Hi guys... to people who already jumped on different DAW, here's feature set of Sonar that makes my workflow. My question is, if you care enough to dig into details, what other DAWs support those features? Please answer only if you're sure you know your new DAW and their feature equivalents good enough. Also you can specify any alternatives if it makes sense, because I understand that it's not possible to carry exactly same feature set 1 by 1 from one DAW to another :) So, here we go:
 
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unlimited I/O, audio/MIDI tracks, busses and VSTs
opening 32bit VST in 64bit Sonar - essential feature for me
resonably good VST handling - I have read that even Steinberg's (who invented VST right?) Cubase is having issues with many VSTs (and no 32bit VST in 64bit host at all AFAIK) whereas Sonar seem to work fine with most I've tried so far
ability to switch off automatic VST scan during starup - very useful
plugin load balancing - that one is Sonar specific I believe... and it's awesome
 
Skylight interface - great docking/floating options, on/off switching and expand/collapse of different views with press of one key
dynamic control bar - efficiency vs economy
smart tool - ease of use... excellent feature
track templates, screensets
track folders
convenient interleave (mono/stereo), phase switch and input echo on/off switch on every track
quick group and smart swipe - editing across multiple tracks with one click... maybe not essential but very proficient
combined midi/audio tracks (make instrument track)
expandable fx & sends (in Inspector/Console view) - again not essential, but... ;)
patch points, aux tracks
mix recall - sooo useful
dim/exclusive solo - workflow! nearly essential
Snap To/Snap By switch - essential for me... does any other DAW have something like that?
copy entire clips as linked clips (siblings) - you can edit just one MIDI clip and the rest gets the same edits automatically
MIDI events chase on play
X-Ray feature
video handling
 
non-destructive audio & MIDI editing
Ripple editing
take lanes & speed comping - both highly essential
clips auto-crossfade
bounce to clip(s) - essential
audiosnap - transient-based audio editing... essential for me
Melodyne - ARA support, got it bundled with Sonar - great! How about other DAWs...?
drumreplacer - a great feature, and got it bundled with my DAW, no need to buy anything 3rd party! essential I think
vocalsync - bundled... again! essential (not going to pay for VocAlign alone same price as I paid for SPlat with lifetime upgrade)
clip FX rack (clip based fx) - nearly essential for me
clip/track: apply effects (process in-place) - very useful if not essential
freeze/unfreeze track - essential!
groove-clip looping functionality - essential I think
matrix view, step sequencer
sfz/rxp file handling
radius algo for pitch/strech audio - I find it of excellent quality!
export selection to audio - select clips/tracks and time region and export (bounce) to audio file
MIDI view/editing directly in Clip pane
step recording (MIDI)
quantize + swing ability - a must
groove quantize - awesome feature, especially when combined with audiosnap transient pool
Length/velocity scale - a must (in Sonar you have a command in menu but also you can drag clips/selected events with mouse)
find/change (interpolate), select by filter - both are very essential features for me
event list, markers and tempo editing
MIDI effects (mfx)
save as MIDI format 0 and 1
SysEx
CAL - I find it lifesaving sometimes! I know there's no alternative for that in the world... or is it?

ProChannel - Sonar exclusive, I know, but are there any good alternatives?
QuadCurve EQ - love this one not only for it's sound... in other DAW bundled EQ must have the spectrum analyzer
Tape Emulator
Tupe Saturation - it's great! and I got it bundled... ha!
FX Chains
Sonitus suite
Blue Tubes suite
L-Phase plugins/Adaptive limiter
AD2/Session Drummer 3 - a quality drum engine bundled with DAW
Cakewalk TTS-1 - quick lightweight GM module
Lounge Lizard - valuable rhodes piano bundled
Truepianos - valuable piano
Breverb Sonar - algo reverb of excellent quality bundled
Rematrix Solo - valuable convolution reverb (love this one)
z3ta+/Dimension Pro/Rapture - some (very) good synths
Tone2 Bifilter - a vintage filter!
 
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I'm pretty sure I still forgot about something, and I don't even try to mention every single feature here. There are many more like touch enable, lenses, surround mixing, theme editor, style dials or TH3, that other people may find necessary. The above are just those most important, lack of any of them, especially the essential ones, could break the workflow for me.
 
So thanks for your support and any reply highly appreciated. Cheers!

too much baggage...just get Studio One and a Faderport 8.
 
 
 
 

Gosh, I am trying Samplitude because of the $149 deal. It does many of the important stuff a DAW user needs.
To me what is most important, is not what Sonar does but what it cannot do.
And cannot do is the future.
If product development and coding adjustment is ceased altogether, then as time moves on Sonar will become a hassle to produce with. Say for instance Native Instruments releases new stuff. You find out it crashes in Sonar but nobody is there to fix it.

Thanks for the nice list.

A reminder of why I continue to use Sonar and have not just moped ship.

I will if/when the time ever comes, and hope that at least one of the others finally covers all bases for me.

Funny, but that is what first brought me to Cakewalk to begin with.

I was using Roger Powell's Texture program and enjoying it, but two things happened. Texture never completed a windows version (DOS only) and work I was doing at the time required me to move to windows... and then Texture closed down... so I got a then new copy of Cakewalk for Windows.

