Anderton

fitzj
Why doesn't Cakewalk pay some of the guys on here for doing support?

 
There are excellent reasons not to do so, but so that no one can get on my case about being "defensive," I'll PM you with the answer.
 

why not post the answer here, where the question is being asked? does fitzj have special perks?

bbach
How many telephone tech support cases were responded to today?

 
You would need to include email answers too if your true motivation is getting a snapshot into support's daily workload. But if you want to see improved support response, it seems counter-productive to ask the support team to stop doing support for as long as it takes to tally up the number of phone calls and emails they dealt with today so they can give you a personal report on how much support they're doing.
 

Not too long ago you could get a support person on the line in less than an hour. Now it takes approximately three months.

 
Do you really believe that support calls and emails take approximately three months to be resolved? If so, tell that to the people who've posted in these forums about issues there were experiencing (e.g., store issues, going into demo mode) that were resolved in a couple days, if not hours. 
 
The bottom line is this: For the people who received support in a timely manner, or found there answer in the FAQs, the Knowledgebase, or this forum, there's enough support. For the people who have not received support in a timely manner, there isn't enough support. Cakewalk recognizes the latter needs to be improved, is working on it, and two different representatives from the company have taken the time to post straightforward replies in this thread. 

I understand how frustrating this can be and continue to thank everyone for their patience as we train up new staff to meet the demand.  Also, long term, development is doubling down on fixes and feature work to decrease the need for potential support issues.   Past efforts have including adding automation to handle crash reports, recently we added analytics so we can collect issues that impact a lot of folks and quickly work to resolve them.  You'll continue to see our commitment to making SONAR 'awesome' in coming releases.
 
Keith

I am really surprised by the level of animosity on this topic. In over 20 years of using Cakewalk products every day on many types of hardware I can honestly say that I have never needed to call tech support outside of contact on this forum. I have certainly had challenges and issues, and understand that it is no doubt an invaluable service, but I see it as a last desperate resort rather than an entitled beck and call. I can't help but wonder how much the technical support load would be reduced if it was compulsory to read the manual first.
 
I mean no offence. My 2 cents worth may well be a completely skewed, entirely geographical result of living on an island continent on the other side of the planet:)
 

pwalpwal
 
then PM me the answer too please :-)

 
Will do.
 

we all live in the "real world", Anderton, and we all "understand how it works"

 
I respectfully submit that "all" definitely do NOT understand how Cakewalk works, the decisions that are made regarding prioritization, the financials, the company's future direction, governmental regulations that differ dramatically among countries, the attacks from patent trolls that need to be disposed of, the relationship to the parent company and to other software companies with whom Cakewalk has a business relationship, trade show participation, and a myriad other factors.
 
If some people consider my giving information on these and other topics (within the limits of confidentiality, of course) an indication of defensiveness, they are free to do so...just as other people are free to appreciate that I'm trying to contribute to their understanding of a very complex business in which they have an apparent interest. 
 

We all have our own perspective 

 
And that's fine, but when it's based on non-fact-based speculation, then there's a limit as to how accurate those perspectives can be. So, I try to provide fact-based information and the perspective of someone who while not a part of Cakewalk per se, has had a close relationship with the company for years before the acquisition, and some understanding of its internal workings. Furthermore, most of what I write applies to many, if not most, other software companies...remember, I've consulted to PreSonus, Avid, Sony, M-Audio, Acoustica, MOTU, Microsoft, Ableton, Magix, Native Instruments, and several others. That has given me a perspective on the real world of software that I don't think many people have.
 

You must surely understand that your regular "last word" on posts that seem to criticise cakewalk in some way, or posts that seem to criticise decisions cakewalk have made, come across as, fwoabw, "defensive"

 
I'm sure some people will interpret it that way, possibly because it doesn't corroborate their perspective. I get that. But, I write for the people who understand my motivation.
 
Another example of the same kind of criticisms I deal with is when someone asks if SONAR can do something and it can't, but I offer a workaround. That's interpreted as being an apologist for Cakewalk, and some people dismiss a workaround because they're not getting what they want. Other people assign the correct motivation, which is I'm trying to help someone solve a problem. They can choose to use the workaround, or they can choose to complain that a workaround is needed. At least I've provided an option.
 

i don't actually see many "insights into how the [your] real world works" - maybe not always awesome, eh?

 
Then I respectfully submit you're not looking hard enough; consider fact-based posts like this one, which I posted just a few minutes ago. And I most definitely make comments about things that aren't always awesome. How else could someone interpret my saying that Cakewalk underestimated the need for increased support, so now they need to scramble? 
 
