Anderton

yevster
We've seen the same mistake with ProChannel in the inspector, which requires mode-switching between the track strip and pro-channel, even if there is enough real estate for both.

 
Can you elaborate? I don't see how there could be enough real estate in the Inspector to fit both the ProChannel and the Console View-style channel strip+master simultaneously, so I must be missing something.

What you're missing is a 4k monitor. On a 4k monitor, the channel strip takes a little over 1/3 of the space in the inspector. The rest is plain grey.
 
Yes, these are not incredibly ubiquitous on the Windows ecosystem yet, but they will be soon enough as they come down in price. Especially when people realize how incredible they are for making music - less time spent scrolling = more time in the zone. 
 
And even without a 4k monitor, there is a productivity advantage to being able to have the two side-by-side. Yes, they will take up a ton of space, but they can be brought up and dismissed with a single key. Pressing "I" to bring up or dismiss the larger inspector is far less distracting than having to drag the pointer to a tab.
 
To be honest, I'd get even crazier. I love the "channel editor" in Cubase that appears wherever the mouse pointer is when you press its shortcut key. In my dream world, there's a Sonar where one can press a shortcut key and pro-channel appears at the cursor location. Another key and the channel strip appears. Another - and the plugin browser - one shortcut key for each plugin type. Another key - and there's the synth rack. No longer is there a need to take the focus away from the track content to look to the side, realize the side has the wrong tab selected, click on the tab, and then look at the module that appears. In my dream world, with one key and zero eye movement, one can just tell Sonar what one wants and Sonar obliges. All the unicorns love it. :D
 

Let me speak from the view point of a relatively new user to Sonar.  I started using Sonar Exclusively when X3 came out.  I bought it the day it came out.  Let me start with some backstory...
 
My first DAW (so to speak) was a program called Musicator.  I bought it for a whopping $69 back in 1998 or so.  I used a Korg 01W/Pro as my keyboard / controller and a Yamaha MU100r and a Roland Soundcard for additional MIDI sounds.  Musicator was revolutionary (to me) because not only could you do direct audio recording, you could also do Step Recording for MIDI as well as direct notation like the more expensive software that I could only dream of affording.  There were no FX bins, you had to use external effects.  There was no easy way to line up audio in time.  Looking back, I have no idea how I even survived. 
 
Then Windows XP came around and ruined my music world.  Musicator HATED Windows XP.  I struggled and got it to work with various patches they supplied as well as having to run it in Compatibility mode.  
 
Then I discovered Sony Acid and Cool Edit, which later because Adobe Audition.  Acid was amazing.  The drum loops were killer.  I loved the interface.  I didn't even discover the MIDI aspects of it until years later.  I used Acid for drums and loops and Audition for audio recording.  I gave up on MIDI (because I didn't know Acid supported it...perhaps earlier versions didn't in all fairness).  It was funny that I gave on MIDI...since I go by Midiboy.  
 
I tried other things like Cakewalk.  (No offense, but I didn't like it...probably because I didn't want to take the time to learn an entire new interface that was 100% different than Musicator).  Someone I knew swore by Cakewalk, and he annoyed me, so that probably had a lot to do with it as well.  I didn't want what he used because he annoyed me. 
 
I loved Audition and Acid together, especially when I discovered RE:wire technology.  I recorded 4 albums with that combo.  Most people were extremely impressed with the recording quality.  Even got a review in Rolling Stone for my first major release.  
 
Then I discovered Native Instruments Komplete.  I bought it, not knowing the depth of the MIDI capabilities of that software.  Guess what Adobe didn't like?  It's MIDI implementation sucked (for lack of a better word).  I found out how to use MIDI in Acid, and it was nice, but cumbersome and it wasn't the most stable at times.  Especially when Windows 7 came out.  Acid Pro requires Dot Net 2.5, which isn't supported in Windows 7.  Sony dropped support for the Acid Pro line and barely supports their Windows 7 compliant 64bit Acid Music software. 
 
I officially in the market for a new DAW again.  Keep in mind, if you are not an Adobe Audition user, it is really a great piece of software.  It's logical.  So my new DAW had to be logical as well.   I tried all the software that had demos.  A friend of mine said to try Sonar X2, and I told him that I didn't like Cakewalk (sorry again) and he said that I needed to try it anyway.  So I did.  
 
As much as I didn't want to, I loved it.  They got the interface right!  It was amazing.  Everything made sense to me.  In fact, the sales rep at Sweetwater told me that several of his customer switched from Cubase to go with Sonar.  Cubase...it's an industry standard in EDM music.  That sealed the deal for me.  
 
When I went to buy, he told me to hold off because the pre-order for X3 was coming in a week or so, and that I should just get that instead.  So I did. 
 
X3 took everything I liked in X2 and made it better.  I loved it.  Recorded almost my entire next album in it.  (With the exception of 2 tracks that I had already completed in Acid / Adobe).
 
