Noel and Craig, this is great news and a best case situation. Sorry for dreaming up my own scenario and typing it on the forum. I have a vivid imagination and no facts.

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?

pwalpwal

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?

 
I already answered your question in what you quoted: "so that no one can get on my case about being 'defensive.'" I'm tired of people interpreting what I'm saying as being "defensive" or giving excuses when all I'm trying to do is present some insights into how the real world works. Furthermore, my response could be interpreted as a having a political element, which is not allowed in this forum. 

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. 

Understood, and a respected issue. Just thinking of ways to reduce the backlog. Solving problems is, most surely, the final goal.

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

Correction to my previous post: Three representatives from the company have taken the time to post straightforward replies in this thread. 

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:)
 

Anderton
I'm tired of people interpreting what I'm saying as being "defensive" or giving excuses when all I'm trying to do is present some insights into how the real world works. Furthermore, my response could be interpreted as a having a political element, which is not allowed in this forum.

then PM me the answer too please :-)
 
we all live in the "real world", Anderton, and we all "understand how it works" but, crucially, we all have our own perspective - 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" - and while i can accept the fish/water effect is in action here, i don't actually see many "insights into how the [your] real world works" - maybe not always awesome, eh?
 
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
 
it's about managing expectations - "support" is now explicitly given only for certain products, some products only within a paid membership period - it's a part of a paid product - so some might suggest cake is failing to deliver the advertised product, and no amount of promises (or prayers or likes) changes that... and who can tell what will happen once the mac version is out in the wild, given the underestimation that lead to the current support situation? maybe some info on the proposed feedback portal might help?
 
anyway, i'm done on this  topic, let's see how it pans out
 
good luck!

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.]