Hello,
 
I originally placed a pre-order for X2 Essentials & in waiting for it to be re-stocked at Sweetwater,I discovered today,that Cakewalk cut their pricing in half on their Essential & Studio versions,so I opted for the Studio version & I am waiting for delivery.
I had assumed that I was getting the latest version of the Z3TA synth,but discovered that I will only have the classic version...sort of a LE version?
All of which leads me to the meat of the matter,which is this; will I be able to add the Z3TA+2 upgrade via the download from this site to my classic version from within my Sonar X2 Studio...or can this update only be done through upgrading to Producer?
In other words,is the +2 version that sells for $49,only for the 3rd party VST version of the Z3TA synth?
 
The whole reason I'm asking,is that my purpose for wanting Sonar(X2 Essential specifically),is that I already have Reason 7 & Presonus S1...but still needed a DAW with video support.

I began this whole quest,by trying my hand at Acoustica Mixcraft 6(but it was a veritable disasterpiece) & a tragic waste of $75.
A few months after,I discovered the "LE" versions of Sonar X2,were not actually LE versions per say and actually fully functional & relatively feature-packed versions.
That being said,I was hooked into the idea of buying the Essential version and never intended to invest any further into Sonar's library(because I have VST's galore)...but Cakewalk's August half off sale got me thinking about Sonar's synths & I really liked the X2 Producer demo that I toyed with.
 
I researched the Z3TA synth and found it fascinating,but with all I have now,in terms of VST's...spending another $300 is not practical,necessary or even something I can afford to do now anyhow.
I have no compunction about eventually laying another $49 to update Z3TA to version +2,but wanted to confirm that I could upgrade just the synth,or if I had to upgrade the entire DAW,just to have the Z3TA upgrade?
Assuming I can upgrade just the Z3TA,if I do this & then eventually upgrade to Producer,then I will have spent a total of $350 in upgrades.
If I decided to upgrade certain modules in my Sonar Studio on a piecemeal basis,rather than the whole upgrade to Producer and then decided to upgrade to Producer altogether,then I've paid double for Producer?Or will my collective upgrades,make my final upgrade cheaper in price?
 
I've never been faced with decisions such as these,because I've never had to pay extra for updates to synthesizer modules before,so forgive my ignorance on this subject.
 
Considering the discount I got on my Studio version,I can't really complain about being handed only outdated and LE versions of synths,but if I had paid the original price for the Studio version,I'd be pissed about not at least having one synth in X2 Studio,that is the full version.
 
I would appreciate some input,
 
-Elwood

The version of Z3TA+ is not an LE version, it is the original version of the synth and is the same one included with SONAR Producer. Z3TA+ classic bundled with SONAR Studio and Producer qualifies for the upgrade price to Z3TA+2.
 
Should you elect to purchase items included in Producer such as the full versions of DimPro and Rapture, it will not affect your upgrade price from Studio to Producer.

Thanks for the reply. I understand that Z3TA+ is not a LE version like the Dimension & Rapture synths are...but I'm wondering about the contrasts between the classic version and the latest version.

There is a demo for Z3TA+2. You can check it out now or wait until you get Z3TA+ Classic and compare them side-by-side.

I would prefer to start with with getting to know the classic first,as it will be really interesting to eventually hear how it has improved since the advent of it.
I'll try out the demo in due time.

elwoodblues1969
Thanks for the reply. I understand that Z3TA+ is not a LE version like the Dimension & Rapture synths are...but I'm wondering about the contrasts between the classic version and the latest version.

The main difference between Z3ta+ and Z3ta+2 is that the first one actually works. The arpeggiator on the new version freezes up all the time and even though they have acknowledged this by issuing a "fix", it still does it all the time. If you use it as a standalone it's fine, but use it in sonar and it  screws it up almost every time. A CW product specialist since told me that they have never heard of this problem before (despite isssuing a "fix" for it ???) so now CW has it's fingers in it's ears and it's a case of .......la, la, la....... we can't hear you.
 
 

It's also the case that the "problem" you're seeing isn't reflected across the entire user base.
 
I use the Arps in Z3TA+2 all the time and I've never had it freeze up on me

Another difference between v1 and v2 (although I've never used v1 and have only tried the demo of v2 -- so how do I know? Roland JP checked it for me) is that v2 fails to change the banks (preset categories) when receiving bank select messages from an external device. In fact, this isn't just Z3TA+ 2, there are other VSTi's (third-party ones) that fail to change banks when used in Sonar (they work fine in another daw I use and the standalone versions work fine too). CW tech support is currently investigating it (although it was in May when I first reported the issue to them lol).

Bristol_Jonesey
It's also the case that the "problem" you're seeing isn't reflected across the entire user base.
 
I use the Arps in Z3TA+2 all the time and I've never had it freeze up on me

I'm sure it isn't, but it isn't just me who has this problem, other users have also complained of having the same problem. Anyway, the point really is that they acknowledged there was a problem by issuing a patch. On being told that the patch didn't work, they now say they've never heard of this problem before ???  How does that work then ? (rhetorical question)
 
So, for me and others it remains very tempermental as a plug-in in sonar. Standalone it's fine every time, but no use to me and kind of proves that the issue is Cakewalk related and not the machine/OS. I'm glad it works for you, but for me and others it doesn't and the response to this from CW has been ......well, if we ignore them long enough, they will probably just go away and stop asking. I guess we will, I'm not a fan of banging my head against a wall, but it doesn't reflect well on CW and doesn't make me feel inclined to give them any more money.

That is strange indeed, and an even stranger response from Cakewalk.
Don't really know what to suggest, other than uninstalling it & do a reinstall.