Im positive Sonar will be use able for quite some time. However, I just purchased and am downloading Studio One V3.5 because it is on sale for $100 less than the cross grade price. Plus I just bought Console One so there is that.
 
$199? I'm in.

what about pro tools or logic pro or ableton live?
 

To answer a previous question, yes Mixbus runs Waves vst (but not VST3).  Also runs UAD Powered plugins as well.  And VSTi's.  Not as refined as Sonar but very usable and easy to get a good sounding mix quickly.

I recently purchased a Presonus Studio 192 audio interface
It came with a lite version of Studio One 3
The integration with the hardware seems very cool.
 
My thought was to track live into Studio One and then transfer the tracks into my DAW of choice for the past 17 years, SONAR
Now it looks like I'll be upgrading to Studio One 3 Professional.
 
I was about to cancel my subscription to Groove 3
I guess I have some instructional videos to start watching now. 
 
I realize that SONAR will continue to work , but it's like working in a relationship with a woman that has told you she's definitely going to leave. 
 
Time to move on.
 

As many have said, Sonar will continue to work for years to come and no need to rush into another daw as most have free demos you can try out. Good timing though with Cake's demise as there will be a lot of sales going on this time of year.
 
For me, I jumped ship about a year ago passing on the lifetime updates and moved to FL Studio after trying out most other daws, mainly because I like the workflow a lot better and it comes with lifetime updates without paying extra. I also like that it has a very active and helpful community, and there is a constant interaction with the developers on updates. It's a family run business and has one of the largest user bases, so I don't see them going away anytime soon. You can also install on as many computers as you like, no limit. It's not for everyone, but there is a free demo with access to all the included plugins and 40+ demo projects.
 
My second choice for a daw is Cubase which I have the elements version if you want a more traditional workflow. Just wish they would do away with the dongle approach. I also have Abelton and PreSonus, but  don't use them at all.

Rather than panic and jump ship, would we not be better off staying as a collective force and market potential.
This might induce an investment or collaboration from other developers.
 I don't know how that would work in practice but would need a high profile cakewalk representative to head and manage.
Any other ideas?
Shame to let the Titanic of music production sink🚾

I panicked and purchased Studio One.
Now you can get it under $200.
 

batsbrew

bitflipper
You all seem to be working from the assumption that SONAR is going to stop working on Friday. It won't.

i am four weeks from pulling the trigger on a brand new PC for recording.
 
do i put a dead end DAW on it?
 
or buy the latest version of sonar and do what i've done for the last almost 10 years? (i use sonar 6 professional on a win xp system, and it works just fine.)
 

Same here.  Just weeks away from a new PC and was really hoping to finally get Sonar...I'm using Home Studio 2 from like, 2002 or something, running on Windows XP.  
 
I was hoping to keep this PC offline, always an isolated recording box, so I could load Sonar without fear and just let it work for 10 years or so.  But...that just seems stupid...

Seems like there will be more than enough time to digest this sad state of affairs and plan your next move. I have used both Sonar and S1 for many years. For stuff I wanted to bring over into S1 it was easy to export wave and midi stems and rebuild it (noted earlier in this thread). That's really something you should consider doing when a DAW is no longer supported. I would not want to wait too long in case some Windows update or driver update comes along and you get stuck. No need to panik now but just think about at least getting your tracks exported sometime soon so that whatever new DAW you go with, you will be ready to import that data. 
 
Also, remember to either freeze your tracks with the EFX applied or note the 3rd party plugs you used. Panup was right in stating your 3rd party plug presets can be saved for later. For your tracks using Sonor's built in EFX that cannot be used by other DAWS, you will need to freeze those tracks of course if you want to keep the sound intact. 
 
I have loved working with both DAWS and am very happy to have moved to S1 Pro. It has its own set of great features and so does Sonar. If you are looking for another DAW, think about what features you really need and demo the heck out of it. S1 is on sale now at a great price so that can help if you think it will work for you.
 
 
 

https://www.audiodeluxe.com/products/presonus-studio-one-3-professional
 
if you're logged in you'll see it come in under 200 shekels. 
 
I'm not going to jump on that as I'm not quite that trigger-happy but I do have an old version of Artist which I can update to Artist 3 for a whisker over 20 beans in the same sale, that seems like a reasonable move just for insurance purposes. I never spent much time with it but I gather some people like it a lot so good to keep a foot in the door, I can play around with it and see if we get along. They have fairly regular sales so moving up to the flagship is always an option. 
 
Ableton looks to be on solid ground for the moment, as mentioned elsewhere I was at their Loop conference last weekend here in Berlin (I have some friends in the company) and it was great, I saw and heard some very cool things, there are a lot of creative people in the world and that community is a pretty good example. I'm keeping a foot in the door there as well. The upcoming version (Live 10) looks pretty spiffy. 
 
I have also always had a soft spot for Reason and was already toying with upgrading from my old license (7) as there's a lot of new stuff there at this point. It's a fun, creative environment, some great new instruments, Blocks are cool, the built-in time-stretching thing is kind of wild. Would miss many things about Sonar but there are many other toys there to distract me from that, and with VST on board now... 
 
Reaper would be the only other one that would tempt me, again I've installed it and looked it over but never done any work in it (or bought a license). I gather it's pretty full-featured at this point. 
 
Plus, as others have said, Sonar ain't dead yet, it still works here. But for how long? For... how... long? (Sorry, just felt like channeling William Shatner was the thing to do there)