Yes you can transfer your downloads to your music computer to install.
 
There is no CD or DVD version of the software available, either X3 or Platinum.
 
I see no point in burning them if your downloads are safely stored somewhere on your hard drives (as they should be)

Hi, Andrew -
 
I have to say, the recurring theme here among users is that Cakewalk - which is now a Gibson product - has customer service that is, well, non-existent. You can't call, you can't email, and when you have a problem the expectation is that you fix it yourself. 
 
Here's my experience:
 
I have an ongoing issue with TTS-1 crashing the playlist. Cakewalk knows this, I know it, I've been dealing with it for several months now, and sadly no one is interested in helping. Because I have over 200 tracks formatted for Sonar, using only instruments from Command Center, and playing these live using Sonar Platinum, it would be exceeding difficult to consider moving to Ableton or a different platform. And most everything else in Platinum works fine, but...
 

When Dean Capper (who was terrific, btw) was there, he began working on this problem, and I sent him all of the error logs that occurred so they could work on them. I had a 3-week break from playing shows in July, and was promised multiple times (Mike in Customer Support) that they would set up a phone appointment and call to try, once again, to determine what the problem was. No call. As a result,Friday night's show there were 3 playlist crashes that required a complete restart of Win10. Then I could usually jump back into the playlist and go on, however there was one song that required me to launch separately from the playlist before it would executeWhen a solo entertainer has dead air for any period of time, nothing good happens, as you can imagine. I can't believe Cakewalk is happy to sell lifetime upgrades, but give no service at all in return.
 
Please, I implore whomever at Cakewalk would read this not to ignore this customer yet again - either let me know that it can't be fixed without some kind of major rewrite and I should go to a different platform, or help me with this problem, please. Mostly, though, I'd just appreciate hearing from someone with status. Again, no high marks for customer service and communication these days, guys.
 
 
Rick Krieger
rwirieger@yahoo.com
941-961-5252

I've bought Sonar for life yesterday. It's the first time I use the Command Center.
 
You say: "Download times are quick". What I'm seeing is that download time are everything BUT quick. Just sayin'
 
I guess I'll see in a few hours (or tomorrow) how it goes.

Download speeds are totally dependent on your own connection yes?

Bristol_Jonesey
Download speeds are totally dependent on your own connection yes?

No, they are also impacted by the system hosting the file, the network, etc.  
 
Using the direct download links it seems to be pretty fast, but you can have an internet connection that is much faster than what they can supply.  

Personally, I get a great connection thru CCC about 85-90% of the time.   For that remaining 5-10%, the download speeds are usually "something must be wrong!" slow; i.e., it moves in increments measured in tenths of a percent.   So whenever that happens I close CCC, wait a minute or so, then try again.  More often than not things return to normal that second time around.    I've never been sure whether it's on my end (Comcast) or the Amazon servers that CW uses, but it's never been that big an issue.
 

Written to my Sweetwater Rep this morning, based on his recommendation to switch from Sonar to Ableton:
 
I think transitioning to Ableton Live 9 makes a lot of sense. Let me take your suggestion and download it for a trial, see how it feels and flows, and how the importing of a completed mix as a .wav file works out with their playlist function. It's definitely time to move from Sonar - I can't tell you how discouraging its been to have literally no support and no communication from them. Gibson has really done their customers a disservice in the way they've handled this whole situation. For a 10-year customer to reach this point, after buying the best package they have offered year after year, it's beyond disappointing.

graemesp@hotmail.com

• Hi , I followed the advice and did the download of the Command Center,  installed it - but it automatically put itself on my C: Drive.  Hmm.  I have a small SSD as a boot drive and I want to keep all my programs on a much larger 500GB SSD so this was naughty. Anyway, I set the CC to downloading the Platinum I had just bought and then it started installing it on the C: - woah, hold on a bit. I stopped it, and did a manual download and custom install to my chosen drive.  I know that most people like the simple life and don't give a monkey's where the software goes, but I do and I think this should be made an option on your CC.   

• Andrew Rossa [Cakewalk]

Hi-
 
SONAR will be going on sale later this month and wanted to just share some tips to make sure your upgrade experience is awesome.
 
1) If you haven't signed up for an Single Sign On Account (SSO), please do so before you buy. You can go to:
 
 
 
You will be asked to create an account if you haven't done that yet. Please use the same email that was used to purchase your product at the Cakewalk Store or that was used to register your product. Once you have created an account, you should see all your purchases listed under the "Products" tab.
 
2) The first time you visit the Cakewalk Store (, you will see the price listed as MSRP. That means it's the full price. Don't be scared. Click "Buy Now" and you will be asked to login. Once you do this, you will automatically see your upgrade price reflected in the cart. This is one of the cool new features of the store. No more searching for the right upgrade path, we give it you automatically. And once you are logged in, you'll always see the lowest price for all products (like an upgrade to Z3TA+ 2 for SONAR Platinum customers). You can see if you are logged in at the top right of your browser window on the Store (right below the search button and language selector).
 
