I started out in the DOS days with Band In A Box and switched to Music Creator Pro 24 because the GUI was easy to use and understand.  Then I needed VST options, so I upgraded to Sonar.

Know what I'd consider the greatest invention since water?  Visualize this:

Sonar On A Stick.

That's right.  Picture a USB flash device where Sonar and everything it needs--including drivers, soft synths, and a build-in headphone jack-- is right there, plug-and-play, and it works every single time with no problems.  If your hard drive crashes, no problem; everything you need is on the USB/Firewire device.  No IRQ conflicts, no errant device drivers, no incompatible hardware, just plug-and-play simplicity.

Achieve this, and I shall personally erect a large temple somewhere in honor of Cakewalk.

Quite simple, really: 64bit support that really works!

I've been an avid Cubase user for many years, presently working on 5.1.2. The future is 64 bit, and after nothing but problems with plugins on Cubase 64 bit, Sonar 8.5 on both Vista 64 bit and Win7 64 bit is just flawless. Projects with 32 bit plugs just load up and work, without a lot of drama. The Sonar 32-64 bit bridging solution is well done; Cubase's is a disaster!

A close second would be the whole dongle thing. I regularly work in my work studio and my home studio, and live in fear that I'll lose the dongle, or break it with the constant inserting and removal that I do daily. Not an issue with Sonar.

Once upon a time in a far off land..............and they all lived happily ever after :)  ajw

I've been using Logic 5.5 since apple took Emagic. Been busy studying fiction writing ... but ready to get back into music. Didn't want to go to apple for several reasons but really didn't know what existed for PC. Did some research and tried the Sonar 8 demo and got excited. Now I got 8.5 and am looking forward to a summer of learning and creation.

update ... after spending a day I'm totally loving Sonar, why oh why did I wait this long?! I was afraid it wouldn't be intuitive, but it all makes sense so far, everything hooked up without a fuss, fx, instruments, content, etc. is great/amazing. The only thing lacking in software is my brain, time to hit the theory books again.

Thank you Cakewalk! Sonar is just what I needed.

xoxo,

Mapinduzi

Started out with Cakewalk when it was a DOS sequencer. Did a full CD release for my old band Usherhouse by syncing that with an ADAT rig and the BRC. Came to Cakewalk again at CW 9, and then later at Sonar 4 or 5. Now I am at 8.5 PE. Love it.

I started with Music Creator 2002 (a Cakewalk product) in 2003 and bought Dimension Pro later on.  I then bought Sonar 6 Producer a couple of years ago.  Almost all of my work is software synth and I really got Music Creator only because it was bundled with Edirol Orchestral-HQ (an absolutely wonderful product, the likes of which has never been duplicated to my knowledge).  Just last month, Cakewalk offered an upgrade deal on Sonar 8.5 Producer so I bought it for my new AMD Windows 7-64 computer that I use mostly for CGI.  But after all the work I did with Music Creator with mostly the Edirol Orchestral-HQ (love the product!) I was disappointed that Edirol discontinued it and I may never get a 64-bit version because it is no longer produced.  Because my work uses Orchestral HQ so heavily, I doubt that I will be using Sonar 8.5 any time soon appreciably because Cakewalk doesn't make any software synths that come even close the the quality and usability of the Edirol Orch-HQ product.  I have spent some time with Dimension Pro but I find it to only be a specialty synth that is only used now and then for a special purpose because it is more trouble to use (as with all of the other Cakewalk synths I have).  Cakewalk synths were designed for hardware sound guys used to hardware sound boxes and were not designed for modern computer people who don't come with the background and baggage that dedicated hardware box people have.  So the Edirol Orchestral HQ was and will continue to be my workhorse when it comes to rendering my compositions into audible sound.   Let me add that I do not have, and probably will never have, any MIDI hardware.  I am a computer guy and the keyboard I use says QWERTY on the keys.  I score most all my music and only add sound effects where needed so audio tracks only rarely get used in my music.  Where I do use audio tracks is for recording narrations that I use to produce industrial training videos. 

Let me say that, even though most of the sounds that come out of the VSC that comes with Sonar sound cheap and cheasy, it does have a few good ones like the steel drums, and the pan pipe and a few others.  But the strings are horrible and that is where GPO could be used.  However, Edirol Orchestral HQ is much easier to use and accounts for up 90% of my orchestration.  My only complaints with that product are: 1) EO-HQ is limited to 16 channels (Dimension Pro is limited to 4 but you can instantiate another one-a minor pain), 2) EO-HQ requires me to put the disk back in every couple of weeks, and most of all 3) EO-HQ was not ported to Windows 7 and has been discontinued.  Looks like my old XP system with only a P4 will become my dedicated DAW and my new system will likely only be used for computer modelling/animation and video editing (visual stuff).  Too bad.  I was hoping to do some surround sound.  But without Edirol Orchestral-HQ, what's the point? 
 
SO CAKEWALK MARKETING, IF YOU ARE READING THIS:  PLEASE BRING BACK Edirol Orchestral-HQ! I don't care what you want to call it.  It is better than any of the synths you have (by far)! 
 

I was struggling with a four track tape recorder and discovered Band in A Box - I bought some audio recording software from them - I think it was called Master Tracks Pro or some such thing.  It was wonderful I thought and made some ok demos with it.   Then we decided to make a CD and the studio was running Sonar 2.0 and I fell in love with it.  

I recently upgraded from 6.0 to 8.5 running 64 bit.  Amazingly I seem to be able to keep my studio pc networked and use it for internet as well and never miss a beat in Sonar.  I am working on a 34 track project with lots of plugs and never had a dropout.   I love Win 7 64 bit and think companies like Waves plug-ins have missed the boat not converting to 64 bit.  

My days of buying seperate plugs ins are almost over with the power of the included effects in 8.5.  The only thing beside that I have now is S Tracts S3 .  I am having a blast ...

Well I have been d king around with guitar tracks pro 3 and sonar le and studio 6 for a couple of years and Had a hard time getting everything to work the way I wanted it. (Plugins, Midi, Axiom61,toneport, pod farm and what not.) By the time I got everything set up and sounding. I didnt want to play anymore.

So I said screw it and bought 8.5. Just installed it and wham. Playing within 5 minutes, maybe 10. I know that 80% of the stuff packed in here i will never use but man its fun when it works. Also I haven't checked my midi controller yet but Im looking forward to giving ACT another try.

1 more thing
Wsup everybody this is RonnyStrings

circa 2003 i moved from a Boss BR 8 to Sonar 3......hmm....to date that stands up as a sound decision!

home studio timeline:

reels, then cassette, then took a break for years...

bought Sonar 3 @ Lentine's Music in 2003- used it flawlessly up to 2009

bought Sonar 6 @ Ebay in 2009
Don't stop now... Surf's Up