I have commented before as well - I think that X2a has been extremely stable for me, and for a lot of folks.
 
I keep reading posts that issue blanket statements about the bugginess of X2a, and of its instability, but when you look back through it all, and I have participated in a whole bunch of assisting folks with specific problems, these blanket statements are just not true.
 
There ARE no global show-stopper crashes going on with X2a, and while some population of folks have individual issues, another population keeps indicating that they are quite happy with the stability in X2a, and with what they feel have been workflow and feature improvements.  And to the best of my recollection, not a single one of the issues I have participated in resolving have ended being caused by X2a - but rather by either operator error, plugin problems (mostly 32-bit third-party running in x64 X2a), and interface driver problems (sometimes settings, sometimes drivers).
 
There are folks who think X2a walks on water, and those who think X2a is a dismal failure.  Excluding the fringes on both sides of it, X2a has some annoyances, but has in fact been globally quite stable, and for those with repeated crashes, as I indicated above, that has without little or no exception (again to the best of my knowledge), has not been from X2a itself failing.  There are even workarounds for most of the things that are annoyances.
 
I look forward to evaluating X3, whenever it shows up - seemingly getting close now, and if the base product is as stable for me as X2a has been, I will cheerfully explore whatever new features it includes, and following my evaluation I will either choose to upgrade or I will choose to cheerfully continue to use X2a.
 
Bob Bone
 

robert_e_bone
I have commented before as well - I think that X2a has been extremely stable for me, and for a lot of folks.
 
I keep reading posts that issue blanket statements about the bugginess of X2a, and of its instability, but when you look back through it all, and I have participated in a whole bunch of assisting folks with specific problems, these blanket statements are just not true.
 
There ARE no global show-stopper crashes going on with X2a, and while some population of folks have individual issues, another population keeps indicating that they are quite happy with the stability in X2a, and with what they feel have been workflow and feature improvements.  And to the best of my recollection, not a single one of the issues I have participated in resolving have ended being caused by X2a - but rather by either operator error, plugin problems (mostly 32-bit third-party running in x64 X2a), and interface driver problems (sometimes settings, sometimes drivers).
 
There are folks who think X2a walks on water, and those who think X2a is a dismal failure.  Excluding the fringes on both sides of it, X2a has some annoyances, but has in fact been globally quite stable, and for those with repeated crashes, as I indicated above, that has without little or no exception (again to the best of my knowledge), has not been from X2a itself failing.  There are even workarounds for most of the things that are annoyances.
 
I look forward to evaluating X3, whenever it shows up - seemingly getting close now, and it the base product is as stable for me as X2a has been, I will cheerfully explore whatever new features it includes, and following my evaluation I will either choose to upgrade or I will choose to cheerfully continue to use X2a.
 
Bob Bone
 

Exactly.
 
Regards,

robert_e_bone
I have commented before as well - I think that X2a has been extremely stable for me, and for a lot of folks.
 
I keep reading posts that issue blanket statements about the bugginess of X2a, and of its instability, but when you look back through it all, and I have participated in a whole bunch of assisting folks with specific problems, these blanket statements are just not true.
 
There ARE no global show-stopper crashes going on with X2a, and while some population of folks have individual issues, another population keeps indicating that they are quite happy with the stability in X2a, and with what they feel have been workflow and feature improvements.  And to the best of my recollection, not a single one of the issues I have participated in resolving have ended being caused by X2a - but rather by either operator error, plugin problems (mostly 32-bit third-party running in x64 X2a), and interface driver problems (sometimes settings, sometimes drivers).
 
There are folks who think X2a walks on water, and those who think X2a is a dismal failure.  Excluding the fringes on both sides of it, X2a has some annoyances, but has in fact been globally quite stable, and for those with repeated crashes, as I indicated above, that has without little or no exception (again to the best of my knowledge), has not been from X2a itself failing.  There are even workarounds for most of the things that are annoyances.
 
I look forward to evaluating X3, whenever it shows up - seemingly getting close now, and it the base product is as stable for me as X2a has been, I will cheerfully explore whatever new features it includes, and following my evaluation I will either choose to upgrade or I will choose to cheerfully continue to use X2a.
 
