First of all: this is just vaporware for me; redesigned with no indication of the studio user whatsoever.
I have tried to work around this edition only to find it ponderous in its design; as well as it's flexibility
as it's predecessors. I am disappointed that you folks decided to re-invent the wheel. it was not broke
and you decided to fix it. You created a circuit board instead of a mixer. You remodeled an easy GUI to 
resemble a nasa workstation.  Seriously folks; are you that insecure about your engineering skills that;
you have to reprogram a whole bunch of features that were already there?
Anyone of you guys actually use x2???
If so; show me your tunes...
Thank you for deliberately wasting my time.
Bops,
 
 

 
Hey Bops, welcome.
 
I came into sonar at the tail end of X1.  At that time there were some like you who hated the transition.  Things have since settled down and just about everyone is mostly happy.  Personally, I much prefer the looks of the X series.  To me, the previous style looked too much like a word processor.  I think a big screen, like 30", is needed to really appreciate the way things are now set up.  And you can use a large touch screen if you like that sort of thing.  Or multiple screens.
 
A lot of people here have gone from the old way of doing things to the new and I'm certain they'd be glad to help you through a transition period.
 
I wouldn't spend much time with X2.  It was pretty buggy and some functions changed going to X3.  People now sing its praise.  If you wait for the right moment, you can upgrade to X3 for a very reasonable price.
 
This forum is mostly users, so if you want to voice your concerns to Cakewalk, you should go directly to them.
 
 

The Cakewalk folks did a complete redesign of both the internals and the user interface of Sonar, beginning with X1, and is now a couple of releases past that with X3e being the current level.
 
They had multiple reasons for doing the redesign, partly because of functionality changes, and also due to a desire to make things much easier for folks to use.
 
Sonar 8.5.3 was a beloved release, and it has taken until the X3e release for the new design to really come into its own, with all kinds of praise for its work flow and for its stability.
 
X2 is still quite usable, it does have some bugs that weren't addressed until X3, and also some functionality and bundled software differences than what is in X3.
 
Nonetheless, if you take a bit to orient yourself with X2, and hopefully some point with an upgrade to X3, you too will come to find things have really changed for the better - even if it doesn't look like it yet to you.
 
8.5.3 was very very powerful, but it was a black arts kind of affair, with all the key combinations to get things to work in a quick fashion, and the X series sought to make getting things done a lot simpler for a wider base of existing and new users.  In that, the X series has done remarkably well.
 
Some things are moved around a bit, but most things still work the same way, and there are all kinds of free videos and tutorials available for X2, as well as really well done 3rd party books that explain things in great detail.
 
In addition, there is a giant community of folks here in the forums that will go to great lengths to help you get through the learning curve of the redesign you see in X2.
 
Many many folks, myself included, felt quite confused, frustrated, and even angry, at the redesign that came beginning with X1, but just about all of those same folks came to find that once they got used to some new ways of getting things done, that they actually improved their work flow and finished projects in the new X series.
 
Sooooo, hang in there, look at the Cakewalk site and YouTube for all kinds of short videos on just about every kind of function there is in Sonar X2, and post questions to this forum for whatever else you want some quick help with, and folks here will do their best to help you out.
 
Bob Bone
 

I have projects that I am still working on in X2. There are some glitches now and then but nothing serious. Certainly nothing that would stand in the way of a completed project. Here one of my tunes via X2 http://soundcloud.com/jmasno5/so-much-older

Bops
Anyone of you guys actually use x2???
If so; show me your tunes...
Thank you for deliberately wasting my time.

No, I'm personally using X3, not X2.   Have been for a while now.  I've had a few tunes posted in the Songs forum created using X3 (and X2 before that). 
 
I hope that did not waste too much of your time.
 

Why did you bother, Bops???
Jumping in with a rant about an old version, which you haven't bothered to learn properly.
There's always two groups: the "Why on earth don't you ever change anything" and the "why on earth did you change everything". Funny enough, many people belong to both groups.
 
And that "Show me your tunes" bit is just silly.  Firstly, you do know, that the ones upgrading regularily have continued working with the version they have, and are now on X3 (which gathers praise) and soon on X4. The fact that you didn't bother to learn X2, doesn't mean others are alike. The version of SONAR doesn't affect the tunes. Secondly, you also know, for sure, that the recording engineers here are not allowed to upload other peoples' music, and all SONAR user are not musicians, anyway. And...now...why am I bothering??

INMO, a fake rant from a fake user.

you might have a point

Totally. Don't feed the trolls.

Some people have a hard time dealing with change. They're so put off by the degree of change they don't go any further to find out whether they actually like the changes or not. 
 
I don't think he's a troll in the classic sense of the word, but I have no idea what would motivate him to create a post like this that seeks no assistance.
 
If you don't like SONAR, don't use it. If you like it, use it. Seems simple to me.