I've been here ever since!

Though for many this change is easier than for others. I've been a recording engineer from well before digital or even computer based midi sequencing. The tape years. I've watched numerous companies come and go. It happens. Not always because of bad products or company operation. Sometimes things fall the wrong way.

I'm very sad at this happening, but I know for the forseeable future, Sonar does everything I need to create music for myself and my clients. I'm frozen on a machine with windows 8.1 that cannot upgrade to 10...

For me, this is a better solution.

I have purchased Studio One. Downloaded the demo to start with, but have since bought it. First half hour I thought it was going to be a disaster - really couldn't figure out what I as doing and how to do things, but once I opened my mind a bit more from the "but Sonar does it this way" view, I'm loving it. Everything works well, I find a view features really useful, and it seems easier to navigate. All the cakewalk plugins and instruments except TruePianos have come across no problem (TruePianos shows up, but says it is Cakewalk locked. Fortunately you can just hide it in the list). It's cheap with a special crossgrade for Sonar users at the moment until the end of the month. It includes Melodyne Essential, 32 and 64 bit VSTs work, including VST2s. Not one crash so far with any plugins or anything I am doing. I was even able to map four identical midi drumsticks and have them all work at once which Sonar couldn't handle because it got confused by the four names being the same. Sad to see Sonar go, been with it since it was midi only cakewalk, then through HomeStudio 2002, and then onto various versions of Sonar, but to be honest, I am really enjoying Studio One and very happy. Looking at your list, I'm not going to reply to every item, and I can't vouch for everything perhaps, but there isn't much in it that I think StudioOne can't handle (except floating windows perhaps, but I prefer their approach now anyway). No, the smart selection tool isn't as good as Sonar. And I haven't figured out the autofade yet, but you can select a clip that overlaps another and simply select create crossfades to get yourself going quickly...
 
Of course, you may not find things the same as I did, but, give it a go, and promise to spend a couple of hours with an open mind, testing things you need like midi fx, groove quantizing, bouncing, crossfades, comping etc, and you may be surprised... 

When working on MIDI recorded performance, say it's a quick job for a client, sometimes what I need is to find (select) all CC#25 with values 0-127 on the track and change them to CC#50 with values 10-80. In sonar I can do it in just 2 steps using the interpolate (find/change) proces... 60sec and job done! Can I do something like this in Studio One? What other DAW would allow me to make such edit?
 
I'm trying to find another DAW that supports the most of my essential needs. Please bear with me ;)

Can be done in Studio One as well. CC data appears in the automation lanes. Each CC data will have its own lane. What you do is select the transform tool and then you do operations on that CC data. Like compressing down to values or ranges. Moving it all up or down etc. Making it all one value etc.. Its more of a visual thing in Studio One. 
 
There is a scale to the left and the lane can be expanded to various heights as well for more detail. In fact the transform tool is seriously powerful and can do all manner of things that Sonar can not even approach by just entering values. Because of the visual nature of what you are doing. Hard to explain until you see it in action.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnNrgME9POY
 
It applies to all data. Note information and all CC values too. You can view any number of CC lanes at once or individually. People's perception of Studio One's lesser midi capabilities is often misguided. 

cubase have everything for deep for midi and Score Studio one good for audio edit and mixing I think Studio one just like Cubase but midi can't compare Cubase
yes I use and have both I like Sonar some feature I have Sonar Platinum Steam version but now I learn Samplitud Pro X for midi edit it good for me sorry my english.

cubase have everything for deep for midi and Score Studio one good for audio edit and mixing I think Studio one just like Cubase but midi can't compare Cubase

Could you please explain. I see a hell lot of people say this but what exactly is S1 lacking in midi. Other than few extra features like chord track, chord assistant, note expression(which most daws dont have and can be easily lived without) Also S1 doesn't have event editor and cubase seems to handle external midi instruments better. Other than these i find everything in s1 perfectly crafted, as far as all midi editing and core midi functions I find the workflow of S1 better than Cubase. If there is more midi features in cubase I am not aware of please enlighten me. 

I have got a pretty powerful external instrument setup.  Apart from instrument definitions, Studio One handles all the external hardware beautifully.  I am not into instrument definitions anyway so I don't miss them.  Studio One can send program changes and bank changes etc anyway.  I tend to be changing the memories of my hardware instruments all the time. (as one really should) I don't just send a program change to a synth and expect the sound. I either create the patch or edit or dump user sounds in there. Or find a factory sound (maybe tweak it) and just leave it there and sequence it from Studio One.  All my synths will even remember the sound and the edit after turning off and back on again.  I transfer to audio when the midi parts are complete anyway. 
 
There is a third party app that can be added into Studio One that I think features an event list as well.  (not endorsed outright by Presonus but it works and is totally stable) To be honest I have survived without it.  People seem to think that you cannot unless it is there but in realty I would much rather be shifting things around visually than entering numbers. (takes me back to Dr T's!!)
 
Cubase and Logic are still deeper midi wise for sure but Studio One is still quite deep midi wise. Check out the video I linked above. (Transform Tool) Can Sonar do that stuff.  Somehow I doubt it. 
 
If there were major problems with external hardware believe me I would know about it.