Product selection advice needed. . .

Well, X3 is a discontinued product, so you can't upgrade to it. Their latest program is Platinum, in several different levels, Artist being the least expensive and with fewer VST effects and instruments. 
MC 7 is Cakewalk's entry-level DAW. It's certainly capable of producing great recordings, but has fewer effects and instruments than Artist. Plus it has limits on the number of tracks and simultaneous effects and instruments than the Platinum series.
It used to be limited to only 2 inputs, but I think that has been changed.
I think you mean Magix Music Maker.
For more info on the features and capabilities of the various Platinum versions, post your questions in the SONAR forum.
And welcome to the forum.

jimfogle
 Music Creator has an onscreen virtual midi controller while Sonar does not.

It was added to SONAR in March 2015

Chuck ,
 
Do you have either of these programs yet ? 
 
Kenny

Hello Chuck , 
 
I asked you what you had because I use Cakewalk and Magix products primarily for the music that I do …
Recently  just pulled Music Maker 2014 Premium of my machine because I need to clear some room on my C Drive ..
Still use a lot of Magix software , Samplitude Pro X2 , and all the Samplitude Music Studios Versions  32 bit and 64 bit ( 2014 2015)
On the Cakewalk side of things I have and use SONAR X3 PE , Music Creator 6 and P5 on my Windows machine ….
 
As far as where I'm at ,
 
I don't pick sides or do a "this VS's that " when it comes to what I think somebody else should use ….
 
FWIW , I happened to like Music Maker a lot , it has some really nice synths and plugs ….
The Vandal SE is very good if you happen to play guitar …also a lot of the plugs they give you are some of the same plugs that are in the higher priced versions of Magix products ….very good features for the price point …my biggest gripe was it had to be authorized online once a month …..
 
With Music Creator you also get a lot of really cool plugs and synths ….
You will get everything you need to do music and get started with the essential tools on a solid platform . 
If you happen to be using a 64 bit version of Windows you will also have that base covered ….MC 7 64 bit …
IMHO, Cakewalk does give out a lot of really great stuff for tools ..even though i have SONAR I still use a lot of the instruments and plugs that are common to SONAR and Music Creator .
 
There are two things that I can tell you right off the bat that you may need to consider ….
on the plus side for Music Creator you can use many of the synths and plugs in other DAW's ..that is something that Music Maker does not do unless you buy those as a separate purchase …even the plugs I have in Samplitude Pro X2 are locked to the program ……
The other thing is Magix programs are kind of a tough nut to crack as far as learning all the advanced features 
Now they do include some advanced features even in Music Maker …the thing is you really have to study the manual and try to find what you can online VIA u tube …even then it involves a lot of searching around ….
 
Cakewalk on the other hand has a lot of available learning resources that are pretty much an open book …
You have the people here on the forums who are very helpful and open to helping you out during every step of the way …
then you have a ton of videos for SONAR here and on u tube , also Groove 3 has the Music Creator Video …
I would recomend picking that one up as a download purchase if you decide to give Music Creator a go …
Most of what ever you can learn for Music creator can be transferred to SONAR and truthfully it was the Music Creator video I bought that helped me learn my way around SONAR X3 a little …before X3 I was on SONAR 6PE 
Incidentally with Music Creator you can probably follow along and learn some of the advanced tips and lessons that apply to SONAR….Maybe not everything , due to specific plugs or features but certainly enough to get pretty deep into what can be done .
 
FWIW #2 , every song I have ever done has involved using both Cakewalk and Magix DAW's for various elements of the song , so I'm a fan of both companies ….
 
Now if you happen to want my absolute honest opinion , here's what I would tell you to do ….
 
Pick up Music Creator and put yourself back on the fast track of doing music . This will also put you in a sweet position for upgrading to a higher version of SONAR …. Cakewalks upgrade policy is very direct and they give their customers a lot of flexible options as far as upgrade pricing …..
 
Then you can mess around with the Music Maker demo and see how far you get .
If you want to get a good feel of what Magix  has to offer download Samplitude Pro X Silver DAW..
Pro X Silver is a cut down but fully functional lite version of Samplitude and it Smokes Music Maker …
I used it as my audio editor for a couple of years before I upgraded to Pro X 2 
You get like 8 tracks and once you register it, it is yours …for FREE 
http://pro.magix.com/en/samplitude/miditech-english.730.html 
 
Good luck on what ever you decide to do …
 
BTW , thanks for giving a listen to some of my tunes  
 
 
 
Kenny