I hesitated to post this because any reference to hip-hop often is an invite for ignorant comments. It's not for me.  My son and his friends have been getting into hip-hop and have been experimenting with various methods.  They asked about Sonar, but like many who try to use Sonar for hip-hop, they found the workflow very non-intuitive for such things in comparison to other programs.  I know, one can create just about any genre of music on any DAW, but i would be lying if i said Sonar was ideal for this task based on my experience.  The irony of this is that there are many who complain that Cakewalk is focusing on dance and loop based production which is pure nonsense.   Most of the additions to X2 were not geared towards any genre or style of music.  i can also say with certainty that the hip-hop producer using Sonar is likely to be just as frustrated as the guy who feels the staff view features fall short.

Anyway, i have found a few tutorials on youtube, but most (if not all) are by guys who definitely are not hip-hop producers.  regardless of your opinions on hip-hop, most concede with any genre there is a huge difference between the person who loves and breathes the genre and the person who knows the theory behind it but just dabbles. It all may sound alike to you, but there is a reason why some producers are getting 7 figures per song and some are selling "beats" for $25.

I'm capable of putting together a hip-hop song in Sonar.  It's rare when I have to because 99% of the time in my job, the song is already created.  I know when i do, it seems to take me a lot longer than my son and his friends using other methods and the results are mixed

Recording techniques sonar and in other programs are not genre dependent. Depending on how you prefer to write music and record, i would do drums first, then bass or sub bass, then keys/synths and then any other instruments and then vocals. I tried to do vocals last, but not all the time. FTYI - I don't like the staff view for recording and writing, but to each their own.
 
Just find what you feel comfortable with and go with it

???

Why wouldn't Sonar be good for hip hop? I managed to toss together some loops and stuff the first week I had it and I had never done ANYTHING loop based before. Drag some beats and loops into the TV and go to town.

Maybe I'm missing something. :-/

Cjay, thanks for responding, but despite agreeing with you in principle and as far as recording vocals and acoustic instruments there is no problem. I have to say experience and the experience of others in this area paints a different picture imo. I'm not trying to slam Sonar. i love Sonar  In fact, i am taking the path of "maybe it's just me" and asking for someone who actually creates hip-hop on par with the current standard to step forward and perhaps show me where i am going wrong. i find instrument based projects are much easier than trying to create an MPC "boom bap" type project.  I'm trying to avoid naming other software, but my son and his friends seem to be able to crank out stuff without even using the manual in a particular program and flounder when trying to use Sonar.  these kids are A students and decent young musicians.

I do create and mix hip hop music and ive been doing it for years in sonar. Its very easy in sonar. soanr is not your problem if you cannot do it.

Beepster, i didn't say Sonar was not good for creating hip-hop.  I knew a guy in Toronto that created a pretty credible sounding hip-hop song by chopping up stuff in a wave editor.  It took him a week to make a simple beat but it worked. Anybody can throw together loops and create a "hip-hop" beat that sounds ok to them, but would be unlikely to impress someone that actually listens to hip-hop. Even in loop based hip hop production it tends to go way past simply stacking loops. If we take a sample based producer like 9th Wonder or madlib, and break down their process, their samples are going to be chopped, rearranged, re-sampled   and manipulated in a way that turns that loop into several elements for sound sources and rarely just played straight. 

Cjay.  i did not say i could not do it.  i said that i find the workflow for it in Sonar less intuitive than other methods.  But since you do create hip-hop, perhaps you can help. How would you go about creating flipping a sample MPC style where the elements of that sample are chopped and  mapped across keys?

Yeah... that's what I did. I mean it wasn't anything special but it was my first go. With the Matrix I'm sure I could come up with some crazy stuff.

I think the only DAWs from what I've read or seen demos of that could probably top Sonar for ease of use in that scenario are Ableton and maybe FL Studio. And if that's what the kids have that's probably for the best however if they were bent on using Sonar for this purpose I'd imagine the Matrix is where they'd want to focus their attention. It really does seem to be Cakewalk's answer to the Ableton conundrum. I'm also assuming Producer's mixing/mastering stuff probably beats those programs but I don't know.

Just sayin'. Cheers.

Beepster thanks.  the matrix is cool, but what gives ableton a leg up in that one particular area is the tight integration of it's matrix style sequencer with it's built in sampler.  The kids are currently on the Fl train.  Sonar's mixing and mastering does beat those programs imo.

Beepster thanks.  the matrix is cool, but what gives ableton a leg up in that one particular area is the tight integration of it's matrix style sequencer with it's built in sampler.  The kids are currently on the Fl train.  Sonar's mixing and mastering does beat those programs imo.