Hello Cakewalk Sonar users.
 
First: I have been watching some great videos regarding Sonar Platinum and have been reading some interesting forum post as well.  My question is, if I decide to upgrade from Sonar X3 to Sonar Platinum, will I  receive all of the previous upgrades that have been given out since the initial release of Sonar Platinum?
 
Second: the upgrade price is $149.00, however, once the year is over is there a monthly fee for still receiving updates and or the next version of Sonar?  I am unsure how this works. I know I will own Sonar Platinum  when I pay the $149.00, however, I am unsure about the updates and how long they will last or is there an additional fee required to keep downloading them?
 
Third: With Sonar Platinum, is it recommended that I uninstall Sonar X3. Currently I have Sonar X2 and X3 on the same computer and I don't want it to get bogged down with unnecessary stuff.
 
There appears a wealth of upgrades that the users have received and they are all worth more than the $149.00 upgrade price from X3 to Platinum. 
 
Thanks for listening and offering answers you have to my questions.

No issues with old versions. You will get updates for a year, and then a reduced price for the next year.  The updates each month are cumulative. That is about the extent of my knowledge but someone else will be by shortly.

You get your years membership, and all the updates and extra features, after the year is up, they are yours, you keep them even if you don't renew. If you renew then rinse and repeat, but remember if you stop your membership for any length of time, you won't get any of the extra goodies that are given out during the time you were out, you will however get all the updates again when you rejoin.
 
You can keep your X2 and X3, if you uninstall them you may not have access to somethings they have that you use, effects etc, wont hurt to leave them. It is best to have them installed first rather than have them installed after Sonar Platinum.

O@B is right. If you join now, you won't get the "extras" that were given the previous months. But once you start, you will get it from then on until your year ends. If you renew your membership at that time, you will continue to receive.

generally its a lot easier to let sleeping dogs lie, and most here do not uninstall older versions of Sonar.. and fwiw definitely do not uninstall x2 there is stuff there that was not included in x3 (rmix etc)

The distinction between "updates" and "goodies" is the significant issue. I am assuming updates includes bug fixes and new core "features", but I am not even certain about that. How does one distinguish between core features and "goodies?" How does one determine what is included when one jumps onto the wagon at a given point in the future? The statement that the "updates" are cumulative does not answer the question.

Just cause some of the answers, although correct, may be a little ambiguous...
 
1) You will receive the cumulative update of all the months you missed for the core program. The only things you will not receive are some of the extra monthly content. Remember the X2 Content Club? It's kind of like that. So extra goodies, no. All the main program features, tools and goodies, yes.
 
2) Pay the $149 now and you own the latest version of Platinum to keep forever. You will also receive the next 12 months of updates AND the extra monthly content. After 12 months is up you keep all of that stuff. From there you can buy in for another years worth of updates (for whatever the going rate is at the time which is going to be $199 full price but there may be a sale on) and you will get to keep all of THAT after the twelve months is up... OR you can pay month to month. I think if you go month to month and stop paying before the next 12 months is up you lose all those updates and revert back to the version you had from the PREVIOUS 12 months. If you continue paying month to month for a full 12 months then it would be the same as paying the full price up front (so you then keep that entire year's worth of stuff as well).
 
3) I have X1, X2, X3 and Platinum all installed on my system. It's totally fine and as was pointed out if you uninstall earlier versions you'll be missing some of the older plugs (but you could do a custom install of those other versions to restore just those plugs). One thing to be aware of... you do NOT want to uninstall older versions AFTER installing Platinum. If you intend to uninstall the older versions do it BEFORE installing Platinum. Apprarently doing otherwise can cause all sorts of path and preferences issues... or so I've gathered from folks here on the forum.
 
Hopefully I have not made any errors in all that. If I have then someone can correct me.
 
Cheers.

slartabartfast
The distinction between "updates" and "goodies" is the significant issue. I am assuming updates includes bug fixes and new core "features", but I am not even certain about that. How does one distinguish between core features and "goodies?" How does one determine what is included when one jumps onto the wagon at a given point in the future? The statement that the "updates" are cumulative does not answer the question.

They really should have a clear posting of what's what somewhere. However I guess looking at the version comparison chart should show people what exactly is incuded in the core program. Whatever is absent would likely be missing from the download (the extra monthly content). That of course hinges on how often/accurately they update the version chart though.

If I knew what "goodies" meant perhaps I could say something useful. 

Goodies = the bonus extra stuff that you get, and only get if you are a member at the time of release, unless sold separately at a later date, I think like the Hardgroove content might have been etc, that kind of stuff
 
Or I guess it could be that old British Comedy show if you like