Hello all,
I'm a longtime user of Cakewalk soft synths. In fact, I own almost all of the ones that can be bought separately from Sonar: Z3TA, Rapture, Dimension Pro, and Z3TA 2+. Needless to say, I have a fair chunk of changed invested in Cakewalk's products.
I've been considering upgrading from Live 7.03 to Sonar X3 (originally I was going to move to X2, but that's done). But here's the thing: A lot of what you get for the two higher tiers of Sonar X3 (Studio and Producer) consists of instruments I already own. Now, there's a lovely discount on Sonar X3 upgrades for customers of other Cakewalk products. But that discount is exactly the same if you own one synth, say Z3TA, or ALL of them. Z3TA 2+ currently sells for $99 on its own. Owning just that synth will get you the upgrade price of $149 for Sonar X3 Studio or $449 for Sonar X3 Producer. Rapture and Dimension Pro each sell for $99. But buying those two on top of Z3TA 2+ doesn't get you any increased discount. Whether you have spent $100, or $300 on Cakewalk software, the discount is the same. And when you buy Studio or Producer you get all three synths included. Which means that a user who owns all of the synths is, in some senses, going to be buying those synths again if he purchases the X3 upgrade.
Now, I'm not sitting here all butthurt and crying about things being unfair. Cakewalk has to make a profit, and they set their prices as they see fit. That being said, it surely would be NICE if those customers who have shown real loyalty to the company by purchasing multiple synths were given a little bit of an extra discount when upgrading to Sonar X3. After all, they're receiving less, in terms of new software than customers who are new to Cakewalk's products or who only own one Cakewalk synth would receive.
Just my .02
Regards,
JL