Hello,
I am thinking about upgrading from SONAR X3 (entry level version, not STUDIO or PRODUCER) to SONAR Professional.The question is if the upgrade would fulfill my short-term expectations and what it would mean in the long run in terms of future improvements and also money wise?
 
My expectations now:
I typically record handmade rock/metal stuff and my focus is on better sound, ease of use, stability. The improvements I am looking/hoping for are these:

• better sounding drums with addictive drums instead of session drummer
• cleaner and more interesting vocals and guitar solos with Melodyne Essential finetuning
• more accurate timing with Audio Snap
• better/faster/more fun mixes and masters with the Pro channel and with the tools included in the Mixing and Engineering Suite
• more stability and better learning curve by focusing on SONAR included tools instead of experimenting with (too many) different freeware VST (32 and 64bit) plugins

My long term thoughts:
I went from Music Creator to Music Creator Touch to SONAR X3. Upgrading always meant that I paid relatively little money but got a whole new program in return. Professional will probably be my last step and I will not upgrade to Platimum. This means that from now on my updates (or Membership renewal as it is now called) will be significantly more expensive than what I paid so far and yet technically they will only give me updates
within the same version but not a jump to a higher one.
 
My questions:

• Addictive drums: I heard a lot of examples of addictive drums that sounded very good (and better than what I know from session drummer) but it is hard to tell if the program is better or if I just happened to watch examples from very good people.
  Did anyone go the same way, from session drummer to addictive drums and can compare them directly? I am mainly interested in what the sound is like that comes right out of the box. That addictive drums has a lot more options to tweak the sound is clear.
• And one more question: With the solo bundle I would have one sound pack available and go for the metal pack. What is the experience as to how flexible these packs are? Will there be real big differences between -say- metal and rock or will one pack alone give me enough sounds to cover a broader array of styles?
• Melodyne: I also watched a lot of videos and was very impressed. The celemony YouTube videos ( https://www.youtube.com/user/CelemonySoftware ) about e.g. vocals and guitar editing seemed almost revolutionary. Here I am sort of looking for some kind of a weak point. I am aware that Melodyne Essential is only the entry level version and has limitations but still it seems like a very cool, must have program. Did I overlook anything, any drawbacks, limitations, anything that takes away from my very positive impression?
• Audio Snap: That is similiar to what I said about Melodyne. If it really works as expected, smoothing little timing errors easily and reliably, it would be a phantastic asset.
  Same questions as above: How easy to use is is? How good are the results? How much of an invaluable asset is it?
• Mixing/Mastering: I would like to improve in that area. So far I use a combination of different EQ, compressor, limiter, reverb and still haven't found the right combination. Instead I would like to stop searching and have some good quality, easy to use tools at hand that work together and with the rest of SONAR. That is what I am hoping to get from the Mixing and/or Engineering Suite.
  Any opinions here?
• Also, I was hoping to find some tutorial videos about just that. But I only found videos about mixing/mastering in general (not using SONAR) or a video about the SONAR Mixing/Engineering Suite that only talked about it generally but didn't show a more hands-on before and after comparison.
  Does anyone know videos that show that better?
• Long term thoughts: What can I expect from updates within the membership program? Will the sum of all the monthly updates within a 12 month membership period will be similiar to the extent of a one time change as it came with an upgrade from e.g. X2 to X3?
• A 149$ upgrade now will give me lots of completely new stuff and is therefore very attractive. But will future membership renewals for 99$ be comparable to that? Or will I just end up paying higher membership charges but the benefits will never be as big as now when I make that initial jump.

That is it. Thanks to anyone helping me with their opinions and experiences.
Steffen

Hi again,
okay, I realised there were other threads that dealt with the same or similiar topics and questions:

• Addictive Drums vs Session Drummer:
  http://forum.cakewalk.com/X3-Users-Session-Drummer-3-vs-the-Addictive-Drums-your-verdict-m2902762.aspx
• Addictive Drummer packs:
  http://forum.cakewalk.com/Now-that-the-smoke-has-clearedWhich-ADpacks-did-you-get-m3170765.aspx
• Audio Snap, practical experience:
  http://forum.cakewalk.com...For-What-m3191671.aspx

• Mastering in SONAR or not:
  http://forum.cakewalk.com/Separate-mastering-suite-versus-mastering-within-Sonar-m3109689.aspx  http://forum.cakewalk.com/Mastering-Software-buying-advice-m3135448.aspx
  http://forum.cakewalk.com/Mastering-in-Sonar-Question-m3063420.aspx

So this thread turns into some kind of memory list and I know where to start searching.

I went from X3 Studio to Professional and to tell the truth it's kinda like I totally have not really found anything that is radically different.  I barely notice other than I now have the option of Mix Recall which actually might have screwed up a project the first time I used it. The project became unstable and I had to dig out a X3 version I had and resume work. Don't know why and it's never come back, but that project started doing weird things when I tried to cut paste audio tracks. Something I've done a million times. And the only thing different was I had saved  a Mix Scene. So now I'm scared to use it. So much for the one new feature I was interested in.
They say it's more stable but I've never had any problems with X3. But that said I want to stay up to date and for me it was only $99 so all is good.
 
And Addictive drums. I made the mistake of taking the Pop Rock kit or what ever the default was. It is a dog. I continue to use SD 3 as I have a real good kit that I have built so why bother changing. I also use my own drum samples as I record real drums and mix them together and I don't think AD allows you to use your own samples. 

Give Mix Recall another shot. Braintree did an update, and Noel has been talking about an update that will handle bus routings. Maybe your issue was that Mix Recall can be fairly specific about what it does and does not remember, but that specificity seems to be less important with each update. Mix Recall hasn't done violence to any of my projects, even ones started in SONAR versions that didn't have it.

@Johnny
In my case there would be more of a change since I start from X3 and not X3 studio. 
As regards drums my focus is on sound and in Session Drummer I did never find any kit that I really liked. That is different when you create and/or tweak your own sounds.
Well, for Melodyne and AD there are demos so that should give me a good impression about whether it is worth for upgrading.

I see , Well it's certainly worth it for the price. Professional is way more like X3 Producer was because you now get the AD and better Pro Channel stuff. It's sort of like they upgraded Producer to Platinum but Professional is the same as Producer was. 
I think it's a heck of a lot of software for $100. It's just for me it was nothing more I need or use, that's all. 
I totally plan on digging into ADrums someday when I have time. I'm not giving up on it at all. I just took the wrong kit.  I use the SD3 Yamaha Birch kit as example of what I like. I have changed the snare for my own sample of my Ludwig Vista Lite. That way I can use both real and the sample. It's cool. I've used SD3 to trigger all sorts of weird stuff. 
 
Craig I really like the idea of mix recall and it is most probably something else that caused that project to go weird. But for now I stay clear of features that I am not sure of until an album is out the door and paid for. 
I do my experimenting with Sonar on my own stuff. 
I stopped doing paid for recording for 2 years until I knew I could safely proceed with confidence. It's been a scary year with very little going weird on me and never in front of a client so far. And things like that cost you money as I spent a extra hour doing a simple edit that I cannot justify charging for my time on.  I was determined to figure out what was different about that track and had to give up and start all over. Water under the bridge now.. carry on..