I don't think Cubase is going to be much help - one of the most popular threads at KVR right now is 'Things I hate about Cubase' - and it's a fine whine, too. 

I think this update of Sonar gives incredible value for money.

Srsly, if you really wanted a Producer upgrade for $50 lousy bucks then you should just go get Garageband and play in the little kids sandbox. Back in the day this kind of rig would've set you back thousands of dollars. It's the core center application of your studio and you think it's worth $50? Get outta here! If I was a Cake employee I'd be flat out insulted. If you don't the value in what you're getting for $150 then you don't deserve the software in the first place. 
 

...wicked
Srsly, if you really wanted a Producer upgrade for $50 lousy bucks then you should just go get Garageband and play in the little kids sandbox. Back in the day this kind of rig would've set you back thousands of dollars. It's the core center application of your studio and you think it's worth $50? Get outta here! If I was a Cake employee I'd be flat out insulted. If you don't the value in what you're getting for $150 then you don't deserve the software in the first place.  

My favorite response so far in this string! Totally on point.

lawajava

...wicked
Srsly, if you really wanted a Producer upgrade for $50 lousy bucks then you should just go get Garageband and play in the little kids sandbox. Back in the day this kind of rig would've set you back thousands of dollars. It's the core center application of your studio and you think it's worth $50? Get outta here! If I was a Cake employee I'd be flat out insulted. If you don't the value in what you're getting for $150 then you don't deserve the software in the first place.  

My favorite response so far in this string! Totally on point.

 
I thought that was a little harsh, even though I agree with much of it..
 
What annoys me is the people who think there should be different upgrades to suit them, where they could cherry pick which bits they pay for..
 
In an  ideal world, maybe.  Why should I pay for improvements to MIDI, if I don't use it?  Why should I pay for improvement to comping if all I do is import MIDI files to use for karaoke?
 
I think the upgrade prices take a lot of this into account.  I only paid £120 upgrade, instead of £400, because I already had Dim Pro, Rapture, Zeta, Sonar etc.
 
What I got for that £120 is a major rewrite of Sonar, several workflow enhancements, ARA, Tape Emulation, and much more.  As a bonus, I got Melodyne, with a ludicrously cheap upgrade to Editor, Addictive drums, Blue Tube suite and the filter thing (sorry, not at my DAW and not had a chance to play with that one yet).
 
I read someone posting that they were disappointed that they couldn't use the Nomad plugs in another DAW.  I was flabbergasted.  They thought they were getting a cheap (free) set of plugs to use in another DAW by upgrading (worth more than the upgrade), and were annoyed that they were locked into Sonar.  Cheap isn't the word..

$149?  You can't buy an ounce of weed for that.

I sometimes struggle to pay the mortgage and feed the kids, but there is no denying the incredible value in X3.
 
Hey, I bought and paid for X2 Producer too.  Seriously, the moaners wanting to pay less than the rest of us because they moan louder get zero sympathy from me.  I made lots of great music with X2 and got my money's worth.  Was it 100% bug free? - no, but neither are most apps.
 
I am now greatly enjoying X3 and having a ball.  No, it wasn't easy finding the money, but anything of value is going to cost.

I think it gets to people when someone acts in such a way that their concerns are presented as being so much more important then the rest of us. This is not to say that an individual's concerns aren't important, but that need to be considered in terms of the community. It can be galling to listen to complaints about minor issues, usually personal workflow related, talked about as if the end of the world is near. You get the narcissistic vibe from it.
 
 

Beepster
Which is why I still think they should offer a Producer version that has all those extras stripped out for $50 so people who waited patiently for an X2 patch can have access to the increased stability and design fixes. $100 for a version with Melodyne (to make up for Audiosnap being broken), Quad Curve and maybe the tape sim.
 
 

 
I sympathize with your situation, but frankly, I doubt Cakewalk can afford to open itself up to trying to offer even more versions of the same product than they already do. What you are suggesting is a form of customized package.  Yes, it is "only asking" to ad "one more option", but that is how slippery slopes start.  How about the person who asks "can i have no plugins shipped for $25 since I have Waves platinum" or "how about ship with no synths since i have NI Komplete"? One can come up with endless  "reasonable" and "fair" pricing options and it would still be bad business for Cakewalk due to the decreased effeciency of customization. Three versions is tough enough to maintain. They would be stupid to form a bunch of custom packages to address any customer still dissatisfied with a previous product.  I don't necessarily agree with Apple's business model 100% of the time, but they do understand that too much variety with pricing and packages is a good way to lose money. Hence there decision to offer one version of Logic.
 
As far as the X2 patch, I don't think Cakewalk ever suggested they were going to release a patch, so those who "waited patiently" for that patch did so on their own. I can't think of any product that is 100% problem free prior to a new version beuing created.  The ugly truth is that with so many possible hardware and software configurations in the windows world, DAWS there is going to be great variety in experiences.
 
 

Beepster, let me suggest a different approach: track down the things that "don't work" in X2 so you don't feel limited by that version. For example there's another thread you started about how bouncing doesn't work, but it was pilot error. There may be other instances like that. X2 had been stable for me and while there were a few non-repeatable bugs (pretty much all software has those), nothing was a show-stopper or prevented me from getting serious work done with everything from narration to remixing to recording new songs to audio-for-video.
 
I was at a conference where someone said the same basic thing about "They should fix all the bugs in X2" and I was curious what bugs he was experiencing. So I asked him to name the top three bugs that impaired his ability to get work done, and he mentioned the same bug that I've experienced--the audio engine flips out sometimes when looping sections for very long periods of time and moving the loop points. That was the only bug he could recall. I suggested he stop the transport occasionally (like every few minutes) and then restart, a workaround that worked for me. Hopefully it will work for him, but his not being able to recall any bugs other than that one was interesting.
 
The other semi-consistent bug I experienced was applying to V-Vocal to individual clips in a take layer, but I did that rarely so the bug hardly ever surfaced. I either waited until the comping was done before applying V-Vocal to specific sections, or just pulled the clip into its own track and applied V-Vocal. Again, no huge deal, and those are the only bugs I can recall in my own X2 setup.
 
Rather than focusing on obtaining a custom version of Sonar, which isn't going to happen because X3's product line has already been finalized, I think you'd be better off quantifying what are the most problematic elements for you with X2 and fixing those or finding workarounds. In the hundreds of hours I put into X2, nothing was serious enough to prevent me from getting work done faster than I could with other DAWs.