I would go logic if I ever left Sonar, but I don't like all their 3/4 circle controls. Cubase has always looked like crap to me.
 
I really like FL Studio's dark look and it does some things so well, like the best piano roll view, never having issues with notes being off, and the ability to really go nuts with plug ins.

DAW's are generally pig ugly looking things. Plugins, on the other hand....there are some beautiful GUI's among them. 

While I agree it would not win any beauty contest, you have to be aware the pictures are from a fully expanded view. You can collapse every module individual, per row or per strip. In practice you will only see some small strips above your meters, and only those modules expanded you use at that moment. The rows are divided in types, so you can open only all compressors at once, or eq etc. While I like the layout of Sonar more than Cubase, the layout of Cubase is not that bad. Tastes differ tough...

sharke


DAW's are generally pig ugly looking things. Plugins, on the other hand....there are some beautiful GUI's among them. 

Renoise is beautiful!!  And the new DP 8 is not bad imho!!  And I actually like the Cubase 7 new look.   Clean, streamlined, retro/modern imho!!  Here's one of a thousand Renoise themes...

I think that just goes to show how tastes can vary.... I think that looks awful.

FastBikerBoy


I think that just goes to show how tastes can vary.... I think that looks awful.

lol..

I like the new Cubase look too. And the renoise one. I prefer stuff like that and Ozone rather than graphics that look like real things- that terrible new buzzword skeumorphism...

Just had a look at the high resolution mixer screen shots for cubase 7. Whether it's good looking or not is up to personal taste ...

My problem would be the totally cluttered display with a thousand knobs on one page. In my new studio I'm using a 42" display mounted at the front wall (1.7m distance) to have nothing between me and my monitors. Works brilliantly with Sonar. Everything is just as readable as if you'd be sitting right in front of a 26" screen (especially with all that PC in place scrolling, show/hide features) ...

I doubt that would work with that Cubase mixer

OK, so I looked at this video for a quick insight into what I am "missing" with cubase... http://www.youtube.com/wa...ed&v=CfCWPHBqf_Q#!

CUBASE 7 NEW FEATUERS:

"Full screen mode for use across multiple monitors


view sets - customise what tracks are shown on the mixer


You can now add track icons in the mixer


access to headphone and monitor set up from the mixer


Quick access control - add plugins quickly from a browser"

W O W  Errrr, this is a joke right? LOL - that was only in the first minute and a half. 


I'm only pleased I chose what I believe to the most bang for buck DAW out there, not to mention this video has highlighted how much I take for granted in Sonar.  

Most graphic are cleaner and more direct “nicer” in SONAR X2 VS other DAWs but the overall color schema of Light GREY of the console view are far from the best. Lower the colors to a darker grey or black like Cubase, Pro Tools would be more preferably by many users.
 
*Icons are very handy tool SONAR has but now Cubase 7 adds icons too for visibility reason in large projects of track counts over +100 tracks. Logic has it already and in Pro Tools you can color any track so you can find it fast and easy in the MXIER page/Console view.
 
*SONAR only allow you be able to see maximum of 2 sends at the time and 3 inserts is not very helpful and very old and outdated. Pro Channel sounds good but I have still and use other 3part plugins that are far better mixing tools then the included Pro Channel.  
 
 
*Clips need to be continuously "resized" to fit the project "bars and beat" so it line up correctly. This is one bad thing that hasn’t been addressed in SONAR at all over the years. In Cubase, Logic, Pro tools this get line up and resized automatically.
 
*Key command CTR+D = Duplicate/copy doesn’t exist in SONAR. It’s a universal key command in all other DAWs and “copy” and line up clips in a very fast fashion.
 
*PRV tool/ Piano roll are very limited in SONAR compare to any other DAW. Try to edit a MIDI track that has track-lanes activated. Double click on Track1 , the second Track in the lane still show up in the background in Piano-Roll-View even though it is example muted? It is then very hard to edit or even see what note belong to each track in different track lanes...
 
*Retroactive recording doesn’t even exist in SONAR. Exist and very handy feature in Cubase.
 
*In SONAR working and making a “perfect take” is light years behind compare to other DAWs like Cubase and LOGIC. You still need to move it old fashion way, mute tool doesn’t really work in SONAR you can’t promote in tracks lanes etc. like in other DAWs.
 
    
*Downmix a Synth is just still so old and outdate in SONAR. You need to select both the MIDI track and the SYNTH AUDIO Track to down mix a SYNTH to a new audio track. In Cubase you just select the MIDI track of VST synth and the rest takes care automatically. Same behavior in LOGIC.
 
*Notation is full features in Cubase even if you don't need it or not. Sonar has a very simple one.
 
*Working and scoring for film projects with Cubase- Nuendo is full set of features first class experience. Anyone that has work with film with SONAR knows that it isn’t the same experience.
 
This is just small fraction of things that SONAR is still behind example Cubase. By saying all this, I still think SONAR is very potential program and very inspired to work with even with its flaws.
 
Thanks for listening.