Not sure if you've seen these pages so here's some links.

http://www.cakewalk.com/P.../SONAR/Whats-New#start

http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/SONAR/Versions

http://blog.cakewalk.com/...nhancements-and-fixes/

AD2 was the kicker, but I do like the mix scenes and PRV improvements.

Minor detour if you please. I had EZD2 for drum loops already, and when I looked at AD2, it seemed more for drummers and kbd players.. I wouldn't mind an opinion or two on how AD2 does loops.
 
Tx guys,
CharlyG

mudgel
Not sure if you've seen these pages so here's some links.

Thanks, I had not found the blog entry, which was quite detailed.
So lots of good things and I think I'll have to upgrade sooner than later.
 
My only regret is that nothing seems to be done for the matrix view and/or quickly prototyping a song such as with Ableton Live or Fruity loops, which is a shame.
 
To my knowledge, none of the major DAW supports a Live workflow, this could be a unique selling point for a future version of Sonar: super quick writing + super fine adjustments / changes.
 

charlyg
Minor detour if you please. I had EZD2 for drum loops already, and when I looked at AD2, it seemed more for drummers and kbd players.. I wouldn't mind an opinion or two on how AD2 does loops.
 
Tx guys,
CharlyG

AD2 seems to be quite CPU-hungry.  When using it myself, I found quite severe issues with the sound until I bounced it to an audio track.  Admittedly, my CPU isn't particularly brilliant (a 1.70GHz dual-core) so if you have a stronger CPU than this you may well be fine.  In fairness, once I'd bounced it to an audio track the drums sounded great, it's just whilst it's playing as a synth my computer struggled with it.

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

 
+1
Lots of great bug fixes have been made every month. 

I'm a professional I guess (in that I don't do anything but music to make my living, but most of my money is made performing so I'm not sure if it counts, but I do a lot of composition and production from time to time and do make some money from it)... and generally happy with the update, though I don't find myself using many of the new features a lot per se. Not using vocalign or mix scenes really, and never used audiosnap much so haven't explored its improvements. The control bar is a nice touch for sure, and the console (FX bin + send bin) enhancements). Envelopes seem to behave themselves much better now, which is huge for me. AD2 sounds pretty good from my testing but I haven't used it in a track yet (I'm not very drum-focused, more ambient/soundtrack stuff). ReMatrix Solo is getting lots of use, basically a new default/easy convo verb, low latency, low overhead, great sound, what's not to like? Lots of little stuff under the hood, it's been quite stable for me right out of the box. The monthly updates and bonus content are a nice touch...
 
 

In addition to S-Plat I own MixCraft7 Pro Studio, Reaper and Harrison Mixbus. Sonar is my main DAW. I upgraded to Platinum for the bug fixes and new features. 
 
kevmsmith I prefer EZD2. For one I think the drums sound better than ADD2 and two after using the "tap-2-find" feature I'd never want to go without again.

mudgel
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.

A FWIW...the guitar-centric content just sort of happened that way, because I was drawing on material I'd done for myself. However the latest update had IRs and an FX chain for "mastering" kick drums, and to give you an idea of what's coming up, I'm working on more instruments for Rapture and Rapture Pro, a test signals suite for checking room acoustics, electronic percussion loop library, more IRs, etc. In particular, I want to do more work with synths...for example, a loop library of some of the Korg Z1's cool arpeggiator effects. I won't abandon guitar-oriented content (got some semi-hollow body guitars for sampling!), but I've done a lot of what I wanted to do.
 

Anderton

mudgel
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.

A FWIW...the guitar-centric content just sort of happened that way, because I was drawing on material I'd done for myself. However the latest update had IRs and an FX chain for "mastering" kick drums, and to give you an idea of what's coming up, I'm working on more instruments for Rapture and Rapture Pro, a test signals suite for checking room acoustics, electronic percussion loop library, more IRs, etc. In particular, I want to do more work with synths...for example, a loop library of some of the Korg Z1's cool arpeggiator effects. I won't abandon guitar-oriented content (got some semi-hollow body guitars for sampling!), but I've done a lot of what I wanted to do.
 

Interesting. I enjoy a monthly surprise no matter whether large or small.