Cakewalk has become a mess!!!

Support for X3 was dropped at the beginning of 2016. Has anything else been updated on the PC since X3e was released?
 

For me X1 and X2 had their teething problems, but I found X3e to be very stable, and that stability has continental to improve in the 2015 - 2016 editions of Sonar. Pro audio is long gone, and I dont pine for it at all.
 
If you find X3e 'buggy' and are really looking for solutions I would suggest troubeshooting your PC and posting details of particular issues.  Brundlefly has already solved one of your gripes for you!

I thought X3 was a great DAW. I was very productive on X3 as I am in platinum as well.
sorry to hear of your problems. you may want to investigate your systems set up (soundcard, exc).
Good luck.

chuckebaby
I thought X3 was a great DAW. I was very productive on X3 as I am in platinum as well.
sorry to hear of your problems. you may want to investigate your systems set up (soundcard, exc).
Good luck.

It was my favorite version until Platinum came along. 

bobsacco
Anyone with any sense can see that this company (Cakewalk) is headed out-of-business. 

Promise me you will return hear annually and restate this prediction.........
 
 
 
for the next 20 years running.
 
 
 
 
 
 
I need a laugh from time to time.

bobsacco

giorgio
I tried to contact cakewalk, since I noticed that some of the screen elements mentioned in the documentation of sonar x3 do not appear in the colors setting menu of preferences-customization-colors, but there's no way to drop a line to cakewalk.
 
The "Cakewalk Problem Report Form" doesn't work with firefox -great- and an email address is not available on the web site, even better!!
 
What happened to cakewalk? x3 is so buggy! For example, all the short cuts that have been kept constant for so many years, suddenly changed. Good work flow gone!!!! For example calling the track manager in the track view is done by pressing "H". In the piano roll view there is no appropriate short cut and calling the track manager - which here is called "pick tracks" needs to be done by mouse, unless one creates a key binding.
 
Pro audio used to be a great unit, but good old times are probably gone!!! And me as a customer too....
 

It seems just about every "previous" version of Calkwalk's software  is "buggy" and includes a stiff-arm treatment from Cakewalk's customer support department.
 
You've got a bunch of cheerleaders on this site who are turning a blind eye to normal "functional" business practices where companies are obligated at the very minimum to register software that is purchased (regardless of its version) - and Cakewalk isn't even doing that with me at the moment.
 
Shut up and buy the newest software is not an acceptable answer. It's just another invitation for a pending disaster. 
 
Anyone with any sense can see that this company (Cakewalk) is headed out-of-business. They don't even answer the phone or emails anymore.
 
Wake up people.
 
 

Sonar X3e is quite solid.  Those having issues with any major functions likely are having issues with old plugins or not the greatest hardware, etc.  
 
Yes, some bugs exist but I don't think you are going to find show stoppers for most users.  Like it or not, it is pretty standard software business practice to not offer technical support for legacy products.  X3 stopped being sold virtually every where 21 months ago.  It took the user 21 months to run across a problem to complain about?  Is that then a show stopper?

I don't think Cake is going under but I do wonder what is going on with support.
First I read that a bunch of support people left and new people were being hired and it will take time for training. This had to be 3-4 months ago. Then I read that increased sales due to lifetime support was the issue but the support problems started before the lifetime update was offered.
Fortunately I have never needed official support as I find this forum to be quite adequate. However, I am working on setting up an old friend of mine (a novice) with a new PC build and his own copy of Sonar installed. I am going to ship it to him tomorrow.  He is likely going to need official support at some point. What should I tell him ?
Also there is a large thread over at KVR about 'Cake is going under'. This is bad PR.
Several months should be enough time to get a handle on tech support. If not then state when it will be back.

microapp
I don't think Cake is going under but I do wonder what is going on with support.
First I read that a bunch of support people left and new people were being hired and it will take time for training. This had to be 3-4 months ago. Then I read that increased sales due to lifetime support was the issue but the support problems started before the lifetime update was offered.
Fortunately I have never needed official support as I find this forum to be quite adequate. However, I am working on setting up an old friend of mine (a novice) with a new PC build and his own copy of Sonar installed. I am going to ship it to him tomorrow.  He is likely going to need official support at some point. What should I tell him ?
Also there is a large thread over at KVR about 'Cake is going under'. This is bad PR.
Several months should be enough time to get a handle on tech support. If not then state when it will be back.

He should have little trouble at this point. It seems that CW has crossed the Rubicon and it looks good. Plus it can only get better.  

microapp
I don't think Cake is going under but I do wonder what is going on with support.
First I read that a bunch of support people left and new people were being hired and it will take time for training. This had to be 3-4 months ago. Then I read that increased sales due to lifetime support was the issue but the support problems started before the lifetime update was offered.
Fortunately I have never needed official support as I find this forum to be quite adequate. However, I am working on setting up an old friend of mine (a novice) with a new PC build and his own copy of Sonar installed. I am going to ship it to him tomorrow.  He is likely going to need official support at some point. What should I tell him ?
Also there is a large thread over at KVR about 'Cake is going under'. This is bad PR.
Several months should be enough time to get a handle on tech support. If not then state when it will be back.

