Very interesting topic!

What I do (and have been doing for over a year and a half) is record directly into a Korg D1600 HD multitrack recorder (approx. $1400 USD now) after I get everything recorded (two synths plus vocals) I can then add effects (both insert for each track and master for the whole thing) and then bounce to two track stereo. After that, I burn to a CDRW and transport that to my laptop as a wave file where I use Sound Forge 6 and Wavelab 4 plus a number of DirectX plugins to edit/master each song and then burn them to CD using EZ CD Creator. I personally prefer to do the mixing on the D1600 because I like to use real faders instead of virtual faders on a computer screen. The only "live" mic work I do is the vocals and I use a cardiod condenser tube mic (SP TB-1 which I love and recommend; $300 USD)so I could use Sonar but I find it to be too much head hassle. With the D1600 it's simply push record and go, period; no pain, no strain.

The new Korg HD recorders all use USB connectors on the back (no more SCSI) and have a 2 gig partition on the HD that the computer can read directly, so you can transfer wave files directly between the recorder and computer. The new units also come with a 40 gig HD and can take a larger one, up to at least 80 gig.

The only reason I see for me to ever be interested in Sonar is to record midi so that I can either fix mistakes or can change instruments to see which I like better in any given song. Or, possibly, just to learn how for learning's sake.

Tom

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Bigger is not always better