Should I Upgrade Sonar 17?

[Kent Earl]

I have 40-track projects that are very stable.

But I know Sonar v17 is quite dated at this time and the updates look good.

Can anyone offer a vote of confidence in upgrading to v2025?

Great to hear that Sonar is alive & well!

Thank you
KE

[reginaldStjohn]

My question is why would you not go to the new version? Bounce your tracks to audio files and import them into the new Sonar. Or you can try to open the old project in the new Sonar. 

[David Baay]

2 hours ago, Kent Earl said:

I know Sonar v17 is quite dated at this time and the updates look good.

By "v17", I presume you mean the last release of SONAR Platinum, 2017.10.

In any case, the new Sonar will install to its own subdirectory of Cakewalk, just sharing plugin and utility directories with old SONAR which will remain independent and run just the same so you won't have to migrate projects if they don't open and run the same or better in Sonar, though they absolutely should.

Different users have had more or less success embracing the 'flatter' look and theming/colors/contrast of the new scaleable UI. Aside from that, I think Sonar is inarguably superior to SONAR in features, performance and stability. Very few users have had any issue running old projects in Sonar. The only other potential issu I can think of is that the sizing of various view and panes, track/lane heights and plugin UIs may change, depending on your specific display scaling, but that's fairly easily corrected  on a per-project basis, or globally if you use Workspaces.

Bottom line: It will take some time to get used to all the changes and get all your preferences synced up, but it won't 'break' anything and you can transition gradually. And you can try the free tier to start; it actually has very few feature omissions vs. the subscribed version,

[John Faughey]

4 hours ago, Kent Earl said:

I have 40-track projects that are very stable.

But I know Sonar v17 is quite dated at this time and the updates look good.

Can anyone offer a vote of confidence in upgrading to v2025?

Great to hear that Sonar is alive & well!

Thank you
KE

The new Sonar is vastly superior to any of the previous versions…in my opinion...... I have used sonar for years, but the latest version is extremely strong…the workflow is 2nd to none ..again…in my opinion. My only complaint has been the look…the 2d vibe isn’t my thing…I was hoping they would lean more towards what Luna looks like…but again. for me the workflow is most important…so I would go ahead and take the plunge!! You won’t be sorry.

[Promidi]

Hell yeah, you Should!

[lapasoa]

Never herd of  Sonar v17.

[Kent Earl]

Thanks all for the feedback!

I was incorrect in saying v17. It's actually v23 from 2017.

So not too big of a jump and I'm okay with some UI refinements.

Glad to  hear Sonar lives on, and is stable!

[Wookiee]

1 hour ago, Kent Earl said:

Thanks all for the feedback!

I was incorrect in saying v17. It's actually v23 from 2017.

So not too big of a jump and I'm okay with some UI refinements.

Glad to  hear Sonar lives on, and is stable!

If you are referring to the version of SONAR from 2017 e.g. SONAR Platinum/Professional/Studio those product names are still technically owned by Gibson and they closed their Cakewalk store in 2017. Consequently if you do successfully buy a copy you will not be able to register or activate it.

You can however purchase a subscription to the latest version of Cakewalk Sonar, (a similar but different product). The subscription includes Cakewalk Sonar, Cakewalk Next, the expanded version of the Bandlab Web based DAW and the extensive Bandlab audio and MIDI loop library. 

Please note Cakewalk Sonar by Bandlab has no connection to the Gibson product other than it is based on the same(ish) code base.

[Pathfinder]

On 11/10/2025 at 12:41 PM, Kent Earl said:

I have 40-track projects that are very stable.

But I know Sonar v17 is quite dated at this time and the updates look good.

Can anyone offer a vote of confidence in upgrading to v2025?

Great to hear that Sonar is alive & well!

Thank you
KE

Since their is a FREE VERSION, why would you even hesitate-As David stated above it installs to it's OWN directory. I still have Sonar Platinum installed, never any issues.............