I see many people in this thread who are kind of panicking about what to use beyond sonar now that it's at EOL. Without trying to sound like a sales guy, I encourage you to try Mixcraft 8, it's come a long way since earlier versions and is every bit as capable as any daw on the market. I use it exclusively in a professional studio setting and have converted many sonar users.
If you have questions, ask away and I'll help you out as much as I can.

aidanodr

jackson white
 
@Anthony
 
Appreciate the comment, not familiar with Mixcraft, but trust you realize what you might be taking on. The bar has been raised pretty high for a certain class of users. Features, workflow and highly usable SONAR exclusive components will invite direct comparison. 
 
I'm looking into compiling a comprehensive feature by feature comparison for possible alternatives and will make a point to consider Mixcraft. 

I added this here in another thread JW:


We are spoiled with Sonar and such a high bar I think, right down to the UI. I tried MIXCRAFT for a while just to see, loading VSTs is not as intuitive to me as it is in Sonar. UI a bit "older" looking

I reckon Sonar will be hard to replace for me :( .. As I said elsehere .. I will wait and see where Sonar goes, I think it is not dead, its too good to be dead / not snapped up ... in my opinion!

And i love PROCHANNEL & the whole UI layout, Skylight interface

I haven't tried Mixcraft but I have heard good things. My issue is: do I really want to invest time and money in another DAW if that DAW might be the next to go under? I have no idea of the financial health of Acoustica, they may be in great shape for all we know. But how do we know which of the current DAW's have a good future? For all we know, any one of them might be the next to go under. So in deciding which should be your next DAW it might be worth taking that into account. 

I'm a lawyer.  I think there could be a basis for a class action.  

Fog

kitekrazy1
 My only issue with someone taking over Sonar is the licensing.  Over the years I spent more time using other DAWs. What I loved about Sonar is the authorization. They always had an "I trust you" attitude towards the end user.  I've always supported them based on this.  I have SPLAT installed on all of my systems. I doubt this flexible licensing would exist under Microsoft.  As with my Sony products they are on 2 machines.  When Magix decides to have a 2 machine authorization I will buy their licenses.

the trust model don't work, that simple.. sure makers expect you to maybe have a "funny" version for a year or 2, but they do expect you to say.. "i like doing this.. I'll buy into it"  . hence why DAW makers are so keen to go after students. sure you can do the "stack it high, sell it cheap" model reaper does, but that also affects dev costs.
 
if you had a a dev company, would you put it down to trust ? I wouldn't .. as I know we are in an era moreso than ever where people are "what, I have to pay for this ?"  . same with albums etc. and look at how low cost they are compared.
 
I'm not a fan of elicenser / ilok.. but I've got great software that I can only get by using them.. and I know that my payment is going to help devs.. not those wanting a free ride for 6+ years.
 

There are a number of companies that do this.  Cakewalk did for 20+ years.  To say "trust" doesn't work is a fallacy.  
 
Reaper's whole business model lets you download the full blown product and then assumes you will buy it if you continue to use it.  

I'm still in shock.
I know I'll never buy anything from Gibson brands if they don't resolve the activation for us paying customers.
I brought the lifetime pass and I feel really shafted.

Whatever happens, may iZotope never come to own Cakewalk.  Despite how good it would be for the Prochannel, their pricing and customer gouging are abhorrent.  They would charge us $250+ every 6 months for negligible product improvements supposedly constituting a new version of the DAW.
 
They are also wont to abandon products at the drop of a hat.

Someone here guessed exactly right! 
 
They said as soon as Gibson take over, they're going to ruin Cakewalk totally, that's according their history of ruining every company they took over.

So sad....
 
Thank you Sonar, hope you will survive!!!! All my thoughts to Cakewalk's teams
 
**** YOU GIBSON, **** YOU!!!!!!!

Just here to pay my respects, as it were.  I switched from Sonar in about 2010 to Cubase, but there's things about Sonar I prefer to this day.  Also TBH I looked jealously at how development seems to have been in the past few years in particular, it seemed an unusually good relationship between company and users.  Not quite so with Steinberg (and definitely not with Avid).  So double well wishes go out to those employees who made that happen, and are now redundant.
 
Obviously as many have said, getting a version where the license will work without further online authorisation when reinstalling etc would be good - as a community that would seem to be something to push for, if it is indeed possible to push for anything.  I don't think anyone should rush off to buy another DAW right away, but starting your research now wouldn't hurt - FWIW I'd say just take plenty of time, wait for when you're quiet between projects, try some trial versions etc.  Every DAW out there has its strengths and its weaknesses... in the end Cubase turned out to be considerably better for me than Sonar, but as I've said certainly not in all areas.  And have to say - the learning curve going elsewhere really isn't my idea of fun.
 
I'm genuinely saddened by the end of Sonar, and feel for every one of you who is feeling bereft at the moment.

Gibson's genius vision / leadership strikes again.... what else will they acquire... so they can run it into a ditch?
The mishandling of this asset lays squarely on the shoulders of Gibson's leadership.
 
Sadly, -we smelled this when they promoted "lifetime" licenses last year.
When Craig "bowed out" it was like "Duck!  Incoming!"
 
'tis sad... Sonar is great software.
 
I have defended Sonar, for years, against the "pro tools is the only pro level DAW" crowd.
I now have a lot of data that will have to be dealt with eventually.... what a pain.
 
I hope that the software brainpower behind Cakewalk lands on their feet...they have done good work...