I for one am glad for this post. I've never been able to convince myself that upgrading from 853 will be worth it. I would like to, but for me, the workflow in 853 is perfect. I compose for orchestra, and I need to see that long track view list of instruments. the skylight interface appears to have done away with that. I can see that for most, it's probably an improvement. But there are a few of us who prefer the "old ways."

Travis - I went to your website and listened to some of your music, and based on what I heard I would tell you that you can stick to Sonar 8.5. You're right: you don't need the extra content that was added in the "X" series or in the new version released this year. Most of the users on this forum have found X3e to be super stable, as is the 2015 release, and while that stability is probably all you need to do the work you're doing, those versions do have a bunch of "stuff," as well as a UI you don't like, so why not go back to Sonar 8.5.3 and make yourself happy? Or even switch to something like Reaper, which is very affordable and doesn't come with much "stuff" at all?
 
On a personal note, I was the owner of a 2-inch tape-based 16-track studio in Hollywood back in the day. I also visited many of the studios in LA, and I knew a lot of other owners, and I can tell you that among the pros there was nobody saying they did not want to try out the next piece of technology, no matter what it was. And the creative ones often would find a way that nobody else had thought of to put that new technology to use in ways that changed the business. The only reason any of us did not "upgrade" every month was money. The big guys who had the bucks were constantly acquiring new gear and using it to make great sounds. So now that we have a hundred times more power than even the fanciest studios in the 70s, and for only a few hundred dollars, I think you and I are really lucky to be living and working in this digital era. I look forward to learning the new stuff and using it to make music. I keep an open mind about the changes that Cakewalk puts into the program periodically, and who knows? I may do something really great with it some day.

Stay with whatever version makes you happy. No one makes you upgrade. It's voluntary.

But there's obviously lots of folks who have upgraded and are making good music with the latest version and prefer it to 8.5.3

It took me ages to like the Skylight interface, but once I stopped going back and forth between the X series and 8.53 I found the benefits. I also relaised that the Sonar that was 8.5 was not going to be enhanced any further and if I wanted new features there was only one way.

Every now and again I open 8.53 for an old project and I gotta say it's an ugly crowded mess where things are just so difficult to find.

MusicforMovies
I've been using Cakewalk since the Twelve-Tone PC; Midi only days; not too happy with the subscription fee thing; will go the one time fee I suppose; would really like to see some better editing capability in the piano roll department along the lines of Cubase.  For some reason I don't mind paying a sub fee for Netflix, but I much prefer an upgrade every several years and one time fee versus the sub model for work software.   Not very happy, but I'll try the new version.

The recurring fee *only* applies if you choose to go month to month. As has been explained innumerable times if you pay the annual price there is zero difference from buying it outright and you permanently own the software so you can choose to update after many years just as before.  Here is a link to an excellent review on SONAR that features an interview with Jimmy Landry who answers several questions about membership.
SONAR has tons of editing enhancements in the piano roll so its not clear what you find missing. There is also a brand new pattern tool.
 
Regarding people upgrading from the pre X1 days, yes the UI is different so for some folks it might be a bit of a learning curve. However there is no question that in terms of stability and depth SONAR is light years ahead of 8.5. There must be thousands of issues present in 8.5 that have since been resolved! The UI in 8.5 is not adaptive and it had a great deal of redundancy and clutter making it very difficult for new users to learn quickly. 

Perhaps this will explain the "OP" perspective:
 
My music making is very basic (which Larry Jones probably noticed).  I keep the piano roll on the left monitor and the track view on the right monitor.  I pick some [virtual] instruments in Kontakt or Dimension, and then improvise some ideas, copy-and-paste the ones I like, and occasionally add vocals, or a tiny bit of guitar.  Usually my songs end up being 100% soft synth.
 
I like to work quickly, fixing my sloppy performances while the song is playing back.  So, being able to quickly adjust note positions, volumes, and durations "on the fly" is critical to me.  This is where X1/2/3 has been aggravating me.  I hate having to ctrl-right click in order to edit note properties.  Why can't I just right click, like in the older version of Sonar?  And why do I have to shift-drag in order to change selected notes' volumes?  Why can't I just drag?  And how about setting note offsets?  Why do I have to open the inspector to edit some track properties?  In the old days we didn't. And why has it become harder to use volume envelopes?  I liked them the old way, and wish I could force Sonar to behave that way again.  But I can't.  It's this lack of customizability which aggravates me.
 
