vladasyn
I remember free content samples bank they offered- that bank sounded like leftover samples that did not make in to any paid library.

 
They were free. The new content is part of what you get when you pay for membership. I (and others) could never have contributed content without justifying the time put into it. Now I can. The Amp Sims and new effects are a good example.
 

Think about it as a stock market: if you were offered to buy shares, would you buy them, knowing that the company did not release any new product in last 2 years?

 
SONAR X3 was released in September 2013 and had four additional updates within the first six months. The Z3TA+ iOS app was the #1 app in the app's store's music category at one point. Scratchpad came out. My EB5 expansion pack appeared and did very well, the forum has been revamped, hosts are now involved, the web site has been streamlined and single sign on implemented (although it needed some fixes, it was a necessary move), there have been a ton of tutorials and tips on the blog - keyed to an editorial calendar - to help people get the most out of SONAR, my "Tip of the Week" is up to almost 100,000 views (although my promise that I was going to stop after August was an "empty promise," I guess, so you got me there), new distribution avenues have been opened up with Hal Leonard and Steam, collaborations are occurring with TASCAM, people are being signed up to create content...a lot has happened in the last few months, with much of it being the steps necessary to create a really cool, new way to buy and own software. 
 

“New Sonar” has virtually no new features compared to X3 that we already paid for, so what would convince us to subscribe and be hopeful regarding new features if it did not happen so far?

 
New features. I don't find these trivial, but maybe that's just me.
 

Why not have “Creative Staff” page with pictures, biographies, resumes, and work experience of the programmers? Any music software company has the pictures of their “creative force” members. How do we know- Cakewalk even has anybody to make those promised improvements? Have them step forward, tell about their work, experience, ideas, and projects- make it interesting.

 
This was already done with the "Meet the Bakers" month. Not just the engineers, but the marketing team and others. They even went slumming, and got me in there as an honorary Baker - check out Bedtime Stories from Uncle Craig.
 

Empty promises are not inspiring.

 
My personal opinion is that X3, the first major product under new ownership, fulfilled a lot of promises (not the least of which was the additional updates and the continued vitality of the company), as did all the other line items mentioned above. Compare the year after the acquisition with the year before the acquisition. Stay tuned!
 
(But when are they going to fix the "forum changing font size" issue?!?)
 
 

vladasyn
 In their manual, they had step by step for Logic and Abelton. When I contacted them and asked if it would work on Sonar- they had no idea and said- nobody uses Sonar.

Apparently they don't receive MI SalesTrak. 
 
It used to be that products weren't tested very much with SONAR at all, but that has changed a lot. For example Universal Audio didn't care about SONAR; now they do. Panorama Nectar has a SONAR template. SSL developed one for Nucleus. These are all fairly recent developments. Sure, some smaller companies are a little slow to catch on...that's okay.
 
In many ways SONAR was ahead of the time with music production. Dim Pro could run four REX files simultaneously and pull out the MIDI files for jumbling long before Reason's OctoRex. The Matrix view is the only other view that resembles what Live can do. Aside from Acid, AFAIK SONAR is the only program that lets you create and edit Acidized/stretchable files. Every MIDI track has an arpeggiator. Logic just re-discovered MIDI piugins but SONAR not only had them for years, but created an open standard for them.  

The difference now on the product end is they can respond to smaller fixes quicker without waiting months to release a big letter labeled update. If there was some feature that was not quite ready for launch, that feature can be introduced without waiting for "X5". 
 
Hmmm...I never even thought about that...and with the command center thingy you would know when an individual bug fix was available.

g_randybrown
The difference now on the product end is they can respond to smaller fixes quicker without waiting months to release a big letter labeled update. If there was some feature that was not quite ready for launch, that feature can be introduced without waiting for "X5". 
 
Hmmm...I never even thought about that...and with the command center thingy you would know when an individual bug fix was available.

They have already revealed one that possibly falls into that category; the drum replacement feature. If this had been on the table under the old model it may have been released as a paid optional plugin or simply pushed back to next version.  In some ways Cakewalk may have been better off not announcing it and making it a pleasant surprise instead of announcing it early to be met with skepticism and accusations of releasing a beta product.

Scratchpad came out. My EB5 expansion pack appeared and did very well, the forum has been revamped, hosts are now involved, the web site has been streamlined and single sign on implemented (although it needed some fixes, it was a necessary move), there have been a ton of tutorials and tips on the blog - keyed to an editorial calendar - to help people get the most out of SONAR, my "Tip of the Week" is up to almost 100,000 views (although my promise that I was going to stop after August was an "empty promise," I guess, so you got me there), new distribution avenues have been opened up with Hal Leonard and Steam, collaborations are occurring with TASCAM, people are being signed up to create content...a lot has happened in the last few months, with much of it being the steps necessary to create a really cool, new way to buy and own software. 

