Just Upgraded to X3 from 8.5!
I decided to take the plunge and move from Sonar 8.5 to X3d. My upgrade experience was almost flawless:-Using my same PC I've been using for 7+ years (hard to believe), I bumped up RAM from 4 to 8 GB, just in case. Fortunately, Frys still carries older RAM modules compatible with my PC.-After ensuring all my older projects were backed up, did a clean install of Windows 8.1 (gotta have that boot-to-desktop experience and the start button!)-Installed the latest drivers for my Firestudio Projects audio interfaces, Faderport, and Oxygen 88 controller-Installed all the Sonar parts (after a lengthy download from Cakewalk store)-Installed the X3d patch-Installed the EastWest latest PLAY engine (for those of you who are using EastWest, holy cow, what a vast improvement!). Also, pointed my PLAY engine favorites to the Instruments I already had stored on my "samples" drive.DONE! Launched a new NORMAL template and started playing around with Additive Drums, Prochannel, Dimension and Rapture, and I have a ton more to explore. I must say, it is very different than 8.5 ever was - this will be a huge learning curve. The only issue is, when I launch any project, I need to manually select my main bus output to my Firestudio Projects, or else I don't get any sound. Not sure what's up with that. Otherwise, it plays new projects beautifully, and with a few tweaks, I can play my old projects from 8.5 as well. One more happy Sonar X3 user!
Sonica Labs (Q6600 Quad Core, 8GB, 500GB OS, 500 GB Audio, 500 GB Samples, 2TB Backup)
Windows 8.1 Enterprise
2X Presonus Firestudio Projects, daisy-chained, using Universal Driver 1.7
Sonar Platinum
M-Audio Oxygen 88, Lots of EastWest using Play 4.2