TerraSin
I went ahead and got the lifetime license. Cakewalk has never really steered us wrong with licensing issues before and being that it's only for such a limited amount of time, leads me to believe this is more of a gift to people who have been dedicated to the company for a while than any ploy because of a big change coming that will really change the face of the company for the long run (hopefully for the better). If nothing else, it means I get next year paid for and if there are third party stuff I miss out on, I can buy them and likely still come out on top; though as I said before, I can't imagine too many companies would not give us the plugins that go into future updates of Sonar because of how much money they make from all of us upgrading... like Melodyne and Addictive Drums have.

I agree with this sentiment. I came looking for some answers like a lot of others but by the time I got done reading 17 pages of opinions I came to the same opinion that TerraSin stated. I'm hoping that the June 1st will bring us great news, but I believe that it will be great and that everyone is going to dive into the lifetime upgrades (at least my speculation). It's really a no brainer for those that are already a Platinum subscriber and plan on using Sonar going forward.  You get the upgrades, and as TerraSin said so astutely, we will probably get a lot of what we have been getting already because they are entry level offerings, and they want us to buy more. we get to try them out (for free after the life time upgrade) and then buy the full version if we like it.
If I'm wrong I'll buy you all a beer in July!!! You'd have to come to Minnesota to collect it however.
Until then.

Carl Posz
Oh, the only thing that puzzles me is that statement which said the renewal was only valid through December 25, 2037. Does that mean that they expect us all to be dead in 21 years or that is how long they expect to be in business? Till death do us part!!! 

Someone from Cake chimed in and said that was just a placeholder graphic and it will be updated to "infinity" during the next update. 

“... we've got full Console 1 integration coming. And thats not even part of the announcement :)”
 
That is incredibly exciting, prochannel C1 plugins? New vst3 plugins?
 
693

This thread is getting long and hard to find those that are still not getting the email. Please PM and I'll try and take care of it.
 
Disclaimer: If you didn't buy a renewal this year (or a second upgrade last year during the winter holidays) then you wouldn't get this letter we sent to customers. The email was only for those folks since they had already renewed. Everyone else will get their pricing info on June 1st. In other words, if you only purchased SONAR Platinum once in your life, you wouldn't get an email about this offer today.

Andrew Rossa [Cakewalk]

Rocsee70

streckfus
IF lifetime membership meant core functionality (aux tracks, fixes, etc.) but NO add-ons (Vocal Sync, Drum Replacer, etc.) unless you bought them individually as needed, I'd probably be more inclined to stick with the current annual renewal model. Although I don't use all of those bundled features day-in and day-out, they're still nice to have. And depending on how much those would cost on their own ($99? $149? More?) things could get real expensive, real quick.

This is exactly why I don't believe they won't also change the regular monthly/yearly subscriptions to the core functionality and stop providing extras. Otherwise you're leaving your customers a lot of guessing work whether they are better off with a lifetime or monthly/yearly subscription. Plus, they would also piss off a lot of customers that are now jumping on the Lifetime deal, and then afterwards realize they are missing out on whatever extras Cakewalk would throw in the regular subscriptions. I really don't see that happening.
So my guess is that after June 1 (or maybe even on) they will also significantly lower the monthly price.

I think our approach to development would be the same for lifetime updates as it would for membership. The difference is there is no cut off for lifetime updates. We'll still deliver new features for SONAR, in fact we have some cool ones planned. We say core features to distinguish between features that are core to the program and other products we develop at Cakewalk. For example. we develop Z3TA+ 2 and that's not included in SONAR. Any future products including effects and plugins may not be included in SONAR (like Rapture Pro, Expansion Packs). And this certainly will allow us to focus on core improvements and enhancements, which honestly is what people have asked us to do. 

Andrew, in the current model, Cakewalk has given us entry level versions of those products, Like Z3TA +2 or the likes. I would hope that this would continue.

Carl Posz

Andrew Rossa [Cakewalk]

Rocsee70

streckfus
IF lifetime membership meant core functionality (aux tracks, fixes, etc.) but NO add-ons (Vocal Sync, Drum Replacer, etc.) unless you bought them individually as needed, I'd probably be more inclined to stick with the current annual renewal model. Although I don't use all of those bundled features day-in and day-out, they're still nice to have. And depending on how much those would cost on their own ($99? $149? More?) things could get real expensive, real quick.

