I began my journey with Cakewalk products around 12 years ago by purchasing Guitar Tracks Pro at a local Guitar Center.  The rewards of that modest purchase were immense as I was immediately able to create in an environment that was highly intuitive and feature-packed.  The support was exemplary when issues arose and all the technical folks with whom I interacted were helpful, knowledgeable, and oriented towards solution-based conversations.  When I couldn't retrieve a stored product code due to a hard drive crash, one guy asked me to email him a photograph of the CD-ROM from my original purchase, and from that method of authentication we proceeded to address and correct the issues.  Awesome. 
 
I stayed on the email notification list and kept a close watch for upgrades, and as they became available I progressed through Sonar Home Studio with the XL pack, and then to Sonar X2 Studio in 2013.  Each new version offered a host of cool features that helped me grow my capabilities and produce some pretty cool projects.  I am certain that this sounds dated and quaint to those who choose and are able to remain on the cutting edge of software development, and I realize that much has been developed since my last purchase. 
 
My difficulty lies in the path of planned obsolescence down which Cakewalk has led me and probably many others.  X2 mysteriously disappeared from the list of supported products very quickly after I was offered and purchased the upgrade.  I had compatibility issues between the upgrade and the old stuff and was unable to contact support to correct these issues.  Forums provide some general answers, but my specific inquiries were left unanswered.  To further compound my situation, I recently upgraded my computer's OS to Windows 10, and now all hope for support has evaporated.  The support page states that since my Cakewalk software was developed before Windows 10, there is no way for their developers to support it. Wow. Line 6 and M-Audio have already been able to make their products function perfectly in Windows 10 on my system and these products were purchased years before X2.
 
I feel that I have been led to a dead end by Cakewalk's marketing strategies and I also believe that I am not alone.  Throwing out affordable though soon-to-be-obsolete upgrades has undoubtedly been lucrative.  The new "Rolling Upgrade" system is a fun concept, but useless to anyone that is at my stage in the game since my product has been intentionally cast aside.  My main question:  Does a user of X2 Studio have an upgrade option, in Windows 10, without starting over from a new version, or is your strategy to offer only new products and abandon the affordable upgrade programs from past years?
 
A reply from Cakewalk would be greatly appreciated.
 
Many thanks

Hello
Latest version of Sonar supports Windows 10 and any devices that support windows 10. Before you upgraded you need to check your devices are Win10 compatible.

If your device is not Win10 compatible, or does not work for some reason, raise it with the manufacturer, it is not a Cakewalk issue, the buck stops with you to make sure your devices are compatible and working. BTW If you change DAWs you are likely to get similar issues.

If you have specific issues with X2A you could post in the forums, ideally one thread per issue to keep it simple. X2 should work on Windows 10 but Cakewalk has never specified it is fully Win10 compatible, you need to upgrade to latest Sonar for that.

Note the final service pack for X2 was X2A. X2 is about 3.5 years old.l, don't expect much support for a legacy product. Also note during this time Cakewalk was under Roland, it is now under Gibson.

Most of us are pretty happy with Platinum, if you aren't happy with the product before you've even used it I suggest you find alternative solutions if you decide to upgrade.

You can also roll back your operating system or ask for help in the the forums to see if we can get you working. If you've already posted please point to your specific threads.

I take issue with the phrase 'planned obselense', Windows 10 was not out when X2A came out, you read the OS specifications, and it's a given that support would run out in a year. Your scenario seems to be that you have paid for a fully featured DAW, expect it to be supported 3.5 years later, have already taken advantage of support (considerably), expected it to still be supported when you upgrade your operating system many years later (changed the goalposts yourself), and then consider yourself have been ripped off afterwards after plopping Sonar in a different environment (how much did you pay for it?).. I suspect you should review your own opinion.

With Sonar Platinum there is a monthly cycle, the software will never be obsolite. If you buy 12 months you get to keep it. So get your wallet out or stick with what you have (roll back/restore from backup/try and get it working/whatever), your choice. Otherwise reduce your expectations or change your DAW, which will also perform under similar parameters.
 
BTW Sonar Platinum will open X2 projects, there is your upgrade option.

Thanks...
 
p.s. You state you have done posts before here, however this appears to be your first post in the forums. I question why you are creating a new user account for this, and not understanding why you are posting in the feature and request forum.

Come on Alex, cut the guy some slack. If you read his info you'd have seen he's only 4 years old. Kudos to the little chap for figuring out how a computer works.

boolee54
I began my journey with Cakewalk products around 12 years ago by purchasing Guitar Tracks Pro at a local Guitar Center.  The rewards of that modest purchase were immense as I was immediately able to create in an environment that was highly intuitive and feature-packed.  The support was exemplary when issues arose and all the technical folks with whom I interacted were helpful, knowledgeable, and oriented towards solution-based conversations.  When I couldn't retrieve a stored product code due to a hard drive crash, one guy asked me to email him a photograph of the CD-ROM from my original purchase, and from that method of authentication we proceeded to address and correct the issues.  Awesome. 
 
