Stability has improved, in my experience. There are still issues (like sporadic NaN-like behavior when using plugins in Pro Channel FX bins), but all in all, Sonar's stability has caught up to Cubase, while maintaining superior performance. I've even seen a bug I reported in 8.5 get fixed - psyched!
 
That said, much user experience work is still needed. ACT is still a nightmare to set up (that screen looks medieval!) The need inability to use track inspector and ProChannel at the same time is annoying. I have always felt Cakewalk has a preoccupation with features at the expense of user experience, and this seems to remain unchanged.

Anderton
Paradoxically, those who harp publicly and repeatedly on what's lacking in SONAR drive potential users away from the program, thus making it more difficult to fix the issues about which they complain, so then they complain more. As in other aspects of life, negativity begets negativity.

And the quote above is one such example. This is what breeds negativity. Your opinions are right others are wrong. People must be loyal. If they aren't with us they are against us etc. We have the moral highground. They are screwing up Sonar. That's what it implies. BS to that. We are talking about software. The topic is 'As we near one year of a subscription model, what say you? Are we better or worse off? ' let's stick to that please.

Nobody here was talking about laundry lists, but as you are (topic??), these lists have been around a long time and are pointing to problem issues which have been brought up by DIFFERENT users. They are just lists. You seem you want to attach some sort of blame on people compiling them as though somehow they are the reason these problems exist. In effect you are basically stating you would prefer them to be buried. You seem to imply that these are somehow 'personal' lists. Not what I did I just wrote down ALL the reproducable bugs that came into these forums at the time, not just the bugs I 'liked'.

Perhaps you feel the same about the feature requests forums as well, maybe that should be dismantled as well as all it is a list ?

You should note I stopped creating lists a while back because I figured the problem reports forums would superseed it and it was no longer required, and it would get the community involved. However, as all can see, loads of reproduced issues just hang around there and get buried. I guess that's preferred, community more or less abandoned it, hosts don't really maintain it. Bakers hardly come along. And I can't be bothered to create lists any more mainly because of all the crap I got.

Sorry to be so 'negative'.

I'm very happy with the program since Gibson got involved. It's obvious that this company is really trying to connect with customers and that counts in my world. I don't think that all the new features are a bad thing, but I do find that my brain can't keep up with the rate of change as a hobbyist. Pro's are likely finding it easier working with it 8 - 12 hours a day.
 
There are still some basic functions that seem buggy to me, such as take lanes and clip handling. They are probably working fine but I keep messing up with them. I'd love to be able to turn off features but it seems that if you roll back to avoid something you don't like, then you have to give up things you do like. So we get the good with the bad. Cakewalk is trying to balance between those that expect and want constant change and those that want long term issues to be fixed. It can't be easy.
 
I will likely be downgrading in January from Platinum to Professional because there were very few exclusive Platinum features added. I think there were 2 so far, with drum replacer and vocal sync. I've picked up a 3rd party plug to replace the fly-out Quad Curve EQ so maybe I'll save a few bucks next year.
 
I'll give Cakewalk a B+ for 2015.

Slightly unhappy. I thought X3 was really good and hoped that Sonar 2015 would really concentrate on workflow enhancements. I did upgrade and have given Sonar a year. I was very close to switching DAWs at that point. I wish that ACT was overhauled and take lanes improved. Also(dare I type it) drum map too. I was hoping for some menu rearranging like putting insert measures in the insert menu and having a join clips instead of bounce to clips Which is non intuative to new users. Aux tracks look cool but there is no easy as to view all the
routing.
i appreciate the bug fixes etc but Sonar has always been a "look at the new feature!" kind  company and frankly I don't need any new features.
at this point I will wait for the improvements I need before purchasing the next update.

The first year has been a challenge to keep up with new features in the updates every month. I do feel that the new stuff has trickled down so there is less new features than fixes. It will be interesting to see if the monthly upgrades can be kept up consistently over time for the next year and beyond.
I often feel as though I am not getting as much work done because of upgrading so often which has been a switch. I do, however, give the new ownership the thumbs up for their efforts this year and wait anxiously for the next year!!!

