[title updated after official release]
 
Sorry to say, but after 12 years, Cakewalk lost me this year by abandoning X2a.  There were (i.e. are) several issues requiring more maintenance updates, and I was left hanging the entire year as Cakewalk maintained only secrecy.  Surely if we'd known in December 2012 that our money spent on X2 would not get us another update, the news would not have sat well.  Yet here we, supposed to be excited that we got exactly that.  I think we saw this coming, but hoped for better.
 
With all the new development and features in Sonar X3, bugs are guaranteed.  Perhaps an X3a will be available soon after release. Perhaps not.  Perhaps X3 will soon be abandoned for sake of X4 development and users will be expected to wait patiently and indefinitely for news (2015 maybe?).
 
Melodyne really caught my eye, but $150 is not going to happen after the experience over the last year.  Before considering the next generation of Sonar, I would need to see a clearly stated commitment to maintenance and communication for X3.  This does not mean collecting bug reports behind the scenes.  I mean public (at least to registered users) lists of known issues along with reasonable maintenance releases.
 
I see the Cakewalk staff is finally more free to speak.  If anybody can comment on the plans for maintaining/fixing X3 it would be appreciated.  Is anything going to change regarding the hidden nature of the bug system, letting users see what bugs are on the radar, getting maintenance releases out more regularly, etc?
 
I know this is a very exciting time for Cakewalk, so I'm sorry to pee in the cake batter, but maintenance and communication seriously needs to be addressed.  The forums have been a depressing, angry mess for way too long.
 
Cheers and best of luck with Gibson!

You're not happy with whatever daw you currently use and you realized Sonar is the best daw and that's why you want to know CW's plans?

I completely understand where this is coming from.  I'm not too excited about upgrading after X2 was abandoned w/ obvious issues that needed serious attention.  I know everyone is all giddy w/ the leak of X3 info, but I'm very on the fence about this.

Studious
Sorry to say, but after 12 years, Cakewalk lost me this year by abandoning X2a.  There were (i.e. are) several issues requiring more maintenance updates, and I was left hanging the entire year as Cakewalk maintained only secrecy.  Surely if we'd known in December 2012 that our money spent on X2 would not get us another update, the news would not have sat well.  Yet here we, supposed to be excited that we got exactly that.  I think we saw this coming, but hoped for better.
 
With all the new development and features in Sonar X3, bugs are guaranteed.  Perhaps an X3a will be available soon after release. Perhaps not.  Perhaps X3 will soon be abandoned for sake of X4 development and users will be expected to wait patiently and indefinitely for news (2015 maybe?).
 
Melodyne really caught my eye, but $150 is not going to happen after the experience over the last year.  Before considering the next generation of Sonar, I would need to see a clearly stated commitment to maintenance and communication for X3.  This does not mean collecting bug reports behind the scenes.  I mean public (at least to registered users) lists of known issues along with reasonable maintenance releases.
 
I see the Cakewalk staff is finally more free to speak.  If anybody can comment on the plans for maintaining/fixing X3 it would be appreciated.  Is anything going to change regarding the hidden nature of the bug system, letting users see what bugs are on the radar, getting maintenance releases out more regularly, etc?
 
I know this is a very exciting time for Cakewalk, so I'm sorry to pee in the cake batter, but maintenance and communication seriously needs to be addressed.  The forums have been a depressing, angry mess for way too long.
 
Cheers and best of luck with Gibson!

Why don't we wait till we officially announce SONAR X3 first. Let's not get too ahead of ourselves quite yet. We plan on communicating more but can we release the product first?

I don't know of any non-open-source software vendor with a public list of unresolved bugs. One possibility might be for the user community to create one. Perhaps there could be a public Wiki or a spreadsheet not owned by Cakewalk where everyone who submits a bug to Cakewalk would note it, and post the tracking number and the status.

Andrew Rossa [Cakewalk]

Studious
Sorry to say, but after 12 years, Cakewalk lost me this year by abandoning X2a.  There were (i.e. are) several issues requiring more maintenance updates, and I was left hanging the entire year as Cakewalk maintained only secrecy.  Surely if we'd known in December 2012 that our money spent on X2 would not get us another update, the news would not have sat well.  Yet here we, supposed to be excited that we got exactly that.  I think we saw this coming, but hoped for better.
 
With all the new development and features in Sonar X3, bugs are guaranteed.  Perhaps an X3a will be available soon after release. Perhaps not.  Perhaps X3 will soon be abandoned for sake of X4 development and users will be expected to wait patiently and indefinitely for news (2015 maybe?).
 
Melodyne really caught my eye, but $150 is not going to happen after the experience over the last year.  Before considering the next generation of Sonar, I would need to see a clearly stated commitment to maintenance and communication for X3.  This does not mean collecting bug reports behind the scenes.  I mean public (at least to registered users) lists of known issues along with reasonable maintenance releases.
 
I see the Cakewalk staff is finally more free to speak.  If anybody can comment on the plans for maintaining/fixing X3 it would be appreciated.  Is anything going to change regarding the hidden nature of the bug system, letting users see what bugs are on the radar, getting maintenance releases out more regularly, etc?
 
I know this is a very exciting time for Cakewalk, so I'm sorry to pee in the cake batter, but maintenance and communication seriously needs to be addressed.  The forums have been a depressing, angry mess for way too long.
 
Cheers and best of luck with Gibson!

Why don't we wait till we officially announce SONAR X3 first. Let's not get too ahead of ourselves quite yet. We plan on communicating more but can we release the product first?

 
Well, unless you are planning to announce fixes for X2 along w/ the rollout of X3 then his main concern, which is the abandonment of X2, still has merit. And seeing as how you guys (at least as far as I can remember) have never done fixes for old products I can see why he felt no need to wait.

bladetragic
And seeing as how you guys (at least as far as I can remember) have never done fixes for old products I can see why he felt no need to wait.

Am I delusional if I have memories of X1 having four free fix releases? 8.5 having three? Ditto for 8. I can't comment on the bugginess of X2a, as I have not touched X2 after X2a came out, but whatever happened, historically, one patch per version is the exception not the rule.
 
I'm holding back my negativity until I see the full feature list. :)

yevster

bladetragic
And seeing as how you guys (at least as far as I can remember) have never done fixes for old products I can see why he felt no need to wait.

Am I delusional if I have memories of X1 having four free fix releases? 8.5 having three? Ditto for 8. I can't comment on the bugginess of X2a, as I have not touched X2 after X2a came out, but whatever happened, historically, one patch per version is the exception not the rule.
 
I'm holding back my negativity until I see the full feature list. :)

I think he meant any release prior to the current.

I think Cakewalk really was.in a bind.
Fix x2a and delay resolving long standing issues.

I rwckon a.big rewrite has been undertaken with deep new hooks in sonars core for things like ARA integration and vst3.
I dont think they could advancw with bug fixea as well as go back to get into the guts of the code.

Lots of pressure from forums.saying fix old issues. Sometimes.yiu have.to stop and go back before you can move.foward.

As Meat Loaf said: The future ain't what it used to be.
You can skip one upgrade.
That said, I agree that fixing known issues should be a high priority.
 
Wilko