Noel Borthwick [Cakewalk]
If you are using a rocksmith cable try using WASAPI exclusive. You will get even lower latency typically since it will go down to a buffer size as low as 3 msec. Of course round trip latency depends on your audio hardware itself but it should be very usable with just the cable and stock laptop audio. 
This can be super useful when you are travelling and need to do a scratch track.

Thanks Noel. I did exactly that and am very impressed with the performance. For me, the update means that I don't have to drag my USB audio interface along on a trip just to be able to use a guitar. It also makes using VST synths work much better. I was able to layout scratch tracks last night using only my Minilab and guitar via the Rocksmith cable. The experience was just as good as I normally have with the VS-20. Granted, the update package has lots of goodies this month, but for me, this feature is the hidden gem of the group.

It should be possible to set up a project template (and make it default) that has the synth rack open wherever you want it, with every new project. And of course with different screensets and/or lenses, you can have it where you want it as well. Or, as someone suggested above, keybind it to open quickly when you need it (ctl-chift-S already works).
 
I know people are resistant to change, but I think this one makes sense because it allows more flexibility in terms of where and how you want to view the synth rack - it never made all that much sense to me for it to be locked to the browser. And the project notes pane is a good call - separate from the track notes in the inspector. I still wish there were a text track where you could leave notes tied to a particular time, clip or section (yes I know this can be fudged in various ways...) 

well, new update looks nice and work ok.
 
however:
* plugin load balancing still is useless (crashes and dropouts)
* still dropouts while playing (while CPU usage is 14%, load balancing is turned off and latency is 40 millisecs)
* still very long project loading

to me solving just these three issues would be killer update.
it would worth separate update.

PS. as for dropouts there must be some kind of debugging
output or smth like that - to understand the reason of it.
otherwise it becomes black magic to solve it. i wonder how
playback may provide dropouts if CPU is not overloaded.
i suppose Sonar sends audio stream to sound card (and this is
what any media player would do - without dropouts). so i
consider dropout as a fact that Sonar can't generate this stream
in time. but why it doesn't use the CPU power for that?
this is the exact purpose i bought such powerfull CPU.
its ok for me even if it is 100% loaded all the time i work in Sonar.
all i want is smooth playback and no lags.
i can understand that there may be quite a few reasons
why something goes wrong. but the problem is that
Sonar does not provide any tool (or approach) to understand those reasons.
everything usually ends with "check everything".

biozel
well, new update looks nice and work ok.
 
however:
* plugin load balancing still is useless (crashes and dropouts)
* still dropouts while playing (while CPU usage is 14%, load balancing is turned off and latency is 40 millisecs)
* still very long project loading

to me solving just these three issues would be killer update.
it would worth separate update.

PS. as for dropouts there must be some kind of debugging
output or smth like that - to understand the reason of it.
otherwise it becomes black magic to solve it. i wonder how
playback may provide dropouts if CPU is not overloaded.
i suppose Sonar sends audio stream to sound card (and this is
what any media player would do - without dropouts). so i
consider dropout as a fact that Sonar can't generate this stream
in time. but why it doesn't use the CPU power for that?
this is the exact purpose i bought such powerfull CPU.
its ok for me even if it is 100% loaded all the time i work in Sonar.
all i want is smooth playback and no lags.
i can understand that there may be quite a few reasons
why something goes wrong. but the problem is that
Sonar does not provide any tool (or approach) to understand those reasons.
everything usually ends with "check everything".

I'm not seeing any of those issues with the plugin load balancing, dropouts and long project load times. 
 
This sounds like it is specific to your system.  
 
What are the specs of your machine and what audio interface are you using? 
 
 

plugin load balancing - which plugins are you using?

Load balancing works fine here too!

problem is not with plugins.
problem is with that you can't clearly be sure
that it is certain plugin damages process or it is Sonar does that
or it is hardware does that.
you just get "something went wrong" kind of info.
 
just right now i opened project and it somehow started playing without dropouts (in the morning it had dropouts every several seconds). ok. then i went to options, checked "load balance" mark, pressed ok and clicked Play.
now it dropped on 6th bar.
 
the interesting part is that all tracks are frozen so Sonar must just use pre-generated audio and just sum it up.
instead something happens that causes drop.

PS. System:
CPU: i7-5930K
MB: s2011-3, x99 (don't remember the model)
RAM: 64GB DDR4
SSD: 512GB
OS: Win10 x64
Sound card: TC Electronic Konnekt 6 (FireWire)

The MIDI timing problems with Plugin load balancing I highlighted in September ( http://forum.cakewalk.com/201609-229030-Plugin-Load-balancing-MIDI-timing-problems-m3489405.aspx ) is still present in the latest release, despite assurances that this would be fixed in this release.

I installed yesterday but ended rolling back, The song I was working on felt slower on play back.
Don't know what that means yet... :) anyone else?
 
peace!

Unfortunately began experiencing Audio Dropouts after this update. Didn't make any changes for my audio device settings or anything like that.....focusrite scarlett 6i6