 
What is a scratchpad? Never heard of it. I guess, revamping forum and introduction of hosts makes big difference when you producing music. I do not read/watch tutorials. It has very little to do with my workflow. I already know how to do what I am doing. Was there a tutorial on how to create a Dubstep? I dont think so. I am sure they making new ways to distribute their product. Also it would go much better if they had something to distribute. I did not say that Sonar is a bad software for music. I am using it and not something else. But all the marketing is catered toward new buyers. It does nothing for us, who already has Sonar. I would like a new product if they want more money. I can not pay for the same product I already have. For some people $150 is not much, for others it is a lot. When I buy something, I should get new software synth or new effect or new arpegiator or new samples- I can not even verbalize what the new updates are for. There was nothing wrong with Transport and nothing wrong with Snap to Grid- it was fine. There was and IS a lot wrong with Staff view, with Piano Roll, step sequencer and several other things that should of been addressed first. For example Midi Through is not working properly. A lot of times it will send MIDI notes to software synths that assigned to different outputs. Plugins (Beat Tweaker) start randomly play because it receives command from somewhere that was not sent, and there is no way to play on more than one MIDI track simultaneously. Only active channel plays. So if you have 2 keyboardists or keyboardist and electronic drum set, 2 people can not play at the same time. But you would not experience all this instability if you are a guitarist and record live guitar.
 
I missed the "meet the bakers" event, and this is exactly my point: there should be a web page that talks about new developments and staff. Not everybody has time to stay on the forums and hear release rumors. My Sonar did not change from the day of release. And now they want additional $150 for the same Sonar X3 with different name, vocal sync and new transport. All the other features on the list are not applicable for me.

Ryan Munnis [Cakewalk]
Not everyone likes being in the limelight, but the marketing group did a "Meet The Bakers" thing a few months back where they introduced some of the folks here at the company.
 
http://blog.cakewalk.com/category/news-2/inside-the-bakery/

Looks like a great crew. I went through all of the profiles and one thing that I noticed is that no one mentioned being into electronic music or synths. Everyone is posing with their guitars or saxes, it's all good, they look like great folks.
However, it does explain why the EDM production workflow tends to be awkward in Sonar, it's not part of the culture.
I hope you guys can find some whiz kids who are into new music and listen to their ideas.
 

You mean like the Cake Blog?

I have read two profiles from the Tom Harvey's link above. At least these two bakers talking about being musicians. So the "Bakers" does not mean "Programmers" and "Coders"? I see no programing background.

That's right. Cakewalk farm out a whole planet of alien greys to do the coding. There will be a feature about it in next months 'Hello' magazine.

vladasyn
I dont think patches and fixes should be paid. Fix implies that something did not work as planned, caused conflict or crash and developers fixed it.

 
This is one aspect of the new model I don't like. I buy something, it should work and the responcibility should lay with the manufacturer. I haven't seen a logical argument against this. If a fault is a one off, ok, but if it is a smaller spread fault and you fix it for a still subscribing member, then make that fix freely available. No matter the timespan.
 

vladasyn
...........music, such as desktop electronica, dubstep, trance, progressive and so on Sonar is no good. How would I attract new kids to buy Sonar? I would offer functionality young generation needs. Music production technique changes, and Sonar is behind.

Reading some posts yesterday, I think Sonar is missing this market and some activity would enhance this. My drum and bass days are left in 1998 (along with my old drum and bass name, coincidently it was 'Sonar') and my psychedelic trance days in 1995 . So I have no real interest in making Dance music beyond funk, but gaining some Dance music cred would bring in more cash and benefit sonar because of it.
 
A thread yesterday mentioned the lack of tool, and a poster rightly pointed to AD2 and the Reel Kits, Anders mentions Z3ta+2 is great for those genres. It was argued that you can buy this for a smaller fee, but Platinum lacks any big Cakewalk plugs recently, there is nothing new for existing x pro users, apart from a reverb (which is not a unique addition) and Ad2 3 kits, which for many are either of no interest or were of interest when bundled with x3 and expanded upon in the past year. Offering 2 adpaks in Platinum and Z3TA 2 would have made it a more rounded offer.
 
With that you could show the appeal to dance music musicians, show with a foundation of Z3ta 2 and reel machines, there were the tools for the foundation, and then pad out the compositions with the wealth of other already bundled plugs. Show the range of effects for manipulation already bundled, the side chain effects. Run a series on youtube of how too, get a known artist or producer involved, and SOS interested.
 
Seems you guys a missing a whole market, and dance music musicians on this forum and really in the minority, and posters from other forums say they say Sonar is not for dance music.