I am very surprised and disillusioned with the general responses to this issue. It either comes down to "I don't need it therefore nobody should have it" or "If you want it go somewhere else". Cake's total lack of interest and response to this issue must be taken as endorsement of those views.

There are view companies who will survive in any competitive environment when they keep telling their customers to use the the competition's products.

Sepheritoh - I share your view. I write all my music by notation in Staff View. When I first started trying to write music about five years ago, I raised what I thought was a sensible question about Staff View with Cakewalk. The response was terse to the point of rudeness. "Sonar is a sequencer; if you want to write music, go elsewhere." So I bought Sibelius. Yet I still write all my music in Sonar and only use Sibelius when I need to produce a printed score by exporting a midi file to Sibelius. Why? Because Sonar is excellent. It enables an amateur like me to produce music rather than just dots on a page. So I put up with the shortcomings of Staff View. But that does not mean I have to like it! I firmly believe there is a real opportunity for Sonar to totally dominate the World-Wide music market IF they get Staff View sorted out. Everything else in Sonar is World-Class. So why spoil it with a third class Staff View?

(I must add that since my initial contact with Sonar, their technical support staff have been outstanding in handling my queries. Perhaps I just caught them on a bad day!).

Best Regards
Malcolm

Ignoring notation might be one of the biggest mistakes done..

If its not in the product development cycle - please put it in..

I am a self confessed Sonar fanboy and have been suggesting to other teachers in our county to try and use Sonar and other cakewalk products for years... but the answer is always the same from other staff....  "it doesn't do notation well".... and they are willing to pay the extra for Sibelius.

My thoughts are .... if the kids of today are using sibelius ... then it more than likely they will use pro tools as their main DAW.... People generally don't like to change... 

The kids in schools and colleges are your 'new' customers and it doesn't matter how much of a discount you give to these instutions.. they need the software to do notation and audio these days.

By ignoring notation I fear that in the DAW race Sonar may be running with one 'trainer' missing.. 

Please don't think that this is as a rant ... I just want  to see Sonar develop to its full potential and to succeed in becoming a major player in the DAW market

I've been a cakewalk user since DOS. It's amazing (and depressing) how I've learned to sight-read Sonar's crappy notation. 

For those of us who want real notation, the real question should simply be: How do we get it? I have no doubt that pitching in our thoughts here on the forums does get some attention, but is there nothing else that can be done?
Also, is there no way a 3rd party app could be integrated into sonar well enough to not feel like a kludge? I like how PT uses Sibelius. Maybe we need to convince Cakewalk AND Sibelius to get together and make a $200 add on pack fr Sonar...

vintagevibe


Interesting timing:  Protools 9 anounced

ADC
96 tracks
works on any hardware
notation derived from Sibelius
iLock

I noticed the announcement last night - the news spread like wild fire.  Even the guys on KVR are calling this a game changer, primarily because of the it's ability to use any interface now.

In the past, I had written off Pro Tools 8, primarily because of it's lack of ADC and the requirement for specific hardware.

I have to go on a more detailed fact finding mission...

vintagevibe


Interesting timing:  Protools 9 anounced

ADC
96 tracks
works on any hardware
notation derived from Sibelius
iLock

I got very excited about it working on any audio hardware until I found out these requiremets:
Windows 7 (no XP) and only NVIDIA graphics cards are supported  (http://avid.custkb.com/avid/app/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=380551)
Sergio

sergiobklyn

vintagevibe


Interesting timing:  Protools 9 anounced

ADC
96 tracks
works on any hardware
notation derived from Sibelius
iLock

I got very excited about it working on any audio hardware until I found out these requiremets:
Windows 7 (no XP) and only NVIDIA graphics cards are supported  (http://avid.custkb.com/avid/app/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=380551)
Sergio

I heard about W7, but I didn't know about the NVIDIA requirement.

I suppose this has to be taken in context - Sonar X1 has increased the minimum CPU and memory requirements.

If one plans to go to X1, and were to have to acquire a new computer to run it decently, one would buy a new computer with W7 on it with a multi-core CPU and additional memory anyway.  The only additional step would be to select a computer with an NVIDIA graphics system.

Aside from cost, this is similar to buying a newer MAC to run, let's say Logic.

It would appear that the days of being able to run PC based DAW software on any variation of Windows, and hardware configuration are certainly drawing to a close.  We all knew that having a PC optimized for serious music creation was a necessity anyway.

That NVIDIA requirement is simply bizarre.

Since Avid owns both PT and Sibelius, Sonar would likely need to look in the direction of Finale.

noldar12


Since Avid owns both PT and Sibelius, Sonar would likely need to look in the direction of Finale.

The problem I see with Finale is that it is a public traded company and Roland / Cakewalk seem to of stayed with all private firms as long as I can remember.