Mesh, I feel your pain. Something that you could do is get the bass and Tracktion Waveform Basic. No extra plugins with Basic but you know and I know that won't be a problem. It's only $50 now with the Cakewalk offer. That way you only spend $50 to get moving towards the future without Sonar. A bigger expenditure puts a certain amount of pressure on to learn it. The $50 shouldn't really nag at you and you still aren't stuck in a relationship that you know is going to end without you having any options. Besides, if a guy needs a new guitar...come on, why are we even talking about that. 

Mesh ,
 
You play guitar plus you have all the Midi Guitar stuff including Midi Bass right?
 
The more more I think about your situation , the more I think you need to get a Bass
 
If you get a Bass you can put your own playing stamp on all your music . Then you don't have to use all the lame sounding Bass parts that come with 3 rd party loop and sample content ...
Now don't get me wrong some 3rd party Bass stuff sounds good , the thing is you will be able to copy /learn what you like and leave the rest ...VIA Cafeteria Style
 
Also you may have real Blast spending time learning and playing the bass ...
OK , Guitar players line up to the left ...sheeeshhh , that line goes for miles ...
OK bass players line up to the right ...that line is much shorter 
We all know that finding a good bass player and keeping one is hard because bass players are always in demand
 
all the best ,
 
Kenny
 

kennywtelejazz
Mesh ,
 
You play guitar plus you have all the Midi Guitar stuff including Midi Bass right?
 
The more more I think about your situation , the more I think you need to get a Bass
 
If you get a Bass you can put your own playing stamp on all your music . Then you don't have to use all the lame sounding Bass parts that come with 3 rd party loop and sample content ...
Now don't get me wrong some 3rd party Bass stuff sounds good , the thing is you will be able to copy /learn what you like and leave the rest ...VIA Cafeteria Style
 
Also you may have real Blast spending time learning and playing the bass ...
OK , Guitar players line up to the left ...sheeeshhh , that line goes for miles ...
OK bass players line up to the right ...that line is much shorter 
We all know that finding a good bass player and keeping one is hard because bass players are always in demand
 
all the best ,
 
Kenny
 

Kenny, you know me well.

I'm actually very lucky in knowing and appreciating this excellent bass player who's always available & willing.....it's just that some of the stuff I do doesn't really call for the quality work he does.....Bapu knows who I'm talking about .
I'm totally a hands on type and always wanted a real bass to back up my guitar work. Third party stuff has always left me on the short end of the stick, and there's nothing like having a real instrument in your hands......thumping that low end......you know, it's feeling that power thing lol. I'm not much of a keyboard player and although Midi Guitar is fantastic, it always comes back to playing the "real thing".
 
Anyway, my plan is to get them both!! I'll start out with the DAW as I don't want to miss out on this deal train (even if they'll have it again later), and the bass is next......a used one or a cheap new one. There's no hurry on the bass as that also has to be tested out.
 
I appreciate all your posts Kenny, you're always very helpful IMO......thanks!!       

Yeah it's been a weird process coming to terms with all the possibilities. 
 
Personally, I took advantage of a BF sale and topped my Reason license up to 10, as I was on 7 and a lot has happened up in Sweden in the past couple of years. Not a lot of people seem to talk about it much around here but it's a remarkable product in many ways, very creative and fun and deeper than most seem to realize. 
 
Then I plopped down a whopping $29 for Mixbus, I figured hey, worth a look at that price, see if the magic fairy dust its enthusiasts go on about is something that will work for me. 
 
Then I installed tested a lot of other things. Studio One, Mixcraft, Samplitude... I liked them all in various ways, but none of them was "clicking" for me in the way that others have described above. Studio One was probably closest, but I kind of couldn't quite decide between that and the greater depth (and apparent complexity) of Samplitude. 
 
Oh, and I poked my nose around Live a bit more - I have a license for 9 Suite, which I hardly use at all, long story, I know it's a remarkable program but I somehow can't imagine using it as a main workhorse. 
 
Then I updated and fired up my Reaper demo that I've had installed for years, occasionally kicked the tires a bit but never actually did any work in, and my mind was quite blown. Reaper is *insane*. I think it's as deep as anything out there, deeper than most when you include all the add-ons available, mostly for free... plus, the efficiency and stability of the code is unbelievable, and the pace of development simply breathtaking. And the community seems very cool, on par with this one if a bit nerdier... It didn't take me long to realize that it's the one for me to gradually move towards. License bought, decision made. 
 
So now like Bapu (and a few others around these parts) I have an embarrassmet of riches: SPlat, Reaper, Reason, Live, Mixbus... I think that will be enough for me for the foreseeable future! The sales on S1 and Samp (and Cubase, and DP!) are very tempting but so is not having to explain to my wife why I need 7 (or 8 or 9!) DAWs when I already have 5 perfectly good ones... 
 
So I upgraded my Toneboosters to BusTools3 instead - that'll cover me for some of the Cake plugs that don't port over (Adaptive, couple of others; I never used the Nomad stuff much anyway). I think otherwise I'm pretty covered. 

I considered Cubase Pro 9.5 - but my needs don't really require it. Looked at Studio One (nope), Performer (nope), Mixbus, Mixcraft (nope, nope).
 
I've mainly been using REAPER more and more.  Does pretty much everything I want, and after using it - most other DAWS feel extremely "heavy".   That said - there are some rough edges.  I updated my Cubase Elements 8 to Elements 9.5 ($19) to have it around when I want to work in a slick GUI (just my preference)
 
So I spent a whopping $19.  I didn't need to update my $60 copy of REAPER that's been good for years and years.