And whatever happened to CAL?  I still use CAL scripts all the time, but CAL support has dwindled rather than improved.  I would love it if Cakewalk made it easy to create CAL scripts which help us "fix" our "usual" mistakes in real time.  I'm a programmer, so CAL and Studioware and those other "geeky" tools are part of what attracted me to Cakewalk/Sonar in the old days (as opposed to the more Apple-based products).  But nowadays Cakewalk seems to aim more at the "new gen" of computer users, the ones who don't want to program their own interfaces.  I can understand that we geeks represent a decreasing market share, but I wish Cakewalk would at least "throw us a bone" every now and then by giving us tools to customize Sonar the way we want.
 
Sorry if my geeky preferences come across as "idiotic" or "stupid" or "ignorant" or " lazy" or "baloney" (ahem) but
I really can't help that's I'm more of a nerdy type than an "artsy" type (as Larry probably noticed too).  My musical motto is, after all, "make lots of music, at least some of it good".  I like to make music because the act of making music is fun for me.  And, occasionally, I get lucky and create a bit of music that I think is fun to listen to later.  But it's the process which is the fun part, not necessarily the end result.  Perhaps this is the definition of a hobbyist?
What I want is a sequencer which is super-easy and efficient to use, and then a really cool sound bank.  Kontakt is great, and Dimension Pro is nice for a change.  I don't care about making my own sounds, and I hate the process of mixing and mastering (which Larry probably noticed) so I'm not into a ton of subtle effects or buses or gizmos that take me away from the "fun" part, which is improvising and stitching sections of music together.  I want to spend more time banging on the keyboard, not less.
 
So, if the new version of Sonar gives me more virtual instruments to play with, then great.  And if the pattern tool makes it easier to create looping beats, then great (although cut-and-paste is pretty darn easy!).  But if the bulk of time with the new version is spent configuring and correcting it (and not in a creative, CAL-like way, but in an annoying, reactive, autoexec.bat-like way) then no, no, no. 

I think the problem is more do with the development outweighs things that can be improved. However like any DAW, they are left in as they are because they work as is or there is no demand from users for development improvement. Maybe CAL can be used to create seemingly timely project templates on the fly; kind of like plug-in chains work. I was under the impression CAL had some rudimentary power however not to modify the environment to your every will though.
 
One thing that could maybe added would be a more graphical MIDI learn process, so your controllers are visible on a virtual keyboard interface . That's all I have at the moment as it's hard to concentrate listening to The Prodigy.

I ended up getting the new Sonar a few months ago, and have been using it exclusively. 
 
Observations so far:
 
1) It doesn't add anything that I use regularly.  In fact, I don't think I've used any of its new features in actual songs.

2) It hasn't fixed any of the bugs (or "quirks") that I was experiencing with older versions.
 
3) It has introduced new bugs (such as the piano roll row colors getting off), and seems even "fiddlier" to use at times, particularly when dealing with real-time editing in the piano roll (which I do all the time).  It also has crashed far more often than X3 ever did.
 
Therefore, to anybody on the fence, I recommend waiting until Cakewalk has made a noticeable (and successful) effort to fix bugs rather than add new, rarely-used features.  Whatever "little" bug fixes they're releasing each month clearly aren't cutting it.  So, from my experience, upgrading has been a waste of money and time. :(

tenfoot
Sorry to hear you are not happy with the latest Sonar, but I dont think people should be about off trying it as your experience is not neccesarily typical. What you describe as 'rarely used features' are for me some of the best innovations Cakewalk have introduced in a long time (patch points, aux tracks, drum replacer, auto tempo mapping etc).

 
To be fair, the OP did say at the beginning that he does primarily MIDI and soft synths, where things haven't changed all that much. The dramatic changes - Melodyne, ARA, patch points, Drum Replacer, VocalSync, ProChannel, QuadCurve EQ, Speed Comping, Convolution Reverb, Upsampling, improved Import/Export, DSD, Mix Recall, Synth Recording, etc. are more audio-oriented.
 

It is also very stable, so if you are having crash issues it might be time for some system trouble shooting!

 
Here I agree with you 100%, I can go months without a crash or freeze. That never happened pre-Platinum. But according to his sig he's using the pre-Gibson X1d and X2, which were not exactly known for extreme stability.
 

Anderton

tenfoot
Sorry to hear you are not happy with the latest Sonar, but I dont think people should be about off trying it as your experience is not neccesarily typical. What you describe as 'rarely used features' are for me some of the best innovations Cakewalk have introduced in a long time (patch points, aux tracks, drum replacer, auto tempo mapping etc).

