Soundwise
Good question! I wonder will CA amps work if TH3 will replace TH2? AFAIK, CA amps rely heavily on TH2 control panel which is omitted in TH3.
I'd imagine in this case TH3 (Sonar) would appear as a separate VST from TH2 (Sonar) so those who have TH2 (Sonar) installed would have no problems because the FX Chains would just reach out to the normal location where TH2 resides and ignore TH3.
So you and I (assuming you have TH2 Sonar installed) would be fine. If Cake completely abandoned TH2 and replaced it with TH3 new users would have a problem and Craig would have to maybe reprogram all the FX Chains to use TH3 instead.
Example (kind of)... I have upgraded both GR4 (which came with Sonar X1 Producer) and TH2 (Producer) to the full versions (so GR5 and TH2 full). I still have GR4 and TH2 Producer in my VST lists so I can use those instead if I want.
If I were starting from scratch though I would have to go out of my way to install those Sonar versions.
Soooooo... I think the only real sticky issue would be for new users or those who wipe their systems/move to a new system... at least as far as the FX Chains go.
The thing I'm having a harder time grasping is if Overloud have moved on to TH3 will they continue to make TH2 (Sonar) available to new Sonar users. Like are they completely discontinueing the product? Are they going to keep it available to Cakewalk so they can include it in their bundles?
Inquiring minds... and all that rot.
For me though I'd just kind of like to muck around with even a base version a bit to check out the new layout so a scaled back version would be fine for me. I do DEFINITELY want to check out the new amp/effects models too. Looks like they tossed in some extra bass options which may be similar to the MarkII stuff and there seems to be an Orange model as well as some slick new Brunetti/Randall/"other" stuff.
I do not normally suffer from GAS but this is indeed the type of thing that does it for me.
Oh woe.
;-)