And mercifully, Cakewalk has a new application for all this downloading and updating.

On the other hand, these new, bite-sized updates cause a lot less worry and are much quicker to test. So I usually take some time before committing actual work to the latest and greatest, continuing to use the previous version until I'm sure the new one will hold up. Personally, I've always been leery of updating to a completely new version of my best-friend software, especially if I'm in the middle of a project - and I'm always in the middle of something. Instead, feature updates are published about once a month. Rolling updates mean that Cakewalk is eschewing the standard practice of releasing a new, paid version of SONAR every year. (To be fair, Avid does offer a perpetual license in addition to a subscription, so you can pay up front for Pro Tools and keep the license, but no installment plan is available.) In other words, Cakewalk doesn't cripple your SONAR after you've finished your payments. Note that Cakewalk's installment plan is nothing like the subscription models from the likes of Avid and Adobe - their software stops working after you finish paying, forcing you to pony up more cash, month after month. (This special pricing for Platinum is available until the end of 2016.)

Importantly, the current model for the top-tier SONAR Platinum edition is a lifetime of updates at no additional cost. At this point, if you want to continue receiving updates, you can pay for just the updates at a lower monthly cost, and you can choose to stop your update payments at any time after this first year.

At the end of the year, you still own the license - free and clear. Either way, you start by downloading the latest version of the software, then you receive free updates for one year. You can still purchase the software license outright, cash on the barrelhead or you can divide your payment into 12 monthly installments. It has been well over a year since Cakewalk started offering SONAR, their flagship DAW, with rolling updates and an installment-based payment model.

Melodyne 4 cakewalk