Cakewalk deaf and defiant for money

[musiccatt.com]

Cakewalk is going the way of SoundBlaster based on Microsoft greed.

 

They are now offering me Sonar at some ridiculous upgrade price.

 

HEY! Andy Shejter! Are you listening? I'm tired of feeding "upgrade corporate welfare checks" to both Cakewalk and Microsoft! I'm weary of being nickel and dimed to death for products that not only don't work, but cause my computer and all my musical work to crash! I'm fed up with your lame excuses when your product doesn't work!

 

I told you what would happen if your staff toyed with the idea that they could PR me down! I have other music company professionals and concert people to back me up.

 

Cakewalk doesn't give a Flying V for you, but only wants a continual stream of money out of your pocket.

 

Let's get a Linux program with source code to rid ourselves of these modern day marketing grads. They're still used car salesmen, no matter how many letters they have from that pithole of arses Harvard.

 

Terry James

[Dylan]

If you haven't had any success with Cakewalk products in the past then why are you wanting to upgrade to Sonar? Personally, I feel the upgrade (starting at $99) is a helluva deal considering that Sonar is an entirely new product and not an upgrade of Pro Audio. When Steinberg released Nuendo (a $1000+ product) they did not offer any kind of upgrade price to existing Cubase users. Many people have been using Cakewalk successfully (myself included) for years now without jumping on the upgrade wagon each a new version was offered. One of the things that keeps me with Cakewalk is that they are one of the very few music software companies that doesn't have ridiculous copy-protection methods. Other companies make you jump through hoops and require online registration for unlock codes, etc, but Cakewalk simply requires 2 serial numbers. I don't mind dongles, but the challenge response/online registration method really irks me.

 

I'm truly sorry and can sympathize if you've shelled out big bucks trying to get your DAW up and running all of these years. However, from your tone it doesn't appear that you've taken the necessary and/or appropriate steps in getting your problems resolved since you seem to be personally attacking people at Cakewalk. Instead of insulting the staff at Cakewalk, have you established a relationship with tech support, or better yet, the people on the Cakewalk newsgroup? The fact is that software companies make their money from upgrades. But not everyone (myself included) runs out and gets the upgrade right away if one feels like they don't need all of the bells and whistles of the new product. If you want to stick with Cakewalk but are unsure whether or not you want to shell out the bucks for the upgrade, then I'd recommend waiting for the demo to become available. Good luck with whatever software/OS choice you decide to go with. I've looked at Linux before, but it appears that little or no support is offered by any software or hardware vendors. If you want a more simplified OS you might consider a Mac.

 

Good luck,

 

Dylan

[Anderton]

>>They are now offering me Sonar at some ridiculous upgrade price.<<

 

Let me get this straight. You're upset because a new product comes out, and unlike cars, refrigerators, books, food, and just about everything else on this planet, you don't have to buy the thing all over again but get a new product at a reduced price?

 

I don't know if you've seen Sonar, but it's a totally radical change from Cakewalk Pro Audio. It has been completely reworked, from the core engine to the interface. It is, for all intents and purposes, a new product that retains enough similarities to Pro Audio so that existing users don't have to go through too significant a learning curve.

 

Let me add that I've never made a dime from Cakewalk, don't hang out with the people who work there, and have no reason to defend them other than from a sense of fair play. I do use their products, and as noted before, Pro Audio 9 is my main audio-for-video tool because it has been so stable and trouble-free.

 

I have to commend not just Cakewalk, but MOTU, Steinberg, Emagic, Propellerhead Software, etc. etc. etc. etc. for offering upgrades to superior versions at a reduced price compared to buying something for new.

 

Then there's the argument "Well version 1.0 had bugs, so they should just give me version 2.0 for free." I have news for you: we all learn as we go along. Bruce Springsteen's first album wasn't as good as his second. So should he have offered his second album as an "upgrade" as a way of apology?

 

Guitar amp manufacturers learn more as they go along...better materials, better circuitry, and so on. They incorporate what they learn into new models, and you have to pay for that new model (granted, there are exceptions, like Line 6 upgrading POD to POD 2.0 - but there was a charge involved, which again, seems only fair).

 

Of course, because these amps are hardware, they can't be upgraded in the same way as software. But in general, bug fixes are FREE updates. Updates only cost when there's a major improvement, or changes in functionality. That sure seems fair to me. I don't think that, for example, someone who bought Performer 1.0 in 1986 (or whenever it was!) is entitled to a free copy of Digital Performer 3.

 

Who you should REALLY complain about are the people who steal software. If it wasn't for them, ALL software would cost a lot less.

[ian_dup1]

"If you want a more simplified OS you might consider a Mac."

 

Or you might try BeOS...it's a much more elegant OS for multimedia than Linux or Windows. There's not a LOT of support for it yet, but it is slowly gaining supporters, especially in the realm of audio/video.

 

Ian

[Anderton]

>>Or you might try BeOS...it's a much more elegant OS for multimedia than Linux or Windows. <<

 

No question about that. There was a flurry of activity regarding support about a year ago, but haven't heard much since. Let's hope that we can somehow avoid the chicken/egg syndrome and have someone release a major product that runs on BeOS so we can check it out for real.

