I understand your concerns Dave.  I have never needed support outside of this forum in the past but have had an issue wth the paylist in the past 3 updates that renders them unusable for me, so I too was hesitant. After reading your post and the responses here I realised I needed to make my decision on the quality of Sonar as a whole and Cakewalk's behaviour over the 25 years that I have used their DAW. Compared to this, the current support issues really are just a bump in the road, and lifetime updates at such a modest price is a no brainer. I just signed up - I reckon you should too:)

ampfixer
 Challenges presented by growth are the best kind.  (please read the disclaimer in my sig)

 
Well, it's usually better than the alternative  But growth almost killed Alesis. I was consulting to them when they did ADAT, and the president of the company was estimating 5,000 units a year; the operation was set up with that in mind. I was aghast, I said they'd sell 5,000 a month. He thought I was crazy, but the sales were between 4K and 5K a month, and they were totally unprepared to ramp up to that level of demand (e.g., create new supply chains, warehouse space, beef up QC, etc.). OTOH it was great for music stores, who sold ADATs for 20% over list price when it first came out.
 

yellowcake64
Hi all

I'm aware that the lifetime update offer for Sonar expires at the end of this month and I do have the money ready to upgrade from x3 Producer to Platinum but I find myself, somewhat worryingly, hesitating.

And the reason for my procrastination is the truly alarming things I'm reading about Cakewalk support. I've read countless reports of users getting absolutely nowhere when trying to contact support. It's all well and good having an excellent product but the true mettle of any company is how they respond when things go wrong. In any other walk of my life, with any other product I simply wouldn't entertain such diabolical levels of support. But I do really like Sonar.

The knowledgeable people on this forum are commendable but it just feels wrong that the entire support infrastructure for a product is effectively provided by its users on an Internet forum.

Anyway that's the reason for my hesitation guys. Can't help it. I just wish I knew that things would improve but I've seriously got my doubts.

Dave

 How many DAWs regress?  Hardly any since the market is quite competitive.
 There is plenty of software that happens to survive with far worse tech support than Cakewalk.  I doubt they will slack in this dept. say like 5 years from with your lifetime updates.
 
 
 
 
 

Using Cakewalk products for 14 years and never used support.
Any issues have been solved by coming here.

chuckebaby
 
I would have purchased the lifetime update if they told me Support wasn't included.
 
 

+1
 
True story...
 
I have only really needed them about twice in over 15 years.  I called them about 4 years ago to switch my email address to a new one.  It was handled promptly over the phone.
 
I emailed account support on 6/10 of this year because my Z3TA+ 2 was not listed in my account>my products.  I had purchased it online through the old legacy Cakewalk store, and it apparently did not make the trip over to the new store.  I wanted to upgrade Z3TA+ 2 (2.1) to the latest version (2.2) which was apparently only available through Command Center. I just needed to have the product registered correctly to make this happen.
 
On 6/16 I received confirmation that my Z3TA+ 2 was now in my Cakewalk account.  With apologies for the delay.
 
Keep in mind that this support request was handled during the initial weeks following the 6/1 announcement of the lifetime updates for Sonar.
 
Just my 2 cents :-)
 

The only time I needed support was for a registration issue at the time Platinum was released.
 
You will get 99% of all of your answers  on this forum, and although you say "If Sonar didn't have this forum it probably wouldn't have a business", the fact is they DO have this forum and it's not going away!!
 
Bite the bullet man, what's the alternative? Pay yearly, every year?
 
It's your money..........

I don't think there is any reasonable excuse that can be made for the situation they have got themselves in with customer support. But I'm sure they don't need this pointed out now when hindsight is such a wonderful thing!! All IMO of course.
 
But the bulk of your concerns comes down to your experience really. If you already know your way around, have most of your products already registered and working, then you need have no concern. I'm with almost everyone here, only calling support I think twice in the last 20 years or so, it was licence/registration issues, not support for the actual product. Everything I've needed to be taught, or shown the way, has been here, rightly or wrongly, or in the cake university, or just plain old google and Youtube.
 
I think your putting yourself through some misery for no reason. Just get it and enjoy it. I believe, like some others here, that this is the ONLY DAW that has progressed in the last several years.
 
Whatever you decide, just relax with your decision. Life's too short to worry about money, or support !!!

Some great points chaps but I'm definitely something of a novice compared to you guys. To be honest I'm rediscovering home recording after a bit of a break. Moved house recently, divorce blah, blah.

I'm the sort of bloke who will probably need quite a lot of support. Even the registration process seems a bit problematic. Just nervous that I won't get the help I'll inevitably need.

All that said. I probably will upgrade. If I move away it's another learning curve (not that I'm far up the Sonar slope).

Thanks for your responses.

Dave

Dave, you have a nice computer at your disposal and IMO Platinum will run flawlessly on it.
 
You can always revert to X3e in the unlikely event that Splat DOES throw you a curve ball, so don't be tempted to uninstall X3. Leave it in place permanently.

Aw C'mon, Jump! Go ahead and, Jump!
 
You even get an HD infinity badge with every purchase! *
 
 
 
* must be able to find the thread where BobF offered it up and merge it yourself in a paint program.