PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Off-Topic New Sonar Version Available

Thanks, Matt.

John, just now I received an email with my invite to upgrade now. However, it seems to be only to Platinum level.?

Oh, my! There is a short video (4 minutes) on just the new Control Bar. This feature is far better than I thought - it's really fabulous. This is a GUI that would be great for other programs (hint).

Even if you don't care about SONAR, check this out to see how they designed the GUI: https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152930288557420

It's on Facebook, but anyone should be able to see it, I think.

Sweetwater wrote back to clarify about the $149/year statement that Cakewalk mentioned for the upgrade:

"As far as I'm aware it's a one time charge, not annual ."

So it seems you can HP the product and pay it off, or buy the upgrade outright

For info

Matt
Thanks for the link. It certainly is an impressive UI. Like you mentioned, others could/should take notice(!)

Matt I see you were also "randomly" selected 


Well just a heads up for you SSD users - be prepared for more CW creep all over you hard drive and possible cleanup after install(s).

Remember I have my stuff installed to my D drive(all Cakewalk, all Cakewalk shares, etc.)

Even though the install recognized my Cakewalk shared directories, VSTplugins etc. are on my D drive it STILL wrote many GB's to my C drive (after everything is running correctly I'll begin my usual clean-up from the mess that CW leaves). There is MORE on my C drive under \cakewalk\Sonar Platinum folders then there is under the new \Cakewalk\Sonar Platinum folder on my D drive!

Cakewalk, while I do like it, is the absolute WORST offender at making multiple copies of the SAME thing in 2, 3, and 4 locations on the C drive (User, All users, Program Data, Studio Instruments, Dim Pro programs …) there is more of it on C then on D where it was told to install.


For the record, on this new version of product:

I downloaded everything (just like previous versions), and installed the old fashion way (running install .exe's) totally by-passing their new Command Center. However to get program out of DEMO I had to install and run the Command Center (turns out there is a way to "active offline" but didn't jump through the hoops to try it.

After that one time "activation" I can run Sonar sans network - no issues.

BTW I bought the one time pay version - again the AD 2 Producer pak costs more than the this Sonar upgrade so I get new Sonar AND AD2 3-pak cheaper then AD2 3-pak.


Truthfully I do have an issue, but it's not related to network connectivity or activation.

I can't get BOTH 32 and 64 bit versions to run. Only the last installed version (32 or 64) runs fine - but then the other one won't. Since I've never installed ANY of the previous Sonar 64 bit versions, only the 32 bit versions, I obviously haven't figured out the trick to do both, because it is suppose to be doable.

They are installed in different directories and I haven't started my usual hacking to clean up the mess that CW leaves - so it's not my mucking with it that's causing this.

It will be a while before I even use the new versions to see what new stuff is good (or bad) so you all are better off not waiting on a report from me go read user inputs over on the Cakewalk forum - or wait for MATT (let "Micky try it") to give a real review.

Larry

hi matt this is the new way of some personally I think its a great deal for both user and company you still own the software just no more new stuff if you choose to its a membership and those that are strap for money have the option of installments of course I upgrade always biab, sonar, reason its my way of supporting my software company hope to upgrade soon thanks eric

Exactly, Eric. It seems more people understand it here than on the SONAR forum, that this is just a new option of paying in installments rather than outright.

Software Leasing....

I've been doing it the past year on Adobe Audition. I was very resistant to it at first. Much better to outright purchase I thought. Didn't have much choice with Adobe though since they no longer provide newer versions of software as one-time purchase. If I calculated out my $20 month payments to 2 years, that would be about the same spent as an outright purchase (Also the rough amount of time until a major software revision). The benefit to paying the lease is that I get all updates and software revisions as long as I use it. They provide updates and bug fixes about every month or two.

The bottom line you need to think about before starting a lease on software is whether or not you use it enough to justify the payment. If you don't, stay with your older version. At some point Cakewalk will probably force lease-only payment option as Adobe did.

In my case, I've been a life-long user of Audition since the days Syntrillium owned it as Cool Edit Pro. I really like the interface and there's no learning curve for me to go through if I had hopped over to Cakewalk, Pro Tools, etc. It's worth the cost to keep paying and ALWAYS having the most current version.

/END RANT

Trevor,

I wanted to make you aware of this question that was answered by a Cakewalk Staff member on the SONAR forum. It appears that they are saying that they built a discount into X3 for you.





I've tried to give various interpretations to this because my first take on it was that it was at odds with what they told you. I'm guessing you maybe got a fire sale price when you purchased last week?

I am assuming it will work properly with the Roland I/O and mixer? The V 700 series?

