gbarrett
Well then, Logic Pro it is!  With Windows so inconsistent, I cannot afford to lose money from clients because Microsoft decided they had a better idea for my system and implement it without asking.  Yeah, I know they have supposedly changed the update process, but it's not the first time they have said that. 

As a Windows user and even longer-time Mac user, all I can say is...don't believe the hype. The Mac of 2017 is different from the Mac of 2007. I wait much longer to update my Mac computers compared to my Windows computers because between plug-in manufacturers having to scramble to catch up, the moving of goalposts (just ask any developer), and the wi-fi fiasco in a previous update, I've learned my lesson. Don't update your Mac until you get the all-clear signal, which can take awhile.
 
This isn't to bash the Mac, Apple usually gets it right eventually. I'm just trying to be realistic.
 
Frankly at this point, I'm getting more consistent initial results from Window updates than Mac OS updates. I assume when Apple does their desktop makeover in 2018 they'll tie up some of the loose ends in the OS and with Logic Pro X, but for now, Windows 10 + SONAR is running pretty much flawlessly. 

I've been running both Sonar on a windows 10 machine and Logic Pro on my MBP literally side by side for more than a year.  The MBP has never crashed during a live set or a recording project.  Countless times the windows machine crashes or locks up - and Sonar is the only app apart from plugins on that machine besides the OS.  I HAD to go to Mac because of losing revenue with Windows.  It's too common to walk in to do a session and find that Microsoft had installed updates that rendered a driver, codec, or some other file inactive that prohibited the machine from running Sonar in a stable manner.  It gets embarrassing with paying customers waiting on you to download some new file to keep an audio interface running or re-install a softsynth.  You get the idea.  With Mac, I have always been able to postpone any updates until it fit my schedule. 
 
My problem isn't with Sonar, it's with Windows.

millzy

Not have to deal with Windows is always a HUGE bonus for me.

Once you're running Bootcamp and Windows, you are essentially running a PC - albeit, a very fancy (and underpowered) PC. Not a very exciting perspective.

For me, it's just not worth the hassle.

I would run a native version of Sonar (admitting that I didn't have to upgrade OS) on my Mac anytime. But even though I sometimes would have liked having access to Sonar, I never seriously considered Bootcamp since I switched in 2010.

 
I get the hassle of having to install Windows, then Sonar, but are there really performance issues? When you say 'underpowered', does running Windows on a Mac somehow downgrade the performance of the Mac? Sorry, still trying to understand apart from the hassle of installing another OS on the machine, what the Bootcamp issues are. 

I've been running under boot camp for a few years now and if this is underpowered, I love it.

I don't care for OSX, but it's there if I want/need it. Currently my only need is for transferring music/pics from my iPads...

Starise
I don't regularly delve into the inner workings of a software program, especially one as complicated as Sonar, so I hope you'll pardon me for not understanding why we can't have both versions? I CAN understand it not being financially viable. I don't see why this was insurmountable technically when we have several other DAW software companies that did it successfully.
 
Is it the way Sonar was made from the ground up? Apples to oranges kind of thing. If we have a program to merge the two, maybe compatibility was what killed the idea.
 
What makes some competitors software better suited to multi porting? Writing two distinct copies from the ground up? If so, why not write a Mac copy from the ground up? My hunch is that this was very expensive and not really viable in light of sales projections. I had hoped it could be done, even if it was a more simplistic version if only for the sake of having that market open.
 
If you spent most of your life for the last 6 months on this project I'm sure you're way more deflated than the rest of us. I don't use a Mac but I'm sympathetic to those who intended to do so. I really hope some kind of a truce can be reached for those who invested in the software thinking it would be used on Mac. 
 
Where do we go from here?
 
If you really like Sonar why let a platform hold you back?

In a couple of words, the difference is "available expertise".

Personally, I'm glad the Big Experiment is over, with apologies to the Mac-heads out there.

I am a Microsoft SQL Server database administrator and programmer by trade and I've always believed it is better to be GREAT at one thing than to be just "OK" at more than one thing.  When I think "Windows DAW", I think SONAR and that is a testament (at least to me) of where the success of Cakewalk lies and depends.

You can use it just fine as a field recorder. The cpu usage for that case is low. Any i nterface can be used as well with low latency.

blazingedgepro
...If the Sonar Mac Prototype just allows me to plug in an audio interface and record something, then that's all I really need it do...
 
