Does anyone else feel like this is more like the next refinement of X1 rather than the "next version" of Sonar. Don't get me wrong, my order's in, and I'm really looking forward to the enhancements to the workflow and ProChannel improvments. But going from 8.5 to X1 was a big change. This feels, at least to me, more like a polishing of the old rather than something new. My .02 anyways.

You cant make massive changes all the time. From watching the video it looks like they have done more than enough to class it as a new version and for $99 you cant really go wrong.

  Agreed. That's why they already got my 99 bucks.

of course it is the next bit.

and less than half the cost it should be.

well the software industry is totally weird because like when you go to walmart to buy a coffee maker, you are done..  you get 1 model.  if you want it upgraded, and all, than you have to go back to walmart and get a new one...

Software is more like, "a living product."  You get into a version at considerable cost, but when a new version pops up, you get quite a discount...

I'd like to buy my cars that way....

Cars seem to follow the same upgrade path as software, but without the discount..  Like if you bought a 2002 ford mustang, than you got a certain body style, and in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 ford added new technology to the mustang, and then remade the body in like 2007....


I don't think X2 is a bad thing...  You just have to play around for a few years to get to whatever is after the X's...  

Because X1 is my first copy of Sonar, I do not know when the last, "major redesign took place."  but I do know that, "5 years," is a long time in the technology world...

Expect another major redesign in 2016??????

I used to get my cars that way when I worked for GM, those were the days upgrade a new suv every 6 months lol

the extra plugins (Overloud Reverb, TH2, R-MIX, Rapture full and Console Emulation) are well worth the upgrade, but I do agree that this does seem like a refinement but very nicely packaged as an upgrade. I am looking forward to it!

True that perfectprint...


even though, I've already got Rapture full...   certainly Console E, OVer Verb, and glitch free Multiband/LPEq are very worth the upgrade...


Plus, I expect it to be a little bit of a, "paid bug fix," and I don't have a problem with that

I like the car example. It fits well.

The big jumps were from Pro Audio to SONAR. Now it's SONAR to SONAR X. These are large jumps. The require a significant re-write of coding. It would be completely pointless to do this each upgrade. You'd never get rid of any bugs or add any serious new features. They also couldn't DO it in a normal upgrade time cycle. They don't make a new car body each year because it costs so much money and time to create a new one each time. Every now and then you bring out a big overhaul then spend the next 5 or whatever years tweaking that and bringing it to its peak potential. Eventually you'll hit a wall and can't go much further. That's when it's time for an overhaul. To write X1 required a huge re-structuring of EVERYTHING (I imagine). 8.5 just couldn't really be taken much further. I think of X1 is an amazing skeleton. X2 is only just begging to flesh out the muscles and adding some organs. Wait till it gets it's skin, hair and a nice set of ironed clothes (there's a bug related pun in there). The SONAR X series has so much potential with this new framework and it's going to take a few years to fully realise its potential, and I can't wait to see what the future holds.

Well having been with the Bakers since the days it came on floppys, I can attest for a few things that are reasonable:

1. Cakewalk has always deployed reworks fairly close to Microsoft deployments...there is a reason for it and what little I have gleaned implies the Bakers here are deeply respected by the Redmond bunch...

2. Cakewalk always moves forward in the direction of the INDUSTRY, NOT as a specific user group...that metric gets really hard to see sometimes since we all approach the body as if it were all the hand or ear that we are...syndoche: "To see the whole as the part"...


SO for me "X" was a vast improvement...better latency...a forward looking GUI that emulates a studio console...frankly ALL of the DAW platforms are cludgy...barely visible representations of hardware wit no tactile appendages...its murder if you work in a real studio to sit in front of a glorified digital tape machine that looks like something from Autocad...

Your mileage may vary...