There is a paid upgrade available from Studio to Producer version. Has always been the case.

So what will the next Sonar have that Sonar 8 doesn't have? I hope the upgrade will be worth the money! I didn't think version 8 Studio was much of a difference than version 7 studio!

Hi (CW-) folks!

Is this offer still valid? I am asking becouse not too long (just a few days, end of july)ago, i received a "LAST CHANCE: Upgrade to SONAR 8 today
& get the next SONAR upgrade free + free Shipping! - " email... but the links to the "offer page" do still open.

I live in Sweden/Europe

cheers
/Bengt

Thanx Steve! That made it all clear. Maybe it was the "free shipping" part that ended july 31.

I will jump on this offer.

Cheers!

digital village and dolphin are shipping for less, I'd say go with them

UK forumites - buy it in the USA. I did.

dysamoria


this makes no sense at all to me. i have no idea what Cakewalk are saying. at all.

If you upgrade to SONAR 8 you will get the next upgrade version for free.

Does it make sense?

Sounds like Cakewalk needs some more money! They want us to pay one way or another! That's their history! Competition is stiff! I want more improvements before I spend some more money! There's quirks in Sonar 8 that need to be ironed out! Fix 8 first!

Brandon Ryan [Cakewalk
]

dysamoria


this makes no sense at all to me. i have no idea what Cakewalk are saying. at all.

If you upgrade to SONAR 8 you will get the next upgrade version for free.

Does it make sense?

If you upgrade to SONAR 8 you will get the next upgrade version for free. Does it make sense?

---

Yes it does make sense - However, I think the place we are trying to get to is clarity. I am curious, is it 8.5 or 9? Much as been written about that very point in these last 6 forum pages. If Cakewalk doesn't want to say right now, then that's cool, not a biggie.

... well, 8.5 is considered another version.

TortoiseStudio


I'll add my voice - DO NOT announce new features via Twitter in dribbles and drips.   It's a HORRIBLE, worthless, marketing ploy. What value does it have? 
Well it might get people to follow you on Twitter... to what purpose? 
What value is it to me, your customer? for me the answer is clearly NONE. 
What value to Cakewalk?      I'll argue that it has negative value to Cakewalk.

What is the negative impact on Cakewalk of this twitter initiative?  
I will not make a decision to order (or pre-order) the upgrade until I have ALL of the information about the upgrade.  So you delay revenue from me and others like me.  In the past have more often than not decided on pre-ordering the next release based on the full, early disclosure of the next release details. 

Is delaying my decision bad?   Yes, every marketing person worth their pay will tell you that you NEVER want to delay a customer's purchase decision if you can avoid it.   If I delay this decision:
- I might decide to spend my money on something else.  
- I might decide to read some blogs and forum entries after the release and be convinced by users who bought the upgrade that it really wasn't worth the price. This influence is much less impactful if those bloggers and posters haven't touched the software yet and are only commenting on their feelings about the pre-release feature announcement.
- I might be swayed by a competitor to switch, or to buy their upgrade.  I'm also an Ableton Live user and their recent upgrade looks pretty good to me too.

This is not a game, it's a business.  I'm not a child, I'm a professional.  Teasing me just upsets me.   Don't talk to me, your customer as if I'm a child.  Your customers are serious about the business of making music with your products.   Treat them seriously and as professionals if you want Cakewalk to be taken seriously and seen as professional. 

If you want to offer specials, and discounts on Twitter or other social networking sites, great.   But sharing technical information in a forum like Twitter is totally misunderstanding your customers and the value of twitter - of which I and many, many others find very little.  Twitter is the hot little web toy that marketing desperately wants to prove they understand how to leverage.  In this case, Cakewalk marketing is wrong.

Regards,
Dave W

Very well put Dave - your arguments are sound and I agree with every word.
 
This does seem like a very unprofessional modus operandi for a company that delivers professional products.
 
I'll look at the full list of new stuff once it's published and probably get some feedback from the profressionals in here before I decide what to do.
 
Twitter for gods sake - has Cakewalk really come to this?

Marketing [Cakewalk]

Dear Cakewalk Customers,

I’d like to apologize for the confusion that we caused with the upgrade offer that we sent last week before the long holiday weekend. While it’s upsetting to me to see the confusion we caused with our wording, it is nice to know that you do in fact actually read the emails that we send out :). I’d like to clear some of this up.

