thanks for some of the info on my question above. ive only been using cakewalk for about 2 years. its my 1st DAW and i really like it. i would gladly pay for it even if it was a few hundred$$. i would nt like it if was subscription based because i would always forget when payment is due and overdraft. it was frustrating when i was working on a time sensitive project to have issues with the new version. i know theres always bugs to work out with anything new. hopefully they all get fixed before true release date.