The Sound Board

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.