Bob Bone
 

Now THIS is a LOGICAL conclusion....thanx Bob...I agree...

I'm going to take the "evaluate" and wait process this time...see how it goes..and 
then make a decision...rather then have to be the first on the block to have it...
They just got a hundred bucks from me a year ago...and they want another
$149 now to get fixes for what should have already been fixed....
so I'm going to make sure this thing is stable and viable before jumping
on the band wagon...I've got nothing to lose...and may save $149...so
it only makes sense to me...

joel77
I didn't get to see the list of features, as the Sweetwater ad was down before I had a chance to look. I'm taking a wait and see approach.
 
Sonar X2a has been mostly a pleasure for me. I'm not a super power user, but I've never had it crash either. There are, of course things that I would do differently, but I'm not the one designing the lay out of the program. It's taken some adjusting, but that is true of every new version of any program. Hell, it took most of a year before I finally figured out how to power down Windows 8!!  lol!  ...... not that I was looking that hard and I don't use that computer all that often.
 
I am excited to see what all they've changed/added/updated with X3. 

Hey Joel, and anyone else if it applies, here are some simple ways to shut down and restart Windows 8, using shortcuts.
 
1.  For Shutdown, set up a desktop shortcut with the following:
     Target: C:\Windows\System32\shutdown.exe /s /t 00
     Start In: C:\Windows\system32
 
2.  For Restart, set up a desktop shortcut with the following:
     Target: C:\Windows\System32\shutdown.exe /r /t 00
     Start In: C:\Windows\system32
 
For both of the above, I also hit the Change Icon button and found a couple of nice icons to make them stand out on my desktop, a red circle icon for shutdown, and a blue circle for restart.
 
I use these all the time, and they are super quick, rather than the goofy default way Windows 8 does it by default.
 
Bob Bone
 

robert_e_bone

joel77
I didn't get to see the list of features, as the Sweetwater ad was down before I had a chance to look. I'm taking a wait and see approach.
 
Sonar X2a has been mostly a pleasure for me. I'm not a super power user, but I've never had it crash either. There are, of course things that I would do differently, but I'm not the one designing the lay out of the program. It's taken some adjusting, but that is true of every new version of any program. Hell, it took most of a year before I finally figured out how to power down Windows 8!!  lol!  ...... not that I was looking that hard and I don't use that computer all that often.
 
I am excited to see what all they've changed/added/updated with X3. 

Hey Joel, and anyone else if it applies, here are some simple ways to shut down and restart Windows 8, using shortcuts.
 
1.  For Shutdown, set up a desktop shortcut with the following:
     Target: C:\Windows\System32\shutdown.exe /s /t 00
     Start In: C:\Windows\system32
 
2.  For Restart, set up a desktop shortcut with the following:
     Target: C:\Windows\System32\shutdown.exe /r /t 00
     Start In: C:\Windows\system32
 
For both of the above, I also hit the Change Icon button and found a couple of nice icons to make them stand out on my desktop, a red circle icon for shutdown, and a blue circle for restart.
 
I use these all the time, and they are super quick, rather than the goofy default way Windows 8 does it by default.
 
Bob Bone
 

If you're in Desktop view you can just hit the usual Alt+F4 and the Shutdown Dialog will come up...that's the 
way I do it...no Real Estate lost that way either...

robert_e_bone
I have commented before as well - I think that X2a has been extremely stable for me, and for a lot of folks.
 
I keep reading posts that issue blanket statements about the bugginess of X2a, and of its instability, but when you look back through it all, and I have participated in a whole bunch of assisting folks with specific problems, these blanket statements are just not true.
 
There ARE no global show-stopper crashes going on with X2a, and while some population of folks have individual issues, another population keeps indicating that they are quite happy with the stability in X2a, and with what they feel have been workflow and feature improvements.  And to the best of my recollection, not a single one of the issues I have participated in resolving have ended being caused by X2a - but rather by either operator error, plugin problems (mostly 32-bit third-party running in x64 X2a), and interface driver problems (sometimes settings, sometimes drivers).
 