As with many things, it all comes down to individual preferences, what type of work you do, how you use the program, etc. I for one REALLY like the new monthly update model, and I'm a big fan of the features that have been introduced since X3.  Bar none, patch points take the cake.  I would've dumped $200 into a new version of the software for that feature alone.  Some of the new features and content I don't need or expect to use at all, but who's to say that someday I won't?
 
There has been much discussion about certain elements that haven't seen much (if any) improvement, but I personally don't really use them anyway, so from my vantage point, I'm happy with the direction Cakewalk is going.  Likewise, aside from the goofy toolbar issue a while back, none of the bugs introduced with new updates have affected me either.  On the other hand, there are so many different ways to use Sonar, and for some people, the bugs did cause some workflow problems.  And features I personally don't use could be very important to someone else's workflow, so I can understand how limited attention to lacking features could really frustrate some.
 
I do think that because of the monthly update schedule, the bakers are implementing new features/fixes much more quickly than they did with a yearly release schedule, and some of the new developments seem to be a direct result of feedback from this very forum.  For example, there was discussion quite a while back about allowing the bus pane to live with the track pane, and initial response from Cakewalk was that it wasn't really a necessary feature since the existing track/bus architecture worked fine.  But after more discussion, a few months later the patch point feature was announced, which addressed that particular request and opened up a ton of routing flexibility that wasn't there previously.  Maybe Cakewalk got a lot of feedback outside of this forum and saw that there was a larger user base that wanted more flexible routing options, but I like to think at least some of what we discussed on the forum led to the implementation of that new feature.  It really does feel like Sonar is evolving based in large part on user feedback, and that's a pretty awesome thing in my book.
 
I am curious to see what may be in store for upcoming releases, but at this point I'm definitely inclined to drop another year into Sonar.  I'm diggin' it.

I am very satisfied with how SONAR has developed (for me) during this past year. I have not had any crashes in months. I could be down to me not using SONAR to its fullest potential... But I like to be able to take in new features a little at the time, and I am no means getting to the bottom of the feature list in SONAR Platinum.
(I have only one issue in SONAR all together, and it is with the Saturation Knob, in Console View on second monitor, but only while mounted above my main monitor. And I have a workaround for it, so it is no biggie for me.)
Will I renew next year? My heart says yes, and my head / wallet seems to agree 
I am really looking forwards to the continuation of the development of SONAR. Who knows what is in store for the future.
All the best to all the best

I very much look forward to each month's release and poke around with the new features kind of obsessively until I figure them out and how to make use of them with what I do now. I'm no pro so I often find myself at a loss at how to get from point A to point B, so I tend to use a lot of the tools in ways that maybe the developers didn't have in mind. Turns out that a lot of features re-purpose very nicely.
 
For example, I don't use vocal sync too much to sync vocals, but it's a peach for lining up dual harmony guitar parts. In addition to tidying up vocals, I use Melodyne's percussive mode quantizing to fix our drummer's timing mess-ups and to nudge bass and guitar parts around. And I've used drum replacer on a bass track as a way to generate midi triggers for adding cool percussion parts that lock in with the rhythm section.
 
Now it's likely that you professionals out there do things this way too, or maybe you know the "right" way to do those things, but I personally appreciate the incredible flexibility of Sonar. Everything I need to make pro quality music is right there, in the box, and the box seems to get bigger every other month or so, which I dig enormously.
 
Oh, and I also use the heck out of the library of PC profiles Craig Anderton developed, just so you know that I appreciate the value-add content very much, and I hope they keep coming.
 
So yeah, I'm in it for the long haul until my wife raises too much of a stink about this expensive little hobby.
 
Kevin

I'm in a different boat from most other users.  I'm an amateur with very limited musical training, but I have passions for music and technology.  I'm a feature junkie.  I'm inspired by new techniques and new sounds, and I really like learning how to do things in SONAR.
 
That said, i was dumbfounded to find myself in the same boat as CA when it comes to one reason for really loving the monthly update model:

Anderton
I find it far less disruptive to learn a little bit every month than a whole lot every year.

This approach helps to focus my exploration.  It prompts me to learn aspects of the tools I might not have used much before.  It quells my tendency to spend money on new plug-ins and samples, and I'm less likely to haphazardly haunt the seedy halls of half-baked hard-drive clutter (freebies).
 
I give the new approach two big thumbs up because, well, that's all I have.  
 
 

How will I be notified when my year is up?