- Do You Use Pro Tools?

 
Yes we do. We use a combination of Pro Tools and Sonar depending on the project.

One Note of Caution: If you're asking this question, then it's the wrong question to be asking! Sorry.  There is no sonic difference between DAW recording software and it should be the least of an artist's or band's worries in the recording studio. 

Bottom line: Sonar Producer 8 has many more capabilities, features, and power than Pro Tools LE (which most home studios have).  Sonar Producer 7 is for professional studio use. 

Guest House Studios uses Cakewalk’s Sonar Producer Edition as its primary audio recording software with Pro Tools as its secondary.  Both Pro Tools and Sonar are PC-based multi-track recording programs.  DigiDesign is the company that develops Pro Tools ( <http://www.digidesign.com> ).  Currently, ProTools is considered to the an  industry standard primarily because just about every major professional studio in the world uses some version of it.  Also, most audio engineering schools train their students on Pro Tools. The primary benefits of using Pro Tools are: (1) compatibility with all the other major studios around the world and (2) access to a wide variety of 3rd-party plug-ins. You can read more about Pro Tools here <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro_Tools> .

There are two versions of Pro Tools: a relatively inexpensive version and a astromonically expensive version.   Even the inexpensive version (i.e., Pro Tools LE) costs about $2,000 with the mandatory proprietary DigiDesign 002 or DigiDesign 003, but is limited to just 32 recording tracks. So in my opinion it is not the "real professional studio version" of ProTools HD. In fact, Sonar Producer has many more features, capabilities, and power than Pro Tools LE does.  The expensive version (i.e., HD) costs $10,000 or more.  Adding the necessary bells and whistles can easily jump the cost to $20,000. 

Cubase is another popular PC-based multi-track recording tool developed by Steinberg.    You can read more about Cubase here <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/cuebase> . We use Cubase on special request.

Guest House Studios analyzed the tools in the market and determined Sonar Producer to be the best fit for the market it is expected to support.  We felt that the Pro Tools LE version didn’t meet all the needs for running Guest House Studios as the primary software of choice.  We felt that we needed more than 32 tracks of audio for some recording session.  Some songs we've recently recorded had over 32 tracks. The Pro Tools HD version supports 192 tracks, but is too cost prohibitive for the mission of Guest House Studios.  Guest House Studios would need to charge at least three times as much to recoup the cost of Pro Tools HD.

Personally, I have been using Cakewalk products since 1994, so I am very familiar with the Sonar line of products.  Additionally, Sonar works very well with the Microsoft Vista operating system.   

NEWSFLASH!!!!  Bottomline: In the digital realm these tools show no difference in sound quality.