Just happened to actually pay attention for a moment when coming into the forums, and saw the current posted upgrade prices to get to X3 Producer, so I thought I would post them, in case anyone was interested but on the fence.
 
SONAR X3 Producer Download: Site Price
Upgrade from SONAR X2 Producer $74.50
Upgrade from any SONAR Producer $99.00
Upgrade from any SONAR Studio $299.00
Upgrade from any other SONAR $329.00
Upgrade for any registered customer $329.00
 
Bob Bone
 

robert_e_bone
Upgrade from SONAR X2 Producer $74.50
Upgrade from any SONAR Producer $99.00

 
Those two options look the most appealing...to be able to move from X2 to X3 for less than half the cost of Addictive Drums (!) and get Melodyne, comping, Blue Tubes, etc. etc. as well as the extra stability seems like a no-brainer. Thanks for pointing that out, Bob.

Ooh, this must mean....
Ok, I won't say it.
 

HAHA, Yeah that's kind of a harbinger of awesome-sauce.

Skyline_UK
Ooh, this must mean....
Ok, I won't say it.

Personally, I'd be willing to bet it's more about getting people to move off X2 and X1. If nothing else, that would make support's life much easier and improve customer satisfaction.
 

If anybody is cruising around with X1 or X2, I agree that these upgrade prices would be a REALLY good deal for someone to get up to X3 and all of its niceness AND stability.
 
The above would be independent of whenever whatever is going to be released someday - (new maintenance release or new version).
 
If it is a new maintenance release that is next up on being put out there, then it would be free for anyone who just upgraded to X3, and if is instead X4 or whatever, that may still be QUITE a long ways off - hard to tell.  It seems like there was quite a gap from X2 to X3, but that might have simply been due to there not having been much in the way of X2 maintenance versions.
 
In any case, again, I HIGHLY recommend folks upgrading to X3 from whatever you are currently on, and I also agree that with the listed prices as posted above, the 2 Craig points out seem to be the biggest bang for the buck.
 
X3 ROCKS.
 
Bob Bone
 

Anderton

Skyline_UK
Ooh, this must mean....
Ok, I won't say it.

Personally, I'd be willing to bet it's more about getting people to move off X2 and X1. If nothing else, that would make support's life much easier and improve customer satisfaction.
 

Yes indeed. Why fix what people have already paid for in the expectation that it would actually work when you can charge them extra for fixing it ?

paulo

Anderton

Skyline_UK
Ooh, this must mean....
Ok, I won't say it.

Personally, I'd be willing to bet it's more about getting people to move off X2 and X1. If nothing else, that would make support's life much easier and improve customer satisfaction.
 

Yes indeed. Why fix what people have already paid for in the expectation that it would actually work when you can charge them extra for fixing it ?

FYI, Cakewalk is under new management and there have been five revisions to X3 since that change. These have fixed progressively more bugs and also, introduced new features. If it makes you feel better, think of the $75 upgrade as buying you the full version of Addictive Drums, Melodyne Singletrack, the Blue Tubes suite of plug-ins, AAS Strum Acoustic, Gobbler storage access, Tape Emulation, Lounge Lizard, and BiFilter 2...and just happens to throw in a more stable than ever program with the best comping, flyout EQ, VST 3 support, ARA integration, track colors, and a lot more.
 
The fact is that X3 had a fantastic rollout, attracted many new users, and been called the best and most stable version yet by the majority of existing users. Cakewalk can either devote their limited resources to supporting the people who continue to support the company and want to move forward, or spend those resources on an ever-diminishing number of people using a program that was introduced almost two years ago under a very different corporate umbrella and which followed a very different path.
 
I also see from the sigs here that quite a few people seem capable of making music with X2, as I did before X3 appeared. On my YouTube channel, 10 music videos were posted that I did with X2, while 9 have been done since X3 was introduced. I never felt more constrained by Sonar's bugs than I did with bugs from any other company's software.
 
