What a fool I am. I was thinking that the HUGE announcement was going to be applicable to me and get me to uprade to SPLAT - small notation fixes, chord track/assistant/pad. Turns out it is none of the above.

Regarding Apple, I think they'd have more success re-releasing Logic for Windows.

Jim Roseberry

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).
 
 

I'm excited for Sonar on Mac but that is a great point about Thunderbolt.  I've had my RME Multiface 2 for a LONG time.  I believe it's the earliest PCIe version, but it's still PCIe.  It was disheartening to see less and less of that interface type on the market.

Lots of curmudgeonly commentary here. That's fine, it's all good and everyone has a right blah blah blah, but I'd personally wait till the parade rounded the first corner before I began to rain on it. Anyway, congrats to all the Cakewalk guys!

Photo_G

Rocsee70

Photo_G
Thanks Rocsee70, but that doesn't tell us what the right "SKU" is, so we don't make a mistake...whether buying from JRR or any other distributer.
 
Can someone from Cakewalk help out?

 
The answer above was to go to Sweetwater instead. But we can compare the offering (prices, description, ...) between Sweetwater and JRR to see when JRR has updated theirs. Like I said: new offering has 1 item for 'upgrade from any Producer or Platinum' : http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/SonarPltUpSP , so when JRR has a similar one, I'm pretty sure that's the new SKU. Right now JRR has upgrade from X3 Producer, older Producer and Platinum renewal as 3 separate items which indicates old SKUs.
 

But, it doesn't say "lifetime updates" in the Sweetwater description either.  It's not at all clear which purchases Cakewalk will reject, and which ones they will accept for this offer (unless we buy directly, since it's called SONAR Platinum (with Lifetime Updates).
 
G

All purchases from Sweetwater will be fine. They are all set. I am hoping JRR will fix soon. We like them too but they have the wrong SKU up. Might be a time difference thing.

Andrew Rossa [Cakewalk]All purchases from Sweetwater will be fine. They are all set. I am hoping JRR will fix soon. We like them too but they have the wrong SKU up. Might be a time difference thing.

Is AudioDeluxe ok?

SilkTone
Wow, what a disappointment!! A Mac version that makes absolute zero difference to me, other than knowing SONAR on PC will eventually become the second class citizen. Rolling updates that... we've had for awhile now (am I missing something? What about this is new...?). Announcement of improvements to existing features and a few new features that will be available sometime in the future. Just like we always had announcements of a new features in the past. Confused.
 
I thought I was going to be excited if I waited until June 1st to make my lifetime payment. Now I don't even feel like doing it until the offer almost expires.

I'm in the same boat, Mac version does nothing for me, and the best price they can offer me on lifetime updates is £175! ($252) buying a new license! (why the hell do i need a new license? i have spent £202 ($291) on platinum alone) does not seem like the most loyal customers get the best deals! 

kevinwal
Lots of curmudgeonly commentary here. That's fine, it's all good and everyone has a right blah blah blah, but I'd personally wait till the parade rounded the first corner before I began to rain on it. Anyway, congrats to all the Cakewalk guys!

I think it has more to do with the over the top hype buildup and then finding out it has pretty much zero to do with 98% of everyone currently using SONAR.
 
The "other" announcement that was supposed to be specific to PC users is just the regular run of the mill updates and new features we have been getting since we started with rolling updates. The lifetime update was known well in advance so no new news there.
 
So today's announcement adds basically nothing new for the vast majority of users. CW kept telling us to wait until June 1st, so we did and it was nowhere near how they hyped it.
 
I think it is wrong to blame users for complaining after such hype and then such a letdown.

Strategically Cakewalk probably should have waited on announcing lifetime till June 1.  Then comments like Silk Tone's wouldn't be occurring.  Sometimes it's too easy to forget how jaded our society has become.
 
Taken as a whole, these two announcements ARE huge... and definitely the most significant changes to Sonar since I first started with Sonar over a decade ago. Wading thru all the blather, it's nice to see many comments expounding on this.  I can't resist reflecting that those who understand and appreciate what just happened have way bigger brains than those that don't...

This got really overhyped yepp, mac is meh...

Jim Roseberry

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).
 
 

Thunderbolt on MBP has worked out great. That's all I know. Basically enables me to use my laptop conveniently as I would a desktop. Actually, more conveniently since the laptop is mobile. Via a dock and one cable I can run two external monitors, Motu MTPAV, FireFace 800, external speakers, external hard drives, ethernet (don't really need that since there is no reason to turn off wifi on the mac) etc while keeping everything nicely tucked away. I was totally skeptical to run all this for audio thinking there would be some bottleneck but it's worked out fine.