Sonar 6 or Sonar 8

I have been a professional musician for a long time but the learning curve of home recording has kept me from trying it.I've been putting it off forever. But I finally want to learn how to record my own songs.
I know it is 2015 but this is what I have:
I still use XP and I don't want to upgrade because I have so many programs that work for me perfectly in XP.
I currently have Sonar 6.2 installed on my computer .Everything is working. I also just bought a DVD for Sonar 8 that came with a tutorial DVD, which I could install and update to 8.3.
I have a presonus audiobox 22vsl interface and a ketron midi module. I probably wouldn't use softsyths, but drumloops yes.
I have the book Sonar Power 6 and a bunch of video tutorials for Sonar 6. That would be very helpful to learn how to use Sonar 6
Other than the tutorial DVD I don't have much for Sonar 8. But I suppose I could buy another Sonar Power book for that.
I posted about upgrading from 6 to 8 a while ago and got some really good information already, but I have one more question.
What might be the main reason why I should go with Sonar 8 over Sonar 6. Is there a particular feature that Sonar 8 has that would make it worthwhile to switch? Workflow, Memory use, better features to handle loops, Program stability?
 
 

8-8-Eight!!
 
Rox

i was rocking 8.5 until Platinum almost came out, i had bought X1 but never really used it, i was comfortable in 8.5. I had eventually upgraded to X3 and loved it then few months later Platinum came out lol. Love platinum as well. But my time with soanr 8 and 8.5 was very good. Stable program, quality effects/plugins, very powerful especially considering the years it came from.

I used to be (justifiably) terrified of upgrading Windows, but when I upgraded to Win 7 pro 64, all of my old Win XP 32 stuff ran just fine on it. In fact, it was pretty much a problem-free upgrade. I may have had to right click on an executable or two and set it to run in Win XP compatibility mode, but that was it. Most everything was automagical.
 
But you have to go with Pro, as Home is missing many of the compatibility options.

My first Sonar version was 6.2.1 and I was blown away with it at the time.
 
Sure, compared to Splat it lacks a bit but this doesn't stop you from making GREAT songs in 6.2.1.
 
If you can't, it's not the software.
 
8.3 built on the foundations laid by 6 & 7 but from memory, I think the original version 8 had "issues"
Then of course we had 8.5, which I ran on an XP machine with 4Gb of RAM.

Really what you are doing is working in a very slow environment. I still have 2 computers running XP and they are just sooooo sloooowww compaired to a W8.1 with a SSD drive. I can go make coffee while my XP laptop boots up and settles down.
W8.1 SSD is like less than 40 seconds and Sonar is ready to go. Every action is instant. Rendering audio is super fast. You really notice this when using Wave Lab. 
If you have time on your hands then more power to you, but I get little enouh time for music and I don't wish to waste it while Sonar takes 3 minutes to export a song. 
Computers are very reasonable in cost compaired to other audio equipment. And the new versions of Sonar are just way ahead of 8.5 now. I still have 8.5 on my XP laptop, I loved 8.5 ( 6 is no comparison)  so I'm not just trying to sell you on Platinum or Professional. But the speed and workflow is just way way better if you deside to step up to the plate.  
You can use your registered copy of 8.5 to upgrade at a very resonable price. For me it was $99 for X3 Studio, then another $99 for Professional and now $149 to go all the way to the flagship of Sonar all nice and new and up to date. 
If you register your copy they will soon send you offers.  
 
 

I have a new presonus 22vsl audio interface because my old tascam US 428 was not working properly anymore.
So when I installed Sonar 8 and I couldn't get the midi to work I was thinking it was either the new interface or the Sonar 8 software. I have Band In A Box and that was not working either so I blamed it on Presonus. I called Presonus and they absolutely stonewalled me because I still use XP. The are really a terrible company, I have never encountered "customer service" that was less helpful. So  when i could not get any help from them I reinstalled my Tascam and that's when I figured out that the problem all along was my Ketron SD2 midi module. It is made in Italy and it really sounded great but not nomore. It's dead.I guess the Italians are good at making stuff that is really cool but not always dependable. Oh Well...
So now I have my old trusty Edirol SD 80 Studio Canvas hooked up and everything works. It just doesn't sound quite as good.
Currently I have Sonar 6.2 and Sonar 8.3 installed on my laptop. I don't know if there is a way to uninstall Sonar 6 now. 6 and 8 are both in the Cakewalk folder. The 6 folder is much larger with may more files than Sonar 8. So I'm afraid that I would get rid of stuff that I might want if I uninstalled Sonar 6 now.
I have a 500 GIG drive on my laptop so I'm not hurting for storage. I guess there's no harm in keeping both programs installed.
But I'm committed to learning how to use Sonar 8 and I'm going to order that Sonar Power book for it.

The learning curve is very, very steep.
I have recorded live bands for years, landed in a workflow comfort zone, and am now beginning to introduce drum synths and bass guitar plugs - and the learning curve begins again. Sonar is so, so deep. Even the older versions.
 
FWIW, I have 8.5 installed on an  32-bit Atom-based laptop which I use to record bands at their practice rooms (2x Tascam interfaces, US-1641 and US-1800) and record 28 tracks simultaneously with no hitches.
For mixdown and mastering I move the tracks to a Win7 64x machine with Sonar X3e.

I don't know much about this plugin stuff yet. I have the  sound modules because I was thinking that a soft synth would bog down my computer too much. Which is also why i bought the AudioBox 22VSLinterface . It has onboard effects that I can use for monitoring and I can also record with those effects. Probably good for people who still use older computers with XP. Too bad that Presonus absolutely refuses to even talk to XP users.
But I'm starting too look at maybe getting a used Thinkpad with Windows 7. They are much cheaper than I had thought. But first I'm going to see what I can do with my current setup.

Oh well, I was under the impression that the effects are in the box and that that will free up resources on the computer. I guess I was wrong. Still nice to be able to record without having it totally dry

Cactus Music
YOu should really dig into what you can do with soft synths. Those sound modules you mention can  both  be out done by the TTS-1 which is built in and so easy to use. 
There are many free VST's from sites like KVR. 
And as I said for $30 you could get an upgrade from 6 or 8.5. to Artist. If you like it then there will always be more upgrades offered down the road as you see fit. 
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/SonarArtUpAS
 
You keep all your old version installed and Artist will use the VST's that came with those too. 
If your using a cracked version then I understand your reluctance to purchase. 

I did not cruise through all the posts in this thread in detail, but if he is indeed continuing to run with whatever will work on XP, anything beyond X2a (I believe that is the version) REQUIRES a minimum Windows version of 7 - WITH Service Pack 1.  This is due to internal dependencies in Sonar that rely on Windows code that did not exist prior to Service Pack 1 for Windows 7.  This means that he cannot run any flavor of Sonar past X2a.
 
Bob Bone