Keep seeing "I'll use it until windows breaks it"

You have a point here. Should work just fine.

panup
MS could break compatibility mode [working for SONAR] in any update. Risk is small but not zero. I believe Microsoft has no interest to actively maintain SONAR compatibility.
People that make their living by using SONAR can not live with that risk. They must either disable Windows updates (other than security fixes) or start using another DAW. My Plan B was to purchase Studio One and learn it so that I can switch to it quickly if I have to. Until that SONAR stays my main DAW in my studio.

You make a very good point, I hadn't taken into account that some people do indeed make their living from sonar, in that case it makes sense to get a new DAW and/or take precautions 

It breaks my heart to say this, but I will never start a new project in Sonar.  What if I'm half way through and something breaks?  I will keep Sonar installed to open old projects, but anything new will be started in Studio One.

For me it is not just a question of whether Microsoft would deliver an update to Windows that would break Sonar it is the central role that Sonar has in my music making process. Sonar's central role means that it is dependent on and interacts in some way with pretty much everything else on my Music Computer.

I agree that the risk of of Sonar failing because of a Windows update is small I'm actually more worried about my UAD-1 and 24/96. The same is true about an update by IK Multimedia, Waves or another third party breaking Sonar, the risk is small. There is also the risk that an existing bug in Sonar will start to cause problems again the risk is small.

Then there is the uncertainty of change. My personal view is that supporting Sonar just became easier for third parties. Unfortunately the potential market just got smaller. While using what I already have may be safe adding new plugins now carries a risk. It may be small but it is there.

For me this led to the decision that I would invest in a new DAW and migrate to it. This has a cost and carries some risk. In some ways the risk is higher than that of sticking with Sonar. I suspect that the switch will require further change. It definitely requires some decisions about the plugins I have installed and those I want to use in the future.

There are a few plugins that have been discussed here that I may have to consider rebuying and one that I will definitely upgrade. There are some that I will learn to do without or replace with an alternative.

I concluded that buying a new DAW was right for me but that certainly does not make it right for everyone because sticking with Sonar until it actually breaks makes a lot of sense. I still have Kinetic, it still works. Sadly it does not support 64 bit Rewire or VST 3. It also has some idiosyncrasies that comes with being older software on a new platform.

That is a long way to say I expect Sonar to be a workable solution for some years. It's just no longer the right platform for me. And that will be true even if someone saves it.

And that is also true, If I was dependant on a DAW making my living I would change from SPLAT now! Can't rely on it anymore.

BRuys
It breaks my heart to say this, but I will never start a new project in Sonar.  What if I'm half way through and something breaks?  I will keep Sonar installed to open old projects, but anything new will be started in Studio One.

I'm taking the same approach, although I've had Reaper installed for a while from when I was debating a move away from Sonar. Now that decision has been made for me (yeah, thanks for that Gibson ), I'll be using Reaper going forward.

Sonar does what I need to do.  But at some point its going to "die" (I also use my PC for other things so its not a dedicated off net PC) because of a Windows upgrade.  I sprung for Studio One 3 Pro and as long as Sonar works I'll use it and that gives me (leisurely) time to learn Studio One 3.  I have been on the fence for a long time about learning a new DAW as it just didn't seem like things were good at Sonar and the current events with Sonar have given me the reason to do it.
 
 

I keep seeing people on this forum talking about "switching or not". There are people that will keep using Sonar until it dies, and people that just "jumped ship".
 
I myself have "jumped ship" a while ago, but Sonar is still on my system. I have kept both Sonar and Cubase side by side for more than a year here. Not because I use Sonar that much nowadays, but simply to migrate my older projects to Cubase. Sure - I won't start a new big project on Sonar, but for small things it's still usable. However, after the news Sonar will not longer be maintained or improved, it is on my "to avoid" list for critical projects for certain.
 
What I want to say is this. I do not want to "lay my eggs in one basket". In other words, I use several DAW's. At this moment I have Ableton Live, FL-Studio, Cubase Pro, Wavelab Elements and Sonar installed. For me a DAW is a tool. Some things just work better in Live, others in FL-Studio, while for mixing, and especially MIDI editing, Cubase is great. And nothing beats Wavelab for making the final master. All of those DAW's have their strength in certain fields. If you are able to combine that strenght, then "the sky is the limit".
 
So - You do not have to abandon Sonar. It still will have it's strength for time to come. But there is a increased chance that Sonar will be less reliable in the future. So - Keep in mind that you have to create projects on Sonar with portability in mind. The best way to do that is to work with audio only. If you use soft synths, bounce them to audio at the end of your session. The same goes for audio that is processed. If Sonar for some reason should break, you have those audio files - Ready to import in any DAW.
 
