The BIG announcement and all the hype around it, for me, is a big dud....
1)SonarMac...I could care less. But it it helps expand the Cakewalk user base, making it a more solid company in the end, that's good for all of us users.
2)Interesting stuff coming up down the road this year, but I still have to wait
3)Lifetime membership - OK, I'll sign on. Even though I was able to do so before June 1st, I wanted to see what the BIG announcement was.
 
count me disappointed

Andrew Rossa [Cakewalk]
JRR was told to pull the SKU down. It's the old membership SKU. It's going to cause more problems. I have asked twice for them to pull it. The regular price for the upgrade is $199 with Lifetime updates. You can see the right SKU on our store as well. We have pull down Platinum Membership SKUs on our end as well so people don't buy the wrong thing. You've been warned.

Ok, but still it doesn't look right.
According to your own new overview page, upgrading from e.g. Sonar X1 Producer, or renewing from Sonar Platinum will cost exactly the same: $199. The upgrade from Sonar Producer to Platinum was always already $199, so they now basically get the Lifetime for free, while for existing Platinum users you increased the price from $149 to $199 so we are paying $50 extra for Lifetime.
Also, with JRR's additional discount on Producer->Platinum, that eventually would cost me €152, whereas what I am being offered as Lifetime renewal of Platinum via the Cakewalk store is €232, that's more than 50% more expensive while you would think it would be cheaper!
So, obviously I have this question now: Can I still upgrade my old Sonar X1 Producer, even though I already upgraded it back in December ?

Rocsee70

Andrew Rossa [Cakewalk]
JRR was told to pull the SKU down. It's the old membership SKU. It's going to cause more problems. I have asked twice for them to pull it. The regular price for the upgrade is $199 with Lifetime updates. You can see the right SKU on our store as well. We have pull down Platinum Membership SKUs on our end as well so people don't buy the wrong thing. You've been warned.

Ok, but still it doesn't look right.
According to your own new overview page, upgrading from e.g. Sonar X1 Producer, or renewing from Sonar Platinum will cost exactly the same: $199. The upgrade from Sonar Producer to Platinum was always already $199, so they now basically get the Lifetime for free, while for existing Platinum users you increased the price from $149 to $199 so we are paying $50 extra for Lifetime.
Also, with JRR's additional discount on Producer->Platinum, that eventually would cost me €152, whereas what I am being offered as Lifetime renewal of Platinum via the Cakewalk store is €232, that's more than 50% more expensive while you would think it would be cheaper!

We wanted to simplify the pricing structure and make it appealing to all. Lifetime updates do have a cost and we tried to keep it affordable for all. As for JRR, I am not sure they have the right SKUs up. I would stick with Sweetwater or GC as they have the right SKUs. Any customer issues will be directed to them and not us :)

Andrew Rossa [Cakewalk]
 
We wanted to simplify the pricing structure and make it appealing to all. Lifetime updates do have a cost and we tried to keep it affordable for all. As for JRR, I am not sure they have the right SKUs up. I would stick with Sweetwater or GC as they have the right SKUs. Any customer issues will be directed to them and not us :)

Ok, I had a look at Sweetwater and there it does have the new SKUs, so for JRR it's not just the $149 one that is wrong but probably all of them. So to my above point about 'upgrade from Producer' actually Sweetwater calls it 'upgrade from Producer or Platinum' so then I would not need to ask for an upgrade of my already upgraded X1 Producer. Hope that JRR will also apply their Group Buy discounts to this SKU, but will see when they update it.

I am thrilled!!!
 
Count me in as one of early alpha or beta testers.
 
I was always a Windows user and beta tester for several products, but my photography and graphic business has always pushed me into the Mac world. So, I have been a cross platform person for a few years, now. I still think there are a few things that make more sense on a PC, but I also feel the Mac is more intuitive.
 
I am still running Win 7 and use an Edirol FA-101 which does not and will not have Win 10 drivers. My PC is aging, right along with me, so I am hoping my next computer will be some sort of a Mac running Sonar.
 
