I jumped from 3P to X1, which was a terror to work with until the "D" update.
Buggy as hell. but core operations conventions/functionality remained.
On Dorchester now, runs smooth as silk. Make the jump. Skip all the crap we already had to work
through as user/guinea pigs.
 
I think you will be happier for it; I think the fact that Splat has so many steep learning curves
is a reflection of just how much good stuff is packed inside, for the price.
 
couple years ago you paid thousands  for 32 bit Pro Tools...
Sonar was one of the very 1st to go 64bit and NOT charge you for it.
 
m2c
 
Mel

bapu
 
 
I'm a super star though.

We all have our crosses to bear.

bapu

michael diemer
As much as going to another DAW entirely?

 
I jumped from 8.5 all the way to X1. Was fully using it on day one. Same for X2, X3 and SONAR Platinum.
 
I'm a super star though.

Ha! That's nuthin'.  I jumped from Guitar Tracks Pro3 to Sonar X1. Unfortunately it was a nasty jump and I fell, skinned my knee, and then fell through the Skylight Interface.
 
I am still working towards superstar status.

I upgraded to X3 from Sonar 7PE and had no problems.  I currently have Sonar Plat and still no user issues, that make for show stoppers.  If you're comfortable with your current version, I'd go for it and as suggested, keep in on your computer until after a couple days you realize you'll never use it again :-)

Keep your current version on your computer no matter what. Unless you plan on re-installing Platinum. Deleting an older version is problematic if you REALLY do not know what you're doing. Older version take so little space unless your C drive is 120mb SSD then I'd say you may need uninstall the old version (you wont lose projects if they are stored outside of "C:\Program Files") and the install SPlat.

If you are looking to export MusicXML and that is the sole reason for the change, you might want to look into some other way to do the job. Sonar has never gotten really high marks for its staff view, and if you are not writing the notation yourself (i.e if you are intending to export MIDI to XML) there are probably better and cheaper ways to go. If you can live with the staff view in 8.5, you can probably get the functionality you need with Finale Notepad for free. Sonar 8.5 will import and export MIDI, and Notepad will do both MIDI and MusicXML. And if you are looking to work in notation yourself, you may find Notepad preferable to Sonar for simple layouts. As mentioned previously, the new X-series interface is going to take some getting used to. Learning Notepad or one of the other notation programs or programs that will convert MusicXML is probably going to be easier.
 
http://www.musicxml.com/software/
http://www.finalemusic.com/products/finale-notepad/
 

slartabartfast
If you are looking to export MusicXML and that is the sole reason for the change, you might want to look into some other way to do the job. Sonar has never gotten really high marks for its staff view, and if you are not writing the notation yourself (i.e if you are intending to export MIDI to XML) there are probably better and cheaper ways to go. If you can live with the staff view in 8.5, you can probably get the functionality you need with Finale Notepad for free. Sonar 8.5 will import and export MIDI, and Notepad will do both MIDI and MusicXML. And if you are looking to work in notation yourself, you may find Notepad preferable to Sonar for simple layouts. As mentioned previously, the new X-series interface is going to take some getting used to. Learning Notepad or one of the other notation programs or programs that will convert MusicXML is probably going to be easier.
 
http://www.musicxml.com/software/
http://www.finalemusic.com/products/finale-notepad/
 

Thanks for the info. I do like 8.5 and seem to be able to do what I need to do there. To make my projects complete though, I need decent notation. My workflow is to do my composing/arranging/mixing in Sonar, then I'm looking to export into a notation program, so this info is helpful. Of course, it would be nice to do it all in one program, and I'd love for that to be Sonar. But I'm not holding my breath. If they don't improve notation, it's only a matter of time until I end up somewhere else. but for now I'm looking to find a suitable workaround.

The biggest thing for me was relearning all of the keyboard shortcuts, and the new menu locations. A lot of stuff has moved from the main menus into the track view menus, for example.
 
Honestly, once you get past that, and how it looks now, and you understand the quirks of the Smart Tool, it's really not that different to 8.x. I'd say you'd be back up to speed within a week, and then you'll get to see how useful stuff like the Browser window is, and how good things like ARA integration is as well. 

Not to mention cool new features like Mix Recall and VocalSync, just to name a couple.

Honestly for the person that does different mixes of the same project as part of their workflow, Mix recall saves so much time. That one feature was worth the price of the X3 to Sonar upgrade.

One of the big issues for me is track view. Since I'm doing classical, I like seeing that long list of instruments, 40 or more, in track view. So I wonder if the new Skylight interface does away with that, giving me a track view of only a few instruments. Track view is home for me. From there I go to staff view, event list or console as needed. The all-in-one GUI has me a little concerned.