I would like SO a lot better if it had proper track templates ... and separate loop and punch markers
 
Overall I do really like it though

I think Craig summed it up rather nicely and that is you pick your DAW to suit your needs. And for me and my needs Studio One is the better choice. Not the better DAW remember.
 
It has superior midi timing especially with external hardware. Midi timing does not get effected when the audio side of the program is working hard. The gapless engine allows me to jump midi tracks on the fly and record into any parts on any tracks. (Sonar cannot do this BTW) It merges midi parts much better and easier.
 
Coming on here after using Sonar for thousands of hours and Studio One for five minutes is also a useless scenario as well. I have been using Studio One for thousands of hours and not Sonar so for me the GUI is nicer, much more intuitive and other DAW's feel clunky for me. Plus I know Studio One probably a thousand times better and deeper than any of you here and even the people who use it regularly as well. It has tons of features that most know nothing about. Sonar may be powerful but it is over complex at times and it is quite amazing how Studio One can perform the most complex of tasks with only one click. 
 
Latency, well on my Win 7 machine with an RME sound card (PCI based of course) I can run 32 samples easily and the latency is like 2-3 mS or so. I also have a Mac now and just bolted a Focusrite interface to it (painless BTW) and I am having like 1.2 mS latency over the thunderbolt port. So for me it is the fastest thing I have ever encountered. (Are any of you experiencing 1.2 mS BTW?) Playing virtual instruments is super fast now and just like the hardware. Latency has less to do with the DAW so much. There are other variables. It is pretty nice having the same program on the Mac too. 
 
The scratchpads are amazing as also the arrange ruler now. To be able to just drag entire sections of the song around is quite excellent. It all plays super well too. Better than looking at some list. Better to see it and hear it. Waveform changes height as you adjust clip gain. This is no brainer. This is fast.
 
Oh and I have never had a crash in all the time I have been using it. I push it hard for weeks on end, no crashes, super stable. I could leave it on, walk away from it and come back a week later and it will still play perfectly. I push it hard under pressure and it never falls over.  It has never crashed in front of a client. 
 
It is all about what you know. I go into a studio and watch masterful Pro Tools guys whip around the program in ways I could never do. I am sure many of you are very very skilled at using Sonar. I would be struggling.
 
This is not the place to find out out about Studio One either. The Presonus forum is, and once you spend time watching all the tutorials and videos on it you will start to see what I mean. I find here is the place to learn about Sonar features though and should I ever go back, here is where I will do the research.
 
You guys are lucky too having someone like Craig too really knowing Sonar well. He knows a lot about Sonar.  He is not the only one though, there are a few Craigs over on the Presonus forum who know Studio One as well as Craig knows Sonar so we have got some good people as well.
 
The main thing is all DAW's make great music and sound great and at the end of the day that is really the crux of the matter isn't it. It is how the music effects your listeners emotionally. They are not sitting back and wondering what DAW you used.
 
 

I started on PA9,  then moved to Cubase VST 5,  then to Sonar 4,5,6,7 and 8.5.     I got very frustrated with Sonar and kept hoping the next version would be the one I was looking for.  But that version never came, so I gave up.  I moved to Studio One.  I really have loved that program.  My workflow drastically improved and I don't feel like I'm wrestling against the program like I did with Sonar.  I do have some quibbles with Studio One. I really don't like the mix page. Along the way I also tried pro tools, logic, Ableton,  and FL studio.  But I never really liked any of those the way I liked Studio One.  Now I'm thinking of revisiting some older 8.5 projects, but I don't want to install 8.5.  It gives me anxiety to think about dealing with that program again, lol.  I may get the latest sonar instead, but that's $99 and it don't grow on trees.  Hopefully things have gotten much better since 8.5. 

Jeff Evans
This is not the place to find out out about Studio One either.

Agreed, and that was never the intention of this thread. I was instead looking for first impressions. I do think it is useful to capture first impressions because in a competitive marketplace, that may be the only look that SONAR gets. I do feel that the SONAR community is a HUGE advantage, but that can also be a disadvantage if it gives the company false comfort that everything is OK as is.  There clearly are some rough areas with SONAR that would be off-putting to a new user, and I don't think any harm is done with an occasional reality check.
 
