Hi,
 
I'm a hobby musician and I have used Sonar for many many years, presently using Sonar Producer X3 e.
 
I just heard about the new Sonar, and would like the opinion of people who bought or upgraded to Sonar Platinum, sound professionals, musicians or hobbysts.
- Is it worth it? Do you recommend one-time payment or 12-month payment?
- What makes the upgrade worth for you?
- How do you like the additional features/content you get over time?
- Did you evaluate other products such as ProTools 12 and why did you opt for Sonar?
 
Thanks,
Cedric
 

The proper solo/mute of drum maps alone was worth the upgrade (for me). Followed by mix scenes and Vocal sync. The AD2 voucher was nice but since I already owned nearly the whole AD2 product I negotiated with XLN and the voucher was used to complete my setup to (finally) complete my ownership of all XLN MIDI Packs, kit pieces and kits. It just ended up being a dollar for dollar swap.
 
One time payment is cheaper, but 12 months is good if you're strapped for cash. or your significant other is against all that outlay at once.
 
I already own Reaper 4.x, Harrison Mixbus and Studio One Pro V2. SONAR is my main DAW that is why I upgraded.

I found the improved control bar to be worth the X3 to Sonar 2015 upgrade. What level of Sonar is entirely up to you.

> - What makes the upgrade worth for you?
 
Bug fixes.

I too own several DAWs which I have for compatability with other studios. I'm now retired, so perhaps I'm now a hobbyist, who knows. I've been a regular Cakewalk user and upgrade every version as Sonar. It suits most of my needs more than any other single DAW. I've tried most of the PC based DAWs.

I think it is good value for money and while I started off on the monthly plan, an eBay sale allowed me to get the money to change to the one time payment. There's flexibility that gives you a choice you never had before.

Doing paid work for others means having to work quickly and efficiently. When it comes to providing a variety of mixes for a client (or personal as the case may be) auditions, there's nothing quite like Mix Recall to make the whole process of creating and reverting to alternate versions of a mix, child's play.

Vocalsync aligns vocal tracks in a matter of moments. An incredibly useful tool.
The monthly content has been guitar centric because it's being provided by Craig Anderton and provides a useful set of additional tools (not just for guitar) that demonstrate the wide range of creative tools buried within Sonar. Like being able to create unique fx using Sonars inbuilt fx chain creator function. It allows you to creat new fx modules by joining existing ones together in new and interesting ways.

One of the most remarkable things about Cakewalk's membership is the monthly release of not only content, but the latest harvest of newly developed features and fixes for the monthly release cycle. This ensures a constant dribble of new features and fixes ensuring Sonar remains fresh and up to date.

I hope that helps you. I noticed you only have a few posts so welcome to the forum. Enjoy your time here. It's one of Cakewalk's greatest assets.

Getting AD2 and other content (plus some work flow upgrades) for a minor monthly outlay!

Grum.

I experienced significant stability and performance improvements moving from X3e to S-Plat.
 
 

Well worth it. I have tools to get me through what I couldn't do before.

Mix scenes are helpful.

Thanks for the inputs!
Anything new on the step sequencer front?