CC stands for...
...
Complicated Cakewalk. Is it me or are things getting more and more complicated when it comes to Sonar? We have Sonar X1 Essential, Sonar X1 Studio and Sonar X1 Producer. We have various versions of these, X1c being the latest.
Now we get Sonar X1 Producer Expanded but... even though it IS a new version of Sonar X1 Producer, it's NOT a version that you can actually buy as a full version or full upgrade; it's an update or addon that you have to buy seperately and which will turn Sonar X1 Producer into Sonar X1 Producer Expanded... I wonder why I can't buy a full version of Sonar X1 Producer Expanded right away...? If we didn't have Sonar X1 Studio and Sonar X1 Essential, they could have ditched Sonar X1 Producer and call it Sonar X2 by now. Or X1.5... Anyway, since it is an addon, the name really should have been Sonar X1 Producer Expander... because it isn't actually Sonar X1 Producer Expanded that you buy but an expansion for Sonar X1 Producer. But of course that would get even more confusing with the just released PC4K S-Type
Expander/Gate...
And then we get Sonar X1 Production Suite. No, not
Producer Suite, but
Production Suite. They made a little change in the name to make things er... confusing...? Why didn't they call it Sonar X1
Producer Suite because THAT's what it is, isn't it...? This Suite actually IS a version of Sonar X1 Producer Expanded which you can buy (soon) as a full product, only... it isn't a real full product, but it's the old Sonar X1 Producer with Sonar X1 Producer Expanded in one box, together with two extra addons: Z3TA+ 2 (why exactly THAT one??? What has it got to do with production that other synths don't? You already get the older version of Z3TZ+ with the old Producer!) and PC4K S-Type Expander/Gate. Z3TA+ 2 is simply a full product you can also buy seperately, but PC4K S-Type Expander/Gate is an addon to Sonar X1 Producer which you CAN buy seperately but which you can ONLY use if you also buy Sonar X1 Producer Expanded... Buying PC4K S-Type Expander/Gate without buying Sonar X1 Producer Expanded is utterly useless. There is another addition available to the Expanded ProChannel, Softube Saturation, but that one isn't available seperately (why not?): it comes with Sonar X1 Producer Expanded (the addon)...
Well, I don't expect anyone to still read this, but er... Cakewalk seems to be very good in making things far more complicated then necessary... or is it just me who is having a hard time figuring out what is what and what needs what and so on? I can imagine someone who never heard about Sonar getting completely lost out there, after which they quickly move to something like Reaper, which has ONE SINGLE version. How easy is that...!
I wouldn't mind if CW ditched the Essential and Studio versions and released all addons/updates/upgrades/expansions/goodies as a new X# version every year and then for a price that's in between the current Studio and Producer prices... That would make things a LOT easier.