Microtonic
YES! YES! YES! More modern instruments! More integration! I wrote a lot of interesting ideas for Russian Roland Sonar Team but... Sonar X1 don`t have it... Sonar X2 don`t have it, Sonar X3 don`t have it... 
Other DAW make it, but Sonat don`t have it. :) 
 
Sonar is not for experemental or progression electronic musician. Sonar don`t have simple modules and tools for the experemental audio edition like Battery, SliceX.
Today Sonar X3c don`t have normal and modern drum pad VSTi.
Yes... SD3 or RXP-player can help but not for all. RXP-player don`t have x64 version and this is old VSTi.

 
Yes, this is exactly my problem.  I watch all those cool YouTube videos with the EDM producers splitting/chopping beats and mapping them to a sampler, and it's hard not to be envious of the other DAW's ability to do this quickly and elegantly.  Adding Slicex to the arsenal has really helped a bit with this, but it's still from my idea.
 

 
Sonar Must transform Step Sequencer to the Next level! - Integrate new Sonar Drum Pad VSTi with Step Sequencer and make this functionality - Drug&Drop clip or samples in to the Step Sequnser! This clip automatically load in to Drum Pad VSTi.

 
Actually, I don't think this would be needed because Step Sequencer is already on each midi (and I assume instrument track).  I could live with being able to open a embedded sampler on an instrument track and drag and dropping samples either from a folder or from a loop construction view.
 
 

Start make it now! :)
 

 
If you would not mind, can you (and others who are frustrated by this omission) PLEASE fill out a feature request?
 
http://www.cakewalk.com/support/contact/featurerequest.aspx
 
I don't know if it will help, but at least we're trying to bring it to their attention.

You can make EDM/IDM with Sonar, it just ain't as easy when it comes to sound design/loop/sample capabilities. Ableton Live is the daddy in this area. Sonar should have had this in the bag by now, it also needs to open its doors to better use in a live situation so those of us who use Sonar don't have to keep porting stuff over to ableton for live performance.
I know someone will come on here saying "There's nothing wrong with Sonar X* plenty use it for sound design/live" but the crux of this is that many use it in either a linear fashion live or when it comes to sound design, use a lot of 3rd party vsts to accomplish.
 

Over time I have learned that each DAW always seems to have better capabilities in one area that the competition doesn't. With that in mind I've learned that it may be in my interest to learn the other tools where appropriate. Ableton has been mentioned in a couple of the above threads and while I don't use it for EDM I do like the Session View for trying out ideas. From there it is relatively easy to set Ableton up as a Rewire device in Slave mode and I then have the best of both worlds.
 
It is always going to be difficult for any software development company to provide "best in class" features across all of the disparate techniques that are currently employed in the creation of music.
 
Regards,

+1 for X4

As much as  I want Sonar to have something like this, I have tried to look at the reality of whether it could be pulled off without making Sonar highly unstable for years to come.  Ableton was built from the ground up as a remixer/ dj tool so evolution in those areas is natural for the program without gutting the core.  The same can be said for FL studio.  Despite it's tremendous growth in other areas, the core FL studio base uses the basic structure and features that have been with it for most of its history. Sonar, Cubase, Pro Tools and other more mature DAWS has always had to work backwards to include or emulate staple elements of programs like these with mixed results.  Many of the plugins these programs include as shortcuts to make a certain style of music often end up going unused.  I know plenty of EDM producer types who use Cubase and Logic, but few use them the way the marketing ads say. A studio I go to regularly has a lot of hip-hop guys and is Logic based. The "trap beat" crowd uses FL studio and exports the tracks out to be mixed in Logic and other sub-genres use Maschine, MPC or even all in one keyboards like Motif.  The ones who do "compose" (for lack of better word) in Logic tend to create patterns in real time using keyboard controller and then cutting and pasting in piano role.  Most of the add-ons in these programs are geared towards engineers who also play music.
 
With that said, Sonar actually does some things better than one would think at first glance.  I would like an option to have a step sequencer like the one in FL, but there are things I have come to appreciate about the one in Sonar.  Ideally I would have both. I have project templates that emulate an FL workflow in some ways.  The one missing element of course is being able to just drop samples on a new track.  I may eventually break down and get geist since that pretty much would do exactly what I want

lawp
REX (and RX2) files are proprietary and one needs to buy recycle or reason to make ones own
 
Shortcircuit is a now-free sampler that includes slicing functionality
(http://vemberaudio.se/shortcircuit.php )
 
personally I use Linplug's RMV for creative slicey-dicey
(http://linplug.com/rmv.html )
 

I have always thought shortcircuit would be a good acquisition for Sonar.  They could buy the source code, update it and integrate into Sonar.  It has some shortcomings, but that is in large part because it has not been updated in years. Interface update, 64-bit, drag and drop, the addition of an easy to implement instrument/kit system similar to Kontakt could go a long way.

mmorgan
Ableton has been mentioned in a couple of the above threads and while I don't use it for EDM I do like the Session View for trying out ideas. 

Have you tried Matrix View in Sonar?

Microtonic
Slicer and Sampler must be in Sonar.
-select rex files in brouser
-right clik
-load in to Sonar Rex Sampler

Sonar does this now, if you can handle drag-and-drop instead of right click.

Anderton
 
Sonar does this now, if you can handle drag-and-drop instead of right click.

I need to create instrumental track, drag-and-drop files in to this VSTi and draw note in PRV? Oh... it is hard way... :)
Studio One 2.6 can do this automatically.

For a devlopment standpoint SONAR was heading that way.  Matrix, beatscape yada yada yada.  Just as Cakewalk was a DOS sequencer that added audio recording and was an early update to ACID files.  Rather than fully integrating looping they updated their GUI.  It has taken 3 iterations to get the X series working (fairly) smoothly.  SONAR is a really good DAW for recording and mixing audio, midi and ACID loops.  WHat's left other than adding effects and further smoothing/refining?  Scoring, which doesn't matter to many home guitarist types or the IDM crowd, integrating stereo editing w/o having to buy Sound Forge etc. (which most are totally happy with), and a synth or integrated page for creating midi or audio loops and putting them together. 
 
Which of those three do you think is first on the list?  Of course, I'm interested in #3 above, but I think that is where Cakewalk will put their next big push, since they've shown more interest in that than scoring or built-in editor.
 
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