I am very sad indeed. Sonar is not only a vehicle which I've used to transport my ideas. Its been time machine which has let me capture feelings. Almost the same way a photographer takes picture. Ive used Sonar to take my photos with my ears.
 
I am trying my very best to with hold resentment towards Gibson but im finding it very difficult.
I understand this is just business but if they were going to offer lifetime updates and had any indication that they would not be able to fulfill that promise than they shouldn't have offered it in the first place.
I was one of the dear users who stood behind Cakewalk and Gibson saying "This is a great deal". Fighting off the trolls and naysayers with words of hope. To those people I am very sorry. I cant say I saw this coming directly. I figured at minimum 3 years would pass to at least make it worth our while with lifetime updates.
 
As I said, I don't want to hold bad feelings toward Gibson but im having trouble not.
Im just grateful they have kept the servers going and this forum (for now).
However I have to be honest, I have no interest in doing so, But im sure there has to be some that are studying that fine print looking at a class action.

sharke
I'm hoping that Cakewalk staff will at this point be floating ideas to build a new DAW from scratch. Isn't that how Studio One and Bitwig got started - developers on the teams of other DAW's going off on their own? I'm sure Noel & co. must have felt frustrated and restricted at times by Sonar's ancient legacy - building off of old code, hemmed in by the fact that you can make changes to a DAW but not drastic changes. Maybe this is a chance for them to build the DAW they always wanted Sonar to be but couldn't quite get there on top of legacy code.

I like the way you think!  Just compare this to the acquisition of Tracktion by Mackie.  The devs re-acquired Tracktion and brought the product back from the ashes!!!  http://mackie.com/blog/tracktion-has-new-home
 
https://www.tracktion.com/
 
Keep the faith!!! 

clintmartin

reza
I believe the only way that cakewalk can survive forever is: It must be Purchased by MICROSOFT.

Let it die then.

Why?? There is NO WAY MS would be a worse owner than Gibson. NO. FREAKING. WAY. Also, MS is in a much better financial state than Gibson can EVER BE. Lastly, if you were truly anti-MS, then shouldn't you be using Logic instead of Sonar in the first place? Hmmm?

clintmartin

reza
I believe the only way that cakewalk can survive forever is: It must be Purchased by MICROSOFT.

Let it die then.

I agree.  Micro$haft purchased Skype a few years ago and systematically ever since began to undermine support for other platforms to the point where the original skype servers and dedicated skype phones and similar hardware no longer function at all.
 
Personally though, I still have an original Cakewalk Home Studio 9.01 which I purchased for $150 CDN way back in 1998 and to this very day works swimmingly under WINE Windows Emulator in Linux.
 
While it may lack the Audio and VSTi features of today's software, it DOES NOT phone home to mother for permission and still lays down some mean MIDI tracks.
 
But I agree.  I'd rather see Cakewalk die and be reborn as something  different and better in the future than let the Windows Idiots get their greasy paws on it.
 
At least for now as long as it runs under WINE I can still manage to read and export my WRK files and for the time being that's all that I need. :D :D :D
 
So Gibson!  Here's mud in yer eye for killing everyone's music for the sake of making a lousy buck :P
 
Gary ;)
 

Merry Christmas, Sonar users!

Love, Gibson.

dubdisciple

HelRazor
Sounds like a great time to look deeper into Ableton.  Or FL Studio.

Imho those choices would be lower among the tiers if sonar replacements. Fine products but workflow for both is so different than sonar that it woukd be awkward. Even most people who use ( unless they are strictly hip-hop) these programs tend to use morw traditional DAWs too. FL and Ableton arw superior for beat making but clunky to the new user, particularly the acoustic musician, for mixing.

I agree.  Ableton, FL Studio, and such may make fine secondary DAWs, but for mixing and mastering on Windows I would probably prefer Studio One or Cubase.

Ron Kuper
I couldn't believe the news, so very saddened by it. I'm hoping maybe against hope that somehow Cakewalk gets rebooted under a new owner.

Good Heavens I hope so! And I sure hope the Cakewalk Forums and customer accounts will still be operational! I would hate to lose the opportunity to reach out to other Sonar users, especially those who are blind like me. So far, Sonar is the only software I know of that has screenreader accessibility with JAWS.

sharke
Gibson is trash, there's no other way of putting it. I do not wish Gibson all the best, I'd like to see them go under at this point. Harsh? Maybe. But they are not a good company and haven't been for years. This is worth a read. 
 
http://gawker.com/gibson-...lar-company-1713072808

Yes but honestly this is not a big surprise. In the last 6 months, there were no plans for any big update and only minor updates every month. I just guess it has been too hard taking market share from the other daws - one needs *a lot* of licenses sold every year to sustain a decent development team.
 
I don't think it really matters who took over Cakewalk after Roland sold it, the company would have needed to inject a lot of cash over a long time to bring some new competitive features to gain market share over the other DAWs. 
 
However, I think the Cakewalk team did an amazing job with the monthly updates, probably working with a relatively small dev team too.
 
They tried the subscription model but I guess it failed somehow. Then Gibson is a hardware company, they might not have enough software history to understand that it is a totally different business.
 
What I do hope is that someone will take over the IP, rebrand it and refresh it otherwise Sonar will become a sad pile of code. Microsoft has been focused on creators, they probably could grab Sonar for a good price right now and make it a good asset in their store. Anyway, someone taking over the code would be a nice outcome.
 
Anyway sad day, trying to figure out between Studio One and Cubase right now...
 
And good luck to all the Cakewalk employees. Quick guess is that they shouldn't have any issues finding other opportunities. This was an amazing product.

Worst news of the year!
 

Anderton
I feel kind of like I’ve been told guitar strings will no longer be made, so i should learn saxophone 🙂

Exactly!!!