Good lord, somebody actually agrees with me. I must have made some serious mistake somewhere .

Doktor Avalanche
Good lord, somebody actually agrees with me. I must have made some serious mistake somewhere .

We do make strange bedfellows. But what the hell. Next time please wear a wig though. 

I have not mentioned fruity loops once.

Doktor Avalanche
Good lord, somebody actually agrees with me. I must have made some serious mistake somewhere .

Lots of people agree with you. Many of the things you mention were discussed on this forum even before the non-subscription subscription model. I assume that like me, their attitude has become 'what is the point'. Either that or they have actually left the forum and/or Sonar.
I cannot believe that some users actually like paying for the 'privilege' of being beta testers.
Seems like the boiling frog scenario to me.
Personally I dislike even more that Sonar features are added in incomplete form and released. The features may be fixed several updates later or they may be simply ignored and wither on the vine.
The X-series Skylight interface  touted 'touch' as the cannot do without feature de jour. Anything been done to actually make touch usable ?  But everyone had to learn a new workflow. 
Matrix view ... hyped as a major new element in the X-series and  an excellent idea if done properly. Anything been done to that ?
Z3ta+2... could be an excellent synth but years since an update. I paid extra for that.
DimPro ? any recent updates to the flagship synth? I won't even get into Rapture Pro.
Cakewalk Sound Center...excellent idea but practically useless...still.
CCC...several updates and still not really primetime.
Drum Replacer...how many Sonar users record live drums ?
Patch Points... really great feature but I am not sure I am liking the implementation. Do the same for MIDI.
Start Menu ?
Style Dials ?
Colors ?
So we are what, 10 updates into the new model. I really do not see a major change in Cake's philosophy.  Sonar could be so much better with the right focus.
I am still on the fence about renewing. I suppose it depends on what happens in the final 2 updates. I find myself thinking about what else I could get with the $200.

Doktor Avalanche
Good lord, somebody actually agrees with me. I must have made some serious mistake somewhere .

That gave me a good chuckle. Reminded me of an old friend's rendition of damned if you do, damned if you don't... "Stand tall, get shot!! Lay low, get walked on..."
 
It looks like Kingston is a fix-only release, so that is a plus.

It seems to me some folks are just negative nannies. I doubt they would be happy if CW gave it away free. I know I can spend $15/month on less than nothing. To get Platinum at that price will be heaven. I spent $30/month to get the top of the line version this year and haven't even had a twinkling of a second thought.
 
 

Paid for the entire year upfront, and have gotten nothing, completely zero, of benefit to me.  Unless, possibly, there is something under the hood toward making things more stable.   I'm at the G revision and see no benefit to even using the free updates to H J I K .   I'm still not sure if all the user interface weaknesses are Cakewalk's failings, or possibly microsoft's failings, but if the latter then it is stil CW's lousy programming or failure to review what the interface actually is that gives us what we have.   There are so many things that many other sofware/audio companies do better, so it is not even as if they must be great at design .. just imitate, please.    The essential thing is discipline: DO NOT have 17 different menu structures, or preference structures, for a user to wade through.   It is a huge mess of a program that would benefit by some weight-watcher strategies.   There are still two reasons I use Sonar: CAL and the weakness of Cubase on Windows 7 with visual things.
 

New release does look good, if only this could continue for another six months to clear the backlog:
http://forum.cakewalk.com/Sneak-Preview-SONAR-Kingston-Update-m3318298.aspx
 
.... yup I know the answer...outrageous suggestion 

Noel Borthwick [Cakewalk
 
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.

Thanks for the definitive word on this, Noel.
 
-Susan

I'm finding myself agreeing with the feature bloat comments sadly.. Yup definately time for the slim fast diet, and finish all those unfinished symphonies laying around underloved... Guess many were hoping for this from the beginning.