Hello,
 So as the year is coming to a close, and my year-long subscription will ending in January, I'm wondering if Cakewalk has released any information on any planned features either coming up or in the plans for next year? I know in rolling updates it used to have a list of "up next" features, but they don't seem to be there anymore. I want to see what I would be potentially paying for before I commit to the monthly subscription fees for next year.

nickbarna
I want to see what I would be potentially paying for before I commit to the monthly subscription fees for next year.

 
Well, that's the mystery, isn't it? What they said when they started the subscription model was something like "We intend to demonstrate throughout the year with great updates every month that it will be worth it to re-subscribe when your first year is up."
 
I was skeptical, but I have to say there have been so many cool updates that the program is barely recognizable after 10 months -- and I mean that in a good way. Based on what has happened this year, I intend to re-up when the time comes, but I wouldn't expect to find out in advance what I might be paying for. As I recall, they promised "a huge surprise" during the initial rollout, and I still don't know exactly which surprise they were talking about. 

Believe me, I think it's completely been worth it, and that's actually what I'm hesitant about. I can't see what else they could be adding on top of everything they've added this year. I do feel though that when this first started they did give a little information about what we could expect throughout the year?

Disclaimer: This is not an official Cakewalk response.
 
The Bakers are always thinking about how they can improve the program. Some of what they plan is simple, some is difficult, but it's not always easy to predict in advance how what they plan will turn out. Sometimes what seems complex is easy, and sometimes, what seems easy is complex. Also, what seems like a cool thing to do can develop into more than originally anticipated -- e.g., the Drum Replacer -- and therefore take more time to implement than expected.
 
Furthermore, there are a lot of "eureka" moments - one thing I can say for certain is that at least some of the advances over the past year were not planned when the membership program was started. Some was based entirely on user feedback that developed well into the progress of SONAR 2015. Some of it was being worked on way before the new version came out.
 
I can think of one element that I think would be extremely cool, yet no other DAW includes this. I have already talked to a couple people at Cakewalk to see what they thought, and at least one person thought it was pretty amazing. Now, that's just me coming up with one idea. Multiply that by the number of Bakers and the suggestions from the community, and I don't think they're going to run out of ideas any time soon.
 
Trying to be as objective as humanly possible, I think this is the bottom line: If you liked what happened in 2015, you'll be equally happy with what happens in 2016.

Anderton
Sometimes what seems complex is easy, and sometimes, what seems easy is complex.

Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know. And if one looks throughout the history of Sonar and other DAW's, it is the latter category that tend to be the difficult ones.

I hope this makes sense..

Larry Jones:if memory serves the big surprise was the drum replacer

The big surprise for me was there was no drum maps UI replacement ;)

(OK that's twice in one month, toning it down..)

I think my reasoning is not that I won't like what they'll be coming up with, it's that when I started in January, I didn't own Sonar. Now that I outright own it (in January 2016), I want to make sure the monthly cost is worth paying for just new features, since that money is no longer going towards purchasing it.
 

This will matter less and less over time, I think.
 
With this being the first year of the membership model, inevitably, a lot of us are going to hit the 12 month renewal date around the same time. But that will become a more and more fuzzy boundary every year, and a couple of years from now, it won't be a thing at all. The user base just won't be so in sync in that way.
 
My own suspicion of why there's nothing listed as "up next" - for the first time since the membership programme started - is that they're smart enough to make sure they do a showy announcement of something special for this fairly decisive renewal dates that are coming in the next couple of months. But I think it will become less and less decisive as we go along.
 
Myself, I went the other way, and while I'm as tied to the 12 month commitment as anyone else, due to the fine print that says you only get to keep everything if you hang in for the full period, I switched immediately to monthly payments as soon as Sonar Xinfinity came out. I kind of like how it feels that way. For the price of three good quality but reasonably priced beers, I get awesome new stuff every month.
 
A couple of years from now, people's sign up dates will become scattered enough that it just won't matter, and there'll be no sense of an annual pinch point at all. It'll be like I've described it in another thread: your studio has a tech team who fix stuff and add new stuff while you're not looking. And that will just be ongoing.

nickbarna
I think my reasoning is not that I won't like what they'll be coming up with, it's that when I started in January, I didn't own Sonar. Now that I outright own it (in January 2016), I want to make sure the monthly cost is worth paying for just new features, since that money is no longer going towards purchasing it.

From that perspective the next 12 months after Jan you are beginning again . So in Jan 2017 you will have new 'paid for' version of Sonar..