I am also hoping that the lifetime upgrades will also include the Mac. Actually, before I signed up, which was the first day it was offered, I read through the fine print and it looks like this will be the case.
 
I have been very happy with the new Cakewalk Sonar Bakers and Money Makers. Thank you.
 
Being a serious user of the iPad Pro, I am thinking that once the Bakers iron out the Mac creases they will port it over to iOS.

If I buy the Cakewalk SONAR Platinum Upgrade from SONAR X3 Producer from JRR here:
 
https://www.jrrshop.com/cakewalk-sonar-platinum-upgrade-from-sonar-x3-producer
 
...will it qualify for lifetime updates?   I currently own Sonar X3 Producer.
 
Thanks,
G

I hope the offer for Lifetime will remain active till Aug 31st.
I had a bad experience regarding the offer of $99 which was changed from March31st to Jan/Feb (I forgot the date).
 
Sonar4Mac will certainly put a competition to other DAW
Updates if include more VSTi for real instruments would be better.
Lifetime Update - just unbelievable. [But depends on how much will be included within SONAR and how much will be add-on separately with payment]
 
Regards
Snehankur

Photo_G
If I buy the Cakewalk SONAR Platinum Upgrade from SONAR X3 Producer from JRR here:
 
https://www.jrrshop.com/cakewalk-sonar-platinum-upgrade-from-sonar-x3-producer
 
...will it qualify for lifetime updates?   I currently own Sonar X3 Producer.
 
Thanks,
G

No, that is the membership SKU. As stated, they have not cleaned up their site despite various requests. I would go to Sweetwater or GC who have the right price. We won't be dealing with any customer service issues due to this issue.

Not being obsessed with the short sighted "me me me" syndrome running rampant in the world, I'm extremely excited by this announcement!
 
Do I have any apple products?  No.  Do I think this is going to expand Sonar's user base and benefit us all?  Absolutely!  Combined with "lifetime" updates and the growing power of the platform, it is going to be VERY interesting to many new power users...
 
I'll be upgrading to "lifetime" as soon as funds allow.  With the expanded user base and additional hardware being brought into Cakewalk's fold, I expect growing support from hardware vendors for Sonars which has been somewhat sketchy historically.  Cross platform and a stable pricing structure should go towards changing this.  
 
Cross platform compatibility has been a long time in coming and I think it's a smart move and will benefit us all in the long run... Thank you, bakers!

e.Blue
Ironically, this may be changing soon as Microsoft is finally finishing up a brand new Thunderbolt audio stack which is based around USB 3.1/C and promises to greatly simplify what developers need to do to get their hardware up and running on Windowa 10 PCs.

We have true "PCIe via Thunderbolt support" (right now) under Win10.
You have to be running one of the latest Z170x or X99p chipset motherboards that supports Thunderbolt-3 via USB-C port.  It's now up the the audio interface manufacturers to create the appropriate drivers.
 
The reason for the "lag" on the PC side is simple:
Thunderbolt provides access to the PCIe bus (nothing more nothing less).
We've had (and still have) PCIe slots on the PC.
The only way to access the PCIe bus on any current generation Mac is via Thunderbolt-2.
This is why Apple is pushing Thunderbolt.  
For PC users, Thunderbolt brought nothing new to the table.
Someone here put it eloquently.  "Thunderbolt was a solution to a problem that didn't exist."
In their infinite wisdom , Apple took away PCIe slots and gave their users the same features (albeit lower bandwidth with TB2)... at significantly higher cost.
ie: A Thunderbolt 1TB conventional HD is $200.  That bare SATA drive is about $60.
 
It's easy to see the figures for Thunderbolt audio interfaces and get seduced by the numbers.
But... we've had those capabilities via PCIe audio interfaces for *years*.
MOTU 424 PCIe is an exceptional low-latency performer... as is the Lynx AES-16e/50... as are the RME units.
The only difference is you can connect the Thunderbolt units externally.  That's their only advantage.
 
MOTU now has a "PCIe via Thunderbolt" driver available for their AVB series (for Windows 10).
You'll need a USB-C to Thunderbolt adapter (about $80 - just released this month and out of stock at most places).