From 8 to X series is a huge step alone without jumping to a new release with unknown’s
 
My experience.
I was a happy 8.5.3 user
Bought X1 for $99 (cheap as chips)
Days later X2 was released $99, so I bought that as well
Spent the next 6 weeks trying to get my head around it all while dealing with bugs
Made no music
My advice.
Buy X2, install free update to X2a and work with the few (known) bugs while making music
Wait till X3 (a,b or c) when the unknown’s are known (sorry, don’t mean to be negative just practical)
Make music sooner

I believe you would be quite happy with the upgrade.  For $99, moving up to X2a Producer Edition is a GREAT bargain.
 
There will most likely be later deals to get you from X2a up to whatever future release is coming out, so I would advise you to go ahead and grab this deal.
 
There is a learning curve in moving from pre-X to X2a, but I have really found my workflow to have improved, and the Pro Channel in and of itself is fabulous.
 
I don't know if you would be able to go back and download any of the X2 Producer Club content at this point in it all, but there were some really nice freebies in that, if the prior downloads are available.
 
AND, Monday is a holiday, in case you wanted to spend the entire day playing with your shiny new toys........
 
You want it, you KNOW you do, in fact you NEED it, you GOTTA have it....
 
Truthfully, it is a fabulous release.
 
Bob Bone
 

I agree with picking up what seems to be a pretty stable release in X2a.  We do not know when the next release of Sonar is coming, or what will be in it (or removed, for that matter), nor do we know if there are going to be any unforeseen show stoppers (although the Cakewalk folks very quickly had a quick fix out there for some initial issues with X2).
 
Anyways, there are really no showstoppers present in X2a.  There are some bugs and some annoyances, but it is really a good jump to make to go to it.
 
You will also have the ability to retain your current installation of Sonar, and I recommend you keep it.  It will happily co-exist with the X2a release, and you may find it easier to work with some existing projects in 8, versus X2a, and keeping both releases gives you the most flexibility.
 
I also recommend you install BOTH a 32-bit and a 64-bit version of X2a.
 
Bob Bone
 

I'm counting on there being an X2b.
 

AT
congradulations on the wedding, Matt, if it is you.
 
 

Thanks dude! Give me 30 years and hopefully I'll have a daughter and her wedding to pay for :) She can do all the darn planning though!! Never again!!! lol

Paul P
I'm counting on there being an X2b.
 

Your faith is strong, but possibly misguided, young one.

I've been very happy moving to X2A from X1.  To me the $50 buck2 was worth getting Rapture, much less the other stuff in X2.

Since upgrading to X2, more than half of my previous projects created in X1 will not load in X2.
'SONARPDR.EXE is not responding'.
Yay.
Is there a patch or ointment for that?

Here's my take...
 
I saw the half-price upgrade & as it's only £39 for us in the UK, I thought this was a bargain & a cheap way of "staying in the game"!  I previously had bought Pro 8.5 with the free upgrade offer to X1 which I took!  I then took advantage of the Expanded upgrade when that was on offer.
 
So I thought about this offer carefully & looked at how much (going by previous offers of course) an upgrade could potentially cost me if I skipped this version & worked out that it would be more than double the current offer.  If you look at how much the upgrade is now from pre-X1 to X2, that'll give you an indication as to the minimum it's likely to cost skipping a version with a special offer of course.
 
So after some consideration, on the above basis I decided that £39 was "as cheap as chips" & so I parted with my cash!  Even if I don't use X2, it kind of guarantees a cheap upgrade path for the next version!
 
Maybe I've miscalculated it somewhere & got it all wrong but I expect if I have, someone will tell me shortly... 

McMoore11
Since upgrading to X2, more than half of my previous projects created in X1 will not load in X2.
'SONARPDR.EXE is not responding'.
Yay.
Is there a patch or ointment for that?

Do you have X2a? 


Projects from X1 should load in X2 unless perhaps you are running Windows XP which is not supported for X2. Perhaps you have some faulty plug-in that's causing the problem. In that case, load the project in Safe mode and figure out which plug-in is the culprit.