bapu
stevec & beepster
 
two words
 
Loan Shark

Two more words.
 
Sell plasma.

Beepster
I'm mostly interested in the fact that have now decided to maintain the product. I said it in the other thread... give Producer users a stripped out version of X3 Pro (without all the new plugs and PC modules) for $50 to act as the missing X2b patch. $100 for a version with Melodyne and the PC modules. Now THAT would be worth it and I would happily starve myself to pony up the cash... provided it actually works of course but it should, eventually, with regular maintenance.

Cannot agree more.  However, it appears we are in the minority.
 
If you can resist the hype for a while, you may be able to buy into a deeper-patched version of X3 for a better price.  Then, you can see if the maintenance commitment sticks.

Studious
If you can resist the hype for a while, you may be able to buy into a deeper-patched version of X3 for a better price.  Then, you can see if the maintenance commitment sticks.

I know everybody's financial situation is different, as are their work flow goals and aspirations for the product.  So I wouldn't question anybody's decision about whether $150 is too much to pay.
 
However, if anybody is looking for a rationalization or two, this is less money than going to Starbucks 2 or 3 times a month for the next year.  And considering that X3 looks like it is a solid platform that will be well appreciated by users over its full lifetime (12-24 months presumably), if you are going to upgrade eventually, your best ROI is to do it now and get use of the product for the full time.

cparmerlee
However, if anybody is looking for a rationalization or two, this is less money than going to Starbucks 2 or 3 times a month for the next year.  

Heh. Giving up smoking is another way. I have an employee who recently performed this heartfelt (whining) speech about how he wasn't earning enough and that I should give him a pay rise to pay for his subway card to get to work. I pointed out to him the ridiculousness of someone who smokes a pack a day complaining about not being able to afford his train fare. The guy has a cigarette in his mouth every chance he gets! Not only that, but he has a top of the range Samsung phone and pays for some ridiculous all-you-can-download data plan. I'm not saying that everyone who's hard up has screwed up priorities like this guy, but it's amazing how many people are prepared to throw good money away on stuff they don't really need (or stuff that's killing them) while denying themselves things that could really make a difference. 

I would like to take a moment to shift the conversation away from price and back to value. I can afford this upgrade easily, but I don't see the value. I paid for X2 and had to go back to X1 due to crashes and I didn't complain. First, based on my decade or more with cake believed their would be a patch that would solve my issues, and second, again due to my experience with cake figured everyone screws up once in awhile.
 
Now, I find that to get stability I have to upgrade. Also, since I have stayed a loyal Producer user (and have all of the Pro Channel modules), I have to spend extra money to buy a bunch of plugins I absolutely do not need or I lose my Producer and deal with the (almost certain) consequences of that in the future.
 
I feel for those where money is tight, but don't let that diminish the legitimate feelings that this upgrade is not "worth it" considering the other variables.

The fly out Quad Curve EQ is REALLY nice and it was something users asked for. I spent some time comping some vocal takes this morning and it was so easy compared to past versions. I am taking a stab at each new feature as the opportunity comes along to us it with in my latest song mix, those 2 features this morning were fantastic.

sharke

cparmerlee
However, if anybody is looking for a rationalization or two, this is less money than going to Starbucks 2 or 3 times a month for the next year.  

Heh. Giving up smoking is another way. I have an employee who recently performed this heartfelt (whining) speech about how he wasn't earning enough and that I should give him a pay rise to pay for his subway card to get to work. I pointed out to him the ridiculousness of someone who smokes a pack a day complaining about not being able to afford his train fare. The guy has a cigarette in his mouth every chance he gets! Not only that, but he has a top of the range Samsung phone and pays for some ridiculous all-you-can-download data plan. I'm not saying that everyone who's hard up has screwed up priorities like this guy, but it's amazing how many people are prepared to throw good money away on stuff they don't really need (or stuff that's killing them) while denying themselves things that could really make a difference. 

That's a loaded response Sharke. Micro to macro, it's all about insanity.

MakeShift
The fly out Quad Curve EQ is REALLY nice and it was something users asked for.

Yes, that is excellent.  OK it would be nice to be able to float several of those EQ graphs at once, but still this is a very nice enhancement, especially including the frequency visualizer.
 
I haven't had any dropouts.  That is worth something.
 
The startup time is a little faster.  That is worth something.
 
The Melodyne integration is terrific.  That is worth a lot.
 
I don't get the Blue Tubes thing.  The idea of effects that don't provide any visual feedback is something I cannot appreciate at all.  I don't need tools that try their best to look like a hardware product from 1960.  I want tools that help me get where I am going fast and with the best results.  I'll probably never use those things.
 
I haven't used the comping feature yet, but looking at the video, I see whee it will save time over my prior method of using the erase tool to delete everything except the take I want to keep.  This is worth something.
 
To me, it just isn't very hard to find $150 of value here.

Beepster
http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/SONAR/versions.aspx
 
Man, they are really making it hard for me to even accept that crossgrading to Studio would be a good option. If the Quad Curve and/ Tape Sim were included in Studio I might be able to stomach the $100 upgrade/crossgrade (I'm on X2 Producer). I wonder if those modules will be available for separate purchase and whether they'll work in X2a. Andrew (or whoever it was) told me I'd like the new Quad Curve and it does look very nice.

Beeptser, the reason for the $50 difference is because we do include stuff like the Tape Emulator and QuadCurve Zoom. We believe the $50 jump offers immense value even if you have a 1 or 2 things included in it. 
 
These modules will not be available separately but if they were, I'd imagine they'd be $99 each or something. Seriously, check out the pricing on Tape Emulator and comparable EQs. 

smallstonefan
I would like to take a moment to shift the conversation away from price and back to value. I can afford this upgrade easily, but I don't see the value. I paid for X2 and had to go back to X1 due to crashes and I didn't complain. First, based on my decade or more with cake believed their would be a patch that would solve my issues, and second, again due to my experience with cake figured everyone screws up once in awhile.
 
Now, I find that to get stability I have to upgrade. Also, since I have stayed a loyal Producer user (and have all of the Pro Channel modules), I have to spend extra money to buy a bunch of plugins I absolutely do not need or I lose my Producer and deal with the (almost certain) consequences of that in the future.
 
I feel for those where money is tight, but don't let that diminish the legitimate feelings that this upgrade is not "worth it" considering the other variables.

Perhaps the SONAR X3 Studio upgrade would be better for you. You get the ProChannel, all your modules will work, and you get all the core workflow features and Melodyne. I understand your concern about losing Producer but at the end of the day the tools you use to make music are most important. SONAR X3 Studio is pretty powerful.