I am like a kid in a candy store. All the hard work that the Cakewalk staff have put in to bring us the most powerful and intuitive DAW in the Milky Way really deserves some recognition.
 
Everything about Cakewalk to me is a clinic in excellence. The new model is brilliant! The DAW is dominating. The forum is like a family. 
 
I will adopt SONAR Platinum immediately and get it involved on all my current productions. I'll be pushing it to everyone I work with (because compatibility becomes a lot easier for me when clients bring demos and scratch/guide tracks produced in SONAR).
 
I am just so happy and excited to be a SONAR user and I can't wait to get my hands on Platinum. I hope to make SONAR the official DAW for Camp Jam as well. Camp Jam is the nations largest rock n Roll camp for kids ages 12-17 in the USA. I am now the head audio engineer for them and have been trying hard to get them to make SONAR mandatory for every camp.
 
Let's get the Command Center populated with the new SONAR, hurry!

Sylvan
I am like a kid in a candy store. All the hard work that the Cakewalk staff have put in to bring us the most powerful and intuitive DAW in the Milky Way really deserves some recognition.
 
 

Damn straight. Kudos to the people at Cakewalk for all the hard work, their dedication and their fantastic products. I've been a user for a long time, just recently joined the forum as I've purchased X3 (from 8.5), but I've been using Cakewalk since the midi sequencer days. I'm just having a blast with X3 and I'm looking forward to the future. Thanks, Cakewalk staff!

I have to say, this turned out ALOT better than it could have.  It doesnt feel like they are trying to $%^& customers for more money, but get the payment model in line with their development process.

I'm in total agreement with this thread. 

SylvanEverything about Cakewalk to me is a clinic in excellence. The new model is brilliant! The DAW is dominating. The forum is like a family. 
 

I agree also with everything that was said, and I only single out the above bit, and especially the part in bold, because that's what it 'feels' like to me, as I said in my one and only post to the new Sonar monster thread up above there, the knowledge of people on this forum is great, you can learn so many things just by browsing the various topics, picking out pieces, then there is the invaluable input from Mr Anderton with his tips and tricks, the forum hosts, the forum members, and of course the Cake people and the way they interact, it all goes to make an invaluable resource and benefit to the Cakewalk/Sonar experience and product.
 
I'll be jumping on with the Platinum version upon release, the only bad thing about it is if it is as solid as X3, it will be a little sad leaving it behind, I have grown very fond of it :)
 
Well done to all

I agree...
 
I don't see a downside for either the end-user or Cakewalk as a company.
 
Of the negative comments I've read, many (if not most) are folks interpreting/extrapolating the absolute worst.
A lot of incorrect (some far fetched) information
I guess people see what they want to see...
 
The way I see it;
Cakewalk will be a more solid company that can be more dynamic (quick to respond/change/evolve).
Upgrade cost is in line with what I'd expect (with the option to pay-as-you-go).
Updates will be smaller and more regular (rather than large/yearly).
The end-user's experience won't be dramatically different.
 

Jim Roseberry
I agree...
 
I don't see a downside for either the end-user or Cakewalk as a company.
 
Of the negative comments I've read, many (if not most) are folks interpreting/extrapolating the absolute worst.
A lot of incorrect (some far fetched) information
I guess people see what they want to see...
 
The way I see it;
Cakewalk will be a more solid company that can be more dynamic (quick to respond/change/evolve).
Upgrade cost is in line with what I'd expect (with the option to pay-as-you-go).
Updates will be smaller and more regular (rather than large/yearly).
The end-user's experience won't be dramatically different.
 

I agree with all these points except the last one.
 
I think the end user experience will be better, because new features will be released at a higher quality level (less bugs) due to the nature of a "smaller" update.

Yes smaller updates mean we have a longer time to test a specific feature more thoroughly.
Note that an important distinction is that more frequent updates doesn't mean we are developing new features in that timeframe, rather that we are are releasing smaller updates more frequently. For example the drum replacer has been under development in parallel for several months now. Doing it this way allows us to focus more attention on the release since we don't have 20 features to deal with at the same time.
It also means that the user doesn't have to wait one year to get access to a new cool feature. For example the new VST3 multiple input buses feature was completed around last April but since we were on the old model users are only going to see it now. In the new system you would see the feature the moment it is ready.

Noel Borthwick [Cakewalk]
Yes smaller updates mean we have a longer time to test a specific feature more thoroughly.
Note that an important distinction is that more frequent updates doesn't mean we are developing new features in that timeframe, rather that we are are releasing smaller updates more frequently. For example the drum replacer has been under development in parallel for several months now. Doing it this way allows us to focus more attention on the release since we don't have 20 features to deal with at the same time.
It also means that the user doesn't have to wait one year to get access to a new cool feature. For example the new VST3 multiple input buses feature was completed around last April but since we were on the old model users are only going to see it now. In the new system you would see the feature the moment it is ready.

It also means that if an update creates a rash of bugs, you can adress them in a more timely manner instead of piling on tons of new features and playing whack a mole for the next year.

I'm more and more with this thread.  Really liking the new model.
 
I'm sure there will be a hiccup in the road here and there,  but on whole I like what is going on.