Jeez... I started in electronic music in the mid 80s at the New Mexico State University electronic music lab. They had an old original Moog, a Synthi, and a lot of other wonderful old relics. I first started doing computer music later on with an Amiga and various rather crude trakker programs. I wandered through various midi sequencers and finally got a copy of Cakewalk Sonar 4. It had a lot of problems, but I finally had something I could use to write music. A lot of my complaints about 4.0 have been addressed with 6.0, among them:

• No way to set default file paths (infuriating!)
  
• Setting up midi too cumbersome
  
• Lots of crashing
  
• Too difficult to set up soft synths
  
• Hunting around looking for instrument definition files.
  
• Horrible documentation that assumed too much knowledge on the reader's part and was written in too much lingo and jargon. It was documentation written by geeks for other geeks. The book that comes with 6.0 goes a long way to address this serious fault (I have a master's in technical writing so this really bugs me).
  

So I guess I've been doing all this for a while. I'll be interested to see 8.0, but I can't afford to upgrade just yet.

Andacar

I started in music years ago but just got into computer recording the pase three years. I tried Cubase first and was a little taken back with the complexity of the software itself. I have advanced degrees in computer science but the workflow just wasnt productive to me and the number of missing features compared to sonar studio made me switch in early 2008.

I found myself growing into the software faster then I believed I would. I needed some features that were only part of the PE verson so at the end of July I upgraded and I was very happy for a month. Now Sonar 8 is comming out. Looks like I'll end up with three Sonar products I had to buy in one year. If this wasn't the best all around DAW, Software insterments, plugins, and more, I would be really pissed even more then I am at this moment. Setting back I realize my workflow has went up at least 100% this year alone and that's taking into account downtime learning new platform for me.

Would I switch again? YES! SONAR has the features I want and need. customer support from a real live human who speaks my language and understands what I'm talking about. UPGRADES software. remember I have advanced computer degrees and have held positions as a senior software developer and I know how management can overlook upgrades. Ver 8 looks like it has user requested upgrades as well as in house optimazations and feature rich add ons. a good upgdade. SO after just 45 days ago just upgrading to Sonar7 PE will I upgrade. When the bad taste leaves my month I will. The product is well worth it. I wouldn't be where I'm at without it. I'd personally recommend Sonar to anyone!

Just My 2 cents!

Eddie

I actually started with Cakewalk in the early 90s, back when it was pure midi/win 3.1. I Got hooked on Logic Audio afterwards, up to the point where big bad Apple Corps bought it and turned it in to a PC-nogo. I've been using the last PC-Version 5.5.1 up to now, but it lacks all the goodies that you expect nowadays and is not working well on my Vista64 Dual-whatnot PC . After trying out Music Studio 2008 and NOT liking the experience, I've been looking for the right DAW to back. I flirted with buying Samplitude but since it's from the same guys, I've lost the trust. Sonar 8 Producer promises all that I ever need (And is way cheaper than Logic ever was) especially the instruments and the vocal-thingy. I'm waiting for my supplier to get the first copies so I can buy it (Sorry folks, I'm scottish) cheaper from them as my birthday present to me

I have been using Cakewalk since Version 3 - before audio - remember the dots?

My favourite EVER Cakewalk has to be Cakewalk Pro audio 6.1. It was SOOOO stable I didn't upgrade until version 9!!! I since have gone with every Sonar except 4.

Before that I was strictly protracker on amiga & so have never used any of the "other" daws at all. The only time I have even contemplated anything else was due to cake running like a 3 legged dog, but never cos I was missing any features.

In the UK, Sonar users are definitely a minority, but we still support it and try to convert mac headz whenever they darken our studios!

I switched from Cubase 4 (LE). Cubase was very easy to use and everything, but unfortunately it seemed kind of bloated and it didn't run very well whatsoever.

A positive for Cubase was it worked better natively with my Presonus Firestudio Project. However Sonar 8 seems to work better with it out of box than Sonar 7, and there are still some things I can try to get it working better.

Sonar is much faster and smoother than Cubase, I like the fact that you get a bunch of useful plugins! (Session Drummer 2 FTW!)

Another thing that was horrible about Cubase was that Steinberg takes years to release patches...

Hi Carl,
I switched to Sonar REAC Recording system, coming from Cubase. I am now working on a PC but earlier I used to work also on Mac. I switched to PC by reason of compatibility.
I purchased an M400 Roland Digital Mixer with S4000, 1608 Reac equipment.
The version of Sonar I received was Sonar 7.0 with Sonar Reac recording system, but unfortunately I am still waiting for the SPS/FA66 which currently couldn't be delivered in the Netherlands ( already waiting for the better part of 3 months now).

