Cakewalk Sonar returns

[Guy Rowland]

Funny old world. Sonar was replaced by the free Bandlab DAW several years ago. But this is now to be phased out, to be replaced by two new DAWs - Cakewalk Sonar - https://www.cakewalk.com/sonar and Cakewalk Next - https://www.cakewalk.com/next . Apparently Sonar will be backwards compatible with old Sonar projects and will be an updated fully-featured Windows-only DAW, Next is an easy to use cross-platform thing.

All this is "coming soon". Both will be paid products, but no word yet on pricing.

[dbh]

Interesting. I was on Sonar until moving to Cubase around 10 years ago because I was concerned they were chasing the EDM market too heavily and neglecting stuff useful for media composers. There are still parts of it I miss but I doubt I'd be tempted back, however, I'll keep an eye on it so thanks for the heads up Guy.

[Guy Rowland]

Welcome dbh - we trod very similar paths. It was mostly because of some of the midi features in Cubase that I migrated across, controlling midi CCs over EuCon and silly yet important things like being able to have very narrow track widths still with readable names. But I remember being very grumpy with Cubase for a long time because I was so used to the Sonar way of doing things, none of which I can now remember.

The X series seemed pretty slick, it'll be interesting to see where the new owners take it, though it's a tough market now. Think pricing will need to be very competitive with their listed feature-set - solid but nothing particularly distinguishing.

[wst3]

I started my Windows adventures with Cakewalk Pro Audio 10, courtesy of my employer at the time. I was quickly drafted as a beta tester for CWPA11, which was renamed Sonar before it went to market. I really enjoyed being part of the beta team, and Cakewalk took it very seriously. I stayed on Sonar until the bitter end and beyond (hey, I kept my poor Amiga going for years after Commodore went under). I had been toying around with Cubase, DP, and Studio One, and settled on Studio One. I have kept my copy of Cakewalk By Bandlab current, and still use it from time to time.

I have great faith in the development team, so I will keep my eye on this, but I don't think I am ready to switch again.

[playz123]

I can’t help but wonder about the logic (no pun intended) behind this attempt to restart or redevelop another DAW at this time. DAW users currently have a number of good products from which to choose, so what will make this new/old product so different and so special that one might be tempted to switch or consider it? Nostalgia? Features that no other DAW has? I think the latter especially might be very hard to achieve now. In any case, I wish the developers much success, and I guess it remains to be seen if this venture will be successful or not.

[wst3]

For me the greatest feature, and the reason I still use it, albeit only part time, is familiarity, I've been using Sonar for going on 22 years now (is that even possible?) Even when they add a new feature (e.g. their version of articulation maps) it is simple and quick to get my head around it. That's a feature that is quite difficult to find, especially as these tools become evermore complex.

Is it enough? I guess time will tell.