[the stranger]

I have to commend not just Cakewalk, but MOTU, Steinberg, Emagic, Propellerhead

Software, etc. etc. etc. etc. for offering upgrades to superior versions at a reduced price

compared to buying something for new.

 

Craig, I think Sonic Foundry should have gotten a mention besides "etc". I'm ashamed to even say what I paid for Acid 2.0 and Sound Forge 5. (A serious fraction of the regular price) http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/smile.gif

Sonic Foundry is one company that is truly worth checking that little box for email news, etc.

[D.Triny]

Originally posted by music@catt.com:

Cakewalk is going the way of SoundBlaster based on Microsoft greed.

 

They are now offering me Sonar at some ridiculous upgrade price.

 

my goodness, rediculous price? The price of software is embarrassingly low. The combination of SONAR the NI B4, and NI Pro52 cost a "fraction of a fraction" of the equivalent in traditional HW.

 

-david abraham

[mr. rob]

From what I understand, many companies were developing for BE os but stopped when BE focused their strategy towards information appliances. One example would be Emagic wich began, but has now abandoned development for that platform or so they say on their website.

 

I must also add that cakewalk 9 didnt rewrite itself into sonar, a dedicated team did that work. They earned the right to charge a fair price wich it seems theyre doing.

[John Worthington]

Originally posted by Anderton:

>>Or you might try BeOS...it's a much more elegant OS for multimedia than Linux or Windows. <<

 

No question about that. There was a flurry of activity regarding support about a year ago, but haven't heard much since. Let's hope that we can somehow avoid the chicken/egg syndrome and have someone release a major product that runs on BeOS so we can check it out for real.

 

Last I heard, Be was focussing on becoming THE os for internet appliances. I heard that some of the music software companies had put their products on hold.

 

jw

[AlChuck]

Thanks, guys, for all the heartening responses... it seems sanity still exists...

 

Some people think that artists, programmers, etc. should just be doing all this wonderful stuff and giving it away for nothing... would they work for free?

[Valkyrie Sound]

Originally posted by music@catt.com:

 

I told you what would happen if your staff toyed with the idea that they could PR me down! I have other music company professionals and concert people to back me up.

 

Terry James[/b]

 

If you can't communicate like a professional

and complain like a professional then:

A) don't claim to be one and

B) don't bring the old "me and my buddies

are gonna get you" childish crap.

 

When you make a statement about something

SUPPORT IT! You don't seem to know how to

make an educated argument. If you truly have

a problem with Cake then state what that problem

is without resorting to childish personal

insults. This sort of attitude is why we still

have wars....

 

Valky

www.vsoundinc.com

[x factor music]

what the hell are you talking about?

[Anderton]

>>Sonic Foundry is one company that is truly worth checking that little box for email news, etc.<<

 

I give Sonic Foundry so many mentions...I posted their latest news about the $99 upgrade to 5.0 in another thread (and some people got upset with me, but hey, it's still a hell of a deal). There are too many companies that do reasonable upgrades, and I got tired of writing them all down!

[gap2bellsouth.net]

Concerning BeOS audio, this is from LeBuzz.com

 

"There has been a new video editing suite been released by the folks of Elegant Media. Titan can handle most media types that BeOS supports, i.e. DV, Avi, Mov, Mpeg, Dvix, Wav, Aiff, Mp3 and Midi. It is also capable of capturing audio and video and exporting of files.

 

This is an alpha version which was released on BeBits ( www.bebits.com/app/2070/ ). Now the company wants to see to how well it would do before they finish the full version, so they're gauging the interest of people who actually want to buy it by charging a small fee: $5 to get it from BeBits. A pittance, but a good investment in the future of BeOS software.

 

Given that it's alpha software, there are some things it does and some it will do in the future. It does audio / video playback and capture, save and load, import and export of clips, and can cut, move, and resize clips. It will do in the future: effects, midi, plug-in's, monitoring, stills, multiple projects, sub titles, motion effects and much more.

 

The program is laid out with the tracks at the top and previews etc at the bottom. Its a bit like Adobe Premier in ways. The basic use is to start a project and then add tracks for you to work in. You then import files like video clips and sound clips into the tracks. Once in the tracks you can move and edit the clips. You will be able to add effects to the tracks in the full release. Once you have finished messing with your project you can render it and export it to a video type of your choosing.

 

In using the software there are some nice touches. Instead of a drop down menu to select options, you can scroll the options from side to side using the mouse. If that's too annoying you can left click for a drop down instead. You can select between different modes of use as well.

 

Once you get the tracks up, you can get a variety of tools by using the left click. There's a cutting tool, resize tool, mute option, renaming track option, a delete option and a drawing option. Their use is straight-forward. The drawing tool doesn't work but I think it has to do with the effects you can add.

 

In the alpha version you can't use the effects or use the audio menu. Once you finished the tracks you set the render options. You then render the tracks using the render button and the file is saved to disk.

 

OUR TAKE: The program is quick and easy to use, and theres a nice little tutorial in the release notes to get you going. The program has a few bits missing and I haven't found it too buggy yet. It shows great promise to be a really good program and when the full version comes out I'll probably go and buy it."

 

 

 

------------------

[Anderton]

>>Concerning BeOS audio, this is from LeBuzz.com<<

 

Leave it to the SSS people to turn this thread into something that's actually useful and educational. Thanx for the info.