The SPlat was released.  I loved their new pricing model.  I have loved all of the updates.  I loved the logical interface.  I recorded my entire next album in that, and am about half way done with my current album in SPlat.  
 
You've got a customer for life.  I, for one, am thankful that your interface changed.  I'm all for change if it makes my workflow better.  
 
I actually used SPlat a few weeks ago to score my first television commercial as well.  Loved the fact that I could load the video in it and score it in real time.  
 

xxrich
 
1. Don't change the user interface however temping it may be (Microsoft should take note as well).
2. If you do #1, give us a magic key that makes it all like the old.
 
-rich

 I was going to not even bother with Sonar because the previous GUI was quite cluttered after S3. I like the new GUI.  Changing a GUI can be a mistake as far as popularity.  Reason 8 GUI was altered to help new users but so many die hard users stick with Reason 7. 

There's an easy solution, Andrew: Make everything new, but keep it the same 
 
Seriously, though, I do find it much easier to assimilate monthly bite-sized pieces than a yearly banquet. When rolling updates were first discussed I theorized that would be the case, but it's turned out to be true. I feel quite confident that I know how to use everything that appeared in 2015.

Good post, Greg.    At least where I live, where there are too many bears, they are too short to claw the neck of a reasonably tall human.  They are more likely to disembowel you ... but in statistical terms, that is still down way way below most other forms of death, including such oddities as too many bee-stings, falling and hitting your head on a stone, chainsawing both your legs at the same time; while the standard automobile accident, disease, suicide, lightning, and electrocution are far above even the bee stings.     But I'm enjoying the notion of death-by-drool ... waiting for the statistics.

Anderton
 
 Seriously, though, I do find it much easier to assimilate monthly bite-sized pieces than a yearly banquet. When rolling updates were first discussed I theorized that would be the case, but it's turned out to be true. I feel quite confident that I know how to use everything that appeared in 2015.

Yes, the bite sized updates this made actually implementing the new updates in your music a LOT easier than the jump (mostly unlearning muscle memory) from 8.5 to X.

GregGraves
Do you know why you have these big veins in your neck?  They are there to pump gobs of blood into your brain.  Why?  Well certainly not for any evolutionary advantage, since one good bear claw swipe to the neck and you are quickly a gushing history.  The reason mammals risk that design vulnerability is that the brain requires a lot of "food" which your blood flow supplies.  In fact about 20% of your total daily caloric burn occurs in your brain.... and the more you think, the more calories it uses.  So trying to figure out Sonar's constant changes is actually good for you -- you are using your brain for the purpose it was designed for, resetting the wiring, building new pathways, burning a few more calories, getting brain fit and staving off Alzheimers.  Now if you stay with 8.5, your brain will slowly turn to jelly and you will begin to drool.  That drool will drip into your keyboard, shorting it out, blow up your motherboard, start a fire, and burn your studio down along with the whorehouse next door.  Is that what you want?  A bunch of angry homeless whores kicking the crap out of you all because of Sonar change-avoidance?

If you write a novel, I'll buy it 

bapu

Ibanez Laney

MGC59
My cat walked across my keyboard in the middle of a mixing session. 

This is totally why everyone should just have dogs - Cats are evil.

 

ampfixer
Sometimes he does things with a few steps (literally) that I can never understand or replicate.

It's called talent.
 
 

lingyai
 
I've worked in the computer field for the past 20 years and these kind of changes just come with the territory...my main drag is when you're rolling through a project and everything comes grinding to a halt because of something so small...
 
I have a tablet I use a lot for surfing the web, emails and Youtube...it drives me crazy when I lose my spot because I touched the screen by accident or scrolled too hard LOL!
 
The potential for unneeded aggravation just seems higher than it used to be in all technology...I won't even go into trying to text on a smart phone.....maybe I'm just getting old!
 

lingyai

MGC59
Sharke....I am well aware of the control z button...but it won't restore a hot key.....when you're in the middle of a creative session and everything goes sideways....whether it's a cat or dropping something....time, inspiration and motivation go out the window when you have to try and get things back to where they were...

Yeah, Sonar plants too many single key landmines....the only solution I've found is to save a new version evey 5-10 minutes

Can we map the sustain paddle and a foot switch for intermediate saving?

kitekrazy1

MGC59
Don't sell dogs short on the chaos theory. They have sent keyboards, mouse and equipment flying with those wagging tails! No laptop is safe from any family pet......

 Small birds think cables are chew toys.  I read a story about a parrot removing keys and laughing about it.  Cats have this unique behavior with music.  I was practicing on a tuba at someone's house and my audience was two cats.

When I was a kid my stepdad had a "study" in which was the family hi-fi and record collection. We had a set of remote speakers in the living room. For ages we thought the record player was on its last legs because it would suddenly slow down and then speed up again. After a while we just got used to it. Then one day I happened to walk in and caught the cat mashing its paw on the record, lifting it up then mashing it back down again. We had a little kitty DJ on our hands