Just speaking out my thoughts not hating sonar, but wishing it could be a bit more considerate with past things they have pushed to the whey side or improving what can be improved, this always moving on yet never looking back has  hit home to me, because of all the third party stuff, its a cop out, this third party stuff should just be an extra bonus not a main part of an upgrade that is just wrong.
 
Was looking forward to x3, but for me to upgrade at the UK price is a dilemma
all that is in it for me is the colour customization and the melodyne integration which will be great,
but I have addictive Drums, and use melda plugins so I have all I will ever need,
their just does not seem anything else in it that I personally use, I think they have messed up this time, if I was to put all my upgrade money together and the price I paid for sonar producer v6, then consider the things that are now also being taken away, I don't get much for my money over all these years.
 
(1) I just wish they has upgraded the whole act thing which is rather limited, so I cant utilise my midi Channels on my keyboard,or have  abetter system overall act sucks.
(2) added the option to have vst parameters in step sequencer,
(3) sorted out audio warp quantise, as this again is more geared for straight and simple drum beats  and simple stuff, but is just useless for manually quantising / sampling complex stuff, I can never get the markers to drag as they should do, they are always constrained even within what should be normal, just a simple add warp marker and move option would be nice that actually works, I have tried many times since V6 , yet very limited for the simple warping I mention, I just don't understand the reasoning or logic in this.
(4) Add the option to also time stretch midi events by dragging the edge like you can do with audio event, so much creativity lost here
(5) Drum maps but I would like too see a simpler system, where you can just add you own name in the roll and it shows up on the notes with the note name, so I don't have to keep scrolling back to see what hits are what, then you can just save that, but again we have over kill for a simple job.
(6) The list goes on, as I am sure you all have ideas on what should have been added fixed or improved.
 
I just don't understand, why cakewalk are not committed to improving the important basics, cakewalk has always been geared up for the instrument player, band/ vocalist etc.
but as a remixer masher upper, dance producer, it always overlooks many important (little) things, this is why it cant compete and it don't by comparisons with the other top DAWs for people like me,  yes it has some great stuff, but yet it lacks refinement,  its not a lot to ask, I just wish they would think about the other type of user, I am as always stuck in limbo, let's face it sonar is so great on the visual, and as I always say the inline piano roll is fantastic for my type of producing /editing and why I hold on! one thing so powerful, although even that has its clumsy side.
 
its  a lot of money for just a couple of things, at the moment I am on the fence, do I hold on too my £180 towards bitwig studio, or Upgrade now and get some!! use now, but x3 just don't seem worth it this time, although I guess the couple of things added could make my life a bit better, just not to an extent it will make that much difference overall, what a dilemma I have, hungry for these gestures in X3, but these things will be short lived and taken for granted, as its nothing new in the DAW world and the things that matter more, how long will we have to wait, will cakewalk ever go back and refine things, as with many off asking for these things, I just wish cakewalk would say yes definitely on our list to look into now we have ouR new look etc, this is what I don't like about cakewalk, with other daws you can generally tell by past upgrade as to the thought the development teams put in to considering things the users ask for and improvements, but despite a few of you saying how great cakewalk are at feature request/ improvements, the fact be they are no where to be seen in that department, not even a forum post saying great idea or not feasible etc .  that's is all I ask really, and the state of this in the future is going to determine weather I hang on to sonar in anticipation of the future, or stop installing it and tempting myself with what could be ( I think the chance of this happening are slim now by past record of cakewalk back tracking stuff that needs to be done etc. before adding any more candy ) what are their plans in this area ???? this is one area that should not be locked up like the X files. Just my hopes and thoughts not hating just wishing it could be better where it counts, so I don't have to keep jumping ship , I always dabble, but always get fed up with sonar its great at the starting post, but looses as the DAW race continues, but I do love staring at its GUI lol despite being a bit clunky its nice and appeasing.