Just my 2 cents.

If you consider all the people still running Sonar 8.5 which stopped being supported years ago but still working just fine, even on never Windows versions, there is just no reason to panic and "never open a new sonar project".   That's just a knee jerk overreaction.   What are the chances of SOnar breaking?   Very minimal.  Also, why necessarily continue to update windows and if you do, create a restore point and go back should something break.  Chances are, whatever causes it to break will not be of any functional importance to running applications and will more likely be related to security.  Most "music experts" agree that for the most part, you should keep you DAW host machine off the web anyway.   Software breaking is not limited to Sonar anyway so most applications out there always run that risk and actually, I can't think of anything in recent memory except maybe the large jump to Windows 10 that actually caused anything to not work and in that case, the ONLY issue I had that I decided to not pursue were hardware related having to do with an old Tascam FW1884 and my Frontier Alpha Track .   ALL my software and ALL my plugins still work.   I have lost NOTHING in software functionality Since XP - Windows 10 so why think all oif a sudden, some small security fix by MS will now break Sonar beyond usefulness??  Fact is, there are NO DAWs out there that have all the fnctionality SONAR has.   Cubase is nice but no ARA.  Studio is nice but just has less features.  Pro-tools is, well... Pro-tools...  Harrison Mixbus 32C is actaully great but still, far cry from Sonar.   Just over reactions.   Sonar will likely continue to function fine for many years to come but be smart!   Make backups, create restore points and maybe even buy and clone a backup C drive.   If you do these things, you will be in good shape likely for at least 5 yrs is not much longer.   There aren't any bugs in Sonar that are show stoppers that I know of so I wouldn;t even worry about that.    Cakewalk left us with a damn great product in the end and is a stable and robust as anything out there and in many cases, more so.   Still not a bad idea to get another DAW and start learning it in your "spare time" which I did but I really am in no rush or panic to dig into it.   I couldn't resist the 255$ Cubase crossgrade price which was just too good to pass up

I mentioned this over an over: I helped putting together a professional studio's PC and the migration from ADAT to DAW.
They've got, on my advice, Sonar 6 32bit. I installed that on a 2005 PC running Windows 98SE
 
A couple of weeks ago I went there for session: still running the same Sonar 6 !
 
They updated the PC to a new one with XP and later to a third one with 7x64
But never ever thought about updating/changing the DAW. It ot's not broken..
 
Still rolling....
 
So I expect to really think about this issue by 2025.
 
Till then, I do have a much better DAW that these guys...
 
 

bass2rez
I've recently learned that you can "roll back" the Sonar version using the Command Center by right-clicking on "Sonar Platinum" selecting Rollback and choosing a version to roll back to.
 
What action would replicate this once the Command Center has gone and you have to operate via the files contained in the Downloads folder?
 
Do you need to uninstall Sonar Platinum through "Add / Remove Programs" and then reinstall an older version (e.g. SONAR_Platinum_Setup_22.10.0.19.exe), or can you simply run an older installer (e.g. SONAR_Platinum_Setup_22.10.0.19.exe) and it will replace the currently installed version automatically?
 
Can you install any version over any other version and it will sort itself out?
 
Thanks,
Steve

Cakewalk Command Center will automatically do the uninstall/reinstall for you. The Command Center stores all versions of all the software in C:\ProgramData\Cakewalk\Command Center\Downloads. If you've not got the previous version of software in there, Command Center will download it for you.
 
I've only done the rollback/roll forward a couple of times and it worked perfectly for me.
 
Mark.

JonD
No server or activation code means game over.  That's a real risk for many of us.

I agree with everything your saying and that's my biggest concern as well but I wouldn't put it in the "game over" category. You just wont be able to install it on a new PC.
But as long as you "own" the product, Sonar will continue to work for years. Just as long as you don't need to reinstall it. Which again is my biggest concern.
 

We were told (by Noel)  those who own the software will get a code to keep it activated.  I see no reason why Gibson won't provide that.   

We were told (by Noel) those who own the software will get a code to keep it activated. I see no reason why Gibson won't provide that.

Seriously? How quickly we forget that our subscriptions are lifetime. Clearly cakewalk lifetime, not mine and that 2037 date that's in the about box is about 20 years short.

We were not only told that we would get lifetime updates but assured that there would not be some eminent product replacement or anything else to worry about. I even defended this cakespeak.

We didn't get those things. Just over a year of upgrades hardly qualifies as lifetime, especially for a company that sells yearly subscriptions.

Sold a bill if goods, we were.