 
Support isn't digital where it's either on or off. Backlogs build up and then backlogs are attacked. 
 
Support people have been hired and been on the job since the beginning of September, and additional support people were contracted to deal with the backlog. A major technical problem with the way orders were being handled by the store was uncovered, diagnosed, and fixed. Noel and other non-support staffers handled support issues after hours and on weekends to trim the backlog further. In addition, hiring yet another support person has been approved (and candidates are actively being sought). As a result the backlog has been slashed dramatically.
 
Here are the complaints about customer support in the first two pages of the forum:
 

• A user thinks the documentation for changing colors in X3 doesn't match what X3 can actually do, and doesn't like that X3 works different compared to Pro Audio.
• A user is disappointed that Cakewalk won't support software that the company has made clear is no longer supported, and hasn't been for some time (even though an attempt was made to take care of the customer). There's a second thread from the same user.

 
That's it. Compare to eight weeks ago, then draw your own conclusions.
 

Oh and by the way, for the benefit of the op...
 
Problem reporter works with Firefox. I just checked it out.
You can submit an email from the Cakewalk web site.

Anderton
Oh and by the way, for the benefit of the op...
 
Problem reporter works with Firefox. I just checked it out.
You can submit an email from the Cakewalk web site.

Even if your product is unsupported?

telecharge

Anderton
Oh and by the way, for the benefit of the op...
 
Problem reporter works with Firefox. I just checked it out.
You can submit an email from the Cakewalk web site.

Even if your product is unsupported?

I didn't want people to read his post and think he was speaking globally about not being able to use Firefox or submit an email from the site. It seemed he was extrapolating his specific circumstance more generally.

Well, first of all thanks for the great response. Secondly I thought Sonar (e.g. 8.5.3) and not Pro Audio. You're right Pro Audio is definitely gone 
 
Maybe I was a little bit to strict and brundlefly was somehow right by assuming that "...It sounds like most of what's bothering you are just differences between X3 and earlier versions."
 
Yes, that's right it, bothers me like hell, that the work flow I developed over several years, suddenly doesn't work any more. I write a lot of orchestral music and for keeping the creative process going on it's crucial to have a fast work flow.
 
And maybe 'buggy' is not the right expression, you're right. Probably 'untidy' fits better. I cannot understand why 'control of clip background colors' was eliminated in X3 and all the rest was kept. The documentation says, that there should be a setting for 'control of clip background colors'!
 
So that's the reason why I wanted to contact Cakewalk. Just to find out if this is a bug or if something went wrong during the installation or if there is a way to modify a .clr-file or to modify the registry to fix my problem?
 
Let me state some more examples related to 'untidy':

• Am I wrong, but in the console view of X3 there is no way any more to move strips (unless one does it in the track view and synchronises them)? (In Sonar 8.5.3 it was easy)?
• Furthermore, why doesn't X3 detect some of the older cakewalk plug-ins? I know, there are new ones which are much better. Nevertheless in the sense of continuity, it would be great to be backward compatible. After all, these are cakewalk proprietary items and I invested a lot of time into those projects and I'd like to keep on working on them. By the way Sonar 8.5.3 - I installed on the same system - detects them

Just to make it clear, I'm using Sonar for musically and technically complex projects. I create these compositions in Sonar and do a lot of midi editing, as well as audio recording and mixing. Having often many signature and tempo changes in my projects. Therefore I need a lubricated work flow, which I achieved with many of the older Sonar versions. And definitely, I don't want to restart to develop a work flow when a new Sonar version appears. I think continuity is important....
 
However, for those who asked about my system, the key figures are Win 7 64bit, Lynx L22. The system is very stable. 

As for the change in the work flow.  The change from 8.5 to X1 was 5 years ago.
 
The basic workflow from 5 years ago until now has not changed.  the "X" workflow with the Skylight interface should stay as a basic system for the near future as it was the basis of the rolling update platform. 
 
I'd advise either getting on board or stay stuck in the past. 
 
I went straight from the 8.5 to X3 and while I experienced time needed for the learning curve of the new, no way I would want to go back to the 8.5 system.  Though I don't spend nearly as much time with MIDI as you do, more of my time is spent with recorded instruments. 

Sometime progress and continuity are not fully compatible. Most of what's changed is ultimately pretty superficial (different keyboard shortcuts, menu stuctures, tools and modifier keys, etc.), but these changes will definitely slow you down for a while, especially changes to MIDI editing.
 
Most of us went through through the shock with the jump from 8.5 to X1, and the evolution from that point on has been relatively painless, though the Bakers continue to change default keybindings and tools/modifiers/gestures periodically - often without clearly explaining the reasons.
 
Ctrl+Alt+Drag to move channel strips in the Console View.
 
Make sure all paths containing plugins are listed under Options in Plugin Manager and Re-scan. If that doesn't get it, I suggest you start a separate thread about specific plugins that are not being found. Or Google some keywords against site:forum.cakewalk.com to find previous threads that might have answers.