The tech support comment relates to the fact that Cakewalk is one of the very rare companies that offers free phone and other support. By the standards of this industry, how Cakewalk handles support is economically insane - especially for programs that are years old. Yet Gibson has supported Cakewalk's desire to keep it free for as long as humanly possible. That would at least be easier to pull off if everyone was on X3.
 
Sure, Cakewalk could charge $99 per incident like other companies do, and enrich the coffers to hire a cadre of programmers dedicated to exterminating a few bugs in programs created under different ownership and which have reached end of life. However, I think most people would prefer paying $75 for a whole bunch of software, receive a superior program in return that has benefited from five distinct (and free) round of revisions, and retain free support. YMMV.
 
 

Anderton
 
 
FYI, Cakewalk is under new management and there have been five revisions to X3 since that change. These have fixed progressively more bugs and also, introduced new features. If it makes you feel better, think of the $75 upgrade as buying you the full version of Addictive Drums, Melodyne Singletrack, the Blue Tubes suite of plug-ins, AAS Strum Acoustic, Gobbler storage access, Tape Emulation, Lounge Lizard, and BiFilter 2...and just happens to throw in a more stable than ever program with the best comping, flyout EQ, VST 3 support, ARA integration, track colors, and a lot more.
 
The fact is that X3 had a fantastic rollout, attracted many new users, and been called the best and most stable version yet by the majority of existing users. Cakewalk can either devote their limited resources to supporting the people who continue to support the company and want to move forward, or spend those resources on an ever-diminishing number of people using a program that was introduced almost two years ago under a very different corporate umbrella and which followed a very different path.
 
I also see from the sigs here that quite a few people seem capable of making music with X2, as I did before X3 appeared. On my YouTube channel, 10 music videos were posted that I did with X2, while 9 have been done since X3 was introduced. I never felt more constrained by Sonar's bugs than I did with bugs from any other company's software.
 
The tech support comment relates to the fact that Cakewalk is one of the very rare companies that offers free phone and other support. By the standards of this industry, how Cakewalk handles support is economically insane - especially for programs that are years old. Yet Gibson has supported Cakewalk's desire to keep it free for as long as humanly possible. That would at least be easier to pull off if everyone was on X3.
 
Sure, Cakewalk could charge $99 per incident like other companies do, and enrich the coffers to hire a cadre of programmers dedicated to exterminating a few bugs in programs created under different ownership and which have reached end of life. However, I think most people would prefer paying $75 for a whole bunch of software, receive a superior program in return that has benefited from five distinct (and free) round of revisions, and retain free support. YMMV.
 
 

FWIW, I have X3 Producer and bought it happily at the intro price due mainly to the fact that I was contemplating melodyne anyway and it made it a cheaper way to go and with the ARA integration to me it was justification all by itself and anything else was a bonus. I'm also aware of and have all of the subsequently issued patches which was certainly very welcome after seeing the way X2 was abandoned. On the whole I'm very happy with my purchase, so I'm not just a basher. That said, I will be a very unhappy bunny if something as basic as the undo function no longer working correctly isn't fixed before or when then new version is released without an additional cost to me.
 
You have often pointed out that despite the change of ownership, CW remains autonomous and does it's own thing, so it shouldn't be too much to expect that any bug fixes in a new version that fix a problem from an earlier version should remain free of charge to those still using that version. To me, your comments that CW wanted people to ditch X1/X2 if only to make their lives easier came across to me as a bit....." well if we can just get people to ditch that heap of crap we won't have to waste our time trying to fix it".....hence my response.
 
 
 
 

FOLLOW THE UPGRADE (subscription) PATH!
It takes resources to develop; 'nuff said!
 
Tom
 
I've "harped" on this a hundred times; I own some VERY expensive embroidery software that is COMPLETELY USELESS in its Win 7 version.
COMPLETELY USELESS!
$1500 upgrade! That's an upgrade, not the cost to a new user!
Sonar is and has always been a BARGAIN!
Think of the drastic changes in OS and hardware since its introduction.
Why waste valuable resources keeping ProAudio 9 working?
Get real, move forward...