I imagine the first version of strum was unlocked because it was at the end of its life and the company didn't care. Now with version 2 they want to recoup as much development cost as they can.
 
I'm fine with Sonar having proprietary plugs because Sonar is where I use them.

Honestly I think Sonar is the one who loses money when people stop subscribing after a month, not the companies selling the licenses.

I mostly don't mind when stuff is locked though I do consider it a bonus when it isn't. And when I'm paying money to upgrade plugs or buy expansions I expect to be able to use them in other DAWs as well.

EDIT: actually, since we do get these questions sometimes, is it actually very clear on purchase which plugs are Sonar-bound and which aren't?

I believe that Sonar provides the extra plugins in partnership with the other companies to provide nice extras - to sweeten the deal for those interested in getting such extras, and it also gives companies a nice way to introduce a bunch of folks to their product lines.
 
In doing this, Sonar is able to offer these extras without adding significant cost to Sonar.  I have gone out and either upgraded some plugins or reviewed and sometimes purchased other plugins from companies that introduced me to their plugins through being included in some version of Sonar.
 
And, even if a given plugin is tied to work in Sonar only, or some other DAW only, other than having to build tracks using those plugins in the DAW they are tied to, one could always bounce those tracks for purposes of doing some editing or tracking in some other DAW, bringing the edited tracks back into Sonar to continue.  It is by no means a perfect solution, but since they don't add much, if any, cost to the purchase price of a Sonar license, I am very happy to have whatever extras they can throw into a given version of Sonar I am contemplating purchasing.
 
My son and I also purchased FL Studio, and a bunch of the plugins in there only work in FL Studio - I would imagine this is true of most, if not all, of the major DAW products on the market.  We both like some of the work flow in sequencing in FL Studio, and sometimes my son starts projects in FL Studio and then moves them to Sonar for the heavy lifting.  Many people have more than one DAW product, and there is nothing wrong with that.  All of the software is simply a collection of tools, and it simply gives folks additional options at creating projects.
 
I have an Intel CPU, but not an Intel motherboard, and other computer parts from a whole host of vendors, and nobody cares - all of the parts are just tools that together create the bigger picture - the whole PC.  All of the various plugins in Sonar are sort of like that, and they all are part of the bigger picture - the software and hardware that is a robust audio engineering suite that is Sonar on a monster PC.
 
Bob Bone
 

pwalpwal

slartabartfast

pwalpwal
 i wouldn't expect an included plugin that worked across the board to suddenly become locked in after an update and without warning

Is that what happened? Can you no longer use the version that came with a previous purchase outside of Sonar as before?  Did the update do a search and destroy and remove the previous version from your system or inactivate it? If so it is a whole new benefit of the membership model. Cakewalk can begin to take away plugins they "sold" you previously, even if (because?) you are a current subscriber. That is different from providing you with a new version with improved features that is locked to Sonar. Just because a previous version worked universally does not imply that you have a contract to receive an updated version that does so as well. But if your old universal version is involuntarily disabled as a result of an upgrade, that does look like a taking.

Susan G the Strum Session update in Foxboro went from working as a VSTi in other DAWs to being SONAR-only

hth

Just to clarify, the Strum Acoustic Session version 1.0 that shipped with SONAR 2015 still works in other DAWs, but the updated version doesn't and specifically says "SONAR EDITION" on the GUI. I guess I should have said "Strum Session 1.0 continues to work in other DAWS, but Strum Session 2.0 is locked to SONAR."
 
Sorry for not being more clear.
 
-Susan

Beepster
hmm... So the new Strum only works in SPlat

Yes, but the original continues to work in other DAWs.
 

Beepster
Well, I had been under the impression that the majority of plugs that came with Sonar were locked to Sonar but I was pleasantly surprised when I installed another DAW (not to abandon Sonar but for other reasons I won't get into) and a huge amount of the Sonar stuff showed up in the VST options for the new DAW.

Some will show up in VST lists, but a lot of them won't work when you try to load them.
 
-Susan

Anderton
I see both the original and updated versions installed in SONAR. Just to be clear...did the original work in other programs (sorry, never tried it) and if it did, does it no longer work in other programs? Or did the original work in other programs and still does, regardless of what's happening with Version 2?

The original worked in other programs and still does. Version 2 doesn't work in other programs and the GUI specifically says "SONAR EDITION."
 
-Susan

BTW, I'll admit that one of the reasons I went with SPlat was that it included an unlocked version of Addictive Drums.
 
-Susan

mudgel...
None of the plugins included in Reaper, Samplitude, PT or Studio One work in other programs, and there's probably others.

Right. You can get some REAPER plugins for free here: http://www.reaper.fm/reaplugs/
and there's the Image-Line Juice Pack: http://www.image-line.com/plugins/Effects/Juice+Pack
but I'm not aware of any that just translate from one DAW to another.
 
Thanks-
 
-Susan
 

Susan G
Some will show up in VST lists, but a lot of them won't work when you try to load them.
 
-Susan

Interesting. I just took for granted they would work and the ones I tried did but I think I'm going to explore this more. Mind you this experiment would be with Reaper and X1 Production Suite because those are what I have installed on my crummy laptop (specifically for trying stuff like this out... I can't do any real work on it). I only have Sonar (X1 PS through to SPlat) installed on my actual DAW. Well I've got Pyro on there too but that doesn't count.
 
And now I just remembered... Pyro has some unique plugins included that don't seem to show up in Sonar but maybe I should check the VST scan paths. Maybe they are stored somewhere weird. I wouldn't mind having the Noise Reduction plug from Pyro in Sonar. It's not great but it's still useful.

Susan G
Some will show up in VST lists, but a lot of them won't work when you try to load them.

 
Sometimes plug-ins will even be "disqualified" during the VST scanning process...you'll get some kind of error message that says "This plug-in requires [etc.]," or a plug-in can even cause a crash during the scan (the "exclude" option in plug-in manager is very helpful to deal with this). 
 
Tying a plug-in to a program supposedly gives a competitive advantage. A good example is the "Quadrafuzz" plug-in I designed for Steinberg. When it was introduced, it was for sale and compatible with any VST host. The latest version works only in Cubase 8, and a separate plug-in for sale is no longer available. Now, I doubt that anyone will think "I was going to buy a Pro Tools HD system, but I'm going to buy Cubase 8 instead because it has a V2 Quadrafuzz." However put enough exclusive things in a program, and it could tip someone into a buying that program. Several SONAR users who bought X3 Producer or Platinum have said that the collection of included plug-ins was a major factor.