My thought is that Gibson already shopped Sonar around before announcing it's closure and no one was interested. 
 
It would be nice if someone picked it up but like many others have said, I think that time has passed

It's a mass psychological experiment.  They are watching to see how many conspiracy theories spring up; how many people jump ship and how many stick around to wait and see.  They're watching us, recording our every thought. I myself might even be the CEO of Gibson, but I would never say that for obvious reasons.

anydmusic

Anderton

backwoods
Don't know why they didn't charge for the adaptive limiter, drum replacer, and linear phase replacements.

I was mystified by that as well. The original plan built around lifetime updates involved charging for add-ons. That was dropped, as was selling plug-ins to users outside of the "Cakewalk ecosystem."

Don't see how we can blame Gibson for this.

FWIW Gibson was in favor of the original plan. FL Studio and Microsoft had already shown that particular approach could be viable, so it wasn't seen as much of a risk.

It is over.
But I wont discourage others from keeping hope, like some on this forum appear to be doing. No one needs therapists. Let them feel and think how they want.
If people want to hold out hope, who am I (or anyone else) to tell them otherwise. But its just my opinion that it is all done and if Sonar was making any profit, it wouldn't have been killed off.

If Ik buys, I think it would be a good fit.

z1812
My thought is that Gibson already shopped Sonar around before announcing it's closure and no one was interested. 
 
It would be nice if someone picked it up but like many others have said, I think that time has passed

Gibson cashed in with the lifetime updates.  They would have to sell at a loss to be fair.  The best bet for a business case is a company selling addons or Microsoft...  MHO

jyoung60
Somebody better do something fast.  I'm getting to like Reaper more and more each day...

^^ this ^^ -  I hate to say it but I may already past the point of no return...

 

jyoung60
Somebody better do something fast.  I'm getting to like Reaper more and more each day...

^^ this ^^ -  I hate to say it but I may already past the point of no return...


 
 
No you're not. I was using Reaper for the past year and a half, and while I could do what I wanted to do, my workflow was not as fast as Sonar. When this news came down, like many I was devastated. I'm on this forum numerous times each day. I wanted to make sure my latest Sonar version, 8.5, worked right, as that is apparently going to be as good as it gets for me. I had been having trouble with Producer, it's why I went to Reaper. Then I remembered I had Studio 8.5. I installed it and it works great. It's so good to be back in a familiar, intuitive workflow. This is just my experience, of course. But I believe if Sonar comes back - which I seriously doubt - lots more folks will flock back to it.

The horse has already left the stable.
 

michael diemer

jyoung60
Somebody better do something fast.  I'm getting to like Reaper more and more each day...

^^ this ^^ -  I hate to say it but I may already past the point of no return... 
 
No you're not. I was using Reaper for the past year and a half, and while I could do what I wanted to do, my workflow was not as fast as Sonar. When this news came down, like many I was devastated. I'm on this forum numerous times each day. I wanted to make sure my latest Sonar version, 8.5, worked right, as that is apparently going to be as good as it gets for me. I had been having trouble with Producer, it's why I went to Reaper. Then I remembered I had Studio 8.5. I installed it and it works great. It's so good to be back in a familiar, intuitive workflow. This is just my experience, of course. But I believe if Sonar comes back - which I seriously doubt - lots more folks will flock back to it.

Different strokes for different folks. I'm glad you've got something that works for your needs! However I was never one of those who clung to 8.5 or resisted the Skylight interface changes. I got along pretty well with the X series and found Platinum to be *way* better for me than the pre-X series ever was. I generally don't have a big problem with adapting to different workflows, in fact I rather like it as it tends to open up new creative possibilities - it makes me think in unfamiliar ways and that makes interesting and unexpected things happen, which is what makes me happy. I'm not running a super-productive commercial studio here (while I'm a professional musician, most of my income is from performance; my production work falls mostly in the marginally-profitable-hobby category), so I don't need a fast efficient familiar workflow; rather, I want an open-ended creative playground where there's always some crazy unexplored possibility to be discovered. Reaper gives me that in spades (especially if I rewire Reason in for extra kicks), while also being more efficient and stable and less buggy than any version of Sonar has ever been. And yes, that includes 8.5... 

sharke
I just don't see it happening. Sonar has a small user base compared to other DAW's, and it seems to be comprised mainly of older users (40+) who use the software because they've used it for a long time and they stuck with it. It wasn't attracting nearly enough fresh new blood, and that's ultimately why Cakewalk went under. Add to that the fact that the program has a number of serious issues that the Bakers themselves never managed to fix, let alone a brand new team diving into unfamiliar code. It would be a HUGE costly risk for them, with no guarantee of a return on their investment, indeed a large chance that they would lose their money. It's sad to say but I really don't think Sonar is going to be adopted. The best we can hope for is that the Bakers start development of a new DAW from the ground up.