The next update to SONAR is an upgrade and its coming later this year. This will be a major update to the application with significant new features added to it. This will be a paid upgrade for existing customers. If you already have SONAR 8 or 8.3 Producer, rather than the usual $179 that you are accustomed to paying, the cost for these new features will be $99.

As a convenience to existing 8.0 or 8.3 customers we will be making this upgrade available as a download. That way you will not have to wait for your order to ship and you will be able to start using these new features almost immediately. This is a convenience that has been requested by our customers and we have upgraded our systems to accommodate the high volumes of large downloads that will result when we issue this upgrade to SONAR. If you prefer to get your upgrade on DVD, it will be made available for you at an additional cost.

The current promotions that we are running are as follows:

• If you upgrade to SONAR 8 starting July 1st you will get a download of this next paid upgrade to SONAR for free.
• If you are a new customer who buys SONAR 8 at retail starting July 1st, you are entitled to a $100 rebate, plus you will get a download of this next paid upgrade to SONAR for free. [EDIT: the $100 rebate is US retail stores only, there are many offers on SONAR 8 going on outside the US but you will need to check with your retailers for specific details. The free upgrade however, is being honored worldwide.]
• In addition, anyone who has purchased the complete SONAR V-Studio 700, starting with the product’s release in January, will be eligible for the free download.
• All of these customers can also get the upgrade on DVD for an additional charge.

As far as what the upgrade will be called, exactly when it will be available, and what features it will include, the only thing I can definitively tell you today is that full version of Rapture will not be included as part of this upgrade. For the rest, you can speculate all you want, but you’ll need to wait for our official announcement to get the full scoop.

Hope this clears some of the confusion up.

Best regards,

Carl Jacobson
Vice President of Marketing

 
 
Just read the above which confirms it is an uprgade...."The next update to SONAR is an upgrade and its coming later this year".
 
However the statement "As far as what the upgrade will be called, exactly when it will be available, and what features it will include, the only thing I can definitively tell you today is that full version of Rapture will not be included as part of this upgrade".....has me baffled? So what of the "feature rich update" as listed by Kate are they not included in this upgrade?
 
So you don't know if you are going to get the new 'non-linear arranging' feature or any of the other new features that have been touted (see below)....you may get some but not others?
 
Basically what this says to me is buy S8 now and you'll get entered into a lucky dip! Or is this just incompetence...surely the VP of marketing should know that a statement has been released listing features that are to be in the next upgrade.
 
Totally confused!! WTF is the point of this upgrade if it's got nothing in it! if they don't know what's going to be in it why not wait until it released instead of wasting everybody's time!!
  
I'm finished with this, I'm waiting til I see something real this is ****!   

• The next version of SONAR Producer will offer non-linear arranging of audio & MIDI with a new cell-based view
• The next version of SONAR Producer will allow you to run 32-bit plug-ins in 64-bit OSes, now accessing up to 128GB RAM
• The next version of SONAR will now let you work with REX loops natively in the track & other views (x86 version only)
• The next version of SONAR Producer will make it easier to create drum tracks with a new instrument
• The next version of SONAR will make your drum tracks sound totally pro with kits from Steven Slate & Ocean Way
• The next version of SONAR will make creating submixes even easier with an updated Insert Send Assistant
• The next version of SONAR will help you create even better step sequenced tracks with the best capabilites of any DAW
• The next version of SONAR's probability feature will keep your step sequenced patterns sounding fresh
• The next version of SONAR will allow you to swap audio & MIDI devices without restarting SONAR
• The next version of SONAR will run more efficiently on your PC when recording audio & looping
• The next version of SONAR Producer will give you superior tones for drum & percussion with a new 7-stage processor

Audiomax

Marketing [Cakewalk]

Dear Cakewalk Customers,

I’d like to apologize for the confusion that we caused with the upgrade offer that we sent last week before the long holiday weekend. While it’s upsetting to me to see the confusion we caused with our wording, it is nice to know that you do in fact actually read the emails that we send out :). I’d like to clear some of this up.

The next update to SONAR is an upgrade and its coming later this year. This will be a major update to the application with significant new features added to it. This will be a paid upgrade for existing customers. If you already have SONAR 8 or 8.3 Producer, rather than the usual $179 that you are accustomed to paying, the cost for these new features will be $99.

As a convenience to existing 8.0 or 8.3 customers we will be making this upgrade available as a download. That way you will not have to wait for your order to ship and you will be able to start using these new features almost immediately. This is a convenience that has been requested by our customers and we have upgraded our systems to accommodate the high volumes of large downloads that will result when we issue this upgrade to SONAR. If you prefer to get your upgrade on DVD, it will be made available for you at an additional cost.

