FYI, I have recently been in contact with Cakewalk Technical Support, who has provided me with some instructions on how to collect some data which may provide visibility into the problem.

Update: After capturing some data from the Rapture Pro info page for Cakewalk, Cakewalk has indicated that Rapture Pro authorization is timing out. Cakewalk has suggested that my lack of W7 updates or a drive error may be the cause. W7 is up to date, and disc scans using hdtune indicate no errors. I am awaiting the next step from Cakewalk.
 

I believe that I have had this SW synthesizer for six months and in that time have been unable to use it.
 

mcdonalk
 
I believe that I have had this SW synthesizer for six months and in that time have been unable to use it.
 

well sorry to hear that, on the bright side there are those who have had it since release and have not been able to use, not much of a consolation i know but .
 
apart from the atrocious state it was released in with wild uneven volumes and silent patches and slow start up etc, i have not had the issue of demo mode, but then i don't use it much because of all the problems at release which weren't fixed for some 10 months later, there is a sour taste in my mouth and i have purchased quite a number of 3rd party products which work as expected out of the box and are far superior to rapture pro so i really have no need for it. hope you get it sorted out, and remember you are not alone, far from it.

Thanks for the sympathy. A correction, though. I'm not sure now, but I think that the demo mode issue began with the Rapture Pro update which implemented offline authorization. But I don't remember for sure when it began, since it's been a while.

It has been two weeks since I sent to Cakewalk my last observations which Cakewalk had requested. I am awaiting their response.

It has been THREE weeks since I sent to Cakewalk my last observations which Cakewalk had requested. I am awaiting their response.
 
If four weeks goes by without constructive advice, I shall change my strategy from patience to obtaining a refund.

I was contacted on 5/31 with a request for more hard drive (in my case, SSD) performance data. So, apparently, things are still moving forward.

Still waiting on followup from Cakewalk on this issue. Last correspondence from Technical Support was on 6/7/16. I suspect that CW is triaging their technical support requests and that my issue is low on the list.

It has been over a month since Cakewalk has corresponded with me on this issue. In the mean time, Cakewalk has chosen not to respond to two requests that I have emailed them for an update on this issue.