I have to say, after all the kerfuffle about the new pricing regime, most of the commotion was unjustified, myself and some others probably overreacted. I think it is understandable that there was some initial apprehensions or reservations and confusion, because this was a first for Cakewalk and it took us all by surprise, but now that the dust has settled, i can clearly see it's a non-issue, and this new way of doing things seems actually better than before, because now people have extra options, there's no real problem, nothing to see here folks. Yeah, so i got a bit over-concerned before i had thought it all through clearly. My apologies.
 
Other than that, by any standards Sonar is clearly a great DAW, easily as good as the other major players, but from an EDM point-of-view, i just hope to see a couple of feature additions in future for the EDM crowd, and hopefully Cakewalk will oblige, but at $199 for Sonar professional, it's definitely fantastic value, and Cakewalk have every right to be proud of their product. Melodyne essential on its own is worth the total price of Sonar professional, so one would have to say that qualifies as a WOW factor.
 
My two cents, as usual. If Cakewalk were to add a dedicated Arp and EDM Drum-Machine and upgrade Pentagon and Rapture, i think Cakewalk might be surprised at just how many extra sales it could and probably would result in, and also it would definitely be handy to help persuade newcomers to music production looking for there first DAW.

Your post is very welcome to me.  Thank you for posting. 

I'm with you guys....I feel very good about the new system.  I too was a little put-off at 1st.  The OP's remarks about EDM enhancements are something I probably should get more into 'cause I'm required to compose in that genre often, but I'm still more comfortable with notation and working in that world.
 
I actually am very (re) excited about Sonar.  I'm making the forum my home page.  
 
 

Drone7 - Welcome back from the dark side!!!  lol
 
Seriously, glad it all makes sense now. Hopefully others will figure it out as well.
 
I think it's a new marketing idea, whose time has come. Like any new idea, it will take some time for everyone to grasp.

So fill up the Features & Ideas - forum with ideas then, guys! :)
The more we give to Cake, the more they can give us back :)

I dunno about melodyne essential being worth the upgrade fee, since the people upgrading from x3PE already have it and you can buy it from celemony for £49, however AD2 Producer is £211 in the cake store, and over 12 months the upgrade will cost me ~£145 so everything else is just gravy :D I totally agree with most of your points though, I too was in the WTF crowd when the news dropped but I was worried about nothing :D

Not to contradict you, but i do believe the yearly upgrade fee for Sonar is very reasonable.
 
I just hope Cakewalk realizes how we out here sort of rub our hands with anticipation when the new yearly release is imminent, but if no new toys end-up coming with it, then we feel a little underwhelmed.
I just hope to God that Cakewalk add their own take on a nice new drum-machine. I know it's easy for people to retort that we can buy a third-party one, but i do like to see a proprietary one from the actual DAW maker, i can never get enough EDM drum sounds, the more the better, because the samples always sound slightly different from each company anyway.
 
I must admit, the new convolution verb "ReMatrix" does qualify as a shiny new toy, and certainly it sounds excellent, better than most IMO, it was a nice surprise to see this new addition in Sonar; i own the "Ultraverb" VST from Eventide, and this is an extremely good reverb, pro level for sure, but recently i was also investigating buying the ReMatrix verb, and now, well i'll be a monkey's uncle, it turns-up in Sonar, very nice!

Being the kind of person I am, I tend to buy at the end of a run so I know that hopefully all the bugs are out. But in the same hand it seems that CW has a new release within months of my upgraded DAW 
I did not like this new marketing idea.
But after a few sets of circumstances and talking to a couple CW employees I decided to give this new concept a try.
 
So I debugged my self this time.... I truly hope that this is what it is...
 
Peace! 

Loptec
So fill up the Features & Ideas - forum with ideas then, guys! :)
The more we give to Cake, the more they can give us back :)

I think it's obvious from the new features Cakewalk has paid a lot of attention to the forum comments from rational people. Having a dedicated forum, and input from members, will further their goal of being as responsive as possible.

The blatant favouritism towards the rational is outrageous.