Sonar Platinum has landed in Australia - my place

A bit of a story first.

Thought I had missed out on the random lottery to get a pre-release copy so ordered from Sweetwater. Just finalised the order then this morning I get the offer from Cakewalk.
Back to Sweetwater, cancel my. order and start getting my Cakewalk pre-release.

Let me start by saying I opted for the monthly as the exchange rate that Clevrbridge uses makes USD$149 = AUD$195 as opposed to real currency exchange where it = AUD$183. Only $12 but more than enough to top for monthly payment which amount to AUD$19.95/month via PayPal.

So it didn't start off feeling warm and fuzzy but anyway let's get to the download.
Recieved an email link within minutes which I clicked. As I already had Cakewalk Command Centre installed it opened immediately and I didn't have to enter any numbers or anything for download, registration or activation - all taken care of behind the scenes.

I only downloaded Sonar Platinum and Craig's new fx chains.

I didn't see a download or download and install selection so anything I selected just downloaded and installed. C3 also doesn't see what of the available components you already have installed previously so I guess that if it can't see that it won't be able to tell me when there's an update for that item either. It seems I would have to reinstall all my existing Cakewalk plugins and synths to give it the necessary histroy. You can select a single item to install but it's not like a bunch of check boxes that you can tick. It wants to install each individual component as its selected which I found a real pain.
On running Sonar Platinum (SP) the first time there was no check to see if I wanted settings from previous versions so I had to re assign folder locations all over again. As to plugins even though I had selected to replace VST2 with 3 and to only choose VST3 when both existed but it installed every thing and I ended up with over 1600 plugins (yes I have Waves Mercury). A little bit of house keeping there was needed to set it all up to my liking. Also didn't pick up my recent projects files which was another annoyance.

Finally the program. Wow it looks just like X3 except not my X3 (I have a really nice color selection through Duckbar) but just your plain grey Sonar X3. Duckbar she no work. Panup are you listening my friend. Anyway let's get on with it.

I've always been a console user so first stop the new expanding FX and Send bins. Excellent very smooth.

The new Control Bar is also excellent it is now fully customisable and with even more modules it's just as well.

The audio engine seems smoother. While running a 40 audio track project I had no glitches when manipulating various plugins by inserting and deleting as many and as quickly as I could. Only glitches I did hear was when there was some look ahead involved with the plugin. So still no absolute gap free audio but I think a little better than X3.

The mix scene function is by far my favourite thing so far. In just a few minutes I was able to take the above 40 track project and creat a varity of mixes involving as many of the variable parameters as allowed. ABSOLUTLEY AWESOME FEATURE.

Vocal sync. I pushed a backing vocal track ahead by about 50 ms and had no problem bringing it back to sync. Very smooth, intuitive to use and no glitches or changes in pitch, speed or wobble in the effects vocal after sync.

My heads hurting now and I still have to get not the AudioSnap improvements but every menu I go to there's a little change here or there.

If I could only use 2 words to describe my actual Sonar experience actually using Sonar, it would Stable and Mature.

Looking forward to reporting more in days to come. This has just been a quick hit out. I want to be a little more organised as I go forward.

If you have questions please post them in this thread and I'll do my best to answer them. Remember it'll only be a few days before you get your own copies.

The one question I have would be to the bakers. Should I reinstall the current plugin release or will any and all from X3 be OK? I've heard that the plugins are recompiled for release with a new version and I don't know whether there have been any fixes since X3.

Thanks for the update! :)