It has become a truism that the "power of the DAW" has mostly migrated from the basic DAW platform to the collection of plug-ins (instruments and effects).  The bad news is there will probably never be a way to open an old SONAR project under another DAW.  The next best thing, IMHO, would be for all the VSTs to be available in whatever DAW we have to move on to.  I am thinking of things like Adaptive Limiter, Rapture Pro etc.
 
I don't know whether these VSTs are open or locked at this point.  But if they are locked to where they can only run under SONAR, it seems the least Cakewalk/Gibson should do is make this technology freely available to all paid-up SONAR users.

I agree with this one hundred percent!!!!
 
As a “life time user” I’m extremely disappointed with the announcement. When I paid the life time upgrade a friend of my told me that Cakewalk wouldn’t last long. Somehow he made the prediction based on Cakewalk’s position in the DAW market and the ambitious plans Cakewalk had. He said that Cakewalk wouldn’t maintain profitable based on the amount of users. Unfortunately he was correct.
 
I still like Cakewalk but with no development and upgrades I unfortunately must move on.
 
The same friend introduced me to his DAW, Studio One. I would like to port my projects but have the problem that the VST’s (some) are locked!!
It would be nice and probably the least Cakewalk could do for its faithful (life time) users to unlock these VST’s to enable project conversion to another DAW.
 
Thanks in advance Cakewalk for this!!!
 
Regards,
Leon

Bump

After installing a couple of DAW demos this past couple of days, I've realized how much I actually prefer Sonar.
(I say actually because on YouTube I thought a few other DAW UIs looked better, but in the flesh, I didn't like them.)
So, I've also been wondering how to finally acquire an upgrade to Platinum (from Professional), plus how to get Rapture Pro and Z3TA+ 2, both demos of which I've tried before.
(At a discount of course, considering, but I would be willing to pay the Cakewalk team..) 

Most all of your standard Cakewalk plugs like Sonitus, Dimension, Rapture, etc. will work. Only a few like BREVERB, TH2 & 3 won't.

I agree, I am a Cubase 9.5 and Sonar plat user, and there are some "cakewalk locked" plugins I would like to keep using in cubase or other daws. Plugins such as Breverb 2 or nomad factory plugins.
TH3 works inside cubase but needs a new licence.
 
btw cakewalk products were on sale on steam, fortunately I grabbed zeta+2 and rapture pro very cheap before they were removed.
Oh wait you can still buy rapture pro.

I would guess that the licensing agreements with Overloud and Nomad Factory would explicitly prohibit this, but I don't know for sure. Shame, because I really like those Nomad Factory plugins. Guess among other things I'll be looking again at the Waves equivalents.

armodeus
TH3 works inside cubase.

Don't know about Cubase but the demos I've tried don't work with it. Maybe you have an upgraded version?

As noted by rmfegley above, Cakewalk my be contractually prohibited from unlocking the third-party plugins. I suspect those vendors would be reluctant to OK it, since they'd rather you bought the full product from them.
 
However, the plugin most people seem to want made portable is Adaptive Limiter, and that (I believe) was developed in-house and therefore entirely Cakewalk's intellectual property. Assuming Gibson says it's OK, it would be trivial for them to compile an unlocked version. Don't hold your breath, though; it's still a valuable asset to Gibson and another company might want to buy it.

monleo2014
 
...I still like Cakewalk but with no development and upgrades I unfortunately must move on.
 

I'm curious... What is the rush from everyone to "move on" from Sonar? If you have a working DAW with hardware in good condition, simply "freeze" your OS/Software installs in place, take a backup image of your install drive, and go on with your day. Whatever version of Sonar that you own will continue to work so long as you have hardware and an OS that can run it... There is no reason to update a working install of Windows on a DAW, (which can cause issues), or rush out to get a new DAW tommorow...