No see that is actually much of the point of Ableton - being able to time stretch and compress audio loops on the fly. That's why I was asking how the Matrix in X3 compares.

In my opinion they are two different animals(Sonar,Live). Where as Live has spent it's entire development on the live and performance aspects for which it shines it has by no means the full and complete capabilities that Sonar has in other areas related to music production from Idea to distribution.
 
Live is a very great platform for what it's designed for however matrix has some functions I would like to see in Live such as A.B clip launch which saves one for adding another scene if it were available in live plus those that use Sonar Exclusively would have no problem using Matrix as a performance solution.
 
I like Live and find even with limited Rewire functionality it works for me in whatever platform I need it in.

I look at Live as an instrument with some DAW sensibilities. Sonar can be used to play back while one is performing but on the fly changes is not its forte! 

I really like working in the Sonar Xseries I have even got my woman using it and she loves its simplicity (obviously I help) but as for Live its a different creature a very very good creature. Infact I have used Pro Logic too but I must admit I really really like working in Sonar it is pretty good. Test them out and see which one is better for you (demo it).

Apart from multitrack overdubs I think Live can be a surprisingly complete DAW, but I really meant to compare the Matrix view in X3 to the Live clip/session mode.
Guess I'll have to quit being lazy and give it a go.

Sanderxpander
No see that is actually much of the point of Ableton - being able to time stretch and compress audio loops on the fly. That's why I was asking how the Matrix in X3 compares.

IIRC Ableton uses zPlane's elastique algorithm for the DSP-based stretching. Sonar can accept REX and Acidized files for stretching. So basically, the matrix works as well as REX or Acidized files work when dragged into a track.
 
I'm with those who feel Ableton Live and Sonar are very different. Live is a musical instrument disguised as a piece of software, Sonar is a recording studio disguised as a piece of software. However, I have noticed that Sonar can record Solo button presses in Matrix view - that's a big deal for me.