daveny5
I don't think if another investor took over Cakewalk Sonar they could be held to the free updates for life that was promised by the former owner. 

SandlinJohn

smallstonefan
...
 
My prediction is they kill the company and it's obligations/baggage, then sell the product in an asset sale to someone else.
 
I run a decent-sized software company - I always had this little fantasy of running Cakewalk once I sold mine; I thought that would be fun! :)
 
My best to the devs...

I think it unlikely anyone will be willing to pick up Sonar to re-release it. Pro-Tools has the professional market sewn up and I expect a package as large as Sonar will be nearly impossible to put into a market that is already overcrowded.

That makes me sad. I have nearly three decades of experience with the product line and company.

Marek Smok Rajss
How do you buy the latest version of Sonar Platinum? How can I upgrade my version to the latest one?

Marek Smok Rajss
That's very bad.
I can not update.
I have Sonar for years and I feel cheated.

alekxv
I have been reading this forum for a considerable time and like some of you I was also surprised by the news. I was a 2.0 version user when very few of the computer media understood MIDI and sequencers (or what they were for) and gradually I went to Bars and Pipes (for me, the best MIDI-only sequencer that has ever existed.) Came back to Cakewalk when he released his version 6 of Sonar and I have stayed there until now.
It does not make sense to delve into the reasons for a decision that is clearly lapidary for both Cakewalk and Gibson. Lately, Gibson was known more for his involvement with Cakewalk than for anything else.
What we must do is accept that reality and ask Cakewalk and / or Gibson to at least have the decency and consideration (they owe it to us) to clarify several points that are listed below in order of importance:

• How we do to download all our products (either by Command Center or directly from the site) and activate them offline.
• How long will the servers be working online to perform the previous operation (taking into account that the demand will be huge and the time span must be broad enough for us to download all the software.
• How can we continue to use the plugins of other companies (Overloud, XLN, Melodyne, TruePianos, etc.) within Sonar.
• What will happen with the partial payments and under what conditions the refunds operate?
• Optionally, what is the future of Cakewalk, because for Gibson's I see it very clearly ...

And for us, users, only have to take one of two paths

• If the time you have invested in mastering the tool has been such that your productivity is second to none. If you have come to realize you need another 2 DAWs to do what you do with Sonar. If your workflow is very attached to Sonar and you know every trick and skill of the program and all or most of its keyboard shortcuts, then by all means you must build for yourself a Sonar-Hardware DAW. Have a computer (preferably desktop) with the latest hardware, install all Cakewalk packages (32 and 64 bits) that you bought (whether you think you need it or not) of the version you will use, update the drivers to the latest possible functional version, install all the plugins you work with most of the time and the additional utilities you use to complete your workstation and test the system. If it supports all the tests without a glimse of error, if you feel is running smoothly and the latency is good enough, it is time to disconnect it from the Internet and forget about the windows updates for life. Also, if you want, you can uninstall the antivurus completely.
  Think on this machine as if it were your venerable Moog or your Korg M1 or your Motif or your DX7 but on steroids. Of course, with time it will show its age but it will be a machine that will not give you any problems for many years and will be as reliable as a solid rock where you can realize your most ambitious projects.
  I speak from experience. I have a computer with XP service pack 3. Is it already old?, yes. Is part of the software accusing its age?, you bet. Is still working as it did 12 years ago, of course. Is reliable as a rock, without a doubt.
• If on the contrary, you are at the crossroads of deciding whether to change DAW or continue with Sonar, I suggest you change. Forget what Sonar was for you and use your time you will be mourning the Sonar's fate, learning a new program or programs and using the plugins with the hardware you have. I think the combination Ableton Live and Studio One 3 or Ableton Live and Samplitude X3 suite can be the best options when replacing Sonar.

It will undoubtedly be a difficult decision and I am sorry for all the developers who dedicated their lives and time to making this application one, if not the best, of its kind. The specialization that is required to make the software talk to the hardware through an operating system that is constantly evolving, is not easy task and yet I believe that the Cakewalk team managed to tame a beast as fickle as Windows is.
 
My 2 cents.

dubdisciple

Marek Smok Rajss
That's very bad.
I can not update.
I have Sonar for years and I feel cheated.

Unless you JUST recently purchased sonar and/or it is currently not working ,you were not cheated.  you simply got what you paid for.  My sonar works fine and I have a frankensteined version that is part paid, part beta . If my messy pile of unfinished code works, then most should work fine for years to come. 

bnwitt

dubdisciple

Marek Smok Rajss
That's very bad.
I can not update.
I have Sonar for years and I feel cheated.

Unless you JUST recently purchased sonar and/or it is currently not working ,you were not cheated.  you simply got what you paid for.  My sonar works fine and I have a frankensteined version that is part paid, part beta . If my messy pile of unfinished code works, then most should work fine for years to come. 

I beg to differ.  I purchased a lifetime upgrade service.  I'm still alive.

smallstonefan
I think you will see the product resurrected, but my guess is they needed "Cakewalk the company" to die first. No one would buy a company that had free lifetime updates committed to people - that's an obligation in place of a revenue stream.

CoteRotie

smallstonefan
I think you will see the product resurrected, but my guess is they needed "Cakewalk the company" to die first. No one would buy a company that had free lifetime updates committed to people - that's an obligation in place of a revenue stream.

I'd really like to believe that would happen, but I think it will be a pretty hard sell.  There's no shortage of work for competent programmers these days, so I'm guessing that with the exception of a couple of people who agreed to stay on for a short time that most of the developers are gone.
 
So you would have to convince a buyer and a new team of developers to come in to work on a product that hasn't made money in some time, in a space with lots of established competition.  I've been a long time SONAR user, paid for every upgrade and the lifetime deal, but I wouldn't spend my money to resurrect it at this point.

groove
Sorry if it's been said or covered, I seem to be unable to find this in search:
 
Is there any chance it would be open sourced?  If it really falls all the way apart and there is no asset purchase, I would hope someone would push Gibson to open source it and throw it up on github.  Some of the original devs and a community of others could potentially keep hacking on it and possibly even get the port to OSX happening.