Cakewalk is offering lifetime updates...

[Yamaha Man]

to Sonar. If you already have the Platinum version which I do, then you pay $199 and you get unlimited updates for life. That's an interesting offer as updates usually cost about $99 per year...so in the long run it makes sense.

Anyhow I took the bait and signed up for it. So now I'll have to most recent upgrades available. Sonar has been rock solid for me for years now, and I have always got great bang for the buck software from Cakewalk, so I'm pretty happy with the deal.

If you signed up for the updates back in January, all you have to pay now is another $100 buck for the lifetime deal. I didn't sign up in January so I had to pay the $199.

[Rudy4]

I'm glad it works for you. Sonar is the only DAW that I could not get to work for me, even using two entirely different PCs. I paid full price for Sonar 9 and could not get Cakewalk's tech support to give me any constructive help to remediate my problems. (They didn't have any problem taking my money, though.)

I finally gave up and went with another DAW. Needless to say it left me running the other way when I see "Calkwalk" mentioned.

I know many others are satisfied users, and that even makes me more mystified.

[Yamaha Man]

Well like I said, Sonar has been rock solid for me. I can go months without using it, open it up and it's right where I left off with all the settings intact, and song files right there...plays like a charm.

I wish I could say that about Adobe's Audition but I can't. After leaving it unattended for a while, settings need to be reset, files get lost, and I have to monkey around with it for a while to get to work again.

[Yamaha Man]

I thought I was fairly current on updates, but since I bought this upgrade package this afternoon, I've been downloading updates all evening. I'm getting tons of stuff !!!! At the rate I'm going, I'll be downloading and installing stuff till 2-3:00 in the morning !!! Sound samples, synths, drum stuff...effects...just a whole bunch of upgraded stuff !!!

[Yamaha Man]

Well I think I've got it all downloaded for now....I tried it out a little and am just blown away by the content. Everything works so smoothly. I'm also into midi instruments and sound samples and effects gadgets. Years ago it would have cost many thousands of dollars to buy the stuff you get with this program. Sonar Platinum is a monster program !!! It's going to take me a while to get thru it all, just because there's so much here .. wow. and it's so easy to get around and access things....very simple to use, once you get the hang of it...

[Gutch]

I was a Cakewalk/Sonar user for ten years, but got so frustrated with PC issues I made the jump to Mac in 2010. If Sonar had a version for Mac, I'd be with them still today. Unfortunately (for them) they don't.

I moved to Presonus Studio One, and haven't looked back. Incredible functionality, full remote control via iPad (great for recording solo), and complete interplay between PC and Mac.

[Rodger]

Looks like Cakewalk is coming out with a Mac version... I received an e-mail yesterday with mention of a SONAR OS X Alpha. I use a PC now, so not interested in it, but some may be.

I've used Sonar for several years and am quite happy with it. I got the e-mail with the lifetime offer, too. I'm on Platinum and my one year update subscription ran out a couple months ago.

I'm so used to looking for loop holes in these kind of offers, my first thought was, "If they scrap the name SONAR and come out with a new product and different name, the "lifetime" subscription will not be valid.

I think I'll pass on the lifetime subscription for a few reasons:

• I don't need synth, midi or drum software. I program percussion with Reason and import it into SONAR. I provide acoustic, electric, bass and guitar synth externally.
• Cakewalk is owned by Gibson. I know that means positive and negative things for various people and I'm not trying to bash Gibson. Just been leery of their business practices.
• My current SONAR Platinum DAW does everything I need in it's current state.

I like SONAR a lot and have no intention of switching to something else. I previously used a ProTools/MAC DAW. I got tired of iLOK failures and the expense of ProTools, so I looked for a DAW that didn't require it. SONAR looked like a good product at a fair price and so far, it has been.

If anyone has successfully used "outside of Cakewalk" plug ins, I'd like to hear about them, tho. Cakewalk's plugins are good, but I could always used a new reverb.

[Yamaha Man]

Well even if they don't come up with any more updates, I'll still have a fabulous program. Last night they gave me a ton of updates. I was up until 2:00 AM downloading and installing stuff.

[Rodger]

No... I get it. I think it's a great deal for you. I agree - SONAR is fantastic. I've been using it for about 5 years and will continue into the foreseeable future. If I was using all the updates you are (synths, for example), I would have done the same thing.

Question for you... are you using any plug-ins besides the Cakewalk provided ones? I've purchased a few of the optional ones. I think BREVERB was one of those. It's a decent reverb, but I was looking for something else. I used to use the UAD reverb when I had ProTools (I really liked that one), but it doesn't look like that's supported by Cakewalk.

[Yamaha Man]

I have a few third party plug-ins but I don't use them. I found Cakewalk's plug-ins to be more than adequate. It got to the point third party plug-in manufacturers were hounding me day and night to buy their latest gizmo...it just got to the point I said enough is enough, no more. You can easily spend $1,000's of dollars on plug-ins and they won't do anything more than what's included in Sonar. The same goes for sound sample programs...I've got hundreds of dollars tied up in sound sample programs that are all outdated by what's in Sonar. I wish I could get my money back from those guys !!!