This is exactly why I don't believe they won't also change the regular monthly/yearly subscriptions to the core functionality and stop providing extras. Otherwise you're leaving your customers a lot of guessing work whether they are better off with a lifetime or monthly/yearly subscription. Plus, they would also piss off a lot of customers that are now jumping on the Lifetime deal, and then afterwards realize they are missing out on whatever extras Cakewalk would throw in the regular subscriptions. I really don't see that happening.
So my guess is that after June 1 (or maybe even on) they will also significantly lower the monthly price.

I think our approach to development would be the same for lifetime updates as it would for membership. The difference is there is no cut off for lifetime updates. We'll still deliver new features for SONAR, in fact we have some cool ones planned. We say core features to distinguish between features that are core to the program and other products we develop at Cakewalk. For example. we develop Z3TA+ 2 and that's not included in SONAR. Any future products including effects and plugins may not be included in SONAR (like Rapture Pro, Expansion Packs). And this certainly will allow us to focus on core improvements and enhancements, which honestly is what people have asked us to do. 

Andrew, in the current model, Cakewalk has given us entry level versions of those products, Like Z3TA +2 or the likes. I would hope that this would continue.

I would guess it depends on the focus moving forward, which will likely come from talking to customers, industry research, and great ideas that come from our own minds. I've seen a lot of suggestions on what we need to be working on. Lite versions of our instruments was not one of them :)
 

Noel Borthwick [Cakewalk]

lfm
I think Gibson is buying Softube and will incorporate Console 1 fully into Sonar prochannel...would be a good move.
 
That kind of hardware to directly position on any track really quick, and get your work done what you had in mind for that track.
And since hardware is so simple and idea is so brilliant it will be industry standard.
You don't need 24-32 motorized faders, it's just expensive.

We're not buying Softube but we've got full Console 1 integration coming. And thats not even part of the announcement :)

Thanks for explaining, really good - but I see room for improvement.
 
a) I think it's overpriced for what hardware is and what a plugin like SSL emulation cost.
I got Waves SSL4000 for about $325 as I recall, and think it's been even cheaper since then.
$200 for hardware as it is - and $500 total would be half price and make it nobrainer and extend market.
 
It started at $1100 and went to $849 and now is campaign $649 so it's getting there maybe.
 
b) some hesitation over how popuped strips may cause main process loose focus, and you might have to make soundcard exclusive for daw not to loose contact while editing. So SSL emulation should be all within PC - just check a box if to use it and make it visible.
 
c) I think hardware could improve having direct select of maybe 80-100 tracks or more. As I recall there is two pages of 20 now.
 
Biggest competitor now is probably Avid Artist Mix - which is about $1200 - and is not thought out to expand in a smooth way. I read it fails to keep order of units all if now powering up in the correct order.
 
Mackie Universal also real expensive in this sense, even though nicely expandable to 32 tracks at least.
But really space consuming compared to Console 1 brilliant solution.
 
d) I think one motorized fader or touch strip of some sort would be useful - a bit like Presonus Faderport.
 
e) knowhow and really good analog emulation available for many new plugins to floor everything else.
Heard really things about Cakes modules, but still - Softube are some nothes hotter is my estimate, they built the company solely on this knowhow. An extra resource to develop plugins compatible with PC and extend the concept(and they already do this PC stuff).
 
f) you can drop need for PACE iLok software on machine - a real downer needing that even without usb key.
I kept my main machine clean from this utterly awful and intrusive software.
One reason ProTools was only evaluated on a separate machine by me.
 
If hardware present, you open SSL stuff and maybe other stuff too - no need for other drivers.
Or standard for Platinum anyway.
 
Just wild ideas of course....they probably won't sell....

Carl Posz

skitch_84

Carl Posz
Oh, the only thing that puzzles me is that statement which said the renewal was only valid through December 25, 2037. Does that mean that they expect us all to be dead in 21 years or that is how long they expect to be in business? Till death do us part!!! 

 
Thanks for that. I'd hate to think I was only going be alive for only 21 more years.

 
I'll be quite chuffed if I'm still around using Sonar in 21 years' time!

Andrew Rossa [Cakewalk]
Also, if you anyone here is not receiving emails, they should opt in to our newsletters on that announcement page. You might want to make sure you are opted in to get the latest news. 

Let's see if it works this time. I've lost count of the number of times I've subscribed. I have yet to get one.

My Cakewalk thing says it's gonna cost me $579.
 
But perhaps there's some confusion because earlier this year I switched my Platinum subscription from monthly to annual?

I received the email about the announcement but not any about membership?