Greeny
This stinks. I shall be voting with my wallet, hello steinberg.

What stinks? The "membership" pricing? You can just pay for a full upgrade which seems to be the same prices they were for the X3 upgrade and you get a full license. It's the exact same thing. The subscription thing is for those who just want to pay less on a monthly basis.
 
If they had forced everyone to a subscription model I'd say the same thing but that is not what is happening.
 

Beepster

Greeny
This stinks. I shall be voting with my wallet, hello steinberg.

What stinks? The "membership" pricing? You can just pay for a full upgrade which seems to be the same prices they were for the X3 upgrade and you get a full license. It's the exact same thing. The subscription thing is for those who just want to pay less on a monthly basis.
 
If they had forced everyone to a subscription model I'd say the same thing but that is not what is happening.
 

Yeah exactly, and after 12 months of paying month to month, you get to keep everything you received, no strings attached. As mentioned before, it's very customer-friendly.

Seth Kellogg [Cakewalk]
Users that only buy one month won't be able to use SONAR after 30 days. They will need an active membership to continue access to the program and updates. After 12 months of non-interrupted membership, they get to keep their software.

Thanks for clarifying that Seth. I didn't get deep enough into the paperwork to catch that point, which is very reassuring. So basically it sounds like the membership is "invisible" to loyal customers and is a $149 upgrade to the new version, which is really no different to us than before.

Anderton

orhanproject
Overall mixed feelings, same as when adobe moved (forced) completely to CC (Im still on cs6) Didn't see anything about MELODYNE (ctrl+m) (i have the full version which works fine in x3e), will it still be available in platinum?

Yes, Melodyne will remain. But remember, the big advantage compared to Adobe is you get to keep stuff. If you want to upgrade, you upgrade. If you don't, you don't but you still get to keep what you paid for. Another big advantage AFAIC is you get new features when they're ready, not in accordance to an upgrade schedule.
 
But another advantage that hasn't really been emphasized is that rolling out and QAing one or two new program features at a time is much more straightforward than QAing 40 changes in a huge rollout. Also if there's an issue, it can be fixed more quickly.
 
I think this is pretty darn cool. Frankly, I think it's going to shake up the industry. The bar has now been set for a customer-centric ownership model instead of a company-centric rental ("subscription") model. 

Nice to hear melodyne will remain, sounds good, I like to keep stuff :) , this will be interesting

theheliosequence
Hmmm... it says membership renewal after 12 months is $199 or $19.99 per month. I also notice that this version doesn't seem to be called Sonar X4, but as far as I could tell... Sonar 2015. I'm I to believe that Sonar will no longer have version upgrades, but just be constantly upgrading on the same platform or perhaps a yearly overhaul? Does that also mean that Sonar will basically be $200/year to continue using from here on out?

Yeah, there are no more versions. We will be constantly updating the program and when you purchase you'll never have to worry that a new one is around the corner. You'll be covered for 12 months with the current version plus the new stuff you'll be getting. The one big difference and why we don't call this subscription is that you keep everything you own assuming you are currently a member or completed 12 months. So for $20/mo or the upfront fee, we'll be providing you a lot of value that we hope will keep you happy and a customer. Of course if say in a year you aren't satisfied for whatever reason, you'll keep everything you received and can decide at a later date if you want to opt back in. If you pay upfront, you are all set and are covered for 12 months.

orhanproject
Overall mixed feelings, same as when adobe moved (forced) completely to CC (Im still on cs6)

1 - Didn't see anything about MELODYNE (ctrl+m) (i have the full version which works fine in x3e), will it still be available in platinum?

2 - still no overhaul on selected/active track highlighted, its still hard to see what track is active
3 - pattern tool, what is this? Clone stamp ala photoshop? name one occation where its useful :) whos idea/request was that?

Check out the Pattern Tool video on the page to see how it works. Basically you can copy a MIDI part and then use the tool to paint your MIDI parts. Huge time saver.

Still no varispeed but.... everything else looks awesome!!!!

I have been a Cakewalk customer since the Midi days in the mid/early 90's. I would say that I typically will get good use out of every other (or maybe one in every three) version of Sonar... For example... Used 8 a ton...but barely used 8.5 (even though it was solid). X1 was a nightmare for me and was never really usable, while X2 has been great and used a lot. Haven't really got much use out of X3, but could at least use it at this point... where it was too buggy early on. Most of this depended on how big of a project I was working on and how buggy the current version was at the time. I usually have pretty complex projects with tons of tracks, busses, sends, FX (4x UAD-2 Quads), layers, automation, midi, etc... so when things aren't really solid, I just have to stick to a version that works or that I can really count on.
 
