I've had X1 and X2 producer....i hate x2.   It's soooooo 'intuitive' that it's a major roadblock.  Too many options for viewing and less important things and many inconsistencies in it's day to day flow.  Sometimes my extra VST plugins show up sometimes they don't.  Lot's of small annoyances with it.
 
From what I've read so far it sounds like a welcome change with X3.....but of those i'm most interested in X2 user's opinions.
 
cheers,
Richard

For the most part, aren't all opinions biased if they are coming from people who actually use the product?  In fact, wouldn't a truly unbiased opinion come from someone who has never used any DAW and X3 was the first DAW of any kind? X2 users are going to be mega-biased one way or the other.

and i wasn't trying to be sarcastic.  Just trying to bring together the title and what you are asking for.

have to say i agree with Dub.. 
Everyone has their own bias's and preferences and all review are therefore subjective and without without statement of personal context. Therefore, without understanding your bias's, preferences and workflow and you not understanding mine, it would be hard for my review of x3 to have any real merit to you.
 
So x3?
1. Given i have had two recording sessions in one week, with 16 takes on guitar and 12 on vocals the comping workflow if x3 is lightyears ahead of x2 in terms of my personal productivity in creating a comp track. I suspect i have already saved 8-10 hours of work in these two tasks
2. The bluetubes VST , coming from a "i dont need another 20 vst when i dont use the ones i have" person, i can say these are simple to use, natural, and "i was wrong". well worth it
3. VST3. lobbied hard for it so i can use my hardware synths effectively. now i can. 
 
Do i know if any of this matters to you?.. nope. 
 
Do i feel that x3 was a solid and worthwhile improvement over x2 to me in workflow, efficiency, capability and functionality and so well worth the $149 upgrade fee?. absolutely. 
 
 

If you truly hated X2 I don't know that X3 will change your mind, and since you weren't specific about what you didn't like in X2 who's to say? IMO X3 made substantial improvements in many area's and I find it nicer to work with, stability wise I really had no problems to speak of with X2 but X3 does feel smoother and I haven't as yet had a crash or hiccup.
 
You probably just need to wait for the demo and decide for yourself if it's better.
 
Dan

Thank you all for the response.  Yes, it's all biased but i was thinking of asking this crowd because they ARE familiar with X2 and not off the street buying X3 with no previous Sonar experience.
I am experienced at using salt when conjuring other's opinions so not a problem with subjectity here.  I just wanted a gist of how it's working for y'all so far.
 
Thanks.
 

+1 to all the posts made.
 
I doubt you can find an X2 user who came out of the chute hating X2 more than me (http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/2731387 ). I had an installation error that was such a fluke it was not funny (the part1.exe file was the correct byte size, but wrong MD5 hash). What this caused me was multiple crashes (both installing and running), and since X2 *did* install (at times), I initially had assumed it was a plug-in error. 3 months of "nothing" basically.... I knew if I tried to do any projects, they would crash, so walked away from X2. On a hunch, I came back at one point, found the issue, installed, and X2 was stable. That experience put an 8 months gap in my participation in this forum.
 
That said, when I installed X3, I was thrilled to see a lot of the forum feedback was included, the platform was stable on release, plug-ins are top notch, and the forum is active.
 
All of the X versions have the ability to tailor the skylight interface to what the user wishes to see, so some time must be spent by the user to learn and tailor this. There was a very wise response to a post long ago with someone complaining about this DAW and that DAW and they simply replied "Pick a DAW and learn it." In my (biased) opinion, X3 is a very capable platform, but there is learning required to understand and utilize it effectively to suit your needs. The reference guide is a searchable pdf, there are videos and tutorials all over, and this forum is loaded with very knowledgeable and helpful folks who will answer questions especially when the thread title and content are descriptive. This forum is actually an incredible community.
 
I have used CW products since 1998, and there is always more to learn. As you tailor your personal work flow and do things you become more proficient and productive. There is no substitute in your own investment in learning the tools you choose.
 
I am definitely impressed with X3, and I cannot even speak to all of the details it can do.
 

I get what the OP is saying... hence why I didn't bother upgrading "yet" (if at all).. got tired of waiting for patches,which was the croups of it.. and I can't see it not being X3 "d"..
 
fans going it's marvellous amazing super... after 1 day of usage hardly counts as it being thoroughly tested / used.. compared to say 3-4 weeks later (every day for work).
 
maybe the OP would like to hear from more "measured" posters... i.e. not the lot had to get 0.1 seconds after release.. it or are cakewalk poster boys on facebook.. or ones who will wrongly give out mis-information about rival products from just reading spec-sheets
 
I don't think views will be overly biased in 1 way or the other from folks who use more than 1 rival product tbh.
 
 
 

Like you I had lots of issues with X2, some repeatable some not. It seemed to have a mind of its own sometimes. Annoyingly enough it was almost workable. My short story: X1d worked extremely well, X2 not really, X3 has worked just as well as X1d  from the start. I think I've stumbled on 3-4 minor issues (not repeatable or easy workarounds) so far, one crash (using melodyne/region fx). I hope and actually believe reading the list all of those issues are fixed in X3c. The content and functionality of X3 given the price of the upgrade are great bordering on incredible in my opinion. But I suspect the bakers had spied on me as a template before making the package, it's an extremely close match to what my wishlist would have been.

From my perspective, I don't really respect the way X2 was left alone and X3 was brought in, since those who had issues with X2 for so long without knowing what was coming next, things have improved my perception of Cakewalk's delivery. Much of the process that I wished for is being delivered. X3 doesn't blow my doors off with new features, but I didn't really want it to. I wanted stability, ease of use, some issues fixed, and more frequent updates and communication.
 
So far I've gotten those wishes in X3. I say, give it a whirl, if you're still using X2. I've liked X3 enough that I had forgotten the last update version of X2. No looking back now. And I was VERY critical of X1/X2. I'm difficult to please, but I can use X3 without as much worry as X2. Hope this helps!!