Anyone looking forward to Sonar 8.5, the next version of Sonar?

[Metaltyme]

It looks pretty cool I guess.

It does come with Session Drummer 3, which includes one of the Ocean Way kits as well as coming with the Steven Slate-modeled Zepp kit (along with a slew of Cakewalk's own newly recorded multi-samples, both acoustic and electronic). It has a vocal strip plugin and a percussion strip plugin that seem pretty useful. It's got a few tweaks under the hood to make for further efficiency. It's got a new version of audiosnap that's supposed to have a very much improved GUI. The media browser has been revamped to accomodate navigation more freely and conveniently for project file management. It's got new MIDI features which are making it comparable to FL Studio's versatility, yet with all its DAW-ish capabilities still intact and becoming even more robust to boot. It's only $99 for Producer Edition upgraders. They have Elite upgrade packages that come with additional 3rd-party support that seems pretty snazzy. With the not-yet-released Guitar Rig 4 PRO, Sonar 8.5 Producer price is $199, the value (bang for buck) seems bursting at the seems. 8.5 has all that 8 has, but substantially more stuff and under-the-hood improvements. I guess Cakewalk decided that there still wasn't enough content in this new version to warrant calling it Sonar 9, but I gotta say, I wouldn't have known the difference. Is anyone else out there stoked about this, or are you disappointed? I was on the fence about it for a little while, but now, I'm starting to get the G.A.S. for this. What say you guys?

Cheers,

[dmmi]

I'd pay the $99 for the new features.......honestly I think they should have waited though.

They could have taken this upgrade, and then also fixed many of the workflow complaints and added feature requests from the Cakewalk forum, then released it as a new version 9.

I'm still going to wait for a while because of windows 7 and I'm on 32 bit right now and am going to 64 all at once.......Windows 7 64 bit, sonar upgrade 64 bit etc...

[Metaltyme]

I'm still going to wait for a while because of windows 7 and I'm on 32 bit right now and am going to 64 all at once.......Windows 7 64 bit, sonar upgrade 64 bit etc...

I'm in the same boat that you are. I can't wait til I'll be able to enter the realm of 64-bit, with Windows 7, AND new features of upgrading to 8.5 or even 9 (if that happens before I know it).

[OldDog]

I am still learning my way around 8! More features are not going to help me at this point. I would really like to spend my toy budget on Brandon's killer recording, but he better hurry............

[TonyB]

I'll give it a whirl!

[joedan69]

im hoping audiosnap 2 is better.
And im excited to get it free hahahh.

[Metaltyme]

And im excited to get it free hahahh.

Awesome. So how'd you manage that!? I want in!

[awaken1]

If you purchased 8 or 8 PE prior to 7-01-09, the 8.5 upgrade is not available for "free". If you write to cakewalk and ask them why, you just get ignored.

[Metaltyme]

Originally Posted by awaken1

If you purchased 8 or 8 PE prior to 7-01-09, the 8.5 upgrade is not available for "free". If you write to cakewalk and ask them why, you just get ignored.

Ah...oh yeah. Well, that does make sense. Thanks.

[jg3630]

Hi guys I'm kind of a newbie to this page but hope to be around more for the good advice. I've used the Cakewalk software since it was just called "Cakewalk". I've bought or was given free dowloads all the way up to this point (Sonar Producer 8.3.1) It really did not become great (at least to me) until Sonar XL. I still have not mastered the earlier versions or the current one, but I'm looking forward to 8.5. I guess I'm just hooked
on their software. God Help Me !!