stevee9c6

Ryan Munnis [Cakewalk]
We didn't drop support for the VS-700. The SONAR X3 installer still installs the components and we did not remove any functionality. I do know this is not an area we focused on with this release however, so I would expect the same functionality as SONAR X2a.

Thank you for that response Ryan.  Obviously, the VS-700 owner club is hoping for some kind of future software support from Cake. This is an enthusiast forum and not a support forum.... understood.  I suspect that with Tascam part of the team, we will see some future offering in the controller/interface category. 
I realize that there is much going on behind the scenes we are not privy too, however I would like to point out a refreshing business model that AVID is using. (I recently upgraded from PT10 to Pt11)  PT is moving to the HDX system. They are throwing out a lifeline and allowing us to trade in our HD systems on the HDX system at a significant discount. The benefit of this is obvious. First, it assures a large user base that they are not being abandoned. Second, it allows HD users to upgrade without selling their first born. Third, it actually will broaden the user base over time.  Does Cake/Gibson/Tascam even want this user base? I don't know. I do know that I far prefer the CW workflow to PT.  Regardless, the next time you, Henry, and Craig share a cold beer, perhaps you could examine this concept... :)

Given the concept to rebrand SONAR as a TASCAM Professional Audio product, the impression I got was that, if anything, we want to do more to appeal to the professional market. With that being the case, I can't imagine VS-700 owners are not wanted :)
 
As far as trade ins, I really don't know. If I ever get a chance to have a beer with Henry or Craig I'll definitely share :)
 
I personally wouldn't want to trade in the VS700 hardware and can't see at the current moment why that would be a requirement. Over at Berklee we just updated all of our Pro Tools labs in the Electronic Production and Design department because, well, we had to. A lot of things were no longer fully functional. Even still we can't play a Quicktime video in the studio because the hardware doesn't support playback. Also, with the addition of all the new plug-in architecture we really just had no choice but to cough up the money for new hardware. I think it's great that AVID would offer up this type of option, but I also think they'd be crazy not to. Their business must continue of course. I'm not sure what the college is doing with the old HD192s we just pulled out of all of our labs and studios. I would imagine they've worked out a deal, but in the meantime the staff here was asked simply to throw it in storage. Crazy right? There's no need to put your VS-700R or VS-700C in storage :)
 
I absolutely love the V-Studio systems and I spent a great deal of my time working directly with hundreds of users on how to use the system. That was pretty much my entire job for over a year. As with anything, as our time working with companies grow, so do our responsibilities, and so for that reason I haven't personally had a lot of hands on time with the V-Studio hardware. With that being said, I do still love the system and think it is an excellent piece of hardware (even with some of the requests I have seen asked for new features not making it in to X3). The surface still integrates very well with SONAR, and the IO is a solid unit. The biggest thing I've noticed is that given the nature of the development of the product (drivers and hardware being made by Roland, control surface support being made by Cakewalk), any updates to it must be synchronized between Cakewalk and Roland and so the smallest request ultimately ends up being a big project.
 
Anyhow, why do I discuss all of this? Because while I'm not a product manager for Cakewalk, I have some pretty comprehensive lists of things I'd love to see done with control surface support in general. So, for whatever it is worth, one of the bigger bullets of "what can we do next" on my personal list of feedback was "control surface support". I don't know what the future holds yet for this area and what we'll do next, but I think its a proper conversation to have because it is an important area of the program.