The current promotions that we are running are as follows:

• If you upgrade to SONAR 8 starting July 1st you will get a download of this next paid upgrade to SONAR for free.
• If you are a new customer who buys SONAR 8 at retail starting July 1st, you are entitled to a $100 rebate, plus you will get a download of this next paid upgrade to SONAR for free. [EDIT: the $100 rebate is US retail stores only, there are many offers on SONAR 8 going on outside the US but you will need to check with your retailers for specific details. The free upgrade however, is being honored worldwide.]
• In addition, anyone who has purchased the complete SONAR V-Studio 700, starting with the product’s release in January, will be eligible for the free download.
• All of these customers can also get the upgrade on DVD for an additional charge.

As far as what the upgrade will be called, exactly when it will be available, and what features it will include, the only thing I can definitively tell you today is that full version of Rapture will not be included as part of this upgrade. For the rest, you can speculate all you want, but you’ll need to wait for our official announcement to get the full scoop.

Hope this clears some of the confusion up.

Best regards,

Carl Jacobson
Vice President of Marketing

 
 
Just read the above which confirms it is an uprgade...."The next update to SONAR is an upgrade and its coming later this year".
 
However the statement "As far as what the upgrade will be called, exactly when it will be available, and what features it will include, the only thing I can definitively tell you today is that full version of Rapture will not be included as part of this upgrade".....has me baffled? So what of the "feature rich update" as listed by Kate are they not included in this upgrade?
 
So you don't know if you are going to get the new 'non-linear arranging' feature or any of the other new features that have been touted (see below)....you may get some but not others?
 
Basically what this says to me is buy S8 now and you'll get entered into a lucky dip! Or is this just incompetence...surely the VP of marketing should know that a statement has been released listing features that are to be in the next upgrade.
 
Totally confused!! WTF is the point of this upgrade if it's got nothing in it! if they don't know what's going to be in it why not wait until it released instead of wasting everybody's time!!
  
I'm finished with this, I'm waiting til I see something real this is ****!   

• The next version of SONAR Producer will offer non-linear arranging of audio & MIDI with a new cell-based view
• The next version of SONAR Producer will allow you to run 32-bit plug-ins in 64-bit OSes, now accessing up to 128GB RAM
• The next version of SONAR will now let you work with REX loops natively in the track & other views (x86 version only)
• The next version of SONAR Producer will make it easier to create drum tracks with a new instrument
• The next version of SONAR will make your drum tracks sound totally pro with kits from Steven Slate & Ocean Way
• The next version of SONAR will make creating submixes even easier with an updated Insert Send Assistant
• The next version of SONAR will help you create even better step sequenced tracks with the best capabilites of any DAW
• The next version of SONAR's probability feature will keep your step sequenced patterns sounding fresh
• The next version of SONAR will allow you to swap audio & MIDI devices without restarting SONAR
• The next version of SONAR will run more efficiently on your PC when recording audio & looping
• The next version of SONAR Producer will give you superior tones for drum & percussion with a new 7-stage processor

Hi there, I would just like to confirm that the new features we are announcing every day between now and the launch are included in the Free Upgrade that customers will receive if they purchased SONAR 8.0 after July 1st.   My statements that are quoted above were made before we started announcing features, but the free upgrade I am referring to, and the upgrade Kate is announcing features from are one and the same.   If you buy SONAR 8.0 Producer now you will be getting everything announced so far, plus more features that we have not announced.   SONAr 8.0 Studio customers will get a subset of those features.
 
Also, to ansswer another question on the thread, if you purchase the DVD version for an additional fee, you will also have the download made available at the same time.  So the download will be included in the higher cost upgrade which also includes the DVD and printed documentation.   
 
 

I have just had a reply from CW customer service regarding this whole 'paid update' business.

Question;
I'm interested to know about the offer for those upgrading
to Sonar 8 after July 1st receiving the next paid update to Sonar free.

Can you confirm that this 'paid update' will be Sonar with all the features described below as per the announcement from Cakewalk posted on the Cakewalk forums. Also will this new version be known as Sonar 9 or something else?

Response;

Thanks for contacting Cakewalk Customer Service.  It will be a version
of SONAR that does contain those features. We cannot disclose any more details.

