There's a ton of long threads with people not liking the colors, be careful we might get another one :). I don't mind it myself but that's not to say other people's concerns are not legit. However as this thread is about X2 to X3, well if you don't like the colours you don't have to use them. So that's no reason not to upgrade to X3.

Duct tape and rope however is an incentive for me.

i was at this decision as well, and my only regret, that I didn't upgrade sooner!! But I hadn't long before upgraded to X2, which was the cause of my indecision. X3 is a lot more stable for me, but the the comping, melodyne, (which I upgraded to editor), AD2, and in particular, the Blue Tubes stuff, has had a massive effect on not only my workflow, but the quality of what I am doing, Nearly 3 quarters of the way now into an album, with the first 2 songs done in X2, is forcing me to go back and re-do them, because what I have done with the last 3 songs, has made them sound, not bad, but not as good. I mostly put this done to spending less time comping/arranging, and a what is obvious to me now, less latency issues, which has allowed better recordings, and has resulted in almost non-existant time corrections of takes. My advice, it's a must. As others suggest, you won't look back.

At first I thought the color gripes were a little silly but Guitarpima actually has a legitimate need for them and although I don't sweat that stuff at the moment (but do like the new options in X3) I think for his sake and those with similar needs it would be really cool of Cake to keep expanding those options. It is an accessibility issue and I worry about similar complications in my future.
 
Cheers.
 
 

melodyne
addictive drums 2
nomad
aas Lounge liz and strum lite versions 
just this alone makes it worth it let alone the sonar improvements

plus if you are really into melodyne and AAS the upgrade path to editor and AAS modeling collection save so another 
$250 at the very least. 
 

noynekker

Guitarpima
The program itself is worth it. The UI is awful though. They said we would have colors again and all we got was 50 shades of grey.

So what's the deal with this ?
X3 actually did add the ability to add colors to the track / console backgrounds, but not to your liking ? Not enough colors ?  . . . please explain your lack of enthusiasm about the color features they added.
 
For the OP . . . my opinion is X3 is totally worth the upgrade from X2.

I don't know why guitarpima hates the UI so much but it is possible the color scheme would be horrible for people who are colorblind. The new color options are very pale witb little contrast. To a colorblind person they may all look alike. I like the UI, personally.

The comping is outstanding, but you have to unlearn how it worked in X2.
 
Many users mention stability, but X3's response seems snappier to me...more sports car, less sedan.
 

There's a minor change to how scrolling works that some users found annoying when it was first released. It doesn't impact me negatively at all, but just letting you know it's there.
 
You should be able to download the trial first if you are worried.
 
IMHO, it's a no brainer to get X3e Producer. Best one yet.

dubdisciple

noynekker

Guitarpima
The program itself is worth it. The UI is awful though. They said we would have colors again and all we got was 50 shades of grey.

So what's the deal with this ?
X3 actually did add the ability to add colors to the track / console backgrounds, but not to your liking ? Not enough colors ?  . . . please explain your lack of enthusiasm about the color features they added.
 
For the OP . . . my opinion is X3 is totally worth the upgrade from X2.

I don't know why guitarpima hates the UI so much but it is possible the color scheme would be horrible for people who are colorblind. The new color options are very pale witb little contrast. To a colorblind person they may all look alike. I like the UI, personally.

That's exactly it. Lack of contrast. The other thing is even though it may not seem so to most of you, to me, it's like staring at a light. I use a high contrast theme for my OS theme with a black background and white fonts. 8.5 was the last of the best UI Sonar had.

But since this thread is specifically about moving from X2 to X3, I'd imagine the ability to color tracks/channels can only be considered a positive.
 
Ironically, the one change I'd personally like to see in this department is in the opposite direction - darker/black track strips.