Having had 24 hours to think about things I have decided that the best way forward for me is to simply stay with SPLAT until I have a good reason to change.

I stuck with Sonar 2 until Sonar 8 came out because at the time Midi was more important to me than audio and most of the new stuff was audio related.

By sticking with SPLAT I'll be in the same position as I was then, I'll have software that I am happy with that works the issue being it's not supported. The only difference I can see is that if Sonar 2 had broken on me I would have had the option to upgrade to the latest version of Sonar. Now I'll have to buy something else if the failure occurs.

I'm pretty sure that I'll be ok for a good few years though because Kinetic still works for me as does my UAD 1 and some other old software.

I guess I may need to be careful about buying new stuff as there may be compatability issues but if I'm honest with myself there is nothing I really need just stuff I think I want.

I switched to Cakewalk because Voyetra did not have a Windows version and they said there were no plans for one which was a long time ago.

Like many here I hope that Cakewalk survives whether that is a rescue mission for the company or the ip being sold to form the basis of a new product.

I appreciate that this is not a viable strategy for everyone but right now I really don't see a good reason to buy another DAW when I have a really good one that is working and does what I need.

I upgraded from 8.5 to SPLAT lifetime.  So much had changed that I felt I was learning a new DAW - though with the advantage I could open all my projects with no problem.  I guess we should all save our projects as Audio Stems and midi tracks so that when the inevitable happens we can upload the work into the new DAW....

Cakewalk used to hand out new versions every year.
So the way I see it is I have a year or more to find something new and even then I will still use Sonar for things like Region FX and drum replacer.

chuckebaby
Cakewalk used to hand out new versions every year.
So the way I see it is I have a year or more to find something new and even then I will still use Sonar for things like Region FX and drum replacer.

This is a great way to look at it.
 
Once the dust settles I think that there will a lot of users still on SPLAT who, because of Life Time Updates and Instalments, will be using or eligible to use 2017.10. 
 
For the third parties this will be an easy target base to support and my guess is that that is the major developers will all start specifying that they support Sonar 2017.10. Good news for them is that they only have to test on one version of Sonar, good news for anyone using Sonar is that any third party that claims Sonar support has to fix the problem or or give a refund they can't say upgrade or rely on Cakewalk to provide a fix.
 
Being realistic this probably means in 2-3 years time we'll start to see third party products exclude Sonar from their supported list and any new developers are unlikely to support Sonar because they cannot purchase a copy to test on.
 
The point here is that for a period of time we don't have to worry about a third party breaking Sonar we just need to be sensible and check that any new products or updates do specifically support Sonar.
 
The other positive for stability is that Cakewalk have tended to cooperate with Microsoft so there is a good chance that they have well written "Microsoft compliant" code where it matters so this should hopefully protect us from over worrying about Windows updates breaking Sonar. Of course this risk exists but I suspect it is not as high as some of us fear.
 
My biggest concern about Windows updates is that it will break my older hardware driver or software that I still use.
 
The other issue that I see is not with Sonar its the other developers whose software I use. Cakewalk is not the only company that has been giving special deals I have bought a lot of plug ins in the last 12 months at rock bottom prices. Items that I had determined were too expensive for me are now part of my setup. I now wonder how many of these developers are having the same underlying problem as Cakewalk. I appreciate that these companies are not owned by Gibson but in the cold light of day the closure of Cakewalk seems to be as much about the hard market they are in as it is about the mismanagement at Gibson.
 
So personally I'm not going to be looking for the best deal I can find on Black Friday or make a quick switch based on a good cross grade offer. I'm going to sit it out for a while and see what emerges from this mess and choose my replacement when I am forced to or when I am ready to. Of course I have this option because I don't depend on Sonar for my income.
 
 

So thinking about this some more I can see one reason for making a decision on which DAW will replace Sonar for me and that is how long the other developers will offer Cross Grade pricing...
 
I really appreciate the offers that have been made here and much as I expect my version of Sonar to carry on working for a few years I'm beginning to think that making a decision and purchasing a replacement while the option to Cross Grade is still available makes the most sense from a financial perspective.
 
Given that PreSonus have promised a competitive offer next week I'm hoping that the Steinberg offer will hold for a while as well so that I can make the choice. 

anydmusic
Having had 24 hours to think about things I have decided that the best way forward for me is to simply stay with SPLAT until I have a good reason to change...
...I appreciate that this is not a viable strategy for everyone but right now I really don't see a good reason to buy another DAW when I have a really good one that is working and does what I need.

 
Same here. I'm in no hurry to change. I stuck with Sonar 7PE for over 4 years before eventually upgrading to X2 and X3. And I didn't jump on board with Platinum until it was more than half way into its second year. I've just built a new DAW PC, offline and running Windows 7. Hopefully, Sonar should keep on working here for at least a couple of years.

I wrote the following in a different thread, but I'll say it again. The best music I've created was with Sonar 3, not x3. I will continue to use SPLAT until something breaks it. I've installed SPLAT on my windows 7 laptop, not to record, but to have in case Sonar stops working on my windows 10 machine. When this eventually happens, I will be able to open my projects on my windows 7 laptop, and export the stems to whatever DAW I select in the future.