azslow3
But I can not find the answer on one, I think relatively simple, question: was (are, will be) there some "members only" features? I mean something which you DO NOT get if you pay for Sonar later?

Yes, Brian Hardgroove's Bass Loops library and the Kick Start kick drum instrument were members only.
 
FWIW when membership was first being discussed I proposed that all content (not program features, fixes, enhancements, and additions) expire at the end of the month in which it appeared, and thereafter, be available in the Cakewalk Store for a nominal fee. So anyone signing up later on would get all the new program features, but none of the content that had happened until then. They could pick and choose whichever content they wanted to purchase.
 
For whatever reason Cakewalk rejected that idea, and I felt very strongly this devalued the content...however you can thank Cakewalk for making sure most of the content is free and available even to people who sign up later. So in case anyone wondered how much influence I have on Cakewalk's business itself...now you know 
 
For example, I'm sitting on two new CA-X guitar amps that I think sound pretty awesome - one for pop, one Boogie-like high-gain - but so far there hasn't been any interest in releasing them. I also have a bunch of one-knob effects, including things like humbucker-sound-to-single-coil-sound converters, that I've been sitting on for over two years and nothing has happened with them...as well as a chord library with associated instruments for playing chord progressions to aid in songwriting. I also have a loop library of arpeggios and acid bass lines using the legendary Korg Z1, and a test tone suite for shaking out room acoustics and testing various elements of your recordings...again, no interest in releasing them. That's okay - I get to use them, which is why I did them in the first place 
 
I really am in these forums because I'm a SONAR user, who depends on it for the projects I do. My work is for Gibson Brands. Right now I'm heavily involved in the launch of Gibson's 2016 guitar line (I love the high performance versions!!!), Neat microphones' new Widget mics, and the unexpected success of HarmonyCentral.com's rebirth. However, I'm also doing several sampled instruments for my own use, and there's interest from at least one person at Cakewalk in making these available as expansion packs. Hopefully I'll be able to finish them relatively expeditiously. 

msorrels

bapu
3. Continue with option 2 or convert to monthly payments from option one and each month that I receive updates those are mine to keep and use no matter when I stop paying monthly.

I don't think this is correct.  After the first year, if you start a monthly payment plan (or re-start the one you are in) you begin a new 12 month cycle and stopping the payments before you reach 12 total payments will reset you back.

Hi-
 
This has come up several times, and I wish CW would step in to clarify (again.) If you pay monthly after completing a 12-month cycle and stop payments before the next 12-month cycle is complete, do you keep what you paid for or not?
 
Put another way, if Jack continues paying after his first 12 months and stops at month 18 and Jill skips month 13 and starts paying again at month 14 through month 18 and then stops, Jack gets to keep everything through month 16 and Jill is "reset" back to month 12? That's my understanding, at least.
 
Thanks-
 
-Susan
 

Are we better or worse off? The first thing I tried in the DAW world was Pro Tools Which I thought was a joke. I recently tried it again and ditto. (My Personal opinion of course.) I then tried Guitar Tracks & Sonar & it worked for me. Sonar has come a long way since then & so have I in terms of production capabilities thanks to Cakewalk.
I mostly spend my time creating music and when it is time to commit to recording, editing, mixing, Sonar has worked for me with very few problems. What I need now is the "Automatic Mix & Mastering Feature" So I don't have to spend time doing it. That way I can spend more time Creating music & less time on technical stuff.
The new features are nice & in time I'm sure I'll learn them all as needed on a per project basis.
Craig Anderton, Your presence, contributions, & insight are invaluable. Thank You!
Overall, I think/know we are better off. Now off to tune a guitar. 

Hi-
 
I think the model is a good one. I went with the one-time payment, but I won't opt in for another 12 months. 
 
-Susan

bapu
 
I don't think this is correct.  After the first year, if you start a monthly payment plan (or re-start the one you are in) you begin a new 12 month cycle and stopping the payments before you reach 12 total payments will reset you back.

 
I think its even better than that. At the end of completion 12 consecutive payments (either monthly or prepaid annually) you own everything you got until that point. eg if you stop after 16 consecutive months you own everything until that point.
 
IOW once you cross the 12 consecutive month watermark you own the software AND all consecutive months past that date that you continue on as a member. You can choose to go monthly if you prefer after the 12 month period and you will continue to own the software. However note that if you break the cycle at that point and restart you will only own the consecutive period upto the point where you discontinued. A new countdown will start afresh from when you rejoin. 
 
Here is an example where a customer signs up for 12 months and then discontinues for 2, signs on for another two, misses a month and then signs on again for 12 months. You can see that anything delivered in months 5-9 will not be available to you due to the lapse in membership (7 and 8 are treated as monthly only). However after signing up for 12 consecutive months again you get to own that period again, and so on..
 
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12  1 2 3 4  - - 7 8 - 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9     
<----own 16 months---------------->                 <----own 12 months----->
 
To summarize it's definitely beneficial to stay on as a member for consecutive months since you get to permanently own what you paid for. Our model is far superior to others in this regard and rewards customers who stay with us.

Noel, thank you for the official news on how this works.  Yes, even better than I would guess most of us were aware.
 
Happy Holidays to you and yours. 

Noel Borthwick [Cakewalk]
 
To summarize it's definitely beneficial to stay on as a member for consecutive months since you get to permanently own what you paid for. Our model is far superior to others in this regard and rewards customers who stay with us.

My take is that Cakewalk's model is the ONLY one that was created to benefit small businesses and individuals. The others seem oriented toward big corporations where significant numbers of employees need to be kept on the same iteration of software.
 
It's unfortunate that so many people tuned out as soon as they saw "monthly updates" and assumed Cakewalk had gone to the Dark Side, but hopefully that's changed now that people have seen the model in action.

