Cakewalk should take over driver development for Cakewalk branded hardware made by Roland

When I got back into recording, I settled on Sonar and bought only hardware with the Cakewalk brand. I've been loyal Cakewalk but my hardware hasn't. I bought it all as a set so I would have the best recording experience possible. Was it the same for people that bought the VS-700 and Sonar 8.5? 
 
I would really like Cakewalk to step up and start making these orphaned Roland products useful again. There are some limitations that can't be avoided. My Cakewalk audio interface is USB 1.1 so it's actually obsolete. I gave it to a buddy so he can record garage jams. My A500 PRO is another story. Sonar is in constant development so I'm sure there's driver optimizations that could be done. Roland won't do it. I was lucky enough to get a Win 10 driver, but that's simply been updated to install under a different Win version. But the A500 PRO was only $300, no where near the money that the VS XXX users spent.
 
Come on boys, have a go at it. 

More expensive than touch screen development?

I have no idea what would be involved in doing this. It's just an idea and something that's really aimed more at the VS-700 users. Roland is so big that they don't care.
 
How complicated is a hardware driver compared to a plug in? I don't know, I don't have to know. It's just an idea, and if you want to stick your oar in, you're welcome to. Don't make it personal.

Petitioning Roland for open source would probably be more effective, but not sure how receptive they would be to such. The A-X00 pros are already on the "no" list for Win 10. Open source would at least allow for folks with the know-how to update them.

mettelus
The A-X00 pros are already on the "no" list for Win 10. 

 
I see "A-PRO Driver Ver.1.0.3 for Windows 10" on my Roland account download page. Is this for us Japanese users only?

I just caught a compatibility link in the forums, so not sure. It seems Roland has changed perspective on one AI mentioned, and others have altered the installers for some programs. I only caught that page in passing.

Wasn't there a bug or something with the master fader under win8?

Is that fixed in Win10 with the old driver? I think it's impossible to tell if it's a driver or Sonar myself. If I was to guess I would say driver myself...

Roland is the same as everyone else - out to make a buck.  Roland produced a very fine piece of equipment - the VS 700, and the VS 100 was also great in its own way.  The 700 was about as well thought out piece of music hardware for software as you could hope.  But it wasn't universal (one reason it works w/ SONAR so well) and I don't think they sold enough of either one to make any money back from the R&D spent.  As good as it was for the user, it was a failure since it was over-priced for the home market.  So Roland should spend more money?  I don't think they'll do that and just eat the loss of sales to people who've got burned and swear they'll never buy Roland again.  If they bring out a product that is unique many will forget their oaths and buy - I've done that.  It would be great if they did update old drivers, but I would be surprised.
 
Cake is not to blame at all - Roland's hardware and drivers.  They certainly aren't going to add to their debt-load.
 
MS ain't to blame - they are not responsible for 3rd party drivers when the OS changes.  I bought an all-in-one  printer that will do CDs.  Until Win 8.  I've had keep an older computer around just for that function.
 
The choices are eat the loss of the VS 700 or find a work around (which the hardware thread has).  Otherwise, privately raise money to have new software written.
 
Or lastly, don't change OS.  And I don't have a lot of faith in MS not to break more drivers at some point.  If Win 10 never causes obsolesce, MS is left as a replacement company, replacing the software in hardware that finally breaks.  Even if they don't make much hardware, MS works w/ other companies - and the only reason for MS to be is for those other companies to make hardware to put MS software in.  The more hardware, the more money they make. 
 
I was offered a used, review model when they came out.  I politely declined, even tho I loved the VS as a SONAR controller.  Everything you could possibly want, and more.  But I didn't need the in/outs.  And I certainly didn't need a glorified gm playback synth with it.  If Roland could have gotten the price (sans the extraneous features) down close to $1000 just as a controller (esp. a universal controller to open the field) they would have had a winner.  Everybody was begging for a Mackie or  TASCAM killer at that time.  Instead, they put out a $2000 unit w/  other features most people already had covered.  Maybe Roland should have to rewrite drivers, but then, that would be double indemnity.  ;-)
 
@
 
 
 
 
 

It must have seemed like a good idea at the time.  Hell, it is still a good idea - a dedicated controller w/ everything pre-mapped.  Except I'd replace the 32 knobs w/ a "knob" strip and add touchscreen since we have left the 20th century.
 
Ah, well.

Granted, but unfortunately all products reach an end-of-life support phase. Is like me saying that Ford should manufacture parts for an antique car. The difference is that specs are released to third parties to allow for this. In a software world, this is not as common because much code is grandfathered into new code and companies with this mindset (of code tweaking) don't want to just hand out a jump-start to competitors.

Of course. And if Roland had known their relationship with CW was going to belly up, they most likely would never have made it.

Few market "reality" in my experience.

Scrapping perfectly good hardware simply because there's no driver for it any more is a real pain in the neck. There are landfill sites full of old printers, scanners, video cards, all sorts of things that worked when they were dumped but... No more drivers.

Technology churn generates sales of shiny new stuff, but it's a drain on people's incomes and it chews through supplies of natural resources that are finite and one day will get scarce. As a long-term plan for the future of our species it's not even good in the short term.

Getting off my soapbox, I can't see Cakewalk picking up hardware drivers where Roland left off because it would mean a huge amount of work for no return and no end in sight for when the job might be finished. Some things, I'm told by Linux coding people, can be reverse-engineered relatively easily. Other things not. I suspect the V controllers might fall in the latter category.

There's also the little matter of how Roland might react to another company, now owned by a competitor called Gibson, reverse engineering Roland hardware or software.

Personally I'd rather Cakewalk put some work into a custom tablet touch-screen control surface that worked on all the current major tablet operating systems. But only after deciding either to sort out ACT, which has needed updating and refining for years or to drop ACT and come up with something better that ties into Sonar's control surface functions.

I will yield to the masses. I can see based on this thread that it will be a total loss. It would also be of limited benefit since the people affected is small. The current business model simply seems flawed.
 
We are supposed to get into a green mindset, and this doesn't support that goal. Kind of like the war on distracted driving, where the auto makers cram every distraction they can into cars. I have steering wheel controls, a full set of gauges and two LCD display screens in my car, and it's not an expensive car. But it's good enough to get me and my orphaned tech to the recycle depot.

ampfixer
I will yield to the masses. I can see based on this thread that it will be a total loss. It would also be of limited benefit since the people affected is small. The current business model simply seems flawed.
 
We are supposed to get into a green mindset, and this doesn't support that goal. Kind of like the war on distracted driving, where the auto makers cram every distraction they can into cars. I have steering wheel controls, a full set of gauges and two LCD display screens in my car, and it's not an expensive car. But it's good enough to get me and my orphaned tech to the recycle depot.

I do feel for ya John.  This is one of the reason I [periodically] rally for "standard" control surface support.  IMO, sticking to a core set of features that endure would be a great way to go - and provide options for people who want to add the hardware.  Much like audio interfaces today for hardware, and VST for plugins.