My Upgrade Experience
I just read Adrew Rossa's post about upgrading and thought I might make a few comments.
As a part-time musician and a full-time professional ASP.NET software developer I am used to finding answers quickly on the internet because there is seldom a problem I run into which is really new to everyone. Unfortunately the kind of free and open community involvement which Microsoft has on the web is not what I would call fully realized in the case of Cakewalk. Most of what comes up in Google applies to previous versions. I would love to see something similar to Pluralsight.com become available for Cakewalk users.
Andrew mentions the SSO account, but unfortunately one has to already have one to read this post. That took about 30 minutes to get squared away as if you do not have one and you use the "forgot password" feature Cakewalk denies ever knowing your email address, yet does not allow you to use your old account name because it is "already in use". Happily Cakewalk linked my email address to my old account with all the keys and products I have purchased going all the way back to Pro-Audio 9. Unhappily my new account here makes me look like I have never been here before.
The Command Center was odd in that I already had Melodyne and D-Pro installed with X3, so it was very strange to be told it needed to be installed when I used the Command Center. I just assumed there might be some update it could install. Also I was afraid of losing all the Dimension Pro Packs and add-ons I had previously purchased. Happily they remained intact.
XLN Audio Addictive Drums 2 Producer was a very awkward installation. I sort of get it why it had to be so. When installing one needs to choose their three drum kits, three midi pack and extra kit pieces. It is not clear what will happen it you choose to decide on them later. Not having previous experience with these kits and midi packs I did not know what to do. I put the XLN site up on one screen and reviewed each one
Documentation and the learning curve on this beast has always been an issue. Back in my Pro-Audio 9 days I used to record mountains of stuff. Since the first Sonar I just haven't been as productive. Part of that might be that in PA9 most of my instrumental stuff I input directly, musically using the Staff View. The Staff View in Sonar is not very good at all workflow wise. The duration of the note to be entered is way up at the top and is in "1/4" "1/2" notation. When I am composing I think in musical notation, not mathematical. It takes me out of the zone. A real gift would be if the "Bakers" would study how Finale does it or just bring back the old ways from PA9.
More on documentation. If I had known about this 2000+ page document that is included in a separate install I may have upgraded to Sonar Platinum the first week instead of waiting till yesterday. Documentation on previous versions was limited to just the new features. One of the things holding me back was that there was just so much stuff in X3 Producer I did not know that I felt like the train had left the station and I was not on it. There is nothing worse than running into a roadblock on a project and waiting in frustration for an answer on this forum. I think the document will help a lot.
post edited by Jerrylan9638 - 2015/03/29 17:11:07