Reason for me personally to swith to Sonar was the fact that it is compatible with the Roland Reac system, but on top of that, I have been monitoring the frum for a few months and have been speaking to people of Roland Benelux and I am fullt confident that I will be happy and satisfied with my Sonar , once it works. Currently no sound is coming out of it because it seems not compatible with my current sound interface ( Behringer FC202 Firewire) which is one of the popular brands here in Western Europe.

My goal for using Sonar will be to use it in my practise as a proffessional (pop) choir and orchestra conductur ( as well as arranger). Can't wait to get my hopfully positive comments reported and to see my productions brought at higher level!!

Best regards,

Loek van Kersbergen
The Netherlands

Hi everyone,

I'm not really a musician. I dabble a little bit on keyboard, but I've always been on the tech side of things. I was the kid that ran sound and lights for my friends' garage band. That led me to electronics and a career in computers--mostly in main frame test and debug. Now I've come full-circle and computers have led me back to music.

In the late '80s, I did some CD pre-mastering using SAW Classic and Wavelab. To give you a little perspective, the first CDR drive I used cost $1700--it was a 2X!

Fast forward to 2006: I bought a copy of Cubase Home to play around with and I decided to take a recording class at the local community college to learn more about Cubase. The class was using Sonar 6 PE and I bought Sonar 6 XL so I could do some work at home. I eventually upgraded to 7 PE when Brandon came to the area for the '07 tour. I'm looking forward to checking out Sonar 8 next week in San Diego.

For now, I'm mostly using Sonar to do remixes of stuff I recorded on my old Grundig back in the '70s.

Take care,
Jan

Yes! I switch to Cakewalk from Steinberg. Cubase 4.

I should done this long time ago...Haven't looked back....


SONAR 8 is the best DAW and the best sound quality on the market right now!
64bit DAW that's great too, I really need that. Make a long story short...



I have used from the 1980th...

Analog Tapes
Hardware Sequencers MT
Cubase on Atari
Logic with 386 Computer
LOGIC on Mac and PC
ADAT systems
Pro Tools HD
Cubase SX3 & Cubase 4

and now crossgrade to SONAR 8 Producer




Best Regards
Freddie

Around Y2k I bought GuitarTracksPro(2 or 3, can't remember). I loved that program, and it was all I needed for what I was doing, which was basically 4 tracking ideas for songs that my band could listen too. If we wanted to record for real, we paid our money and went to a local studio. When my laptop finally took its last breath last summer (07), and I had to go buy a new one, Vista had come out, and all PC computers at that time were coming with Vista. I couldn't find an XP computer anywhere, and I was being told I could not load XP on a new system as the hardware was not backwards compatible. I bought a Vista system at gunpoint, only to find that GuitarTracksPro would not work. I had to buy a new DAW. Guess what? Sonar was the only Vista ready choice at that time. That was fine with me, since I was used to the Cakewalk interface. I wanted to buy ProTools at the time, but here is why I did not.

1. Didn't want to drop $2,000 on an Apple, when I could get the same power in a PC for half of that or less.
2. Didn't like the choices in hardware (M box or nothing). Sonar let me shop Presonus, MOTU, Lexicon and others, who offer better choices.
3. Vista support (which has not gone so well I must admit.. me hates the Vista!)
4. Seemed to me that Sonar 7 had more to offer than ProTools LE. To me it was a case of "full software" vs a litght version for similar investment. ProTools HD is out of reach for me, and would be pointless anyway at my usage level.
5. Cubase did not seem to be an option at all at that time, since it did not support Vista, and I already decided not to go Apple.

I love Sonar, and will continue to use it for the reasons that many other people have listed.. custom layouts, no dongle (dongle's suck!) plug ins, softsynths, and I just like the workflow of it. In hindsite though, my Vista experiment has failed, and this OS drives me nuts. Too many wierd problems to chase down, and it just does not work as advertiesed. Nothing makes me more angry than to spend money to get a bunch of abilites and features that sound great, but don't actually work. I guess I am going to have to retrofit XP.

Howdy,

I didn't switch. I just bought Sonar straight off the shelf.

Not knowing anything, I was trying to buy Pro Tools. But the salesman at Pro Tools was so haughty that I bought Sonar instead.

BTU