Shayne

It will do that just fine. The audio hw side uses whatever the Mac audio configuration is set for. CodeWeavers exposes that to us as an ASIO interface.

The higher cpu issue only is a factor when adding several effects. For recording it is comparable to native apps.

My advice is to just try it out.

C Hudson

Sanderxpander

But the main thing I find baffling from your post is the assertion that updates don't break anything on OSX, because in my experience OSX updates break things far more often than Windows updates do. I get emails from Native Instruments multiple times a year to please wait with updating my OSX because they need to adapt a driver or an installer or a program. If there is anything Apple deliberately doesn't care for it's backwards compatibility, because it messes with their business model - they sell hardware, primarily. They need you to update every so few years. Microsoft makes an OS that they and it's in their interest to make and keep it compatible with as much hardware and software as they can feasibly ensure.

FWIW, my wife's 2010 MacBook pro runs sierra just as smooth as butter. It obviously lacks in the raw computing power of a modern machine, which shows in video render time,but the point is, a 7 year old laptop can run the latest OS on the mac side and it be very usable. Try running a 7 year old PC with the latest versions of windows. Sludgefest. Not a pleasant experience at all. This kind of throws a wrench into your argument that Apple does not care about backwards compatibility where as MS do. Not the case. MS continues to add more layers of bloat until you need a new machine to have a decent experience just checking email. NI have only given me warnings when OSX went to new point releases. Never on an update. You might own different products though so that might be why.
I've had 3 windows 10 machines perform an update then boot to a blackscreen, requiring a complete reinstall/reimage. Never experienced anything like that on Mac.
Consistency is why I went to the dark side. Professionally, Im not concerned joe blows PC can run 350 compressors and mine only 325. If joe blow updates his video card, his 350 could turn into 275. Not looking back now. In 3 years my Mac's have never let me down. I know lots of guys have great success with PC's too, many on here in fact. Bottom line , they all want your $$   :)
 

That's ridiculous, Windows 10 runs faster than Windows XP. Old computers get a huge benefit from going to 10 over Vista and 7. I don't know what happened for you but I cannot corroborate this experience at all. Additionally, virtually ALL of my Mac using friends (and that's basically everyone as Mac is very prevalent in the Dutch music scenes) have upgraded their older Macs to SSDs because they "were getting so slow". I don't think this is a case of one beating the other because all computers age and perception of speed also changes compared to newer hardware, but it's a simple fact that Mac OS (and iOS) upgrades obsolete hardware in a way that almost never happens to Windows. Most Windows 7 drivers work on Windows 10, even.

As for updates and point releases, that may be a semantics issue. I call point releases updates too considering how often Mac drops them. If you're fine sticking with Tiger that doesn't bother me, assuming you can find any apps that will still install on it.

I'm afraid your and my experiences are polar opposite. Windows 10 is a POS in my opinion. I've witnessed and had to fix way to many boxes with that OS on it , and the problem traced back to it,to be even close to use that in any professional environment.
Not sure what the Tiger reference was about, immaturity maybe? I said Sierra.
I won't be childish and call your claims "ridiculous " . I'm not changing your mind and you certainly are not changing mine.

gbarrett
I've been running both Sonar on a windows 10 machine and Logic Pro on my MBP literally side by side for more than a year.  The MBP has never crashed during a live set or a recording project.  Countless times the windows machine crashes or locks up - and Sonar is the only app apart from plugins on that machine besides the OS.  I HAD to go to Mac because of losing revenue with Windows.  It's too common to walk in to do a session and find that Microsoft had installed updates that rendered a driver, codec, or some other file inactive that prohibited the machine from running Sonar in a stable manner.  It gets embarrassing with paying customers waiting on you to download some new file to keep an audio interface running or re-install a softsynth.  You get the idea.  With Mac, I have always been able to postpone any updates until it fit my schedule. 
 
My problem isn't with Sonar, it's with Windows.

OT, but I'm surprised you didn't disable the Windows Update service. I've been running my DAW on the initial release of Windows 10 and it's been rock solid. For a workhorse production computer that only connects to the 'net in order to update SONAR, it's been rock solid.
 
I mean, if you like SONAR... but regardless, use what works for you, and good luck!