Of course things aren't perfect and there are issues that it would be nice to solve. Notation is one of them, and as I've mentioned in this forum, I have been working behind the scenes to find solutions. You can choose your perspective and be upset that I haven't found it yet, or you can be happy I'm working on trying to solve the problem. MY perspective is...I'm trying to improve the program.
 

fwiw, i think something that is driving the frustration is the amount of time (~3 months now?) that support have been struggling to catch up, and that doesn't appear to be improving, and people have no way of contacting support beyond the automated email response thingy

 
I've never said people shouldn't be frustrated or upset. What I have done is presented the reasons why there are issues. Someone could have the perspective that Cakewalk is being cavalier and doesn't care about their customers, but if they realize it can take several months to find, hire, and train additional support people (as confirmed by other professionals here), although they likely won't be any less frustrated they will at least understand the actual reason for the delay rather than thinking Cakewalk doesn't give a damn, and all the support people are sitting around a pool somewhere sipping margaritas. 
 
Who knows...once armed with the facts, they might realize there are jobs to be had, and they'll apply if they have the required expertise and interest. 
 
[I suppose some people will consider this a "defensive" post. I consider it as having the courtesy to take your comments seriously, and therefore answer them as thoroughly and accurately as possible.]
 

A mi me pasa igual, el soporte tecnico, no me responde de algunos problemas, menores

FWIW Craig, I've always found your posts to be helpful, insightful, and informative.  I certainly hope you won't cut down on your posting here because some might find your explaining of a particular Cakewalk issue "defensive".  I suspect it's a very small, but vocal, minority.  Keep doing what you do, post however you see fit to post, and know that there's a lot of forum members who get a lot of value from reading your words.  So keep it up!

I find a persons strengths lay in their ability's to listen to others with an open mind. 
This isn't always easy for me to do. I suppose I could benefit from trying to work on that more.
Like Mr Pips, I sometimes worry myself that Craig will say is this really worth it ?
Because he has a wealth of knowledge to share and it would be surely missed.
Im glad he has thick skin and a positive outlook on things even the negative things.
 
Sorry for the short derail here, I understand this topic is important.
My opinion is there's only so much Cakewalk can do right now. they have created steps toward correcting the support issue.
Someone early said something that rang a bell for me and that's support issues are important but if its about a non working feature, a feature that could use improvement, exc. those thing will take a back burner.
If its a serial, registration issue, a purchase problem then those will take priority. I can understand that 100%.
 
In the end, I hope in a few months we can all look at this as a thing of the past.
This forum will never be a replacement for tech support. but I didn't hear anyone from cakewalk say that.
so I don't think they feel that way. I believe their user base is important to them. this will get resolved.

mcdonalk
It has been stated previously that an activation issue will have higher priority than many other issues. My case #313717 addresses an activation issue for Rapture Pro that has been outstanding for months. I would be pleased if it was included with other priority issues.

have you looked in your cakewalk account ?
your reg and serials will be in there (no brainer I know)
but with each version of sonar, you are given a new Rapture, Dim pro, exc. you receive a new serial each time.
try a few different ones.
my guess is you entered the wrong response code that didn't match that serial.
Good luck
 
 
Never mind. I just tried doing some searching for you and found your old thread

mcdonalk
Update: After capturing some data from the Rapture Pro info page for Cakewalk, Cakewalk has indicated that Rapture Pro authorization is timing out. Cakewalk has suggested that my lack of W7 updates or a drive error may be the cause. W7 is up to date, and disc scans using hdtune indicate no errors. I am awaiting the next step from Cakewalk.

 
 

As with other threads, I read them with amusement but mostly bemusement and rarely comment unless I think I can add something useful.  I am sure we have all read text be it in an email, letter or forum and applied our own perceived tone to the contents. It has a disadvantage over face to face communications where you have additional pointers to the underlying subtext or lack thereof. Still it seems that members apply their own subtext to posts often wrongly.
The current issues with support seem to have been acknowledged and evidence submitted that something is being done to alleviate the problem. Not great, but admission is the first sign to recovery (or so they tell me at GAS Anonymous) :)
I have lost count of the number of times I have seen threads started about bugs or something not working which is working for everyone else and it turns out to be down to the system environment, lack of understanding of the functionality or applying the functionality wrongly.  The only way to eliminate these causes is to explain in a logical order, the steps you have taken that cause the issue. If this can be replicated elsewhere and confirmed by other forum members chances are it is an issue with Sonar, if not it is more likely to be user specific. In either case people here are always willing to help.
If you take the delete hole issue mentioned, I have seen no massive outcry from the rest of the user population about this functionality not working (it has been there since X series) so it suggests it could be something closer to home.  What are the steps you take for this problem to occur?  I had to read the manual the first time I wanted to use it and even then I wasn't 100% sure I was using it the right way.
The Melodyne issue may be related to Melodyne, Sonar or both but a quick check of previous forum threads about Melodyne issues may point to a resolution or at least a common problem, once again a more logical run through of how you use it may help,given that it is fairly obviously not happening to everyone or there would be a massive outcry.