Undo?

So, as a person coming from Ableton Live, I expected there to be quite a few changes involved in switching to a more professional application. What I didn't expect were changes that severely affected my productivity in a very negative way.

First and foremost, crashes. Or, more specifically, freezes. In Ableton, I could go as far as to yank the power cable out of my computer (not recommended) and when I load up my project, everything is back where it should be... down to the last tiny change. Alternatively, Sonar will freeze out of the blue, and if I haven't been extra careful saving after each change (no matter how small), everything is gone since the previous time I physically hit Save.

(If anyone knows a way to recover work ,not just audio files, but changes to plugins and automation etc, please tell me.)

Secondly, Ableton allowed me to change all sorts of values in plugins and in the program itself and Ctrl+Z would undo ALL OF THEM. In Sonar, some changes can be undone with CTRL+Z, others can be reverted (only to the previous setting and back), and others are just stuck with whatever you've done. This is probably the single most annoying thing in the program thus far (2nd only by the frequent freezing, which has admittedly gotten better with X1c). Sometimes I just want play around a little and see if I can get a better sound from my plugin. But, I don't want to have to save the project, fiddle with a plugin, then close the entire thing and reload it just to undo a few changes.

(Again, if anyone knows a way to have FULL undo functionality with any change I do to my project, it would be GREATLY appreciated)

Apart from that, I'm loving the forward-thinking design. The hotkeys to hide everything and hitting F to fit all tracks into view has made everything much faster. Not to mention layers and having 2 independent brackets for loop and punch-in/out. There's a lot to love, but there's also a few deal breakers that keep me from trusting it as my main DAW.

I guess it's just annoying that I can't undo everything from CTRL+Z like I can in Ableton. I don't know if this is the same for programs like Cubase, but it's definitely a step backwards for me.

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Sonar X1c Producer (32-bit)

Windows XP SP3 (on a clean partition with nothing but recording software and essential hardware installed)

MOTU 828mk3 (updated)

Intel i7 920 @ 3.7Ghz (Linpack stable 72 hrs)
6Gb DDR3 1600
2 x 1TB WD Black HDDs
Asus P6T Deluxe V2 Motherboard
nVidia GTX 570 (surprisingly quiet @ idle)

Well, I still write music in Ableton first. I don't think there's a program on the market that can compare to the simplicity and speed at which you can throw down ideas and arrange them. I guess the problem arises when you want to really sit down to record, mix, and master. Ableton can get the job done, but there are several features in other programs that do it better.

For example, Ableton's use of a single bracket for looping, punching, and arranging is nice, but if I want to continuously record takes with a decent amount of lead-in, it becomes a hassle. You can't set it to loop 6 bars and only record 4 bars of music (for lead-in and punch points). Also, you have to make a new track for each take in the same space because clips can't overlap and Ableton doesn't have any layer feature. Conversely, with Sonar you have two brackets. One for looping, one for punch-in/out. So, I can loop 6 bars and punch in for 4 bars and keep recording onto the same track until I feel as though I've gotten a pretty good take. I don't have to open a new track each time, I don't have to stop recording a millisecond early and copy the tiny chuck to a new track and drag it back out (previous method I've been using to get two takes quickly). It's just more streamlined.

I think they both have their strengths, but I have yet to find a single program that does everything right (so far I've tried Live 7, Sonar 8 & X1, and Cubase 5)

I have a second partition with Windows 7 64-bit installed. I'll likely replace XP with Win7 as soon as I upgrade to the next version of windows for my everyday computing partition (though Win8 seems to be shaping up to be the next vista... so I might pass). Trust me, I know the limitations of 32-bit.