Ah, yes, MIDI. 
 
It seems clear that CAL has been deprecated/abandoned. With MIDI it is more like a fading memory, still there in a usable form, but not at the front of the Cakewalk group mind. Has the skill set been lost in the drive to produce things like fancy audio routing? Yes there have been some MIDI editor (piano roll) changes, but unless I am wrong, there is still not even a way to route one MIDI track to multiple synths, let alone jump between instruments from a track with a MIDI patch point. Sooner or later, at least some of the kids who currently hammer away with the step sequencer are going to want more creative control. Is that potential market worth considering? Going head to head against ProTools for audio work may turn out to be a fool's errand, as more and more music is being created without recording real world audio. 

You can try the full version with no limitations for 90 days and experience it for yourself:
 
https://www.cakewalk.com/SONAR-Platinum-Extended-Trial

Andrew, did you even read my previous post?  I purchased Sonar Platinum back in January.
 
I think Andrew's post is indicative of the problem with Cakewalk at the moment.  Ever since X1, the push is always sales, sales, sales, without ever actually addressing the bugs.
 
So, to those of you on the fence who are concerned about MIDI-based reliability, it looks like Sonar will continue to collect bugs and glitches, rather than shed them.  I recommend waiting until there is evidence on the forum that Cakewalk has taken steps to shift its focus back to customer satisfaction.  IMO the Cakewalk staff should keep the marketing off the forum and stop wasting our time, and theirs, with posts like the one you just witnessed from Andrew.
 
"Hey, that's a bit harsh, Tripecac.  Andrew was just trying to help."
 
By acting like a marketing bot?

Tripecac
 
"Hey, that's a bit harsh, Tripecac.  Andrew was just trying to help."
 
By acting like a marketing bot?

Self censorship is sometimes superior to self blame.
It is a bit harsh. If you embrace the moral imperative to read every word of every post in a thread prior to responding with something you think might help, you are going to be spending a lot more time than Cakewalk probably budgets for its employees to interact on the forum. So he missed the post about you having already purchased it. Under those circumstances, pointing you at a free trial (without guessing that you already knew about the application) makes sense from a trying to be helpful perspective. That is clearly the best way to find out how it works for you. He actually did not say anything about buying the product.

Stability would have to be the key for me. I currently have the Producer demo, but have not used it for a month or so. I was also demo-ing Reaper at the time, trying to decide which to buy. I'm now leaning toward Reaper, because they are working on a notation editor that looks like it will be superior to Sonar's. 8.5.3 had not crashed for me in a long time, until last night. but that is probably because of the Vienna Special Edition synth, which I just added back in to my current project. I was trying to do without it, but the sounds are too good. But it causes me a lot of issues, it just doesn't play well with 8.5.3. Although I'm getting a handle on how to deal with that. Now, this is something that might not happen in Sonar Pro (I can't tell because I'm demo-ing it on my old computer, where I don't have Vienna installed). Reaper is supposed to be very stable. I'm another midi only guy, with a very simple workflow. Probably any DAW with notation would work for me, once I learned it. When Reaper with notation is officially released, there's a good chance I'll buy it. If I don't like it, I still have 8.5. and could always upgrade to Producer (I don't need all the bells and whistles of Platinum). 

I suppose experiences may vary. I can only speak to what I have witnessed and experienced with Cakewalk.
 
From my view, Cakewalk has always been focused on their customers with staff that really have pride in their product. SONAR (in my experience) has steadily improved with a nice balance of new features and bug fixes. The company has been pretty transparent and fair, being more than willing to allow dissenting views and discussion with a genuine interest in learning how the customers feel and what they want; keeping in mind how to further improve upon SONAR.
 
Just sharing my experience. I hope your (the OP) experience improves.

Tripecac
So, to those of you on the fence who are concerned about MIDI-based reliability, it looks like Sonar will continue to collect bugs and glitches, rather than shed them. 

Can't agree with your premise here at all. Saying that there have not been as many improvements to the midi side of Sonar as there has to the audio is very different to claiming that the midi is no longer reliable. I edit extensively in midi 90% of the time and use Sonar to control the entirety of my touring show (audio as well as lighting fx etc) and can say with certainty in my experience Platinum is by far the most stable version of Sonar ever. Well....since Cakelive for DOS anyway. That was unstoppable:)
 

Tripecac
IMO the Cakewalk staff should keep the marketing off the forum and stop wasting our time, and theirs, with posts like the one you just witnessed from Andrew.

Well, IMO Cakewalk's presence on this user forum is one of the things that sets it apart from most other Software companies. Good luck finding the CTO, programmers or product specialists on other software user forums.

I would also like more improvements in MIDI workflow and some bug fixes, but on the whole I think there have been a great many significant improvements that I use on a daily basis. It's always a mistake to extrapolate general usage patterns from your own needs.

Tripecac
I think Andrew's post is indicative of the problem with Cakewalk at the moment.  Ever since X1, the push is always sales, sales, sales, without ever actually addressing the bugs.

 
"Without ever actually addressing the bugs" has no basis in fact. Go back over the previous eZines and count the number of fixes. There have also been multiple optimizations, and all the bugs fixed between X3 and SONAR 2015.
 

So, to those of you on the fence who are concerned about MIDI-based reliability, it looks like Sonar will continue to collect bugs and glitches, rather than shed them.

 
Apparently some users are perfectly capable of creating complex, vibrant orchestral works in SONAR using MIDI and the Staff View. Click here, then scroll down to page 15. (Note that this was written by someone who left SONAR in search of a better program, but ended up returning after the other programs didn't pan out to his satisfaction.)

I happen to be a mostly midi guy, as well, but am quite pleased with Sonar Platinum - have been a Cakewalk user since it was Twelve Tone Systems in the days of DOS.
 
I LIKE the new monthly maintenance approach, by the way, as it brings out both fixes and features far faster than it did prior to that.
 
I am able to be quite productive with Sonar meeting most of my midi needs/wants.
 
Bob Bone
 

Am I the only one that likes all the "stuff"?? The stuff that comes with Sonar is AWESOME. I love all the geegaws and doodads that ship with Sonar, because it gives me everything I need to create, mix and even master my music. It was the stuff that ships with Sonar that caught and held my eye. It was just about the only DAW at the time that had virtually everything you needed to go from conception to master right in the box. Still does if you don't mind a virtual box.
 
Yeah, I love the writing and playing part, but I also love it when something I created comes out sounding like a pro did it. Ha. Like that happens all the time! I'll tell you this, whatever issues I have creating pro-quality music have absolutely nothing to do with the software. 
 
I also own 8.53 (and earlier versions) but I'll switch to Reaper before I go back to 8.5.3. Oh, and did you see the previews that Andrew posted about the new skinnable UI that they're working on?