3) Once you complete the purchase of SONAR, you will see a link to download Command Center (). Once you download Command Center, you will be asked to login. After you login, you'll magically see all your products in your account. You can start installing your products. Download times are quick and no need to enter serial numbers. This is also another cool feature that will make the process painless for customers. 
 
I'll leave this thread open for any questions or concerns. 
 
Thanks!
 
 
 
 

After you install Command Center and launch it - you can click on the 'gear' icon over on the upper right, and then click on 'Paths'.  There, you can alter the download path for any of the installers (like for Sonar, Dim Pro, etc.), and you can also specify a different path for downloaded Cakewalk Content.
 
If you happened to not do the above, and did some initial downloads through Command Center, you can manually create a folder on a different drive and move any downloaded installers to the new home for them, and move any of what had been downloaded already over to the new location - and then just update the Path in Command Center to point to the new location, and the same with Cakewalk Content.  That will get the installers and content off of your C:, if you wish.  I did this, and many folks do, precisely because folks are often using solid-state drives for their C: drives, and then space on those drives is quite limited.
 
I hope the above helps.  I would hope that at some point, Cakewalk would adjust the Command Center installer itself to prompt for the paths for downloaded installers and Cakewalk Content as part of installing the Command Center, rather than users having to figure it out after the fact, but in the meantime, manually altering the paths is provided for in Command Center, and it does work.
 
Bob Bone
 

robert_e_bone

graemesp@hotmail.com

• Hi , I followed the advice and did the download of the Command Center,  installed it - but it automatically put itself on my C: Drive.  Hmm.  I have a small SSD as a boot drive and I want to keep all my programs on a much larger 500GB SSD so this was naughty. Anyway, I set the CC to downloading the Platinum I had just bought and then it started installing it on the C: - woah, hold on a bit. I stopped it, and did a manual download and custom install to my chosen drive.  I know that most people like the simple life and don't give a monkey's where the software goes, but I do and I think this should be made an option on your CC.   

• Andrew Rossa [Cakewalk]

Hi-
 
SONAR will be going on sale later this month and wanted to just share some tips to make sure your upgrade experience is awesome.
 
1) If you haven't signed up for an Single Sign On Account (SSO), please do so before you buy. You can go to:
 
 
 
You will be asked to create an account if you haven't done that yet. Please use the same email that was used to purchase your product at the Cakewalk Store or that was used to register your product. Once you have created an account, you should see all your purchases listed under the "Products" tab.
 
2) The first time you visit the Cakewalk Store (, you will see the price listed as MSRP. That means it's the full price. Don't be scared. Click "Buy Now" and you will be asked to login. Once you do this, you will automatically see your upgrade price reflected in the cart. This is one of the cool new features of the store. No more searching for the right upgrade path, we give it you automatically. And once you are logged in, you'll always see the lowest price for all products (like an upgrade to Z3TA+ 2 for SONAR Platinum customers). You can see if you are logged in at the top right of your browser window on the Store (right below the search button and language selector).
 
3) Once you complete the purchase of SONAR, you will see a link to download Command Center (). Once you download Command Center, you will be asked to login. After you login, you'll magically see all your products in your account. You can start installing your products. Download times are quick and no need to enter serial numbers. This is also another cool feature that will make the process painless for customers. 
 
I'll leave this thread open for any questions or concerns. 
 
Thanks!
 
 
 
 

After you install Command Center and launch it - you can click on the 'gear' icon over on the upper right, and then click on 'Paths'.  There, you can alter the download path for any of the installers (like for Sonar, Dim Pro, etc.), and you can also specify a different path for downloaded Cakewalk Content.
 
If you happened to not do the above, and did some initial downloads through Command Center, you can manually create a folder on a different drive and move any downloaded installers to the new home for them, and move any of what had been downloaded already over to the new location - and then just update the Path in Command Center to point to the new location, and the same with Cakewalk Content.  That will get the installers and content off of your C:, if you wish.  I did this, and many folks do, precisely because folks are often using solid-state drives for their C: drives, and then space on those drives is quite limited.
 
I hope the above helps.  I would hope that at some point, Cakewalk would adjust the Command Center installer itself to prompt for the paths for downloaded installers and Cakewalk Content as part of installing the Command Center, rather than users having to figure it out after the fact, but in the meantime, manually altering the paths is provided for in Command Center, and it does work.
 
Bob Bone
 


Beware purchasing Platinum version with Lifetime updates! This means that you do NOT get any support like subscribers do. I have sent several emails to support dept. but none answered yet, only robot tells you that emails are recieved - NO personal replies yet and my probelms with program still persist!!!
JK

I have been waiting for a call back from support for almost 4 months.  i have been a loyal cakewalk user for 10 years.  I can no longer justify working with these guys.  It is an embarrassment that ANYONE who pays to have ANY kind of support should have to come on to the forum and BEG for a phone call from ANYONE to fix a couple of nagging issues.  I spoke with Mike Lally over a month ago and he was going to get RIGHT back to me with the fix for a couple of things, and he has emailed me ONCE to schedule a phone call that he didn't even show up for.  I hope someone at cake walk will take notice and get back to me after MANY email requests.  I am not asking for anything extraordinary, but this is a trainwreck.