Hello fellow Cakewalk users... sorry for the late reply on this topic, but I've been very busy these days. Many of you have been asking me various questions about the recent closing of Cakewalk, so to make this response less convoluted, I'll put it in the form of a Q&A. Keep in mind that I am not a Cakewalk employee and I have never worked for Cakewalk, so the information provided here is not any kind of official announcement from the company.

1. Will you still be using and covering SONAR? Yes, I still plan to create some video tutorials for SONAR on my various YouTube channels (listed below) and as long as they get enough views, I'll continue to produce them. YouTube channels here...
* https://www.youtube.com/S...gus?sub_confirmation=1
* https://www.youtube.com/D...deo?sub_confirmation=1
* https://www.youtube.com/N...deo?sub_confirmation=1

2. Will you be using and covering other DAWs? Yes, I've had access to a number of other DAWs for some time and I plan to create some learning materials for those as well... that includes tutorials on the YouTube channels listed above. At the moment, I have access to Ableton Live, Acoustica Mixcraft, Harrison Mixbus, FL Studio, PreSonus Studio One, and Propellerhead Reason.

3. Should I stop using SONAR and get another DAW? Which one? No, there's currently no reason for you to stop using SONAR. It works fine now and it should continue working fine for quite some time into the future. However, it's always a good idea to have a plan for moving forward, and learning a new DAW can also help you generate new musical ideas. I've already mentioned the DAWs that I plan to use and cover. They all have their strengths and weaknesses, so I can't tell you which one you should get. Most, if not all of them, have demo versions that you can try. Feel free to let me know which DAW you're thinking about in the comments below.

4. Are you sure SONAR won't stop working? Of course, there's no way I can guarantee that. Sometime in the future, there could be a change to Windows 10 that "breaks" SONAR, but the fact that some people are still running SONAR X3 (which hasn't received updates in years) bodes well for current SONAR users. If you're worried about this eventuality, you can use drive imaging to create a perfect copy of your system drive in its current state. If something goes wrong, you can image the drive back, disconnect the PC from the Internet and keep SONAR running for as long as the PC survives.

5. What about my SONAR license? To the best of my knowledge, all users who purchased SONAR (by either paying in full or paying monthly) are now being given a perpetual license that will allow you to keep using SONAR for as long as you like. You can check this by opening SONAR and using the Help > About menu to see if your status is listed as "Owned".

6. What about future SONAR installations? Yes, activation is the one issue that could eventually cause problems. However, Gibson/Cakewalk has stated that the activation servers will continue to operate (although no end date has been given) and Noel Borthwick has stated that if the servers go down, users will be given a method to install SONAR without the need for activation (ie. copy protection will be removed). You can see his statement at: http://forum.cakewalk.com...uncement-m3687511.aspx

7. What happens if/when the Cakewalk site is closed? Where can I go for info? There have actually been a number of places available for Cakewalk users for quite some time. I have a Cakewalk tutorials page available on Facebook that is open to anyone: https://www.facebook.com/CakewalkSonarTraining/ SONAR user Bob Bergen administers a very popular Cakewalk group on Facebook in which I participate: https://www.facebook.com/groups/sonarusergroup/ And DigiFreq - The Music Recording Resource is still around (there is a forum there as well): http://www.digifreq.com/

8. Is there anything else I should do to prepare for the possible Cakewalk site closure? Yes, the main thing you should do is go to the Cakewalk site, access your account and download all your current products so that you have backup copies, just in case. Also be sure to make note of any serial numbers, which you'll need for any future software installations.

It's definitely a sad time, but I want to say thank you to all the wonderful people at Cakewalk who made SONAR a possibility and allowed us to make music with one of the best music applications on the market. I also want to thank all the Cakewalk users out there for being a part of one of the best music communities around. Is there any chance that Cakewalk will return? I personally think there may be a slight chance for that possibility, but I honestly don't know.

All my best to everyone!
Scott
--
Scott R. Garrigus - http://www.garrigus.com
* Cakewalk SONAR Video Tutorials: https://www.youtube.com/u...gus?sub_confirmation=1
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar and Sony Sound Forge Power book series: http://garrigus.com/?PowerBooks
* Publisher of the DigiFreq music recording newsletter: http://www.digifreq.com/
* Publisher of the NewTechReview consumer tech newsletter: http://www.newtechreview.com/
 

Thanks Scott very positive information much needed here right now. 

Thank you for the information and advice.

Thanks Scott. For your added info.

The Sonar Software thread. Utilities and Resources will continue while ever the forum remains live. The current data will also be available through CakewalkCommunity.com (formerly Sonarmods.com) in the near future so that should the current forum be switched off there will immediately be a place for that info to be accessed.

Thanks Scott

I'm really interested in your eventual review/comparison with S1. From what I've read so far, it seems to be the one most like SPlat. People who have already "crossed over" seem to be very happy and some tutorials I've seen are impressive.
Thanks for your post.

Thanks Scott.

Thanks for this informative post, Scott.
All the best,

Thanks. Let us know when you publish a SOP power user guide.  The Sonar ones were great (at least until the page size changed, at which point the book just didn't fit well in the hand - or the bookshelf!).

garrigus
4. Are you sure SONAR won't stop working? Of course, there's no way I can guarantee that. Sometime in the future, there could be a change to Windows 10 that "breaks" SONAR, but the fact that some people are still running SONAR X3 (which hasn't received updates in years) bodes well for current SONAR users. If you're worried about this eventuality, you can use drive imaging to create a perfect copy of your system drive in its current state. If something goes wrong, you can image the drive back, disconnect the PC from the Internet and keep SONAR running for as long as the PC survives.

It's my understanding that Sonar Platinum was the first version to require online activation (during installation).  If that's true, the comparison to X3's "robustness" simply is not valid. 
 
The drive image idea would work great -- until your hardware fails and you can longer restore successfully. We've all seen the numerous reports from registered users who have had Sonar revert to Demo status unexpectedly.  I would fully expect that drive image restore to do the same thing eventually (especially if you had to replace a piece of HW).
 
IMO, planning to work with Sonar in the long run is like having an ominous, dark cloud overhead while you sit unconcerned with a lightning rod strapped to your chair.