This is another tough one for CW.  As I said before, only CW knows what it costs for the add-ons like AD2 - but nothing is free that's for sure.
 
On one hand you have people who want the "core" and "functionality" as the focus.  On the other hand lots of people love that they can get a program like Melodyne, AD, BlueTube etc thrown in as part of the upgrade.  There's a real temptation to do the calculation and decide that the upgrade price is worth xxx because the cost of add-on is xx.  But if you weren't going to by add-on xx in the first place you're just rationalizing a new toy.   DimPro, Rapture etc are a little different as CW owns them and it seems like they're depreciated enough that it's probably null cost of the upgrade.
 
But it seems that the add-on path is getting a little saturated.  Most people (esp those using a "platinum" level) already have more plug ins and stuff that they can actually use.  And I see more and more threads about simplifying and streamlining personal workflow so you (I) dont spend (waste?) time messing with 10000 plugins.
 
Personally, I like stuff like the CA plugs as they sorta use what is there but make my life easier with how good they are.  And I'd like work on the staff view, varispeed, etc vs 3rd party plugins.
 
Not sure where the membership will take us - but should be fun finding out.  I have to believe that there will be more updates to the actual SONAR than new "bundles" but only CW knows.  Will be an interesting year!
 
 
 

SuperG
Can't please everyone..... Me? I'm happy with AD2, and I really like the fairfax kit - it's got some nice presets. Of course, I'm coming from EZDrummer so...

AD2 is quite frankly amongst the best sampled drums I've ever heard. I think Cakewalk chooses very carefully before deciding what to include. The only drawback i can see about including third-party products is all the separate accounts and registrations required... Just more unecessary hassle. The benefit of DAWs like Cubase and Logic Pro X is that 'all' their included plugins are proprietary designs included by the DAW maker, and thus saving all the extraneous installation and registration issues. I am so sick to death of dealing with ten million different accounts for ten million different products. I am tempted to design my own DAW and show them how it should be done. Only uber quality all the way combined with true simplicity and only the necessary bases covered. Get rid of the learning curve and excessive menus and navigation hassles. Forget being all things to all people, we just need essentials only and ingenious simple design without all the menus. Trying to accommodate too many methodologies is the problem with these DAWs. Mixcraft 7 is the epitomy of effective simplicity and a brilliant interface, but their included plugins and sounds are pure garbage.

willif
This is Great. Open discussion.  But don't get me wrong here. My deal is this.. in my over 30 years in sales retail/management, in electronic & professional gear - NOTHING is free. Sonar has to pay ADII money to allow us as members to choose $300 or so worth of their product, and when there is a cost we the consumers get to pay it.
 
Jeff you are right in we are not all the same, so why do we ALL have to take drums? Also remember Sonar lets you keep whatever is added so new people buying in get the 3 ADII packs now.
 
Jeff I'll use your currency, for my example, alway nice to talk to someone from the other side of the globe.
 
SONAR Platinum MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL Program:
Membership renewal price Platinum $79.00
Membership renewal special bonus offers for $100.00
Choose 1 from: 3 ADII Drum pks
                       3 Sound Libraries for D Pro
                       3 Sound Libraries for Rapture
                       X# of Prochannel effect plug-ins 
                       The complete sound library for the Cakewalk Sound Player
or my Fav
 
The Grand Slam - ALL of the above for $579. plus 1 bonus selection from supplied list, monthly payments avail.
 
or
 
I don't need any extras just update my Platinum DAW for $79.00
 
Sonar has started a membership program, let's tell them what we as members would like to from them, and now is the time because it gives us at least 6 months (based on my past experiences) before the programs start to get set in stone.
 
Myself I want Sonar to be the BEST Recording/Mastering DAW Period. Not a reseller of other's software.
 
Sonar are U listening.
 
WiLLi & MMX3P

I agree with the concept of paying to get the top features of Sonar without the third party add-ons and FX

- A kind of "Sonar Platinum Lite"....lol

This thread keeps drumming on, no?

Anderton
 
There's also some crossover. I thought Drum 'n' Bass demanded electronic drums, but heard a human drummer playing DnB once and he added a whole different flavor. It was a cool alternative.

