As the title says. I'd hoped that the early release to some would really get the place humming about the actual product and features rather than all the new sales model. All I've heard so far is that someone had a good download experience. Perhaps some power users could have got pre release so they could have done mini reviews on features. Even some of the beta testers who were already familiar with the product.

I think in this situation, no news is good news?

I'm guessing that people are so impressed that $149 worth of upgrades can download in less than 3 minutes, on a bad Comcast connection, that a lot of folks have found themselves still staring at their touchscreens, while basking in the euphoria of satisfaction, a few hours after it's all over.
 
:-)

They've not been able to repair the damage to their computers yet in order to post warnings about it... 
 
Just kidding,  I'm sure it'll all be fine... 

Don't have much time to report, but it just kinda, sorta works. All X3 projects opened without issues.
Control Bar improvements are great.
Updated FX Bins/Sends - probably good for touch users, but nothing out of the ordinary
VocalSync, updated AudioSnap - haven't had a chance to try properly yet
Mix Recall will definitely use soon on a real project if I manage to make it work - right now it's greyed out for some reason. It wasn't yesterday. Probably will report it right now even though the website still talks about Producer everywhere.
Downloads indeed went fine. The need to install sub-products one by one if you want to skip the loops is really a pain. The products rescan and update check after every operation is even more annoying. Command Center also crashes every time I click on my account name. So... it's you know... there... the public beta :)

mudgel
As the title says. I'd hoped that the early release to some would really get the place humming about the actual product and features rather than all the new sales model. All I've heard so far is that someone had a good download experience. Perhaps some power users could have got pre release so they could have done mini reviews on features. Even some of the beta testers who were already familiar with the product.

I think the new sales model is the biggest difference.  I don't have the new Sonar,  but if you take a look at the new feature videos you'll notice that most most of them are really just workflow enhancements.  Don't get me wrong,  I think this is a solid update,  but there certainly isn't anything that I would call "groundbreaking" about the new features.  The new sales model and the promise for constant development is the big story here.
 
I don't think I'm the only one who feels this way.  Just take a look at this online news story about the new Sonar. It's just a few sentences about the new features.  The bulk of the story is about the new payment plan.

http://www.musicradar.com...y-payment-model-613556

Everything is working well on my end. There was only one bug that I experienced with adding a Pro Channel preset in the Inspector view. The download and install was way faster than X3. Maybe it's just me but my projects runs a little smoother too! The Anderton FX Chains are pretty cool and the dynamic FX Bins and Sends saves space and increase work flow (it's way faster to scroll down everything than doing separate tracks).

I have a big mix session scheduled this weekend so I will really be able to put it to a thorough testing.

apparently, the project needs to be saved at least once for Mix Recall to work...

That was explained in the short video that accompanied the info on that feature.

Helene Kolpakova
apparently, the project needs to be saved at least once for Mix Recall to work...

Correct Mix recall settings are stored in parallel to the project file so until you save the project once we can't save them.