Best regards,

Cakewalk Customer Service

A non-commital answer at best. So basically there will be a version of Sonar that provides the features listed but we don't know what version that will be. My understanding (due to CW's withholding of information that would allow me to make an informed buying decision) is that there may be another midway update that is a 'paid update' but the list of features may not necessarily be included in that version as it could be included in any future version not necessarily the next , whatever that may be....yeah right!

CW is not offering anything of substance here just a whole lot of vauge promises that cannot be confirmed. I won't be upgrading to anything until I know just exactly what it is I'm getting for my money!!! 

When Cakewalk announced I could get a free up-something to the "next paid" up-something of Sonar if I upgraded to Sonar 8, they got me interested, even though I thought the announcement was made in a way best described as lame. But before upgrading to Sonar 8 from Sonar 7P (the last version I have), I thought I'd wait and see just what the up-something was going to offer.
 
I have to admit that the bar was fairly high, given what I'm looking for in a production environment, and that my expectations were fairly low, given my accumulated peeves with the Sonar platform. But I tried to let those two factors balance each other out and so I remained open to the possibility of upgrading to 8.
 
I've wanted some kind of Groove Matrix thing in Sonar for a while, and after CW issued the long-delayed death certificate for Project5, I fully expected to see something like it in the next up-something or two to Sonar. So I was glad to see it announced in the first (I think) tweet. That said, I know that a feature's inclusion tells me nothing about its implementation, and that implementation can make the difference between fantastic and why-did-they-even-bother.
 
So while this Groove Matrix-like thing helped maintain my interest, it didn't accelerate my upgrade decision or make it more likely. In fact, the Twitter campaign might have actually had the opposite effect, since it encourages me to wait for more features while giving me more time to evaluate each one separately, which can only lower the wow-average of the whole. This is especially true since the other new features will probably also be of the content or semi-redundant plugin variety, which at this point I take as a given, and have little interest in. Plugins and content and wizards, oh my!
 
Subsequent tweatures like Session Drummer 3 and the enhanced step sequencer confirmed this as I have no interest in either. And even things that did interest me, such as "native" REX support, would still require an implementation-check to find out exactly what I means. I don't use prefab loops and find REX itself a clever but not too useful technology. But if Sonar let me drag a REX file directly into a track and have its slices automatically split into individual clips, like Reaper does, that would be very useful for grabbing isolated sound bites. Still not a major buy-me for me.
 
So all in all, upgrading to Sonar 8 was still on a back burner.
 
Then last week I got an email from CW that changed everything:
Find Out The New Features Coming In SONAR - SONAR 8 Upgrade Supplies Are Limited.
 

 
How interesting.
 
They're doing this slow drip tease of new features that delays my finding out just what they're asking me to upgrade to, while at the same time giving me the hurry-up that "supplies are limited" and that they "strongly recommend" that I "upgrade to SONAR 8 today." Isn't that sweet?
 
And then as "yet another incentive" for immediate action, I'll be able to download the next version "the day it is released" as if there's actually anything in this release so major that every day without it is another day spent at a competitive disadvantage and sounding less than "totally pro."
 
This email is where Cakewalk lost me. Their marketing has always been awful but this was totally tone deaf. 
 
I know I shouldn't let marketing reflect poorly on a product. But I've been using Sonar long enough to know that in this case the marketing DOES reflect the product: a hypey bandwagon campaign to hype a bunch of mostly who-cares and catch-up new features, not one of which addresses any of the long list of long unaddressed issues.
 
I'd been thinking that if I get Sonar 8, and the next up-something for free, I'd then have the fully mature Sonar, and I'd then wait and see what they come up with next, which I believe has to be a new bottom-up post-Sonar product, since there's really nowhere significant that the current Sonar line can go when it comes to core or native improvements in features or workflow -- beyond 8's engine improvements, the last few upgrades have been based increasingly on plugins, secondary features, and content. (Which is not to say that couldn't keep that up for years, and probably will, if only to serve the existing user base that sticks with current line.)
 
But now more than ever it feels like I'd be upgrading simply to get a cherry on top of a cake in need of a complete rebake. Why bother? For the sake of completeness? Out of loyalty? Sorry, darling.
 
People, or at least loyal Sonar users, are always asking why Sonar isn't "the standard" or why it's not taken seriously as a "professional DAW." It's in good part because of marketing like this, where the nature of the hype reflects not only the nature of product, but the company's view of its users, what will appeal to them, and how they're most effectively addressed. There's nothing professional about it. It's just insulting.
 
Anyway, professionalism is located first in the user and what she does with her tools, not the tools she does it with.