs, and hundreds of other minor issues,  some that cause a lot of hard crashes and loss of work and time. I really enjoyed the monthly update program because it led me to believe that others cared about this software and were going to make it better, and I did my part to contribute bug fixes, crash dumps, and feature requests. Now that development has stopped, it will be broken forever!
 
Now there are plenty of folks who have stable installs, and with a config freeze they could keep using their copy for a very long time. I'm very excited for them, but that strategy doesn't work for me because I am an early adopter. I like new features, and adapt to them right away, usually relishing how certain things get easier, and the new things I can do! 
 
In particular, Cakewalk was embarking on a multi-phase project to introduce non-linear, non-destructive editing to Sonar. Comping improvements, Synth and PRV improvements, multi-track ARA, and region effect comping -- all wonderful things, and all immediately indispensable to my workflow. I love this stuff, it's how I think, it's part of my songwriting process, and things take a lot longer when I don't have access to these tools. 
 
Take Melodyne. It is the source of probably 80%+ of my crashes. And why? Because I don't bounce the region effects, I keep them open forever. And I have 30+ instances in some projects. And if we had one more Sonar monthly release in our hands, I would probably be splitting, comping, cloning, and shifting active region effects all over the place. Why? Because that's how I write music. I might mess with harmonies and vocal doubles for months, and use one part as a reference behind a newer part, so I never render them. But the advice I get on this forum continually is keep melodyne instances to a minimum, and always render them. But I don't want to do that from a work flow perspective, and also, it is destructive editing. Melodyne introduces a lot of phase error, and other transients, and adding and rendering multiple melodyne edits is like saving a mp3 dozens of times -- stuff gets muddy fast. After all, what's the point of having non-destructive editing capability if you're not going to use it? It's powerful, and unlike some other folks here, I prefer - perhaps need - to use it.
 
So in the end, I'm stuck with a DAW that's broken. I have many projects to complete in Sonar, and will keep using it. Probably for a very long time. But I need to get faster at my music, and I need my tools to keep up with me, so I am adding another DAW to my arsenal in place of starting new projects in Sonar.
 
Also, while we're at it, don't discount the really unfair effects of putting people in terrible position to risk losing money by buying or not buying a product at a reduced price on Black Friday  - my feeling is that probably half the fever people experienced was due to the timing and the dilemma of choice placed upon them. That doesn't bring out the best in people. 
 

Ionian
My copy did not break because Sonar's been broken for a long time.  

 
I'm curious - which parts are broke? I apparently am not using those parts. With the exception of a frail Staff View, it's been solid on what I use it for (MIDI recording, sequencing and playback with some VST use).

Sonar is still an awesome piece of software though and I'm still far more productive in it than any other DAW. 
 
So immediate projects will be done in Sonar because I need to churn them out quickly. 
 
But in the long term I need to learn something new, but it can be a good thing to be learning.
 
 

cboshuizen
Try use a melodyne region effect and the metronome at the same time. Heck, try use a region effect and jump to a new position on the timeline while playback is happening. I could write a list but what's the point really.

I've never had issues using region FX/Melodyne with the metronome. I have experienced the playback issue your referring to though. But that surely doesn't mean sonar is "broken".
I can respect your arguments. But some of us don't mind stopping the transport while Melodyne is open.
I don't think Sonar ever touted " You don't even have to stop playback". Its just one of those quirks that irritate people. Similar to inserting FX while play back is rolling.
Its not a show stopper. It takes 1/10 of a second to hit the space bar. 
 
For what its worth, I wrote up a problem report on that issue as I was able to reproduce it too.
So I know exactly what you mean.
As I said, I can respect your complaints but these don't make sonar "broken".
 
Some of us will continue to use Sonar for a long time, Some of us will move on to a new DAW.
Good luck to you in what ever you do.