Jackdied, I think you nailed it perfectly. 

Not really a bad question even here. Even though Sonar (X2A)  is my main creative environment, I use both.  The reason is that I own a StudioLive 16:4:2 console which I use as a recording interface and a broadcast / recording  console for live performances.  When I use it in live mode, I use Presonus Capture which is a very lightweight recording interface.  


Presonus make the StudioLive, Capture and Studio One and they all work well together, and it is much quicker to do a mixdown in Studio One as the configuration is all sorted out, and I don't have to go throw an import process as it "understands" the Capture files.  I use the Artist version which was free with the Studiolive.  It is very straightforward and I get decent results for the limited work I do on it.  I have not been persuaded to go out and buy the pro version for myself and I have been a long time Sonar user, but when people ask for recommendations I suggest they try both.  Sonar has a great deal of breadth and depth which is great, but that can increase the learning curve.  Personally I did not find the switch from 8.5 to X1 painful.


In the end, they are both decent, both have good audio engines, and both are tools.  I keep more than one screwdriver in my tool box, and the DAW is no different.  I also have a copy of Cubase and Ableton Live (Both LE versions) and really never go near them - they don't click for me, although both have a large number of happy users.  Same for Reason


If you feel that you might like it, try it, they have demos and a free version.  I have had no desire to create a from scratch project in Studio One, but when I use it for mixdowns it feels quite natural.


Cheers


Grif
 

Jeff Evans


It is pretty well a stupid question to ask on a Sonar forum. You won't get a reasonable answer here, only one point of view. (and that might be from both sides too) 

I suggest you go away and do the research properly. See if you can watch an owner of both programs and maybe watch them using them. Get into the shops and work with both of them for a while and try and determine that for yourself.

Put the work in and find out yourself. There is no easy or lazy way to find out. Visit both websites and read all the info on both programs thoroughly. Read some reviews. 

I think you can download both demos and use them yourself. That is one very good way to find out as well. Test them both on the one machine and see how well they go. Read some other threads here.

I use both.

SONAR X2 made me switch from 8.5. I did not use X1, I disliked it.
(See my review/reasoning about SONAR X2 here.)

I use Studio One Professional almost exclusively for the Project View, for mastering and publishing (both to CD and to the 'Net). It's fantastic. 

So many times it's unique features that make someone choose one DAW over another. For example, editing Acidized files, MIDI plug-ins, step sequencing, and some of the pro channel modules are very important to what I do. Studio One Pro has fantastic "beat detective"-type features, and if I used Pro Tools primarily for Beat Detective, I'd probably switch to SOP. AudioSnap is not as developed as how SOP handles things, but AudioSnap does everything I need. Ditto V-Vocal, which gets a bad rap but if you really put some time into learning it, you can get great results (as to why there's not better documentation to help people get great results...that's another issue).

I have both programs. Sonar gets first call for creating and mixing music and narration, SOP gets first call for assembling and mastering. If I had to create and mix music in SOP and master in Sonar, I could do that - but I use programs whose feature set matches MY particular needs best. Everyone's needs are different, though.

I've always said asking someone to recommend a DAW is like asking someone to recommend a girlfriend