Pocket Orchestra comes in Dim Pro too. Studio Strings and Studio Drums

Is Sonar powerful enough to make a full fledged album?
 
No.  Sonar cannot create the artwork, not print the sleeves.

(not sure if this is a true hijack or not...) Side question for the folks who use Vegas... I have never done video, but have had Adobe Premiere for years as part of the Creative Suite and only really jumped into it once to chop up Karl's 9 hour SWA video into the 50 chapters (my attention span is too short to sit through more than 2 chapters at once). I found Premiere sort of clunky, and not overly intuitive, but had a few folks swear up and down by it. Since I already have it (and have no high expectations with video), is Premiere worth the time taking to learn?
 
I see Vegas endorsed a lot in the forums, so this has always made me wonder, but I honestly have no clue how they are different.

Gary McCoy
Is Sonar powerful enough to make a full fledged album?
 
No.  Sonar cannot create the artwork, not print the sleeves.

It can create artwork as well... See genius (well OK not exactly)...
 

Kev999
 

I'm just saying that the bundle of effects and virtual instruments falls short in a few areas, e.g.:

Brickwall limiter
Drums
Orchestral instruments
Hammond organ
Electric piano

Maybe not every user would consider these things important. It depends on your specific needs.

 
I'm sure someone else has also addressed this but since it was a response to me, I will reply.  i think now we are getting into a combo of preferences and semantics.  I'm going to start by making the assumption that you refer to softsynth versions of all of the items listed.  Obviously if you feel a real drummer, physiocal Hammond organ, live full orchestra, etc are absolute necessary components to a full fledged album, you got me there.  As far is if ytou are referring to softsynths, we are really getting into preferences instead of the OP's question.
 
Brickwall Limiter is probably the area you have the strongest case and that all depends if you think the brickwall Limiter in the Nomad Bundle is useless.  Brickwall Limiters are great, but I have no doubt there are several people on this board alone more than capable of compensating by just using one of several compressors in limiting mode and just not pushing too much.
 
Drums- Unless you feel that Addictive Drums is garbage this one is purely preference.  It's possible you feel competing products are so much better that one could not create album worthy drums. I obviously don't share that opinion. Plenty of albums have been made with worse.  Even SD3 in the right hands could be used on an album
 
Orchestral Insruments- No Dim Pro is not the standard bearer whe nit comes to orchestral instruments but again, I have heard far worse.
 
Hammond Organ- This goes squarely in the category of niche instrument.   There are just far too many legendary groups of all genres that have never touched a Hammond to consider it a mandatory part of creating an album.
 
Electric Piano- Maybe it's just me but I think the electric Pianos in Dim pro are decent.  Between those and the lounge lizard module, that's a decent selection.  Yes, there are better on the market but unless every artrist records album with the absolute consensus best  of each kind of instrument or plugin, it is unreasonable to claim that  having less than your preferred version of an instrument is somehow not enough to create an album.
 
As I pointed out, many instruments that were considered absolutely inferior to what the preferred brand at the time ended up craving their own followings because people simply used what they had  or they purposely attempted a new variation of the sound.
 

Rewind to the late 1980's that's what I say... all we had was a DX7 and a D-50 and you were regarded as "lucky".
If you had an Emulator II you were a professor.
If you had a Fairlight you were a proper producer.
Or you hired the stuff and then pretended that you didn't break it....

Well if a mellotron can be used in a hit of the past there is plenty in Sonar that will be better sounding.  

mettelus
(not sure if this is a true hijack or not...) Side question for the folks who use Vegas... I have never done video, but have had Adobe Premiere for years as part of the Creative Suite and only really jumped into it once to chop up Karl's 9 hour SWA video into the 50 chapters (my attention span is too short to sit through more than 2 chapters at once). I found Premiere sort of clunky, and not overly intuitive, but had a few folks swear up and down by it. Since I already have it (and have no high expectations with video), is Premiere worth the time taking to learn?
 
I see Vegas endorsed a lot in the forums, so this has always made me wonder, but I honestly have no clue how they are different.

 
I hated Premiere at first.  It did feel clunky at first, but as i got used to it became far more useful to me than Vegas.  Not a knock on Vegas because I love Vegas and think in some ways it is a better choice for certain types of users.  You will find Vegas endorsed by a lot of audio people because it is 1)  (for the beginner) easier to learn.  2) Looks more like audio programs they are used to and even edits in a more similar manner.  For those coming from a purely film/video editing background using something like Avid or Lightworks, Vegas seems downright weird to work with.  Programs like Final Cut and Premiere have a workflow that borrows some elements from older and well entrenched programs like Avid and modernize them for people who are more likely to work with a mouse than keyboard shortcuts and massive and expensive control surfaces.
 
The single best thing abut Premiere for me is the integration with the other programs. Being able to edit my images on timeline in photoshop, jumpo in and out of After Effects and audition  and dedicated color correcting software like Speedgrade without having to render saves me more than enough time to make Vegas a fondly remembered but impractical afterthought for what I do.  In any case, if you already own premiere, I can see no major advantage to spending hundreds more on a program with such similar functionality.

Agree with everything dub says up there. I'll add that I think DimPro has some excellent Hammond sounds in it. The thing about Hammond organs is that the classic sounds that people love aren't really what comes out of a Hammond straight up. You need to mess around with them a bit and distort them to get the classic rock and soul sounds. If you do to DimPro's Hammonds what you'd do to a real one, you can get damn close.

John
Well if a mellotron can be used in a hit of the past there is plenty in Sonar that will be better sounding.  

I guess this sums it up more succintly than I did. We have nostalgic memories of things that were chep compromises and now spend money to emulate them.