I'm sorry, but Sonar X1 is the baddest thing out there, or will be when it comes out. Especially on PC. For everything the producer version will have packed in it, it can't be beat.
Go ahead and buy Sonar 8.5 PE, as the upgrade to X1 will be free anyway.
Why it beats FL Studio:
1. Out of the box, the sounds are garbage. Sonar has all the right instruments, sound content, effects, and so forth to make those great sounding drums and melodies in your head be delivered with a high quality sound.
2. The workflow is convoluted, as everything in it "that any other DAW has" is "bolted on" around the step sequencer, which relatively few FL Studio users even bother using anymore.
3. FL Studio is still way overpriced in the long run, even for the Signature Edition and lifetime updates. The reason is because even to get it close to Sonar's value per dollar ratio, you'd end up spending several hundred dollars more in the Image-Line shop or elsewhere to get the same quality Sonar PE has shipped in the box.
Why it is better than Reason + Record for the same money:
1. Once you get Reason and Record, you are stuck living in that environment and enslaved to Propellerheads' development cycle for anything new other than refills to feed the same old stuff.
2. Sonar is open (like everything else besides Reason), so you can add on according to taste. Even for people using Reason and VSTs in other hosts, the VAST majority of them find better sounds and instruments and effects elsewhere in the VST world, and eventually drop Reason along the way anyway when they've moved on to other things where they should have started in the first place. Look at all the Reason heads that still wish it had VST support for further evidence.
3. Record is too new and too incomplete to compete in the DAW recording, mixing department.
Why it is better than Ableton Live:
1. It is about the same price if not less in some cases, and comes with so much more and of higher quality in terms of out of the box content.
2. Live's UI will always be ass no matter how fun the program is, but Sonar has consistently gotten better over the years while Live still looks like ass. With Skylight, Sonar's workflow and UI has gone through the roof in terms of usability, customization, and workflow. Live's screen interface, where it is either session or arrangement view but never both at the same time has been a hassle for years, and an ignored fix by the Ableton team since its inception. Sonar has never had this problem of not being able to see what you want, and the new Skylight takes this flexibility to a whole other level. People harp how good Ableton's workflow is all the time, but for new users that haven't been with it since at least version 3 or 4 have a hard time getting on with it, especially if they come from a composition/musician background rather than
a DJ one...generally speaking of course. Sonar is designed for musicians and engineers, but it's live capabilities have vastly improved and it can now be a blank slate customized however one wishes to use it.
3. The stable-ness and customer support for Live has gone way down the toilet in recent years while Cakewalk's has always been top notch on both counts for the vast majority of users.
Live is a great program, and I do use it for certain things, especially for doing actual "live" stuff and for some good sample-based beat-making (though Geist is doing the job nicely in its place since it came out), but for serious production and studio work, I look to Sonar, and I wish Live would refocus its efforts on being a "live" performance host and quit trying to be a jack of all trades, master of few.
Why it is better than Reaper:
1. It has way more features and content.
2. It is easier to use for actually composing music, where Reaper still lags in midi.
3. Reaper has a serious "boring" factor to it for the most part. (This is my opinion though) There is little about it to get excited over it unless you are one of the Reaper zealot crowd that thinks it is awesome because it is "cheap" and "open" or whatever. Don't be fooled by the zealots, it offers little to the market, no offense to Reaper heads.
Why it is better than Cubarse:
1. Cubarse is overpriced garbage for software snobs. Enough said.
Seriously, if you are on PC, Cakewalk is who you should turn to in order to get started with everything you will need, very quickly, and for a great price.
Flame on!