With this in mind... could I sign up for monthly updates and if the software isn't working out for me, stop payment until the software becomes more stable and start back up with monthly payments again? Or will there be retroactive charges or lost features doing this?
 
Although part of me is skeptical that any major DAW could keep a constantly updating software bug free for the majority of a year, I'm also kind of curious if people's ability to stop payment until fixes are made to really keep the focus on the software working... as opposed to big promises every year and half that may or may not come to fruition. My first thought was negative towards this... that it was a way to milk loyal customers ($199/year as opposed to $149 every year and a half)... but now I wonder if it could be a good thing?
 

It's a bit confusing, and my initial reaction was dismay as I'm not a fan of monthly licensing, but it looks like for those of us who wish to upgrade once a year it looks similar to what we had before - except with periodic releases of new features as they become available and monthly pricing for those who desire it.

Ryan Munnis [Cakewalk]

Greeny
This stinks. I shall be voting with my wallet, hello steinberg.

I sense a recurring theme starting here. Any chance you can share what aspect you're not a fan of? Maybe we can help to clarify? If not, the feedback would be helpful for us either way.

I want to buy a daw, I want to know what I am buying when I buy it, I dont want to be teased tyvm. When I part with my hard earned cash I want to know what I am buying. You dont buy a steering wheel with the promise of a car in parts over the next 12 months do you? No! So why should we be doing this with our daws?

And to be clear I am not saying I think it is a bad update, how could I know? The model stinks not the update.

Greeny

Ryan Munnis [Cakewalk]

Greeny
This stinks. I shall be voting with my wallet, hello steinberg.

I sense a recurring theme starting here. Any chance you can share what aspect you're not a fan of? Maybe we can help to clarify? If not, the feedback would be helpful for us either way.

I want to buy a daw, I want to know what I am buying when I buy it, I dont want to be teased tyvm. When I part with my hard earned cash I want to know what I am buying. You dont buy a steering wheel with the promise of a car in parts over the next 12 months do you? No! So why should we be doing this with our daws?

That doesn't even make sense. NOTHING HAS CHANGED unless you want it to. In fact this way would be better for your scenario because you could just pay for a month to try everything out and if you like it then you can buy the full upgrade and own it outright.
 
Seriously... nothing has changed except now you have an EXTRA purchasing option. It's brilliant and exactly what I suggested back when people were flipping out about the survey question on subscriptions a while back.

Beepster

Greeny

Ryan Munnis [Cakewalk]

Greeny
This stinks. I shall be voting with my wallet, hello steinberg.

I sense a recurring theme starting here. Any chance you can share what aspect you're not a fan of? Maybe we can help to clarify? If not, the feedback would be helpful for us either way.

I want to buy a daw, I want to know what I am buying when I buy it, I dont want to be teased tyvm. When I part with my hard earned cash I want to know what I am buying. You dont buy a steering wheel with the promise of a car in parts over the next 12 months do you? No! So why should we be doing this with our daws?

That doesn't even make sense. NOTHING HAS CHANGED unless you want it to. In fact this way would be better for your scenario because you could just pay for a month to try everything out and if you like it then you can buy the full upgrade and own it outright.
 
Seriously... nothing has changed except now you have an EXTRA purchasing option. It's brilliant and exactly what I suggested back when people were flipping out about the survey question on subscriptions a while back.

Yes something has changed, I pay the upgrade price, and dont get the updates right away. I dont know what I am buying how exactly is this better for me?

Greeny

Beepster

Greeny

Ryan Munnis [Cakewalk]

Greeny
This stinks. I shall be voting with my wallet, hello steinberg.

I sense a recurring theme starting here. Any chance you can share what aspect you're not a fan of? Maybe we can help to clarify? If not, the feedback would be helpful for us either way.

I want to buy a daw, I want to know what I am buying when I buy it, I dont want to be teased tyvm. When I part with my hard earned cash I want to know what I am buying. You dont buy a steering wheel with the promise of a car in parts over the next 12 months do you? No! So why should we be doing this with our daws?

That doesn't even make sense. NOTHING HAS CHANGED unless you want it to. In fact this way would be better for your scenario because you could just pay for a month to try everything out and if you like it then you can buy the full upgrade and own it outright.
 
Seriously... nothing has changed except now you have an EXTRA purchasing option. It's brilliant and exactly what I suggested back when people were flipping out about the survey question on subscriptions a while back.

Yes something has changed, I pay the upgrade price, and dont get the updates right away. I dont know what I am buying how exactly is this better for me?

You not only get everything I just listed in my other reply to you, but a full extra year of updates as part of the 12 month membership if you're choosing to buy up front. Check out https://www.cakewalk.com/Products/SONAR/Whats-New
 
I think you're mistaking what we've been up to for the past year. There is already a whole slew of new features and major additions.