Everyone has a different workflow, and therefore different needs. For myself, I'm really really happy with the new comping mode, it's something that finally makes sense in a real world situation to me. I spent way too much time muting and unmuting clips/lanes/layers/whatevers before, and having to cut two or three or four clips instead of one. I'm sure there was a better way to do it but this just clicks for me. That and the Melodyne ARA thing makes this upgrade worth more than the last two, for me - I really didn't like going from 8 to X1 and X2 felt relatively minor to me.

Well put. I also don't see the cost benefit in upgrading, it already had most of what it has and has some bug fixes, the comping does seam nice.
As I'm writing this I'm just thinking, I wonder if this was supposed to be an X2 update but then they started talking with Gibson so they had to change a little more than they thought they would, ie: dropping the Roland stuff, changing other plugins to make up for it... so they said they would changed the name and charge more to look better for the buyout... but no matter it is what it is, I'll get along with X2 and spend what I would have spent and on X3 and get Samplitude Pro-X Suite :)

So you don't think a full blown new comping mode, support for 3 new standards VST3, ARA and Gobbler, Prochannel improvements, redesigned color customization, as well as huge plugin workflow enhancements do not constitute a massive upgrade? All of these features impact pretty much every user in some way and were picked because they are not niche features but solid useful tools for every DAW user. Regarding the 3'rd party stuff they are 100% value adds. They take zero development time from us, other than some minor support issues and bug fixes and obviously release management. So its not like taking those out would have magically bought other features you wanted. 
 
If not you have some pretty unrealistic assumptions about what goes into building software. Every one has different ideas about what would be ideal features for their specific workflow. We pick features that would have the most impact on our larger user base. If anything I think X3 hits home here much more than any other version since it tackles the basics - recording, editing, plugins, and customization. Most users would agree that this is very close to what the majority of people wanted. Cakewalk is a small company and we have very finite resources so we have to spend our time wisely..

Well you know I'm sure they were in talks for a while and they're not going to just sit around doing nothing. So I do agree that it does deserve the upgrade moniker. It's just not enough of an upgrade for me, that's how good I thought/think X2 is, it just could have used an update or two, as was the norm. If one update is the new norm I'll just wait till x4, with all the Gibson integrations next year.

Well said Noel!
 
I'm absolutely blown away by this upgrade for all of the reasons you point out.  I'm dig'n the new comp tools, colors and of course Melodyne...just fantastic!

That's, a lot, of, commas, and run-on, sentences, and I, would, like that, fixed, please.
 
KEv

Noel, we all know what the "new features" are. A common thread in quite a few posts from not just a few users, is "Why won't CW tell us what was fixed?" This is a very important question to some of us that are serious about our DAW. We all don't have time to "play" with the new version.

“You can please some of the people some of the time all of the people some of the time some of the people all of the time but you can never please all of the people all of the time.”
― Abraham Lincoln

People have the right to feel any way the want. No one can force anyone to buy anything.
 
That said it may seem a bit pricey but it really isn't. Its less than it used to be before 8.5.
 
What you get is more than what is listed in bullet points. You get the latest version that is from what I have noticed better performing and more solid feeling. You get the accumulated knowledge of CW with X1 and X2 now being applied to X3.  
 
I too am looking forward to the day when CW will address all the neglected areas that Sonar has had for years. Least of which is notation. ACT does need revision and the support for control surfaces is a forgotten area too. We all know these things however CW is not a monolithic company that can throw unlimited resources when ever it needs to at these problems. It has to prioritize what it will tackle in each new version.
 
As to Sonar being ideally suited to the sort of music you do well that is from my view point due to a wish to use a program meant for general sequencing in MIDI and audio for a type of use that it was never meant for. It can get by but is it really a Sonar issue that it doesn't do recycle type work as well as some other audio editors? 
 
To me CW and Sonar are the very best choice for me. Thus I am happy to pay the nominal upgrade fee in order to help support a company I admire.