Happy New Year too!
I like to test out on real-world projects too. As long as you’re willing to potentially start over…
For me, with C8, everything as not as it seemed at first. I opened a mix I was nearing the end of, and everything worked seamlessly in C8. (Leading me to post ecstatic reviews on the forum) I added Quadrafuzz to a drum and a guitar bus, with great results, and kept on mixing to near-final state.
Then, next day, C8 started freezing when I’d adjust settings on any Slate VCC instance. Then, next day, it wouldn’t open the project at all!
Since I had added Quadrafuzz to the mix, I couldn’t open as-is in C7.5! Do I had to go back a couple versions.
I got the VCC trouble worked out with Slate, but that one project simply will not open.
Hope you’re one of the lucky ones and C8 just works! It’s a great update, in general.