(and what do you consider a steep upgrade price?)

WSS

For a discount on the Pre-order of Upgrade from X3 Producer to Platinum:

http://www.jrrshop.com/cakewalk-sonar-platinum-upgrade-from-sonar-x3-producer

You won't see the "discount" until you check out, and if you type in "GROUP" in the coupon field, it knocks it down a tad further (maybe not true as of now), but I and many others have paid $125.16 for it, and the link still works. (Edit: I wouldn't wait past tomorrow, supposedly the release date is the 21st so with presales...)

This is still true as I just ordered Platinum for the $125.16 price.

Cakewalk's Sonar Producer X3 discs arrived this morning...I ordered Sonar Platinum upgrade this evening for $126 from JRR. So, as a registered X3 user (cost me only $39 for the Producer Box Set, including 2-day mail), and then the $126 to order Platinum...not a bad deal!
"Platinum Has Landed"
...the beginning comments on Cakewalk Forum:
http://forum.cakewalk.com/SONAR-PLATINUM-HAS-LANDED-m3148099.aspx

I bought Sonar X3 and never really got comfortable with it. Plus, I noticed the plugins weren't accessible by BIAB anymore. (in version pro audio 6.0 they were)

So I reinstalled the old 6.0 version. It works fine in win 7 and is rock solid. An added bonus is that the layout is remarkably like RealBand, so I rarely have to search for anything.

I think I've hit the age where changing things just because there's a new version has become counter-productive for me.

Ha...I hear you and can relate.

I upgraded to X1 from Sonar 5.0PE which did work just fine. (I'm on Win7 too)
I just thought it was time to get current and was willing to deal with the interface/paradigm changes that occurred in the X series.

I'd read the forums quite a bit prior to my decision.
Yes...it took a bit of getting used to but not nearly as bad as I had presumed.

Funny thing though, the upgrade from X1 to X3 was 149$ at the time.
So, I'd posted to a thread on the subject of upgrade pricing on the Cake forum that I'm always game to support Cakewalk but couldn't justify 149$.
But...if it was 99$ I'd probably pull the trigger.

What happens a couple weeks later?
I get a email along with everyone else the upgrade from X1-X3 is now 99$.
I couldn't resist and blame Cake for seducing me into pulling said trigger.

I like X3 and it's deeper that the Mariana Trench so it will probably do me just fine until I go below the dirt.

Carry on....a good day to all.

Watching key featured videos about Sonar Platinum, as it downloads the program(s) on my H.D. It's like inviting "Godzilla" into my small R.V.

OMG....hope this works out for this Octogenerion!! ....

Mario, Larry,

Just because of you two ....I just purchased....NAW the AD2 with paks
are main reason.

Had my mind set to NOT get this, but after reading about all the
goodies hadda doit...

thanks

I just ordered and they honored the price 125.16.
Question I have is now what ?
Mario are you sure you and Larry don't own JRR site....LOL.

Guess sometime tonight the magic numbers will appear.

Good Morning...
Stayed up till 2AM and darned if the new Platinum software didn't "complete" the installation, verified I had the hundreds of files that will challenge my mind over the coming weeks. In conjunction with the PG Program, both will be fun and a lot of work.

Since I never really "touched" the previous Sonar Producer...I couldn't get it to "install" on my old portable, (SLOW INTERNET WI-FI LINK), it will be a long learning process with the new Sonar Platinum!

...but as I've said, my upgrade price for "Platinum" was great and my only concern was downloading this fab upgrade without crashing my computer.

Everything...all this data, was installed on the "C" Drive. Whew!

GDaddy

if you use the new Command Center to install, then everything gets installed to the C Drive. If you download the installs themselves individually and install them you have a lot more control over where things get installed.

However even then you have to do some post install moving, like the multisamples can be moved off the C Drive to another drive unfortunately then you also have to do a few simple edits to the registry, and there's some other minor "hacks" like that. Depends on how much you want to get this stuff off of the C Drive.


EDIT

IF you DID use the Command Center then the installs for everything you installed are in

C:\ProgramData\Cakewalk\Command Center\Downloads


You can then simply uninstall everything (use windows uninstall) and RE-INSTALL where you want (and about half will go to where you really want it without still putting copies on your C drive. THEN if you do updates those things will mainly follwo your OLDER paths.

I've already installed, removed, and reinstalled with and without Command Center about over half a dozen times. To see HOW CC works, to see where things get installed, to test the isntallers, and to correct paths where CC install overwrote my previous path chose. Note there has already been a SONAR PROGRAM update since release last week as mainly to support the Anderton collection update.