PANUP I wonder if you could take over and run and programme Sonar all on your own. Some what like Reaper by Cockos

If Sonar has a future I see it as a low cost, user-friendly alternative to Reaper. There must be scores of people who want to dip into music production via a low cost "starter" DAW, are advised to "check Reaper out" and then run a mile once they see how complicated it is. They don't want to have to spend hours researching skins and figuring out how to customize the UI. I honestly think if Sonar was $69 with a similar kind of liberal demo policy to Reaper, it would be a runaway success. I have no idea how this would be achieved however. 

So my dream is that I suddenly become a multi-billionaire, buy a fast car, nice house, big yacht etc. Then buy out Gibson, unceremoniously boot out the the current CEO, pay off its creditors, restructure the company, sell off the Philips wing, and invest in more music stuff, up the build quality of the guitar range and restructure the pricing to a more realistic level and, here's the big bit, immediately re-open Cakewalk giving all the staff their jobs back with a good bonus incentive, re-open the Cake store, honor all previous sales, subscriptions and lifetime updates. Then start flooding the press and social media with rumors about a fantastic, new version of Sonar being in the pipeline with huge improvements like never before. Fix this damn forum! Employ support staff, take on extra developers, split the developers into two teams, one doing bug fixes and monthly updates as they were before and the other working on  streamlining the code, removing unnecessary and obsolete stuff and implementing big new features such as the addition of Overture built right into Sonar and all the other stuff that was planned and porting it to other platforms for Win, Mac & Linux. Then a massive beta testing campaign of the parallel new version which would go on for quite some time until it is absolutely solid (meanwhile the original version is still getting monthly updates as is the new beta). Then relaunch Cakewalk and Sonar in a hale of publicity, hype and a huge marketing campaign. On the success of the relaunch, I would then restructure Cakewalk into the pro audio wing where Sonar development will continue and the beta developers will now be put to work developing fantastic new plugins as well as a mobile DAW called Ping. A hardware R & D department will be set up to develop an incredible range of audio hardware including mixers and controllers that will work with any DAW but will have amazing integration with Sonar. And then I woke up....

sharke
If Sonar has a future I see it as a low cost, user-friendly alternative to Reaper. There must be scores of people who want to dip into music production via a low cost "starter" DAW, are advised to "check Reaper out" and then run a mile once they see how complicated it is. They don't want to have to spend hours researching skins and figuring out how to customize the UI. I honestly think if Sonar was $69 with a similar kind of liberal demo policy to Reaper, it would be a runaway success. I have no idea how this would be achieved however. 

Craig Anderton's thread about "How to make a DAW more simplified".
I remember that I didn't understand it at the time but I do now.
To spread Sonar to more users.

Vlar
What about Magix? They have bought several other AV programs.

..yeah... definitely a good idea.... they already bought SONY ACID, VEGAS, SOUNDFORGE... all Windows based software... so, why not.......

dappa1
PANUP I wonder if you could take over and run and programme Sonar all on your own. Some what like Reaper by Cockos

Sure if Noel comes with the package...

Have any of the magix purchased sony programs improved? Acid pro is still where it was. Soundforge still living off of past glory.

I have lived through a Microsoft acquisition. I'm sorry but I really think it would be awful if Microsoft acquires Cakewalk. Look at all the niche products that Microsoft has owned and where they are today. If a product can go from niche to billion-dollar seller it may have a chance of finding a good home at Microsoft, otherwise it will be better off elsewhere.
 
As some people have said, the key for modern DAWs is the plugin ecosystem. I think it could make more sense for Cakewalk to be acquired by Plugivery.
 
Plugivery acquired Nomad Factory when it was at the brink of shutting down after its founder Bernie Torelli passed away. They do have experience in acquiring a company in trouble and then keeping it alive/refloating it. Perhaps instead of asking them to unlock Blue Tubes it would be better asking them to consider taking over Sonar?

ERufian
I have lived through a Microsoft acquisition. I'm sorry but I really think it would be awful if Microsoft acquires Cakewalk. Look at all the niche products that Microsoft has owned and where they are today. If a product can go from niche to billion-dollar seller it may have a chance of finding a good home at Microsoft, otherwise it will be better off elsewhere.
 
As some people have said, the key for modern DAWs is the plugin ecosystem. I think it could make more sense for Cakewalk to be acquired by Plugivery.
 
Plugivery acquired Nomad Factory when it was at the brink of shutting down after its founder Bernie Torelli passed away. They do have experience in acquiring a company in trouble and then keeping it alive/refloating it. Perhaps instead of asking them to unlock Blue Tubes it would be better asking them to consider taking over Sonar?

How about Waves plugins taking over, they make good stuff and know just about everyone in music biz!
There are other companies I’d like to see take Sonar/Cakewalk and grow it anew, but reality is $$$ and Legalities.