X2 to Professional?

I have labored with Sonar X2 for quite some time. My complaints are not about its complexity, but quirkiness. There are times that the product stability seems compromised (the other day it disabled the MIDI input to a channel for no obvious reason).
 
So I wanted opinions about the desirability of upgrading from X2 to Professional.
 

• Is the product stability improved, and by how much?
• Will I lose any capabilities by using Professional and not Platinum?
• Are their functional improvements, such as better handling of latency and dropouts (two things that plague me)?

 
Also, any insights from people who have made this leap are welcome. What did you stub your toe on? What worked magically better?

X2 was not the most stable version. Platinum is very stable overall. Professional should be very stable too. But I have not tried it so I have no first hand knowledge. 

Try the demo of Platinum here: https://www.cakewalk.com/Products/SONAR/Try-SONAR#start
 
Then look at this feature comparison for Sonar editions. 
https://www.cakewalk.com/...s/SONAR/Versions#start
 
The biggest differences that I see in Professional, for FX, the Boutique Suite FX is limited to just TH3, and the Pro Channel options are somewhat limited.  But I would think that some of those were provided in X2, and should carry over.  As far as instruments, there's no AAS Session bundle (Strum, Ultra Analog, Lounge lizard).  The only thing missing from core features seems to be Drum Replacer, Vocal Sync, and Theme Editor.
 
 

Ionian
8.5.3 is still the bar by which Cakewalk should hopefully aim to achieve one day again.  That version of Sonar was bulletproof.  I even had a project that for some reason kept crashing Platinum, yet would open with no problem at all in 8.5.3 so in my opinion, that is still the most stable version ever. 

Platinum's not bad.  I get a few crashes a week with it, working regularly.  Not as bad as the X series, not as good as 8.5.3.  In retrospect I end up restarting Platinum more for unfixed bugs than crashes.  Things like the disappearing now time bar, or when splitting clips stops working.

Its funny I don't see it that way. It was stable but not as stable as Platinum has been. Plus Platinum has been updated every month 8.5.3 was the last update for the 8.5 version. I think it depends on so many factors there can never be a true comparison. 

Well, that's odd.  Your system specs look good.  Care to post up the error messages you got here on the forum?  Maybe somebody can help you out.

I just re installed Pro because I had deleted it and lost LP 64 MB. So I re installed it no problems. I didn't get my LP 64 back so had to install X3 again too. Lesson learned, don't un install your old versions if everything is working. 
 
I originally upgraded from X3 Studio to Professional. I'd still be with it and happy but was suckered in by a very good upgrade price point to Plat. I often accidentally opened files in Pro and it would take a good long time to realise this had happened.  
I really don't use the extra features you get with Plat, as a matter of fact I get buy pretty good on my new system with Home Studio. 
So if your install failed you either had a corrupted download our your system itself is un stable. 
 
Oh dear, I see your using a Lexicon omega for an interface... 

I'v been using Sonar Professional for a year now, at first I was getting bluescreen issues when editing midi parts. Now I never had an issue with it probably since the last 4 months or so. Btw, I'm using Windows 10.

Edit: The audio engine randomly crash, like ones or twice in an 8 hour recording and mixing session. I still have that problem even with the latest update.

When I was using Professional back in 2015, I was still on W7 and then I built my latest Daw listed below and bought W 8.1 because it was cheaper than W7. I had blue screens up the ying yang. I thought I was a failure at building computers..
But that as it was, due to a faulty power supply. Brand new but buggered. Fixed the power supply and haven't had a blue screen since. Just saying, blue screens should not be software but hardware related. So my run with Professional was smooth sailing and I had that computer on for sometimes 16 hours. 
 
Ya when I saw your Lexicon a red flag went up. Been a few folks coming here with issues with the drivers for those. I have the Lexicon MX 200 and they haven't updated the drivers since XP 32 bit even though they still sell them brand new?? . Defiantly on my mental short list of interfaces to avoid. 
 
Have you run all the updates for W7? Sounds like your missing one of the MS Visual C++ things, on my W7 laptop there is 17 of em.. latest looks like # 14.0.24215
There are issues with W7 updating properly these days and you might have to manually download and install them. Go to the MS W7 support pages. There's a list of updates.
Sonar is becoming iffy with W7 support, don't blame them it's a PITA to waste manpower bug hunting as it is without having to bug hunt in old OS code. 
 
You can still upgrade to W10 for free. I just did. As long as you have a legit W7 serial number they will let you upgrade if you use Assistive  technologies. like the magnifier. 
 
https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/accessibility/windows10upgrade
 
 

I would answer to # 1 and # 2 like this:
 
1. I think that Windows 10 is where the Sonar development focus will be moving forward.  I still run one Windows 7 box, but realize that MS update support will expire in 3 years. 
 
2. I think that Sonar Home Studio at $49 is probably sufficient for that.  But Professional and Platinum offer many FX and instruments that are useful if you are starting from scratch.  The core program is the same.  Artist for $99 may provide a better upgrade path if you are not sure.