 
To be fair, the OP did say at the beginning that he does primarily MIDI and soft synths, where things haven't changed all that much. The dramatic changes - Melodyne, ARA, patch points, Drum Replacer, VocalSync, ProChannel, QuadCurve EQ, Speed Comping, Convolution Reverb, Upsampling, improved Import/Export, DSD, Mix Recall, Synth Recording, etc. are more audio-oriented.
 

It is also very stable, so if you are having crash issues it might be time for some system trouble shooting!

 
Here I agree with you 100%, I can go months without a crash or freeze. That never happened pre-Platinum. But according to his sig he's using the pre-Gibson X1d and X2, which were not exactly known for extreme stability.
 

Fair call - I didn't realise tripecac was referring to midi only features. Improvements there have been less than stellar. Despite the sig he does state that he is using the new Sonar excusively now though.

You can try the full version with no limitations for 90 days and experience it for yourself:
 
https://www.cakewalk.com/SONAR-Platinum-Extended-Trial

Andrew, did you even read my previous post?  I purchased Sonar Platinum back in January.
 
I think Andrew's post is indicative of the problem with Cakewalk at the moment.  Ever since X1, the push is always sales, sales, sales, without ever actually addressing the bugs.
 
So, to those of you on the fence who are concerned about MIDI-based reliability, it looks like Sonar will continue to collect bugs and glitches, rather than shed them.  I recommend waiting until there is evidence on the forum that Cakewalk has taken steps to shift its focus back to customer satisfaction.  IMO the Cakewalk staff should keep the marketing off the forum and stop wasting our time, and theirs, with posts like the one you just witnessed from Andrew.
 
"Hey, that's a bit harsh, Tripecac.  Andrew was just trying to help."
 
By acting like a marketing bot?

Stability would have to be the key for me. I currently have the Producer demo, but have not used it for a month or so. I was also demo-ing Reaper at the time, trying to decide which to buy. I'm now leaning toward Reaper, because they are working on a notation editor that looks like it will be superior to Sonar's. 8.5.3 had not crashed for me in a long time, until last night. but that is probably because of the Vienna Special Edition synth, which I just added back in to my current project. I was trying to do without it, but the sounds are too good. But it causes me a lot of issues, it just doesn't play well with 8.5.3. Although I'm getting a handle on how to deal with that. Now, this is something that might not happen in Sonar Pro (I can't tell because I'm demo-ing it on my old computer, where I don't have Vienna installed). Reaper is supposed to be very stable. I'm another midi only guy, with a very simple workflow. Probably any DAW with notation would work for me, once I learned it. When Reaper with notation is officially released, there's a good chance I'll buy it. If I don't like it, I still have 8.5. and could always upgrade to Producer (I don't need all the bells and whistles of Platinum). 

Tripecac
I think Andrew's post is indicative of the problem with Cakewalk at the moment.  Ever since X1, the push is always sales, sales, sales, without ever actually addressing the bugs.

 
"Without ever actually addressing the bugs" has no basis in fact. Go back over the previous eZines and count the number of fixes. There have also been multiple optimizations, and all the bugs fixed between X3 and SONAR 2015.
 

So, to those of you on the fence who are concerned about MIDI-based reliability, it looks like Sonar will continue to collect bugs and glitches, rather than shed them.

 
Apparently some users are perfectly capable of creating complex, vibrant orchestral works in SONAR using MIDI and the Staff View. Click here, then scroll down to page 15. (Note that this was written by someone who left SONAR in search of a better program, but ended up returning after the other programs didn't pan out to his satisfaction.)

Am I the only one that likes all the "stuff"?? The stuff that comes with Sonar is AWESOME. I love all the geegaws and doodads that ship with Sonar, because it gives me everything I need to create, mix and even master my music. It was the stuff that ships with Sonar that caught and held my eye. It was just about the only DAW at the time that had virtually everything you needed to go from conception to master right in the box. Still does if you don't mind a virtual box.
 
Yeah, I love the writing and playing part, but I also love it when something I created comes out sounding like a pro did it. Ha. Like that happens all the time! I'll tell you this, whatever issues I have creating pro-quality music have absolutely nothing to do with the software. 
 
I also own 8.53 (and earlier versions) but I'll switch to Reaper before I go back to 8.5.3. Oh, and did you see the previews that Andrew posted about the new skinnable UI that they're working on?