There are folks who think X2a walks on water, and those who think X2a is a dismal failure.  Excluding the fringes on both sides of it, X2a has some annoyances, but has in fact been globally quite stable, and for those with repeated crashes, as I indicated above, that has without little or no exception (again to the best of my knowledge), has not been from X2a itself failing.  There are even workarounds for most of the things that are annoyances.
 
I look forward to evaluating X3, whenever it shows up - seemingly getting close now, and if the base product is as stable for me as X2a has been, I will cheerfully explore whatever new features it includes, and following my evaluation I will either choose to upgrade or I will choose to cheerfully continue to use X2a.
 
Bob Bone
 

Bob, you nailed it! I'm sick of the chronic whining form the users pointing the finger at X2. As I've stated many times, it has been a ROCK for me. If it's solid for myself, and thousands of other users, it's obviously system/peripheral related...NOT Sonar. I have yet to see a reported "show stopper". Personally, I'm excited about the new direction, and I'm really hoping X3 offers better video handling (which was not a bug BTW, just something the Bakers never developed). If this is the case, film composers like myself would be happy campers!

robert_e_bone
I have commented before as well - I think that X2a has been extremely stable for me, and for a lot of folks.
 
I keep reading posts that issue blanket statements about the bugginess of X2a, and of its instability, but when you look back through it all, and I have participated in a whole bunch of assisting folks with specific problems, these blanket statements are just not true.
 
There ARE no global show-stopper crashes going on with X2a, and while some population of folks have individual issues, another population keeps indicating that they are quite happy with the stability in X2a, and with what they feel have been workflow and feature improvements.  And to the best of my recollection, not a single one of the issues I have participated in resolving have ended being caused by X2a - but rather by either operator error, plugin problems (mostly 32-bit third-party running in x64 X2a), and interface driver problems (sometimes settings, sometimes drivers).
 
There are folks who think X2a walks on water, and those who think X2a is a dismal failure.  Excluding the fringes on both sides of it, X2a has some annoyances, but has in fact been globally quite stable, and for those with repeated crashes, as I indicated above, that has without little or no exception (again to the best of my knowledge), has not been from X2a itself failing.  There are even workarounds for most of the things that are annoyances.
 
I look forward to evaluating X3, whenever it shows up - seemingly getting close now, and if the base product is as stable for me as X2a has been, I will cheerfully explore whatever new features it includes, and following my evaluation I will either choose to upgrade or I will choose to cheerfully continue to use X2a.
 
Bob Bone

 
 
Great post Bob - sums up exactly how I feel about X2a.
 
Seems like the release of X3 is going to coincide with me putting the final touches to my revamped studio room (no desk as of yet though, which is a bummer)

X2a has been virtually rock solid for me in terms of stability, i.e. crashes have been a thing of the past (excluding the odd one caused by certain 3rd party plugs). But to be honest I don't think that's what most of the complaints have been about...it's been mostly about operational bugs and oddities, like for instance clips jumping to the wrong tracks when you drag and release them from one track to another (happens to me all the time and is well documented), arpeggiator automation not working properly, automation of FX Chain on/off switch not working properly, all the issues with take lanes, automation lanes not being labeled properly in some cases etc...it's little things like these which can really make working with the program frustrating and impede your productivity. 
 
I'll probably upgrade to X3 if all of these things have been fixed in the demo, and yeah I'm excited about a new version, but I'm going to be honest and say that ideally I would have much preferred a free update without the new bells and whistles so that I didn't feel pressured into upgrading just to see current problems fixed. It would have been nice if they'd have released one last update for X2 users who aren't inclined to upgrade. Seems to me that if they have fixed these bugs in X3 it wouldn't have been too much trouble to incorporate some of the fixes into an X2b update at the same time. I can't see many people shelling out $150 just for X2 bug fixes - they're going to do it because they want the new features as well. So I don't believe releasing an X2b at the same time as X3 would hurt their revenue too much, and it would be priceless in terms of Cakewalk customer relations. 

Bristol_Jonesey
 X2A was widely lauded as a pretty stable platform with a few slight niggles but nothing show stopping.

Thats my experience. I am very happy with X2a, if fact if I don't upgrade its because I am happy with X2a. X3 looks promising but I am waiting for some details.

Nice post, Bob.  You said exactly what's been on my mind for some time now.