Don’t forget Reason. It hosts VSTs now, and there is a black friday/cyber monday sale. Not endorsing it,but it is a contender.

joden
Cubas is just soooo damn expensive for a cross-grade. Especially as many folks here (if not most) have spent many hundreds of dollars...I'm sure Steinberg are doing well enough to offer a really special price to full SPLAT owners, but nothing is forthcoming.

$255 is expansive? This is like 60% less than full version that you dont have. 

If one does not like Cubase, do not get it.  But to say that their offer is unreasonable is not fair.
Underpaying does not help anyone.  

I’ll be keeping splat to write and invent in, till it fails - or - till the new daw just fits like the glove splat already is.

I use midi as an afterthought. To embellish and build. It not the ‘plow’ in my field. My guitar is. So quality audio tracks, fast simple edit and mixing without bloat. VSTs just work. I already have a CS18ai and love it in live applications. I already have a RM32ai and SO3 artist.

So I went at using it over Thanksgiving. By Saturday morning, I upgraded to Pro. I found that it fit the PreSonus hardware.like a glove. I then tried it with the MOTU and it worked great. Then I tried using the RM for input and the MOTU for output. Then I flipped them. No problem. I created a mix scene on the RM and recalled it - SO3 created and named all the tracks from the RM setup. I can have 100 startup templates. I was pleasantly surprised at how many VSTs in Cakewalk that it scanned and I could use. Some aren’t there but with Craigs post, I added more.

I could record. I could comp with relative ease. I could ‘melodyn’ quickly. I could recall old settings. It has a sweet vst routing tool to put effects in series and/or in parallel. I could drop VSTs Onto a channel or into clip. I liked the sizing channel strips. I could use my iPad to control remotely - that’s a plus for me because I setup for recording in the family room which has a vaulted ceiling and no wall is the same length while the DAW is in a small extra bedroom. I found I could engage the fat channel (compressor, eq, gate/expander on every track) in the recording process which was really nice, and they sounded good.

The results were good. 3 days no faults. I found everything I needed with watching three short videos and a copy of the command key PDF on the desktop. Handles 100 tracks with 3 or so VSTs. I figured out most of what I needed and I’m a simple guy. I will setup and play with a project and mastering tommorow. My one small peev so far was the advertising on the main splash screen.

Your all mileage WILL vary. Take care you all.. my very best in your DAW jouneys ahead.

LL

As long as you have a dedicated machine, and you don't let Windoze update anything without making a couple Acronis clones so you can return to where you were, Sonar will continue to work just like it does right now for infinity and beyond.  There is no reason for Sonar to suddenly crap out unless you let your OS crap out.  It is a set of files on your drive.  It is not a puppy you need to feed and let outside so it doesn't crap on your floor!

GregGraves
As long as you have a dedicated machine, and you don't let Windoze update anything without making a couple Acronis clones so you can return to where you were, Sonar will continue to work just like it does right now for infinity and beyond.  There is no reason for Sonar to suddenly crap out unless you let your OS crap out.  It is a set of files on your drive.  It is not a puppy you need to feed and let outside so it doesn't crap on your floor!

SPLAT already has bugs and issues, and it will only get worse. i was waiting for it to be fixed, but it not going to happen now.
 
LLyons, are you using more than one audio interface with ASIO? How? 

Anderton
Another difference is that Cubase supports MIDI FX, Studio One Professional does not. 

So I can use SEM with Cubase?

Not even thought about that until now.

Nice comparison, thanks/
 
Must say that Studio one Pro at 147€ its a bargain for us all...
 
Anybody uses it for notation? Not print but to see a score like Staff view?
 
Is it at least equivalent to Sonar archaic but useful Staff View?
 
I have feedback that Cubase is better on that. Never heard about S1.
 

Cubase has possibly the best staff view of them all.

Having started the cross grade process for Cubase I'm beginning to think that if I don't go with Cubase now I will regret it later.

If I do go with Cubase then I really can't afford to buy anything else so.

Wish this was easier (or never happened).