1) Was asked before but just double checking. I have AD1 with X3. Will the existing packs get upgraded to AD2 free? (Then afterwards we get the additional packs we paid for with Sonar)

NO...AD1 Adpaks do not get upgraded unless you buy the Adpak Updgrade from XLN which upgrades ALL currently owned AD1 paks to AD2 format...

2) What is the the approx timespan of the introductory pricing?

 Don't know

3) Are drum maps fixed?

Don't know

4) Anything new with Sonitus? 64 bit vst 3 perhaps ;)

Don't know

5) Will you be separating stability updates and enhancement updates?

Don't know

6) Where's my hover car? If I just subscribe for a month and I have parked it near the rings of Saturn, when you reprocess it will there be a towing fee?

Don't know

Great news...

Thanks.

TabSel
...as they are legally obliged to for free, and held responsible for.

I suggest you read the terms and conditions you agreed to when installing the software. Cheers..

TabSel

That answer did not clarify cakewalks responsibility to fix bugs as they are legally obliged to for free, and held responsible for. How is that handled?

Refer to the EULA at the end of the User Guide. A copy of the X3 User Guide is available in pdf format here http://www.cakewalk.com/S...and-Quick-Start-Guides

No warranty either expressed or implied.  Side effects include but not limited to...

TabSel
That answer did not clarify cakewalks responsibility to fix bugs as they are legally obliged to for free, and held responsible for. How is that handled?

lolwut?

dwardzala
Anything that is released at the end of the year would not be patched, but I think the intent is to release stuff throughout the year and patch it as soon as possible, meaning most of the stuff will probably get at least one patch.

Up till now we had a release followed by a flurry of user beta testing and patches to fix the bugs uncovered.  This happened once per release, so every year and a half or whatever.  Say six months of turmoil followed by a year of peace.
 
Now it will possibly be turmoil all year long, year after year.
 

Paul P

dwardzala
Anything that is released at the end of the year would not be patched, but I think the intent is to release stuff throughout the year and patch it as soon as possible, meaning most of the stuff will probably get at least one patch.

Up till now we had a release followed by a flurry of user beta testing and patches to fix the bugs uncovered.  This happened once per release, so every year and a half or whatever.  Say six months of turmoil followed by a year of peace.
 
Now it will possibly be turmoil all year long, year after year.
 

But at least Cakewalk can show a "monthly" cashflow, as opposed to an "annual" one... 

paulo
Maybe I'm missing something here, but what I'm seeing here a year from now is a substantial price hike over the existing upgrade cost  (which was already substantially increased last year) for an upgrade that you can't possibly know if you think is good value ot not or not because you won't know what it is gonna be and if after a year you don't think it was worth it  - tough luck 'cos you've already paid for it ?

 
As I've said before, Cakewalk can be more forthcoming with what to expect because the whole process has a quicker timeline so there's not as much concern about competitors getting a heads-up to try and counter something new. The company has already announced some upcoming features, and the program isn't even for sale yet. There will be more. So not only will you be able to look back on a year of updates to decide if what you get is worth the cost, but you will have some idea of what to expect in the future.
 

You might well produce upgrades that you (CW) see as being good value for this fee, but to give one example from the current upgrade package all the AD2 stuff is totally useless to me as it can't be installed on an offline pc, so to me has no value at all. Problem is that in future I will have already paid for it.

 
The reason why upgrades include so many features is because there are bound to be some duplications. For example I'm sure quite a few people owned Melodyne before X3 came out. And probably quite a few people owned AD. But I'd bet there were more people who didn't own them than did. As you can see from the bullet points above, it's $10 per major feature...so even if you only use half of them, that's $20 per feature. And if you use VocalSync, you come out $140 ahead even if you use nothing else.
 
Updates are intended to provide the greatest amount of utility for the largest number of people at the lowest cost. 
 

"If I let my Membership expire after 12 months, can I renew it again later?

Yes, you can come back any time and pay the Renewal rate."
 
Can someone explain to me what is "Renewal rate"?

Paul P

dwardzala
Anything that is released at the end of the year would not be patched, but I think the intent is to release stuff throughout the year and patch it as soon as possible, meaning most of the stuff will probably get at least one patch.

Up till now we had a release followed by a flurry of user beta testing and patches to fix the bugs uncovered.  This happened once per release, so every year and a half or whatever.  Say six months of turmoil followed by a year of peace.
 
Now it will possibly be turmoil all year long, year after year.

I apologize in advance to all those of you who have already seen me say this many times over, but the developers are in favor of this model because QA is simpler and faster with smaller individual updates instead of trying to QA the permutations and combinations involved in throwing a whole bunch of new things in at once. There is also a new modular installer than makes the process of doing smaller updates easier, and also can make them available sooner.