I checked it out but didn't find it particularly appealing.  I don't like the interface.  I prefer the forums. 

I love the bakery for feature requests, as it seems perfect for that function.

ampfixer
I love the bakery for feature requests, as it seems perfect for that function.

+1

I checked it out once, didn't care for it. Now I can't even find it. Not sure how to even get to it again.

I must have missed the announcement.

At this stage the Bakery is lukewarm for me too.

I don't really "get" the Bakery.
I've perused it a number of times, and wonder why they created it.
Is it just because the feature requests forum wasn't working, maybe becoming too scattered with too many random ideas ? The Bakery does seem to be an attempt to organize, and perhaps even rate the requested ideas from users.
 
I guess its' the "rating" of ideas I have a problem with. Won't this just turn into a competition for everyone to get Cakewalk to develop what they want to see come about ? Might turn into the staff view users vs. the loop view users, for example. Or, maybe even the recording studios vs. the composers. For a software that seems to have something for everyone, maybe they just want the users to decide the direction of things to be developed.
I don't really "get" the Bakery, yet . . .
 

I think that's a good point, Maybe they are struggling with what direction to take. Sonar is almost stretched to breaking point with what it can do. And that's for sure that each one of us has a certain direction we would prefer it to go in.  
Like me, I get annoyed with "loops".  But I believe that the most popular feature with new users.
Look at the list of Drum Loops.. do you see any typical music genders ?? Like Country or the Blues??  no, it's all Hip Hop etc. I have a feeling they are just sorting out how to expand sales and that's a tough one in today's  market.. It used to be the market for Music was 24 to 40 years old. Not sure what it would be now.
 
Most of the younger people I work with expect music and movies to be %100 free. And I bet there's still a huge amount of software piracy going on. -- I just googled "Sonar-Torrents" and see a long list on Pirate bay including the August release of Platinum. How would that be possible? Anyway tough market when young people don't have jobs or $500 to blow on an app they can find free or for next to nothing. 
I think the release of Home Studio @ under $50 will be a big hit. But it's marketing is aimed at Looping and making electronic music. 

Johnny . . . that's a very thoughtful and insightful post . . . you're right, the software business is tough, because nobody really knows where the trends are heading . . . how do you spend development dollars with a murky crystal ball . . . technology is changing so rapidly, so it is important to get a pulse on what customers may be thinking.
 
Your point about a younger generation having a different set of expectations from the software world than the previous generations is bang on.

The only thing permanent is change.
 
I started using Cakewalk almost 20 years ago, when I picked up a copy of Professional 6, back in the Cakewalk Pro Audio days.  Running Windows 95 on a PC. 
 
Back then the community was mostly MIDI users, with the option to record some audio.  But chances are your PC wasn't really up to much digital audio, and real-time monitoring and effects were almost impossible.  Record dry and add off-line effects after.  I remember most pro audio newsgroups on the net were still discussing analog tape and the new ADAT format.
 
But Cakewalk eventually sucked in enough of the pro audio crowd to keep rolling.  PC technology took off, and it wasn't just tape machines or Macs anymore.  Lot's of those guys in the Cakewalk forums these days.
 
Then they marketed to guitar players.  There's a lot more of them around here now than pure MIDI users. There's more guitar players on the planet than anything else, I presume.  Guitar Rig and TH3.  Lot's of those guys in the Cakewalk forums these days.  Not a problem!  Some of my best friends are guitar players
 
But in the middle of all this, they didn't forget about the MIDI guys.  Lots of cool virtual instruments are bundled now.  Hardly ever need to break out the external hardware anymore.  Plus I really like how you can now record a virtual instrument directly to an audio track, completely in the box!
 
The younger crowd now appears to be into electronic dance music and making beats.  So the marketing goes there.  Loops, anyone?  Improvements to Matrix view.  New Lens just for making beats.  Lot's of those guys in the Cakewalk forums these days.
 
I think that the way forward will be to successfully appeal to all groups of users.  From posts that I have seen recently, the most neglected groups at this time apparently are traditional songwriters, composers, and arrangers.  They either just make do with Cakewalk, or use another product that does what they need.
 
The bakery can focus attention on the most wanted new features.  Then the bakers obviously will have to balance their resources with what they can market, and how to keep bringing in new users.