Sorry Bill, I typed too fast. Cosmic ! (not cosmoc)
But......
..and don't you eat that yellow snow! (Frank Zappa Qoting Competition, but that's more for "coffee house")
Cheers again.
I'm going to go on practicing with that fine Sonar4 stuff until the fakedongle hits me.

In 1990 I read a report about Cakewalk 4.0 on Keyboard magazine. The veredict was very positive. At that time, Cakewalk was only a MIDI sequencer, with no graphic interface, but it had support to many MIDI interfaces (it was DOS era and there was no standard driver for interfaces like now). So, a friend that went to USA bought me a Cakewalk 4 and a Music Quest PC MIDI Card. The software was very intuitive and had lot of efficient features. I've been using Cakewalk software since then, and I'm very satisfied. The reason for the success is that Cakewalk software was designed for PCs, and not ported from other platforms. That's why it performs so good.
Of course, it has things that are not exactly as I would like, but others have too. No software is perfect. People at Cakewalk are sensitive to their users (and to the market) and are aware of the tendencies - if not, we were still using WDM drivers.

i use sonar and love it. but i also use nuendo and love that too. i use nuendo for tracking live bands. it has a much more stable audio engine. i often bounce projects from nuendo to sonar. i use sonar for sequencing, and i prefer to mix in sonar. i often mix my nuendo sessions in sonar. i do most post production and editing in sonar also. i primarily use nuendo as a tape machine.

My very first DOS based sequencer was Voyetra's wonderful Sequencer Plus. I also owned the original Cakewalk for DOS, and easily recognized it as one of the best, but I mostly stuck with Sequencer Plus for most tasks. I created hundreds of tunes with that software, and thought I would never use anything else. When Windows came along, I was happy to learn that Sequencer Plus still worked...for awhile. It worked right up through Windows 95, but when Windows 98 entered the scene...the brake lights went on. While I stuck with Windows 95 as long as I could, along with my trusted old Sequencer Plus, I knew I had to start looking for something to replace it with.

I tried many sequencers around that time, but nothing worked for me. What I loved about Sequencer Plus was the intuitive way it worked with my creative flow. Voyetra came out with new Windows-based sequencers, but they were totally different. They felt clunky, unreliable, and just didn't work "right." It was around that time that I started toying with the idea of hard disk recording, also. It seemed almost too good to be true, and for awhile...it was.

Enter Cakewalk, once again. My boyfriend happened to work at a software store at the time, and to my surprise he got me Cakewalk Pro Audio 6 for my birthday (how romantic!). I set it up and quickly realized that this was the missing link I had been searching for. It wasn't perfect, not by a longshot...but it was the best there was. I immediately saw the potential, and started pouring a good deal of time into learning this software inside and out. I threw out my old Tascam 4 track and started creating stuff I never thought possible on a home computer.

I stuck with Pro Audio 6 through a few versions...but finally upgraded again with the release of Pro Audio 9. I thought it couldn't get any better. Little did I know what was coming right around the corner.

When I received the slick marketing brochure for Sonar, I was blown away. MIDI, audio, AND loops? I had only recently been introduced to the concept of looping with ACID Pro 3.0. I had dabbled with a few interesting tunes, but without the MIDI and audio capabilities of Pro Audio, and without a huge loop library, I couldn't see much use for it. All that changed with Sonar. With so much creative power at my fingertips, I was in heaven!

Sonar 1.3.1 XL remained my weapon of choice through several versions. I would have loved to upgrade, of course, but couldn't justify the cost when I had everything I needed. Until 4.0 came along, that is!

Sonar 4.0 was such a major update, I knew I had to have it. [What pushed me over the edge? Two words: Track Folders!] At first I went to the Studio version, but within a couple weeks I couldn't resist the upgrade deal for Producer Edition. I'm glad I did. The Sonitus FX suite alone is worth the hundred dollar upgrade! Add to that track EQ, POW-R dithering, and a bunch of other extras...well, I'm a happy little musician. :)

So that's my Cakewalk story, in a (somewhat large) nutshell. If anybody is still awake...thanks for sharing. ;)

When I shopped 3 years ago, there weren't many VST and VSTi compatible sequencers out. I didn't want the shoddy Digi001, so it was basically between SX and Sonar. One trip to the Steinberg forum and I was so worried at all the P/O'd users that I asked them whether I should get SX or Sonar - the clear consensus in that thread of Cubase users was that Sonar was the way to go!

If I were deciding now, my decision might be more difficult with Live, Tracktion and even EnergyXT doing most of what I really need. But now that I'm used to those wonderful track lanes, the exemplary freeze and group editing functions, I don't think I'll be switching any time soon.

Heh, I just realized that the only reason why I've been using Sonar for the past 10 years (starting w/ Cakewalk 5, then 6, Sonar1, 2 and now 4PE) is: I have too many unfinished projects; it would be impossible to convert them to a different format.

Da truth? I'm just delusional.. :-)

It all started in 1997. I received my first computer and finally I would be able to use a sequencer to keep my compositions together, and remind me of what other incomplete compositions sounded like after I had left them for a while.

So I went on down to the nearest Guitar Weasals (I mean Center), and a friend of mine hooked me up with demo CDs for Cakewalk 5, Cubase, and Logic for Windows. Both Logic and Cubase were too confusing for me. Cakewalk was very user friendly and I was able to get done what I wanted done instead of scratching my head for 20 days.

I upgraded all the way up to Pro Audio 8. I didn't get into Sonar at the time because it was too much for what I needed to get done. But my computer had become too slow and I decided to build a computer just for music. So since I was going to upgrade my computer, I decided to upgrade my sequencer as well. By this time VST's had come into play, and since Steinberg developed it and Cubase was looking very sexy (at least in the magazines), I got a demo of both Sonar and Cubase. But Sonar won out because Cubase was STILL too difficult for me to use.

So right now I'm at Sonar 3 Producer, but looking to upgrade to 4 Producer later this week.

Hope that story wasn't too long..........

I began with Cool Edit pro 2.0.Loved it!!!! My first daw,AAAAH great memories,all the excitement of a kid with his favourite christmas present.It was,and still is,such a cool thing to have MY OWN studio.I progressed to Adobe Audition 1.0 and progressively to A.A 1.5.(I still use it within S4)and....then....one day it ALL changed.Reading ,i think,Sound on Sound.They have regular 'help columns' for various s/ware including Sonar.I use to read the p.t ones,as a friend had p.t 5.? on his mac and i thought that this is the way i would eventually go.
I saw the sonar column and never paid much attention to it as i was heading down the p.t track.But did notice a web address to download a trial of S3,and well ,as they say,,,,,
THE REST IS HISTORY !!I did try the p.t.m.p. demo tho,but i'm so used to Sonar i wont ever change!!Sorry Digi,Too late for this kid,Best to all,Antz( AND the forum is a cool place with wonderful helpful buggers)

Great stuff Tim Except for No.10. He's bald - like i almost am:)
He's left-handed-like i am;)
He sings-like i attempt to!

that list is inaccurate. It syas that Sonar studio is limited to 16 I/O. I can personally attest that it will do at least 18 ins and I have played back 22 tracks while recording 2. I am sure it goes higher in track count, but that is the limit of my 828MKII system. At least until I get an 896!