Anderton
 
It's unfortunate that so many people tuned out as soon as they saw "monthly updates" and assumed Cakewalk had gone to the Dark Side, but hopefully that's changed now that people have seen the model in action.

 
Yup, should have hired the frog who used to work for Native Instruments marketing...

Very satisfied with the new model.  Agree

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

A lot of the additions haven't been useful for me, but every month there's been SOMETHING that I end up using.  And often when I make time to watch some of the videos or read suggestions about the new features (always a few months after-the-fact), I find there actually are several new features I thought weren't useful to me that really are.
 
I think it's been worthwhile and plan to pay for the upcoming year as well.

Doktor Avalanche
 
Sure the monthly updates are better than X3 and before, sadly however the QA results seem to be about the same. I don't expect bakers to find every issue, QA is hard, the product is complex, it's impossible to find everything. Heck ... But I still do question the model of releasing unstable or buggy software with bug fixes at the same time.
 
Monthly is great if all we are is beta testers, and some people want to be, and that is fine by me. The situation we have now basically. But for the rest of us, we want to run on stable releases, and there needs to be another path for us to follow. If there was a situation where there were additional stability releases every quarter with a feature freeze, a true alternative path to follow, that would be a huge improvement. That could run in parallel or part of the normal cycle. Whatever...
 
To say that there is no demand for stability releases (as has been stated only recently) is a ridiculous statement. This is audio software we are talking about. Some of us just want to spend time recording without issue.
 
Of course the arguement would be you can simply roll back, this is true and is a good feature... However..
 
a) We are still put into the position of having to be beta testers whether we want to or not when we upgrade. That's a pita when all some of us want to do is record, and with paying customers is a big no no.
 
b) Rolling back may resolve an issue, but just leaves us with other different bugs to cope with. You takes yer choice.
 
... something seriously needs to be done to improve the current situation. Bring on regular stability releases and schedule them so we know in advance is my opinion. The current model is a good start, please tweak it.

 
I fully agree with the excerpts I've shown.  In fact I'd been thinking lately about asking for a new feature freeze, with a few months of nothing but consecutive bug fixes. By all means, tighten the loose rivets, especially the known ones, before aiming to set new monthly land-speed records. Get your balance on the highwire before you start juggling an ever-growing number of bowling pins. That's not anti-evolution, it's just common sense.
 
For me, at least, this is crucial because I started my subscription in July and have stayed with Hopinkton. I've not been tempted enough by the new features added since then to abandon my more-or less stable perch. (To be honest, I already have all the features I need; if I can't make good music with Hopkinton, I cannot make good music). I just want to work.
 
Hopkinton to be sure has some ****s and quirks on my setup, but over time (I'm still somewhat newbie-ish, having returned to the CW fold via X3e after 8 years or so away) I've learned workarounds, and that I can live with them pretty happily.
 
But since new features always bring new bugs, potentially I'm facing have to learn new workarounds each month, as well as seeing that some of my old ones no longer work. Just too much ongoing study for me. So here I am for now.
 
If I am to renew next July, I will not need to see any new features, but I will need to see at least one pretty darn stabilised release, so that I can have something which genuinely offers something less buggy than Hopkinton. And I would need to see it two or three months before July so that I can see for myself how it behaves on my setup, something which no one else can tell me.
 
(Anyone tempted to say, "Only a small minority of people have problems, you should be fine" -- just back the heck off -- I've got a pitchfork ;-) .... No really, Murphy's Law seems to have been written with me in mind, I'm too often in such "small minorities" to take any comfort, my eyes don't lie etc. so don't even start please.)
 
Moreover, I take serious issue with the (I'm paraphrasing, not quoting, Doktor A and many others here) "Upgrade not working for you? No problem, you can always roll right back" claim.
 
"You can always roll right back" -- ok, yes. The time spent downloading, installing and if need be rolling back a version is relatively trivial, yes, and the Command Center is a great addition to ease the way.
 
But "No problem" -- hold on there.
 
For me, bugs don't usually announce themselves upon application launch, unless it's one version not loading or playing a file created in a prior version.
 
Rather, for me, bugs usually emerge over time. Often they only pop out of obscure nooks and crannies of the software when you are deep within a project.
 
So.. what happens when something is amiss in a new version of Sonar? We know the drill … we down tools, stoically scrub up, suit up, go into troubleshooting mode ... and you know, sometimes it takes a fair bit of time and thought just to best design the testing, i.e. just what should I be toggling of / on individually to try to isolate the issue.
 
Anyway, you check numerous states of the project in that version of Sonar. Is it this song? You test other songs in that version of Sonar.
 
Still no joy? Make a thermos of coffee and settle in, lads, let's move now to horizontal analysis, i.e. comparing our results with what happens when we now follow the same debugging steps in the last "safe" version of Sonar. Potentially doubling the number of steps.
 
It can become a fully-fledged forensic chore. It completely squats on your playtime. (Thank goodness I'm only a hobbyist – if I were doing this for a client, under time constraints, I'd be one Nervous Nellie.) And as it always seems to be, you find the problem the last place you look.
 
So it can take a fair – often nontrivial – time to diagnose whether the culprit is even the new Sonar version or not.
 
"No problem"? If you are happy to value my time at 0, yeah, ok. I see it differently.
 
Even if you dismiss the above, then ... what happens, say, if you, tempted by Sonar's latest new routing features (patch points etc.), decide to use them extensively in a new project (there to be used, right?), only to find, once you are potentially many hours deep into it, that something else in the latest Sonar has a bug which requires you to roll back to a Sonar version which pre-dates patch points?
 
Where is your god now?