To be fair, DnB was always about slicing loops of real drumming and playing them back super fast, especially in the early days. I remember when it first started appearing on the rave scene in the UK in the early 90's, back when they called it "Jungle" and most of the tracks used the classic Amen break or some variation chopped up and rearranged. The real drum loops made a refreshing change to the 808 and 909 sounds that dominated the rest of techno at the time and gave it more of an organic feel. Of course in recent years synthetic drums have been used a lot more for DnB.

Nothing beats a real drummer, but Jamstix outputting MIDI to a great drum VST like AD comes pretty close.

sharke

Anderton

There's also some crossover. I thought Drum 'n' Bass demanded electronic drums, but heard a human drummer playing DnB once and he added a whole different flavor. It was a cool alternative.

To be fair, DnB was always about slicing loops of real drumming and playing them back super fast, especially in the early days. I remember when it first started appearing on the rave scene in the UK in the early 90's, back when they called it "Jungle" and most of the tracks used the classic Amen break or some variation chopped up and rearranged. The real drum loops made a refreshing change to the 808 and 909 sounds that dominated the rest of techno at the time and gave it more of an organic feel. Of course in recent years synthetic drums have been used a lot more for DnB.

Not to mention other electronica acts like Chemical Brothers, Crystal Method, MBM, Massive Attack either live or with session drummers in studio -- oh and DJ Spooky had a great album with Dave Lombardo!

Drone7

AT

but I ain't complaining that SOLO doesn't compare to Altiverb. 

Not sure how you came to that conclusion. REmatrix Solo shares the same IR Convolutions from the full version, which are second to none. REmatrix Solo in contrast to the full version is merely a top-flight Convolution Reverb unit, it just doesn't have the multi-aspect feature that it's big brother has to allow full-blown customization and sculpting. Other than that, it is definitely top-tier in it's own right. Take a listen and then dare to tell me different. Just saying.

I'm was agreeing with your POV.  I was disagreeing with those who thought Cakewalk should include a different full-priced drum collection that they prefer.  If they were to include something else, my vote would be for Heavyocity, even tho I already have several of their libraries.
 
As to synths, personally I never really like Pysn or Pentagon.  There are much better VAs out there with a thicker, richer more VA sound including Z3TA.  They work better with the more cutting sound of Rapture and DimPro - and there are 3rd party SFZ sounds and libraries that open those SFZ synths up.  Granted, Cake really should do more libraries to keep them relevant - and make the SFZ files available for each synth at the same time.  But Alchemy and both of those Cake synths cover most of the sonic ground.  Here's hoping that Cake does buy Alchemy, but I ain't holding my breath.
 
FYI, in the contest of Giest, SS applies to SONAR's internal Step Sequencer. 
 
@

g_randybrown
Different strokes for different folks I reckon...the AD 2 package is the main reason I upgraded!

This particular time the AD2  stuff is the only reason I upgraded.  And I'm not being a jerk here, I just think it's a testament to how great X3e is/was (at least for me) and of course next year what ever they may tempt me with is $199 so...
 
I understand where the OP and others are coming from in that the 3rd party stuff usually holds no appeal for me, but I just happened to be at a crossroads when it came to drums (waiting on new stuff to come out) so the timing was just perfect & dirt cheap for me.  And I think AD2 sounds very good.
 
 

Hi Members, excellent feedback but Please remember that I'm talking about Membership RENEWAL in 2016. The original deal to BUY-IN has been set. As for pricing, I've waited til near the end of the year of release to buy X2 Producer for $60.00US no extras, and X3e Producer for $75.00US no extras, just before they release a new series. They already sell us the bug fixes & updates for well under $100.00US so why now should we start paying $200.00US/year on an ongoing basis for the bug fixes & updates? For those who are just getting into Sonar all the "FreeBee's" are very valuable to them, so let them pay more to get all the extras, but even they will have different uses for Sonar and not ALL want drums. Us long time supporters of Sonar and Cakewalk prior have paid our dues in upgrading regularly to get to the levels were at, and it was a whole lot more expensive for what U got 5 years ago then it is now.
 
As stated earlier Sonar has changed the playing field with the introduction of a Membership Program. Now is the time to voice our opinions so this new Program will suit the needs of it users.
 
Sonar wants a Membership, were the members - let's steer the ship! 
 
WiLLi & MMX3P