Andrew Rossa [Cakewalk]
Before you buy anything, let me check about upgrade paths to Melodyne Editor. I could be mistaken but I heard it was $149.

... alright :(
I just upgraded to assistant.. :/

Editor upgrade on special back in June was only $99 from Assistant.
 
The polyphony is awesome under the right circumstances. I have hundreds of horns loops that are now completely open to my re-interpretation. Can completely change so much and still maintain the sound.

Danny Danzi
 
.I could stay exclusively with V-Vocal and be just as happy for the majority of the things I'd use it on. 

I have always been happy with V-Vocal, both feature and stability-wise. However, after using and abusing Melodyne Essential the last couple days, there's no doubt in my mind that Melodyne's algorithm gets more transparent and natural results. I haven't managed to get a single metallic 'Ess' or boxy breath noise with melodyne so far. I miss V-Vocal's features and interface, though!

Danny Danzi
I've used both at great lengths, Sven. My opinion is....I've never had a single problem with V-Vocal and dance around in it in seconds when needed. I guess I'm one of the few that can speak highly of it. I use Melodyne for other things due to its power...but to be honest, I don't notice much of a difference on vocals. V-Vocal is a blast to use in small sections. I like to keep vocals as pure as possible and push for singers (as well as myself) to re-sing parts over using these tools to fix them. However, when something is not quite right, I've never had a problem with V-Vocal. I've done all sorts of things with it and it never lets me down as long as I use it in small sections. I'm producing a guy right now that has only been singing for about 2 years give or take. His vocal ability is great and he's one of the best song writers I've ever heard. But, his voice isn't quite ready for prime time so I've had to fix a few things up here and there. One of his issues is consistent vibrato. V-Vocal makes this so easy and natural, I don't know why Cake would remove it. Why not still give it to people that want to use it, know what I mean? That said, Melodyne is pretty intense if you have the full DNA version. It takes a bit of getting used to at first due to all the options and power it has, but it's the best at what it does. To answer your question though....both V-Vocal and Melodynbe have never let me down. I worked for years without Melodyne, so though it's incredibly powerful, I've lived without it before....I could stay exclusively with V-Vocal and be just as happy for the majority of the things I'd use it on. Hope this helps. -Danny

Well the most obvious reason they removed it (along with R-Mix) is that it's Roland technology and with the acquisition by Gibson.
Also, perhaps I could've tweaked better but with V-Vocal I sometimes got phasing issues (someone called it metallic esses) that I've never gotten with Melodyne. Altogether Melodyne seems to produce fewer artifacts.

Interface, I guess it's what you're used to. I never learned to like V-Vocal's interface, having started on Melodyne in another studio. I was still glad I got such a great "free" tool with Sonar but I'm even happier having upgraded my Melodyne now!

I too have consistently the praises of V-Vocal over the years, and I've got great, transparent results, not just with pitch manipulation, but also timing, formant & dynamics.
 
The UI - to me - is SO loigcal, intuitive and I love the look of it.
 
I will be sad to see it dropped from X3, but Noel did say that it can still be accessed from X2 or previous 

Unless I'm mistaken you can still access it from X3 too as long as you don't uninstall X2. At least, it showed up as "region fx" for me last time I looked, though I suppose the SHIFT+V shortcut is probably gone.

I bought Melodyne Essentials about a year ago, on a special promotion.  I've tried to use it several times but never had much success.  However, I have often used VVocal and it did what I wanted.
 
I left X2 installed, when I installed X3a in case I need VVocal.

Bristol_Jonesey
The UI - to me - is SO loigcal, intuitive and I love the look of it.

+1. The V-Vocal interface is very powerful and it's very much part of my workflow. I also love the fact that zoom, scroll and undo etc. have the same hotkeys as in the rest of SONAR. But I do maintain that, to me, Melodyne Essential does seem to introduce less artifacts and preserve the tone of shifted notes better than V-Vocal.
 
Besides, V-Vocal is basically abandonware so I figure this is as good a time to jump onto the Melodyne vehicle as any!