Well,
Now that I have moved on to Studio One 3 professional software, I'd like to thank all of the helpful folks in this forum who have guided me over the years with Cakewalk/Sonar.  I bought the very first DOS based version of the software and have owned every version since then.  Those of you who have contributed to the improvements of the software by airing you concerns and complaints with Twelve Tone/Cakewalk at every release made the program what it is today.  I have watched the fan boys who ardently defended the company whenever one of you pushed back on a lack of hardware support or the lack of functionality decry your critical posts, yet you kept demanding more for your money from the bakers.  It is you dyed in the wool users and beta testers who should have pride in what Sonar became.  Thank you for answering all of my stupid questions and helping me make music when the software wasn't quite perfect or when I just didn't understand it.  You guys are the best.  Good luck to you all in everything you do.  Oh, and I would be remiss if I didn't thank Greg Hendershott.  The man who not only started it all but who even answered emails from schmucks like me.  Thanks for all you did Greg.
Barry

Me too. Since dos, about to do S1. 
Looking back at the last two years, I'm amazed at the growth of sonar, what they accomplished, because none of the other daws available today are as outstanding as sonar… I know there's a 30-year comfort factor, but after demoing many of the contenders, I still feel that sonar is the most accessible, intuitive daw around. 

Hi Barry,
 
You and I are on similar routes, past and present.  We even joined this forum in the same month/year, LOL!
 
I bought S1 as a safety net, but so far, I'm finding it difficult to move off of SPlat.  I think I'll just stick with it as long as possible...
 
Maybe I'll see you over at the S1 forums!  Also, I will try to be a nuisance at the offshoot forums.  (Can't remember the first one, but the second one I have bookmarked as "Bapu's Tax Write-off Domain", which must be its legal name... I could be wrong).

See you there JonD. dlion16 I agree with you on Sonar.  Too bad the company made so many mistakes on the business side.

I agree completely bnwitt.
 
I started with Pro Audio 9 and ended with Splat.  I have moved on to S1 also.  I am slowly learning S1 wishing that it had some of the features of Splat.  But I have stopped using Splat because I  feel it is dead.  Even if someone buys it a lot of us have moved on and many may not come back, thus limiting an already low customer base. YMMV

MarioD
I agree completely bnwitt.
 
I started with Pro Audio 9 and ended with Splat.  I have moved on to S1 also.  I am slowly learning S1 wishing that it had some of the features of Splat.  But I have stopped using Splat because I  feel it is dead.  Even if someone buys it a lot of us have moved on and many may not come back, thus limiting an already low customer base. YMMV

Similar story. Started out with Pro Audio and ended with Splat as well.
I really enjoyed Pro Audio 9 a lot and used it for a long time, skipping over newer versions of Sonar.
Jumped back on with Sonar 8 and continued thru Splat and using every version of the X series.
 
I haven't jumped ship yet. im in the middle of too many projects.
I have purchased S1 as well. I really liked Reaper too but when it came down to it, S1 really caught my eye.
 

Another "me too" here. Started out with Pro Audio 8 and it looks like I'll be ending things with SPlat. But only in terms of buying CW products. As long as I can make music with SPlat, I will continue to do so. I have a copy of S1v3 and it's a nice product, which I find to be more intuitive than Sonar. But I'm old school in one important way: I compose and arrange on the staff, so this is one feature I've always been glad that CW kept in subsequent releases. S1v3 doesn't have any staff capabilities, although if one owns a copy of their latest version of Notion, it can be used as a rewire device with their latest version of S1. All it takes is more money.
 
Meanwhile, I kept hearing this one word that always brings up images of that brief but very cool Scifi series, "Firefly": Reaper. So the other day I finally decide to look them up, and I d/l a demo version and have a look around. Well, first thing I can say is it isn't as intuitive as S1. More like Sonar in that regard. And when I attempt to load a MIDI file into Reaper I hit my first roadblock. I mean, why do they have to make it so complicated to load a MIDI file for pete's sake? I finally figure out how to do it and it still mystifies me why it had to be so complicated, but one thing it did force me to do was assign instruments and/or VSTis right off the bat -- something I probably would have wanted to do anyway. Reaper has a rather minimalist appearance for the most part -- except for its staff view, which looks quite robust. I'm loving that much already at least. But even though it may appear rather minimalist, what I'm discovering is there exists a healthy amount of flexibility and customizability lurking just beneath the surface. So this is definitely a product I'm gonna have to spend some more time with. But it won't be wasted time spent on a package I can not easily afford. One of the really big things Reaper has going for it is its price, which is incredibly low, compared to . . . well, everybody.
 
So if I feel the real need to retire Sonar someday, I hope that I will have gotten comfortable enough with another product where I can sidestep into it with minimal disruptions. And right now, it looks like it just might be Reaper. Now, if I can just get past that name!

What sealed the deal with Studio One was the Ara integration with Melodyne. I had also tinkered with the Artist version 1 and 2 when the X series came out. Should have probably jumped then, but still glad I stuck around for the ride. I learned lots from this fine forum.

Started on Cakelive for DOS. Finished on Platinum. Another who has moved on to S1. As others have said, very unlikely to come back now. Absolutely no complaints though - Sonar has been good to me:) 

Starting on the Shareware Cakewalk for DOS and still on SPlat!
 
Moving over to S1 and Cubase very slowly....
 
Bassman.