Title says it all. We knew this was coming. It will be a serious competitor for sonar now, as Cakewalk continues to back-burner requests for improvements to notation. I will certainly be buying reaper as soon as it's ready. I have never used any DAW but sonar. So it will be a big jump, but I pick things up quickly. I have never made the jump beyond sonar 8.5.3. I didn't see the later versions as containing anything for me, and I especially don't care for the new monthly update scheme. If Reaper works out for me, I will finally be able to stay current with my DAW. And maybe even use it in Linux! But if I don't like it, I know I can stay with sonar 8.5.3. and I'm only out 60.00.

Reaper has some strengths that I like. I own it, but as for now I don't use it. I couldn't care less about about Notation in my DAW.
 
ATM I'm a bit more interested in what is coming in Studio One 3.2
 
But even that will not stop SONAR Platinum as my main DAW.
 
I hope you find what you're looking for Michael.

I have, Reaper, Samplitude, PT12, Studio One 3 and Sonar Platinum. They all have their strengths.

I wouldn't be so quick to jump ship just yet. How do you know that the notation will be any better than the one in Sonar? Of course, someone would say it couldn't be any worse!

mudgel
I have, Reaper, Samplitude, PT12, Studio One 3 and Sonar Platinum. They all have their strengths.

+1
Sonar Platinum is my primary DAW software... but I like having multiple applications in the "toolbox".
 

I completely agree...

I never want to be a "one trick pony". 

Things change at a moments notice...and I like at least 
knowing my way around in other DAW's somewhat...

As I said, I can always come back to sonar, and 60.00 is not a big deal. It won't really be ready for awhile anyway. But there is a tremendous buzz on their forum, back and forth between the devs and users, very good communication there. Most of what they are talking about is beyond me, but it seems to be shaping up nicely and quickly. My situation is that sonar 8.5.3 is obviously dated. I'm not interested in the later versions. I'm also going to be moving to Linux at some point as windows has also lost me. I use Linux exclusively now for everything but music. Still need Windows for sonar of course. But Reaper's ability to work in Linux will be another reason to switch for me. On the other hand, sonar still works fine for what I do, and may prove to be better. But like many have said, no reason to use only one. It's time I tried something else, if only to rattle my aging brain cells.

Michael,
 
On Linux you can also use Harrison's Mixbus 3. But I'm sure you knew that.

Right Ed/Bapu, and also Bitwig, Ardour, Renoise and a bunch more. But to my knowledge, only Rosegarden has a notation editor. And that is a difficult monkey to tame, from what I've heard.  Thus my interest in Reaper. It runs now in wine, and the devs do seem interested in making it Linux-native. Again, my situation is that I'm using Windows only for music. And Windows 7 EOL's in four years. That's why I'm using Linux for everything else, so I'll be ready. I have completely lost confidence in Microsoft. And Linux is wicked fun. Just not so much for music. But I'm thinking that will change in four years. Got to be looking to the future!

Well, I downloaded Reaper for the first time. Not a very intuitive DAW. I can't get my Garritan Aria player to work right with it, and so far not much help from their forum. But I'll stick with it, I'm sure it can be done. I probably was just as confused with sonar at first!