Wood67
I jumped on the SO3 Pro offer today (having deliberately disconnected myself from the internet over the Black Friday weekend to save cash).  Crossgrade pricing for Sonar users was just too tempting, and I've never been a fan of Cubase.
 
Jari makes a good point above.  I won't delete Sonar and happy that it will continue to work for now. But it will quickly become dated, and with no support that's too great a risk.

You won't regret it.  To get into the full Cubase for that price point is one heck of a deal.

It is pretty simple to divide up the contenders.  Light weight, heavy weight (ie. full functioned DAW), familiar to us  SONAR users, likely survival rate, etc.
 
What I find interesting is the lack of interest in Live.  It goes into the more modern looking, ie. emphasis on looping rather than linear recording.  Of course, I'm more of a looper.
 
My 3 favs so far:
 
Cubase because it is a fully functional DAW like SONAR.  cross platform
Supported by a major company for survival.
Linear based like SONAR and a lot of similarities since it goes back to the early windows style.  It should be easy to adapt to.
 
Bitwig as a "modern" replacement. 
Not fully functional (yet!) but is good at midi/looping.
A different look and method of operating and has room to grow.
Strikes me as more SONAR sized company but dedicated.  Not to be of a leap of faith in sustainability, but having been burned once ...
 
Mixcraft as the cheap and easy replacement.
I already like the look - the matrix page, the dock, yada yada yada.  Simple but maybe not deep, but they have their own programs for stereo editing built in (I believe, haven't had time to check on that or their CD burning) and some other nice attributes that it took a long while for Cake to do (or not as for built-in audio editing).  I can probably just jump right in, now that I found the manual, and start a new project, learning as I go along.
 
Pc only and a small company.  They don't just seem dedicated, but again reminds me of Cake with the way they've jumped on this opportunity.  A bit of a crap shoot but then it is dirt cheap right now.  $100 for a functional DAW? I've already got it.   I'm a little worried about the midi side from what others have said, but then I'm not a power user, working everyday with my green music shades on.  If I can't play or paint a synth line I'm probably not going to do it.  Same w/ audio.  I used SONAR at home for my own and friends' music.  If they can't play or sing their song I'm not fixing it.  A note or two, but not a performance.  They aren't clients and paying, so learn to play it right.  The most I've used Melodyne for is effect.
 
 
My thoughts for the moment. 
 
 
 
 

igiwigi
Why not a crossgrade to Cubase Artist  from Sonar?
A lot cheaper and that is all some may need rather than have too many bells and whistles

Bells and whistles....loads of bloat, etc
 
I heard that a lot (in a pejorative way of course) particularly talking about Sonar's development in the X era. In my personal experience I do need that, I need a powerful DAW that , when I need to go deeper and further just delivers.
After all I make my day job out of it, but I understand that for hobbyist or people just recording and doing no deep mixing or editing, a simpler version will do and the rest could be considered superfluous.
Not for me.
The only serious "professional" feature I never really used in Sonar is 5.1 Surround mix, but the rest of the bloat?  Great to have, will be very frustrating to miss something while migrating to the next DAW.
 
I downloaded the S1 demo and hope to be able (time) to check it out, but so far I guess I'm facing the other way (Cubase)
 
It's almost Christmas, I could use some bells and whistles ;)!
 

This is getting old. Between Dr. T's, Sony Acid and CW, this is now the fourth sequencer/DAW I am looking at buying.
 
I'm seriously looking at Cubase. Just warning you all now.

I think Bitwig will be a huge contender in a few years, although you have to keep in mind that Bitwig is more going after the Ableton/FL Studio crowd than those on traditional DAWs, however they are just doing some spectacular things:
 
- Combining Track folders and bussing - I think Reaper does this too?  Anyway I thought it was really cool and it makes stuff like doing parallel compression on drums a breeze, just group the drum tracks and then you can do a send channel within the folder for the wet signal.
 
- Matrix view next to the project view - this is probably what separates Bitwig from the rest of the pack.  It's just a really cool space to be creative in and record your ideas at the same time.  They've worked so closely with Microsoft that the touch integration is seemless.  I have a Surface pro with Bitwig on it, and I don't need to map out any external midi device to control the matrix, the touch screen response is practically zero latency to start the clips, unlike other DAWs that really half ass the touch integration and seem to only trigger the effect or whatever your doing after your finger depresses the screen (aka Ableton)
 
- Modern UI - I know this is a term that gets thrown around alot, but I hate that DAW's never seem to learn that the top menu driven systems are not efficient for workflow.  Microsoft figured that out nearly 15 years ago, but a lot of the app developers haven't.  Part of it, is that apple seems to think it's a really cool nostalgic feature to hang onto, kind of like listening to 80's music.
 
The big problem as everyone says is that it really lacks functionality in audio editing.  No real pitch correction, no track comping.  The audio functionality is more built for loop recording than anything else.
 
Hopefully in the future it will gain more functionality.
 
- 

 
Hi
I also like to keep playing rather than playing with lego bricks.
I also like to correct a few timings or mistakes if i am going for a finished recording
So for me daws are for tightening things up a little and adding some sprinkles or sparkles
I have a Yamaha Genos and , I will now go for Cubase Elements to edit the Genos and use Mixcraft for the Vst side mainly.
I must admit even with Sonar Platinum ,I do not use all the functions.
I think this is the sensible way to go and keep Sonar Platinum ticking over until the end.
As you know there are a few Sonar Platinum things that do work in Mixcraft.
Also you can make a folder and down load a few instruments and the LP effects with serial numbers In sub folders to keep
That will be ok until Microsoft has a few more updates to Windows 11 or 12.
Nothing wrong with Mixcraft ,nice and rock steady and easy to get around . No Sys Ex though.

i think mixcraft sucks
im looking into studio one next
 

So my journey begins "Beyond Sonar"
 
Had a real quick look at Bitwig then it was time to decide.
 
Step 1 - get a copy of jBridge and check it out with the 32 bit VSTs for my UAD 1
 
Step 2 - order the crossgrade of Cubase Pro 9.5 
 
So now I'm waiting, when it arrives I'll install it and update my inventory to see what made it over and what got left behind. I think that the only 32 bit VSTs that I am taking are the ones for the UAD 1 and I'm probably not going to install the DX/DXi wrapper (at least at first).
 
I like TruePianos Amber so I paln to look at getting that, I can probably live without the other locked stuff unless there are some really good offers made. I can think of better ways to spend the money involved and for most of them I have an alternative.
 
Still lots to do but at least I have made a start.

yevster
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.

 
I spent a few days with Reason.  The best manual, by far, IMO.  Intuitive and easy to get started.  But I found the workflow to be clunky.  Then I got to the MIDI editing.  I was shocked at how bad (dated it was).  When you consider that Reason started out as a MIDI only program, you'd think the MIDI editing would be top notch.
 
Editing MIDI in Reason showed me how much I've come to rely on the smart tool in SONAR.

As I wrote before i stay with sonar as long microsoft doesnt break it, but this copied text convinced me to choose my next daw:
 
"@44.1KHz
32 (156 samples):   3.54 ms
64 (220 samples):   4.99 ms
128 (348 samples):  7.89 ms
256 (604 samples): 13.70 ms

[EDIT]
Always exact same results.
use 64 for recording and 512 for mixing. Usually audio only projects larger than 50 chanels, 24 tracks playin at once. CPU raises to 80-90% when full of fx. Very reliable
 
P4 4GigRam
winxp sp3 nlited by dux"
 
Reaper.
Im convinced that a company will buy Cakewalk