I hear you, but all that would have been needed to remedy this is a concerted marketing effort. I work in marketing and that is what would have pushed Sonar over to the masses. As anyone has used both the industry standard ProTools and Sonar can attest, the Cakewalk product is far superior. Marketing is the thing that gets this secret out to the public. People like things that are better than other things. No kidding, right? Nobody would intentionally select an inferior product if a better one were available. Especially if the better product were also the more affordable product. Who says, "Sure, I will give my hard earned money to the lesser product?" There was a marketing failure somewhere!
 

scottcmusic

sharke
I just don't see it happening. Sonar has a small user base compared to other DAW's, and it seems to be comprised mainly of older users (40+) who use the software because they've used it for a long time and they stuck with it. It wasn't attracting nearly enough fresh new blood, and that's ultimately why Cakewalk went under. Add to that the fact that the program has a number of serious issues that the Bakers themselves never managed to fix, let alone a brand new team diving into unfamiliar code. It would be a HUGE costly risk for them, with no guarantee of a return on their investment, indeed a large chance that they would lose their money. It's sad to say but I really don't think Sonar is going to be adopted. The best we can hope for is that the Bakers start development of a new DAW from the ground up.

I hear you, but all that would have been needed to remedy this is a concerted marketing effort. I work in marketing and that is what would have pushed Sonar over to the masses. As anyone has used both the industry standard ProTools and Sonar can attest, the Cakewalk product is far superior. Marketing is the thing that gets this secret out to the public. People like things that are better than other things. No kidding, right? Nobody would intentionally select an inferior product if a better one were available. Especially if the better product were also the more affordable product. Who says, "Sure, I will give my hard earned money to the lesser product?" There was a marketing failure somewhere!
 

 
I doubt whether there is any "concerted marketing effort" which would have sent people flocking, in droves, to either replace their current DAW with Sonar or purchase Sonar as their first DAW. People are choosing DAW's based on what they see their favorite artists or professionals use, what they see in video tutorials, things like that. And they don't see Sonar being used. The best marketing campaign would communicate, at best: "Hey, you know that DAW which you don't see being used by anyone you've ever heard of? Well we think you should buy it anyway!" 
 
I don't even think it's clear that Sonar is superior than Pro Tools. There are aspects of its feature set and its workflow which are arguably superior, of course. But Sonar has a lot of weird bugs and quirks compared to Pro Tools. For instance, regularly destroying plugin settings that were supposed to be saved with the project. If I was using Sonar in a professional context and this started happening, and no fix was forthcoming for the problem, I'd jump ship in an instant because it's such a huge productivity killer. 
 
The young kids who are driving sales of new DAW's had no reason to choose Sonar over other DAW's which either cater better to their modern production style, or which they see being used by their favorite artists. Bearing in mind this was the age group Sonar was a resounding failure with, and bearing in mind that to survive, Cakewalk would have had to have tapped into this market, just what do you think could be said by marketing to convince the kids? You'd have your work cut out. 
 
Like it or not, Sonar has a reputation for being the DAW of choice for mature hobbyists, and I suspect much of its user base fits into that category. There's nothing wrong with that of course, except for the fact that it's evidently not a very profitable demographic. 
 
 

Noel definitely comments in the Cakewalk SONAR Talk group on Facebook. I don't follow all threads in there but have seen his comments a few times. It's nothing particularly earth shattering with regards the Sonar situation, but he has made a few comments. Put it this way, he's not revealing any inner secrets or anything. But I have seen him make comments related to the situation, for example when people were talking about the possibility of Sonar going open source, he commented that it would be hard to set up and probably wouldn't happen. So it's good to hear the input of someone who actually knows what's involved as opposed to the cacophony of people getting excited about Sonar-reviving ideas they haven't properly thought through. 

chuckebaby
The only reason I don't see this happening is other vendors were allowed to post cross-grade offers on Cakewalks own site.
Its over. the majority (guessing 75%) of Cakewalks customers have purchased other software now.
 
If they were going to do something, it would have been within the first few days/first week.
It definitely saddens me but I don't have much hope for a reprise. More so, The trust factor is damaged.
Im sure many would have an issue, a trust issue worrying about being burned again by a company that has disconnected itself from its customers (when they need them most) for over a month now.
 

I don't know, Chuck. While it may be probable that we all tend toward a single DAW in terms of work flow and features, it's not a zero sum game. Some here have argued for a use based on specialization since the demise of Sonar; i.e., Cubase for MIDI, Studio One for song writing, MixBus for mixing/mastering (or whatever in each scenario). 
 
Even if you're correct with your estimation of 75% of users moving on, I have a hunch (granted it's little more than speculation), that many would welcome a new owner for Sonar. And the paradigm of trying to do everything under a "one DAW umbrella" may be changing into something more modular anyway. 
 
This point is in the category of "FWIW": I realized a number of years ago that Americans largely live in the world of "either/or". We seem to be almost intrinsically incapable of entertaining more than two options at a time. This dualism usually has the negative effect of eliminating options that might go a long way to being better overall solutions to complex issues. I know that I've tried to minimize the stultifying ramifications of dualism and it's been a somewhat daunting, yet worthwhile challenge. Again, this is offered in the spirit of "FWIW".