I am another Sonar user. I started with Cakewalk when it was Pro Audio thus I have been with this DAW a very long time.

I will try to answer your questions individually.

1- availability of VST’s – not a problem as there are thousands of third party VST’s and VSTi’s available – some are free.

2+3 – price and value for money – that depends on what the buyer is looking for – the best buy DAW based on this criteria is RB – it’s free – Note that I do not upgrade my DAW every year – my last version of Sonar I had for 5-6 years so you have to include things like update costs in your evaluation.

4- ease of workflow – I believe that comes with familiarity of your DAW – I can work very rapidly in Sonar wear as I come to a grinding halt in RB because of this.

5- capability/feature – I work mostly in MIDI and Cakewalk’s products have been the leader in this field for a long time – Sonar X3d also excels in audio production also.

In another thread about changing DAWs I posted something like this: If you have a favorite DAW then use that DAW. However if you don’t then use RB. You already have it and it will probably do everything you need it to do. If you run into something that you need to do in RB but can’t then and only then should you start looking for another DAW.

When you are at the checkout line and they ask if you found everything say "Why, are you hiding stuff?"

64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware