Melodyne has been working flawless for me with SPLAT since the 4.1 update. +1 to the above posts

cwestmont
Background: Long time customer and have invested a ton of time and money on Cakewalk Sonar and DAW hardware over the years. I have an engineering background and am no stranger to a wide range of software, hardware and operating systems. This last bit is only to suggest that although I make plenty of mistakes, lack of experience is not the main issue.
 
I have found my recording and production progress over the last 6 to 9 months stymied by crashes, predominantly related to Melodyne 4. This week alone, probably 80% of my precious DAW time was spent waiting for reboots, and/or trying to find, fix or avoid potholes.  I am at the end of my rope, and neither Cakewalk nor Celemony seem to be on top of the problem.
 
I have started using a Mac for a local community college music class, and the learning curve for the resident DAW software is pretty easy.  Even though it would be a huge (and expensive) leap, I am considering the move to Mac.  My first preference would be to stay with Sonar on Mac, but the silence about the Mac release is ominous given recent history. 
 
My options appear to be:
1. Grind it out and avoid using Melodyne until Cake/Celemony get it together. 
2. Upgrade to Platinum or whatever current version and hope that fixes it.
3. Jump to Mac and new DAW software. 
 
I don't want to spend more time trying to debug this stuff.  I want to make music.  Given the reputation of the Mac and my recent experience,  option 3 is feeling like a leading candidate.
 
Bottom line is: Cake, I want you to win.  But life is short and I've got to have some sign that the ship is not rudderless. 

If you are a huge Molodyne user it seems to me the only alternative is Studio One with the ARA integration that is similar to what Cake has.  
 
You are using a good but outdated version of Sonar.  This likely wouldn't have been an issue, but with the new version of Melodyne and Windows updates, apparently they might not all play perfectly well together.
 
I would think your cheapest option is to update Sonar to the newest version.  
 
It is unfortunate that you didn't take advantage of the lifetime updates offer that expired recently.  Especially since you mentioned you have clearly been working on music over the last 6-9 months...and with some system issues.  

Thanks to all who gave thoughtful feedback, especially those who have also used a Mac and reported the grass isn't greener. Also very interesting that the Quad Capture seems flaky for others.  Valuable input.  Having people like Craig Anderton weigh in shows the value of these forums.
 
I wrote the original post in an evening of deep frustration after a frustrating week and maybe should have just stayed silent. In thinking more deeply about the problem, I left out a key part of the history.  I have been happy with X3. Melodyne presented me with an update to v4, and I installed it.  Then my crashes began in bunches, plus the Melodyne functionality was reduced.   I tried rolling back but was unable.  So that is why I am mixing an older version of Sonar with 'new' Melodyne.  Blame seems more on Celemony. Maybe the Quad as well?
 
In the last several days I have found ways to avoid the crashes* and am working more efficiently.  I don't want to mess with moving to a new version of Sonar in the midst of the several things I am working on. Maybe next year, when I will also be due for a computer refresh.  So I am using option 1 from the op.
 
* ironically the consistent thing that would generate a crash was freezing the Melodyne tracks and then saving the file.  
 
If I get anywhere with help from Celemony I will follow up as appropriate. 

cwestmont
...I don't want to mess with moving to a new version of Sonar in the midst of the several things I am working on...
 

 
Installing Platinum does not upset X3. Both versions can coexist on the same platform without any issues. I installed Platinum while I still needed to continue using X3 (i.e. for projects that needed to be transferred to and from another computer with X3). I learned my way around Platinum while gradually phasing out X3.

cwestmont
Thanks to all who gave thoughtful feedback, especially those who have also used a Mac and reported the grass isn't greener. Also very interesting that the Quad Capture seems flaky for others.  Valuable input.  Having people like Craig Anderton weigh in shows the value of these forums.
 
I wrote the original post in an evening of deep frustration after a frustrating week and maybe should have just stayed silent. In thinking more deeply about the problem, I left out a key part of the history.  I have been happy with X3. Melodyne presented me with an update to v4, and I installed it.  Then my crashes began in bunches, plus the Melodyne functionality was reduced.   I tried rolling back but was unable.  So that is why I am mixing an older version of Sonar with 'new' Melodyne.  Blame seems more on Celemony. Maybe the Quad as well?
 
In the last several days I have found ways to avoid the crashes* and am working more efficiently.  I don't want to mess with moving to a new version of Sonar in the midst of the several things I am working on. Maybe next year, when I will also be due for a computer refresh.  So I am using option 1 from the op.
 
* ironically the consistent thing that would generate a crash was freezing the Melodyne tracks and then saving the file.  
 
If I get anywhere with help from Celemony I will follow up as appropriate. 

Now that you seem to be staying 😉
Not upgrading when you have work ahead is a smart move. Upgrading especially to a whole new version should be done at your leasure when you have the time to shake out any glitches.

Although you can easily install numerous versions of Sonar simultaneously without issue. Eg,I run X2, X3 and Platinum on the same computer. At times I even run several versions of Sonar Platinum simultaneously.

All the best.

Shades of gray. 
 
Logic 9 is the single most solid audio software I've worked with - especially on OSX 10.6. The only thing that seemed to make it crash was Line 6 POD Farm, which is notoriously prone to crash on Mac OS.
 
I still use it to mix.
 
Logic X, as awesome as it is, is a bit more quirky. By any other standards, it's actually quite solid. But there's no magic. A properly set-up PC will work as well.
 
Why I prefer my platform? Logic, of course.
 
But also, I never have to think about computer stuff, until I decide to upgrade.
 
Last time, this meant doing a bit of research online the night before I went to the Apple store. The following afternoon, we drove downtown, picked up the computer I wanted and, an hour or so later I was back home, ready to log into my account and download and install Logic. Shortest downtime ever.
 
I don't even bother with drivers - Apples own default drivers often outperform the manufacturers.
 
One thing though: I don't upgrade things. I only do minor updates. Treating your system as a close-end, hardware multitrack recorder helps. My DAW runs exactly as it did when I bought it, two years ago. But it only runs software that's contemporary to it.
 
The day I add a PC back to my set-up, I will treat it exactly the same way.

I was frustrated myself with SONAR X3 because I was having problems with Melodyne and also with the Apollo Firewire interface (unit silver unit). I finally took a look at my computer's specs and discovered it wasn't fast enough to keep up with my setup. Built a new system and upgraded to SPLAT and SONAR is humming along pretty smoothly, minus a hiccup here and there. Looking at your computer's specs in your signature you should be good to go of that end but I would definitely try upgrading to SPLAT. And also take a good look at your audio interface drivers to see if that could be your culprit (try a different one if need be).