Not looking for another boring DAW war here, but as a long-time Sonar and Cubase user (and Live novice), I find it pretty surprising that Sonar has such a small presence in the EDM/IDM arena and I'm always perplexed as to why. In my observations, there seems to be a lot of misinformation regarding Sonar's capabilities, features, workflow, etc. amongst electronica guys and it seems to be more of an afterthought compared to the competition (e.g., Cubase, Live, Logic, FLS, etc.). Also, the last few Sonar versions and, especially, the recent Sonar 8.5 upgrade included a bunch of new features and content that are squarely targeted at the EDM crowd, to the point of pissing off the non-EDM guys who dominate the Cakewalk forums, but I personally don't think Cakewalk is getting the message out because nobody on the EDM forums are talking about it.

Again, I hope this doesn't degenerate into a "which is the best DAW" or "DAW X sucks" thread, but I'd like to know what your experiences or impressions of Sonar are and, if you have tried it, why you decided not to go with it, or why you did if that's the case.

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I have no doubt of Sonar's abilities, the GUI is just a huge turn off to me and im sure for others too.

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Originally posted by meriter Your primary focus should be making good music. That's all. No one gives a shit how you do it. And the people that do are fags.

I dunno, I am happy enough with Live + Reason that I don't feel I need to check out anything else. I have never used Cubase, Sonar, or FL.

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Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles I dunno, I am happy enough with Live + Reason that I don't feel I need to check out anything else. I have never used Cubase, Sonar, or FL.

Along the same lines, Cubase suits me perfectly at the moment. I can quickly get in and get my ideas down. No current need to look at other sequencers.

Cryo, I notice you have both Cubase and Sonar in your list, what would your sales pitch be for an EDM producer currently using Cubase and mostly hardware? (though I have picked up a few more software synths recently due to group buys/special offers).

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Originally posted by Nightshift ...the GUI is just a huge turn off to me and im sure for others too.

That point gets raised a lot, even by long-time Sonar devotees. Me, I like its GUI, but it's a frequent point of contention on the Sonar forums. Besides, a lot of non-Sonar users probably don't realize that its GUI is highly customizable - possibly the most customizable DAW on the market. Everything from custom color schemes to configurable menu layouts. But a lot of people don't like the look of the buttons, which, aside from color and placement, are hardwired.

Also, don't get me wrong here - my intent with this thread isn't to convince anybody that they should run out and switch to Sonar. I'm mostly interested in knowing why it's so under-represented in EDM compared to its overall standing among the overall DAW market, where it's usually in the top 3 in terms of sales.

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Sonar Platinum | Ableton Live 9 | Logic Pro X | Access Virus TI2 Keyboard | Kurzweil PC3X | Nord Lead 4R | NI Maschine

Some of it may be due to Sonar being Windows only. A disproportionately large segment of the pro audio market uses Mac. Another may be due to Cakewalk having a poor reputation for a number of years this past decade. Thing have changed for the better but sometimes impressions can be hard to shake especially among established users.

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Originally posted by derail Cryo, I notice you have both Cubase and Sonar in your list, what would your sales pitch be for an EDM producer currently using Cubase and mostly hardware? (though I have picked up a few more software synths recently due to group buys/special offers).

As I just typed while you were typing this (!), my intent isn't to try to sell anybody on Sonar, but I will clear up any confusion where I can and offer my own opinions. Cubase and Sonar are obviously both great DAWs in their own way, but it's funny that you ask this question because it's the biggest reason that I decided to move primarily to Sonar a few years ago. I really like the way that Sonar handles hardware, particularly with instrument definitions, which allow you to access all of your hardware synth's patches and parameters in a very easy and intuitive way. Sonar also led the way in latency compensation a few versions back, but Cubase has leveled the playing field since.

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cryophonik.com | facebook | soundcloud

Sonar Platinum | Ableton Live 9 | Logic Pro X | Access Virus TI2 Keyboard | Kurzweil PC3X | Nord Lead 4R | NI Maschine

The Windows/Mac thing definitely makes sense, but I'm not sure that I agree with this:

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Originally posted by Eric J Another may be due to Cakewalk having a poor reputation for a number of years this past decade. Thing have changed for the better but sometimes impressions can be hard to shake especially among established users.

If that was the case, you'd expect to see Sonar's sales drop across the board, but its market share has increased dramatically over the past decade, even amongst fierce new competition. It only seems to have suffered in the EDM world - maybe EDM producers are just sorta out of the loop (pun intended) for one reason or another?

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cryophonik.com | facebook | soundcloud

Sonar Platinum | Ableton Live 9 | Logic Pro X | Access Virus TI2 Keyboard | Kurzweil PC3X | Nord Lead 4R | NI Maschine

i walked into guitar center 7 or 8 yrs ago and hadn't a clue what i needed to produce music. Cakewalk was running a special at that time and that's the ONLY reason i got it. I only had 1 other friend producing and he was in fruityloops. I don't regret my decision and lately i've been stem mixing in sonar, i've always liked it but they've never really reached out to the EDM circle... however didn't cakewalk just get bought out by roland?

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Originally posted by cryophonik The Windows/Mac thing definitely makes sense, but I'm not sure that I agree with this: If that was the case, you'd expect to see Sonar's sales drop across the board, but its market share has increased dramatically over the past decade, even amongst fierce new competition. It only seems to have suffered in the EDM world - maybe EDM producers are just sorta out of the loop (pun intended) for one reason or another?

That is what I was getting at. In the past decade (90's) before Sonar there was Cakewalk Professional and it was pretty much a joke compared to the other offerings of the time. In the current decade (2000's) Sonar is now a respctible product that can compete with similar offerings and therefore has increased market share. However I think that the reputation of the Cakewalk product of the (90's) still lingers in the minds of many.

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Originally posted by Zombie0729 ... however didn't cakewalk just get bought out by roland?

Well, actually Roland is "just" a major shareholder (i.e., Cakewalk is not a division of Roland) as of almost 2 years ago (January 2008 IIRC); however, the new products are all marketed as "Cakewalk by Roland"

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Sonar Platinum | Ableton Live 9 | Logic Pro X | Access Virus TI2 Keyboard | Kurzweil PC3X | Nord Lead 4R | NI Maschine

The UI is a total mindfuck. This is the reason no one uses it. I'd go as far as saying that Sonar is the most feature-packed DAW around, so it's not that.

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Originally posted by DJ Robby Rox I've never had a problem with FLs tech support till this day. (I've actually never used it till this day)

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Originally posted by floyd741 i think echosystm is a pretty cool guy. eh pwns robby rox and doesn't afraid of anything.