I have done this a few times during the implementation and testing phases but I decided to go ahead and purchase SONAR X1 just like you have\would from the store. This was a sanity check to make sure everything is still OK.
First some background.
The Cakewalk store is on it's own server. Last week we had an absolutely unprecedented demand for SONAR X1. Just like other sites\servers that get overwhelmed this caused problems and also the server itself to go down. Heck, it has even happened to Twitter and other sites that are 100x bigger than ours. To make matters worse, Paypal and other payment processors were getting slammed with denial of service attacks thanks to the whole Wikileaks situation. (let's leave politics out of this and just move on
)
On Thursday and on Friday we upgraded and then upgraded again our store servers and systems to handle the volume. This volume has not subsided it's just being handled by a much larger system which is why the number of posts regarding a problem have dropped. This is great to see and for anyone who had trouble I do apologize that you got caught in the surge.
So that's what is going on with the store. The downloads are not being handled by the store but by a completely independent system call Amazon S3. This allows a scalable system that grows and shrinks the amount of servers used based on demand. This is why folks could still run their downloads even when the store had trouble. In addition, we are utilizing a technology that provides you the closest regional server based on your location. So you are not downloading from Boston if you are in Hong Kong, London or even LA. So please know that as long as Amazon is up and running your download will be fine.
OK enough preamble.
Getting the download.
- I logged into the store with my username and password.
- Added SONAR X1 to my cart
- Checked out.
- I received my confirmation email in about 15 min after completing my purchase. This email is delivered to the email address I used to log into the store. So if I login with Robin @ robin.com but then keep checking my robinisawesome @ hotmail.com account for the confirmation email I will be out of luck. (not my email addys btw so please do not use them ).
- In the store, I clicked on "My Downloads" in my store account and I saw my SONAR X1 purchase listed along with the serial number and also a link to Download.
- I clicked on the download link.
- This took me to the page that displays the download links for SONAR X1.
- For SONAR X1 producer there are 8 files named
- 01_READ_FIRST_SONAR_X1.exe
- 02_...
- 03_...
- etc
- I download all the files to a common directory I created which I named SONAR X1 download.
- So since I make I habit of reading the readme and manuals (joke) I skipped the first file and double clicked on file 02_SONAR_X1_Producerpart1.exe
- Running this file extracted all my files for me and began the install process.
- As the extraction was happening I went back to the Read Me file unzipped it and there was a list of the new keyclusters and also install instructions located within the user guide. IMPORTANT- If you are not comfortable installing or if you want the official instructions please see page 9 of the user guide.
From there SONAR X1 finished installation and I was ready to go. I ran the application for the first time and entered my reg code. If you do not have a reg code just follow the prompts in the software.
Notes -There is an update to Guitar Rig 4 LE which I downloaded from the NI service center. However, you need to then run the update manually after the download (don't forget!).
- If you buy a new version of SONAR from a retailer there will not be download links in your store account as you bought a boxed version and no download.
-If you you buy a download upgrade and the box option you will have download links in your account as you purchased a download.
-If you are already running Dimension Pro and have not already updated to v1.5 you should
read this KB article. -If you would like videos about using SONAR X1 please see
SONAR University -If you still are having trouble getting serial numbers, emails etc. Please contact customer service:
http://www.cakewalk.com/about/csr.aspx and be sure to let them know your order number and they can get look into it for you. We can't solve this problem over the forums.
-If you have still not received your Free SONAR X1 email please following the links below
SONAR X1 Producer 'I registered a copy of SONAR 8.5 Producer after November 1st' SONAR X1 Studio 'I registered a copy of SONAR 8.5 Studio after November 1st' SONAR X1 Essential 'I registered a copy of SONAR Home Studio 7 XL after November 1st' Regards,
Robin