I've certainly grown tired of complaining about staff view, but since I do enjoy the other features of X1 and the new interface, I decided to try a relatively inexpensive supplement to X1 while the people at Roland get their stuff together:  I purchased Guitar Pro 6 for about $50.  It easily creates a pretty good printable score (at least compared to entry versions of Finale and Sibelius), and I can export the entire score to midi where I can use my VST instruments and record guitar and vocal parts on X1.
 
I agree, this is NOT something we should have to do, but since I don't plan to continue with Sonar "X anything" until the staff view works as it should, its a cheap solution for me.  It's just a wonder that a relatively new $50 program could outperform a program that has been around for decades, but what can I say?  I guess Roland has their priorities.

bsteven



I agree, this is NOT something we should have to do, but since I don't plan to continue with Sonar "X anything" until the staff view works as it should,

I'm still on 8.5 and this is the first time since the mid 90s that I have no plans to upgrade.  I really think Cakewalk has repositioned Sonar for the semi pro and hobbyist and as such notation will never be addressed.  I suppose it's making them more money but as a long term, loyal customer I feel seriously dissed by their new direction.  They have left loyal customers behind by design.  I keep learning the lesson that customer loyalty is foolish and I feel really stupid for the years I was a vocal champion of Cakewalk.

The "Staff" views on all DAWs are only suitable for "semi pro" "hobbyist". If you are dead serious you will fork out for Sibeliuis or Finale. 

The "Staff" views on all DAWs are only suitable for "semi pro" "hobbyist". If you are dead serious you will fork out for Sibeliuis or Finale. 

+1

Sonar was never intended to be a notation program. Notation is there merely to assist in editing MIDI tracks. If you want notation, Finale Print Music is an inexpensive solution. 

Sonar was never intended to be a notation program. Notation is there merely to assist in editing MIDI tracks.

 
Actually, before Pro Audio and Sonar, Cakewalk was a notion program designed to compose by manually editing notes on the staff.  That was why I bought it many years ago and largely how I have used it to date.  Yes, they have changed direction (a few times, it seems as many of you have noted on the forum), but that doesn't excuse them for their half-*ssed execution of staff view to date. 
 
I am a hobbyist (as are most of us who don't earn our living solely creating music --whether we admit it or not) but since I spent the time and the money, I'd like the program to work as it was designed.  My OP was just a solution that works for me until X1 gets there--if indeed it does.  For the money, I was impressed with Guitar Pro 6 as an inexpensive composition tool, so I thought I'd share it.
 
I guess what was really impressive about the program was that the one time it crashed, the next time I loaded the program it went automatically to a problem report screen where I could describe the problem and upload the file that caused the crash.  That told me they were serious about their product living up its promise. 

Another GP user here. Good program with many features for the money.I also own Sibelius Student 5 which is also good but crippled. Full version of Sibelius would be the way to go if you can afford it (and need to do professional print scoring).

I still like many things about Sonar Staff View. But the only time I'm interested in using Staff View is when I want a print out. Print formatting of Sonar Staff View fails miserably.

I don't use Staff View very often and sometimes I even forget that it exists.  However, I do find it useful when I need to view several midi tracks together where there are a lot of unison notes or overlapping phrases.  PRV can look cluttered whereas SV displays the different instruments on separate staves.  I prefer editing in PRV though.

Which program do you use to notate from the guitar. I tried Guitar Pro before on my midi guitar but it didn't work reliably.

By far IMHO, the best low cost software for notation is Harmony Assistant from Myriad software.

Fred