Well, I started using Vegas for Audio instead of Sonar, origally vegas was just for video. It may not be as close to a graphical representative of a mixing board, but an hour or two with it and you'll forget all about the side by side channel view. Also, I use a Focus Command Post as a controller, which costs about 20 bux on ebay. It's a flat controller with a jog shuffle knob, a joystick and about 15 different buttons you can customize to work as shuttle control or other features in vegas. It's usb, hassle free, and indespensible when I am working on a keyboard part as my keyboard is about 10 feet away from the monitor. At that price, I picked up 2 spares just in case :)