dolor3s
I only read this announcement now, on Christmas Eve 2017 and it feels like all saints day when you remember your deceased rather than Christmas.
I only hope some decent company will buy the rights to the software and the development will continue.
All the best to you, wonderful people of late Cakewalk.

Hear You Well Bro..... :)
Merry CHRISTMAS !!!
God Bless to you and all Sonarians  over this trialous period .
I am sure we will sort and resolve this painful,software rubbish  in the early New Year.
 
Cheers Frank in OZ

eikelbijter
Helped my good friend set up Studio One today; he's used Sonar from around version 4, with X1 the last version he's been on. He got on the crossgrade deal mainly to explore the CD Mastering environment.
 
Anyway, let me just say: it made me happy to be using Sonar, although the mastering thing IS very convenient. I will have to look into it more, but I couldn't even set up 'friendly' names for audio ins/outs, which at my buddy's place with 40 audio in sources is very unpleasant. The GUI is very 'loud' if that makes sense; too much info..... will have to explore.....

Of course you can. Just because you don't know how to use something doesn't mean it can't do it. Don't confuse ignorance with fact. I been using Studio One since v3 came out, there is no way in hell I'd ever go back to SONAR even if it wasn't dead in the water.
 

eikelbijter
Helped my good friend set up Studio One today; he's used Sonar from around version 4, with X1 the last version he's been on. He got on the crossgrade deal mainly to explore the CD Mastering environment.
 
Anyway, let me just say: it made me happy to be using Sonar, although the mastering thing IS very convenient. I will have to look into it more, but I couldn't even set up 'friendly' names for audio ins/outs, which at my buddy's place with 40 audio in sources is very unpleasant. The GUI is very 'loud' if that makes sense; too much info..... will have to explore.....

i am glad I am not the only one who sees it. V2's gui was already busy but still much nicer.. All presonus did was take it backwards and cram as much info on screen at one time as they could, with absolutely terrible contrast and color separation. It's literally like looking at a data spreadsheet. My eyes water and flutter when i stare at S1 song page. WAY too much info yet the daw itself is not that powerful. It's like they give the exterior a ferrari but the engine a corolla. Reliable but "meh".
 

I found a boxed retail version of Sonar Artist in a store and I would like to buy it.  Would I be able to still
activate it, re-install it when necessary, and use it for many years into the future?    

I confess that I still have hope that some big company will buy the Cakewalk. I would like the Behringer group that has a lot of money, buy the Cake, or who knows Microsoft. This week even a friend of mine came to tell me, that I was right to call the ProTools of Bug tools, because in all of her projects, every day she loses 30 minutes of project with the bugs of ProTools. I do not see myself using it, I use it when it is necessary to use it because a client asks me. I've been studying some Daws before this announcement of the end of the Sonar. The one I liked the most was FL Studio, which is very different from Sonar but is very efficient and powerful. Studio One I used a few years ago, some things resemble Sonar. I came to test the Mixbus but for MIDI is horrible. Live I have studied, I like the live loop mode of this Daw. Other than that, I can't imagine replacing sonar with Live. I think I'm going to stay in FL Studio. I really wanted to migrate to Cubase, but it's a very expensive Daw. Just imagining I'm not going to use any more prochannel is scary. FX Chain So it's something unique and sensational. I pray for some brand to buy the Cake.

I think if Gibson had any intention of selling SONAR to someone else they would not have diminished the value by getting rid of most of the developers and making a big announcement which has the effect of getting rid of many of the customers.  Doesn't mean they won't sell it, but I don't think there's any intent to do so.
 
I'm now up and running on Studio One AND Cubase, both of which have their strengths and weaknesses, but at this point I don't think I would go back to SONAR were it to be picked up by another company.

jeffdenny
I am devastated by this inconsiderate company decision to abandon dedicated members of the most awesome cakewalk community. I am saddened by the abuse and neglect from the co's of this company after we believed in you and trusted you.
 

Trust me, I curse Gibson for this. I don't believe it inconsiderate to discontinue the development of Sonar to cut losses, but rather inconsiderate that Gibson was in 2014 unable to properly size up the size bite they were taking of the Cake (pun intended). Gibson didn't need to invest in something so vast, and they should have known better. Hence, they made poor choices and ruined something good. I don't blame Gibson for damage control, but I do blame them for poor judgement in diving into the deep end of the pool without much consideration. They obviously didn't know what they were doing. Par for the course.

CoteRotie
I think if Gibson had any intention of selling SONAR to someone else they would not have diminished the value by getting rid of most of the developers and making a big announcement which has the effect of getting rid of many of the customers.  Doesn't mean they won't sell it, but I don't think there's any intent to do so.

Who knows what's in the mind of Gibson Executives but one thing is sure, developers are an asset in themselves. Maybe (whisful thinking, here) we'll see the birth of a company with these people very much like Studio One from Cubase or Bitwig from Ableton's Live. Let's wait and see.

Cubase Is the Program.
 
All the other do not support SYS EX

igiwigi
Cubase Is the Program.
 
All the other do not support SYS EX

You sure about that?
I thought Reaper and Studio one did.