I stayed on the email notification list and kept a close watch for upgrades, and as they became available I progressed through Sonar Home Studio with the XL pack, and then to Sonar X2 Studio in 2013.  Each new version offered a host of cool features that helped me grow my capabilities and produce some pretty cool projects.  I am certain that this sounds dated and quaint to those who choose and are able to remain on the cutting edge of software development, and I realize that much has been developed since my last purchase. 
 
My difficulty lies in the path of planned obsolescence down which Cakewalk has led me and probably many others.  X2 mysteriously disappeared from the list of supported products very quickly after I was offered and purchased the upgrade.  I had compatibility issues between the upgrade and the old stuff and was unable to contact support to correct these issues.  Forums provide some general answers, but my specific inquiries were left unanswered.  To further compound my situation, I recently upgraded my computer's OS to Windows 10, and now all hope for support has evaporated.  The support page states that since my Cakewalk software was developed before Windows 10, there is no way for their developers to support it. Wow. Line 6 and M-Audio have already been able to make their products function perfectly in Windows 10 on my system and these products were purchased years before X2.
 
I feel that I have been led to a dead end by Cakewalk's marketing strategies and I also believe that I am not alone.  Throwing out affordable though soon-to-be-obsolete upgrades has undoubtedly been lucrative.  The new "Rolling Upgrade" system is a fun concept, but useless to anyone that is at my stage in the game since my product has been intentionally cast aside.  My main question:  Does a user of X2 Studio have an upgrade option, in Windows 10, without starting over from a new version, or is your strategy to offer only new products and abandon the affordable upgrade programs from past years?
 
A reply from Cakewalk would be greatly appreciated.
 
Many thanks

I read your post twice and all I see is someone that wants CW to keep your version current. That is not the norm in software development. However, I know of no reason why your version wont run well on Windows 10. No developer can write software that will anticipate changes in an OS years before it is released. True many older programs do run well on new versions of an OS. But there is no way to guarantee that not at the time of realese. Even MS wont do it with many of their own products. Why would you demand a small company like CW dedicate programmers to keep your version current when the vast majority are on newer and current versions plus those that are first time users and need support too?
 
Other DAW makers don't do what you are asking. Try running Cubase SX3 on Windows 10 see what happens. How About Logic Platinum 5? I know these wont because I have them. 
 
You compare hardware to a powerful full feature DAW and think its as easy to update a driver as it would be to rewrite a very old program. 
 
I have two questions for you have you tried to run Sonar Studio X2 on Windows 10? If you have and it didn't run did you call CW support to see if they have a way for you to run it?
 
 

Try running the latest version of Cubase on Windows 10 :-)  According to Steinberg there's a bug in Windows 10 that affects all audio software (yeah right).

There are just way to many features in SONAR and they keep making more, I find myself reaching the end of my creative juices sometimes but I fear that CakeWalk has led me down a path of continual ignorance as to everything that SONAR XXX can do and I'm sick of feeling inadequate.
 
I'm switching to a Casio KX-101 to fullfill ALL my DAW needs including speakers (something SONAR lacks) and a built in keyboard (a relativlely new addition to SONAR with touch screens mostly) PLUS OS Independence! With it's logically and fully laid out interface complete with tape mastering I feel my creative jucies flowing again as I can wrap my loving arms around my DAW again and understand it almost completely. This has been a very personal decision for me.
 
My new DAW (The CASIO KX-101!):

Edit: Ain't no one needs a course in Beepster Economics 101... or maybe they do but still... no fuel for you.

boolee54
The new "Rolling Upgrade" system is a fun concept...

 
And the irony is that one of the reasons it was adopted was to prevent the kind of experience you're having with a product that's well over 3 years old and coded before Windows decided to make major changes to their operating system. Notice how nicely Platinum rolled smoothly into Windows 10-land, while remaining compatible with 7 and 8.
 

My main question:  Does a user of X2 Studio have an upgrade option, in Windows 10, without starting over from a new version, or is your strategy to offer only new products and abandon the affordable upgrade programs from past years?

 
Your premise is wrong. Cakewalk is not offering "new products" in the sense you mean it. Instead, they've gone to a model of an affordable and continuous upgrade program that's superior to the options offered previously.
 
Your question should be do you want to run Windows 10, or do you want to run X2, bearing in mind that I'm not entirely convinced X2 won't run under Windows 10. If you want to do both, create a dual-boot system drive and run X2 under whatever OS you're currently using (that way any third-party software you use with X2 will also be compatible), and boot into Windows 10 when you want to do Windows 10 stuff. I still have an XP removable drive with XP and all the programs from other companies that were orphaned when Vista and Windows 7 came along.

shawn@trustmedia.tv

Please reset and rescan your plugins. Make sure your drivers are up to date. And then turn up the bass.