I also agree with the comment above about SO's listing of plug-ins. On one hand, there is some merit to their browser displaying the "face" of the plug-in and also exposing the available presets. But the overall impact is rather cluttered and disorganized. I think SONAR is a little better and more scalable, but I also think there is room for improvement in this part of SONAR's UI. Overall, my impression of the plug-ins in SO Pro is that they are OK, but not really great and completely inconsistent from one to the next.

Once again you are demonstrating lack of knowledge. Plugins can be organised in very clever ways. You can create your own tabs, plugin folders, fave plugin folders etc. You just have to know how to do it. They improved all that a while ago.
 
You are just seeing the initial setup before you go in and set it up the way you want and yes I agree it can be daunting. Plugins can be represented with a thumbnail GUI or a list. I tend to use the lists as the thumbnails can take up quite a lot of space.

Jeff Evans
Once again you are demonstrating lack of knowledge. Plugins can be organised in very clever ways

I am aware of that. I am talking about first impressions. It seems to me that SO has done a better job of first impressions. SONAR seems to make the first impression more complicated than it needs to be. IMHO it is better for a product to appear straghtforward out of the box, and to have the advanced stuff out of the way most of the time. But others may think a "power user" first impression is better.

I think if anyone is really serious about a DAW purchase then first impressions are a poor indicator.  Most DAW's are so complex and deep you are not really going to get any real idea from first impressions. 
 
I see what you mean about that though. Like plugin organisation in Studio One.  Yes you are right.  First impressions are they are all listed in one place and that is it but of course once you find out it is anything but that. 
 
But that would apply to any DAW as well.  For example I never really got into Pro Tools much but as a lecturer I had to do a course as a Pro Tools trainer so yes I am a certified Avid trainer!  We were locked away in a lab for like days at a time in front of a screen with the latest PT version on it listening to a very skilled Avid trainer.  At the end of that I was blown away with what it could do and almost thought about switching.  It was the whole Avid thing though that turned me off.
 
So no to first impressions.  They only can give you a surface look and feel as what it can do but won't reveal the depth and power underneath.  DAW's are just too complex for that.  They need time to research, read, watch some tutorials, go into a shop and use it if you can.  Hook up with someone that has also got the program you are interested in and watch them use it etc.  See if it connects to you.  It certainly has taken me a while to find the right program that fits me really well. 
 
It is a bit like finding a girlfriend.  First impressions, maybe but that is only a very small factor.  Only after going out with her for a few months you may only start to get an idea.  Then even after going out with her for a year you may decide it is not going to work out and you meet someone else.  Or you try a different DAW and then you may find that things just click. 

I am glad Jeff confirmed the no crashing aspect. I have less than 100 hours with SOP and not even come close to threatening it, but my take means little without more evaluation. Jeff confirmed I have a lot more head room.

This topic is definitely an apples to oranges comparison in many regards, but dramatic features I know I will use a lot (arranger and scratch pads in particular) are "there today," as it were. In many respects the learning curve is the same as going from SONAR pre-X to SONAR X1 and beyond. Do, learn, adapt, and keep moving.

Having used Cakewalk solely for two decades the reality came up of the intense liability of such. Feature requests have become a joke, and the reality of folks literally being dead and gone before realized brings life back into sharp focus (where it should always be).

Life always throws interesting curves, and in December SOP and Lifetime Updates hit the same cost point. Faced with features in hand versus features in a bush, reality became apparent. Because of what I do, I will never reward (pay) someone to fix their problems (bugs) pressed onto me, pay them to test their product for them, nor pay them for "hope" (often the false pretense that something cool is coming). Even a one-time payment for such is out of bounds.

i switched over to studio one 3 pro a little over 2 years ago, the honest truth is that in that time it has crashed once, and that was recently, and it was when i was trying out one of the updated cakewalk lp plug ins, it crash on insertion (and believe me, the irony of it's only crash in 2 + years being in conjunction with a cakewalk product was not lost on me )
 
just love it, and not just for the big things, but little things as well, like opening up a plugin from a track, you have all that tracks plugins in that same window in different tabs right there, there are so many things that are just so awesome that make it just feel better, flow better, sonar platinum in comparison, when i check out a new release, just seems old and slow, convoluted, clunky etc, etc, that's just how it feels to me.
 
my observations about studio one 3 would be that it kicks sonars a$$ 5 ways from sunday, but that's just my opinion as a user of cakewalk products since pro audio 9 and a platinum lifetime member 'n all, just my honest opinion without going into to all the details.

I remember the S1-3 update before the previous one was not usable for those who still have Melodyne 2.