My contention is with the price hike, $149 seems reasonable but $199 is borderline. Perhaps some consideration should be given to company support. I have been a customer for a few years, Although 199 is pocket change to working music professionals, the greatest support base is hobbyists like myself and being retired on a fixed ever dwindling income 199 is a significant sum. Perhaps some measurement of previous purchases should be considered.
I have personally spent over £700 pounds on purchases. In itself no insignificant amount.
I have spent my $149 on the latest incarnation and very pleased with the increased functionality, that said I would personally recommend that the previous incarnation be used for professional purposes, I have crashed out platinum auditioning rematrix solo on a loop. I have sent the report. You lose all unsaved data when it goes down. If that was the tweaking at the end of a mix the consequences could have been devastating.
AD2, I am in the process of downloading the program included with platinum, so far it seems seamless, the downloader has updated the interface itself, AD2, and the options, ADpacks, I already have are greyed out, only showing the packs not in my XLN account. All good so far. I will post a conclusion when I get to it.
Price base, I know Cakewalk is a business and as such the impetus is to maximise the receipts, but you're better of with volume, 149 is a snip 199 may be a cut off point.
Another possible contention, considering the uptake on the upgrade, is any groundbreaking enhancement to X5, X6 etc would be introduced at a time base of month 12.5. Business wise this would be near irresistible. On this issue alone if the major upgrade was floated at month 10 I would continue my support, it's a trust issue, you support us we'll trust you and continue with our support. Mind how you go. What looks good on paper does not always reflect reality.