I think he's referring to relationships like Nomad, Soft Tubes, XLN and AAS rather than your relationship and what you provide.

Anderton

irvin

Anderton

irvin
I personally would prefer a "no more 'content', only bug fixes and new features (in that order)" approach. I don't need 7000 useless guitar loops - I need 'pre-roll recording'. Virtually every other DAW has had it for years and it's a great time-saver and workflow (that's why all major DAWS chose to implement it).

Content is done by third parties or people at Cakewalk who aren't involved in engineering, so it has zero impact on development.

It does - because whatever resources are allocated to obtaining and providing this "content" (in the form of employee salary, outright purchase from third parties, etc.) could be allocated to engineering. 

 
No, as I said before it has zero impact on development (well technically, it needs to be included in the installer so people can download it, but that's trivial).
 
Here's why. I create almost all of the content, and it's for projects that I do. As a result this content is created on my own time (weekends and evenings) for projects that have nothing to do with Cakewalk. I make them available to the community because of the positive comments in this forum from people who've tried content like the Hardgroove Steinberger virtual instrument, percussion loops, Monitorizer, VoxTools, Amp Sims, etc. Some people really like them, so why be selfish and keep them solely for myself?
 
Cakewalk does not pay me for the content I create. Third party content is obtained for free not because it's worthless, but because being included provides more visibility for the company. For example, the Boz ProChannel plug-ins brought his company attention that resulted in people checking out their other products. You can think of it as trading content for advertising; both the content and advertising have value.
 
Some of the non-SONAR-specific content I create, like the Gibson Bass Collection, is not included with the membership program but is sold through the Cakewalk store. I do not receive any money for that either, so Cakewalk keeps what they make, and those resources ARE available for engineering.
 
So now that I think about it, I stand corrected...my content creation can have a positive impact on engineering by allowing engineering to have more resources. Cakewalk recently hired two more engineers so it must be working
 

So, if I understand correctly, Cakewalk advertises the content as part of the membership's benefits even though it doesn't cost them anything because they are getting it for free?

No offense intended, but that explains why it's so low quality and generic.

Still, I would prefer that Cakewalk provided better features and more bug fixes instead of this free content. But that's just my preference; other people may find the "free" (free only to Cakewalk, we users are paying for it even if we don't like it) content valuable...

And I am happy with the content.IT  does what I need to create drums and keys to go along with our "live" bass,guitars,and vocals. All it does is take up hard drive space.which is now cheaper than dirt.
 
And generic is better than specific.......more folks will use generic stuff in generic music....since there is more of it.

charlyg
And I am happy with the content.IT  does what I need to create drums and keys to go along with our "live" bass,guitars,and vocals. All it does is take up hard drive space.which is now cheaper than dirt.
 
And generic is better than specific.......more folks will use generic stuff in generic music....since there is more of it.

That's perfectly fine with me. In fact, more people should express their preference, one way or the other. That way, the path to follow (more content? More bug fixes? Better features?) would be clear to everyone. I firmly believe that the majority's opinion should rule.

[/quote irvin]
No offense intended, but that explains why it's so low quality and generic.

I don´t think so,there has and will be top content and 
vst´s like the Nomad stuff,Rapture session and AD drums  which
are awesome.
Abd the drum replacer, the anderton amps ,amd,and ,and.....
 
 

Cakewalk, like most companies, will always be trapped between trying to keep existing customers and trying to win new customers. A straw poll on a forum like this is bound to be biased towards the former and they will take that into account. As such you're probably best off just reporting the bugs and requesting the features and hoping for the best.

charlyg
Evidently not basic enough for me. I use EZD2 and EZKeys and they handle all the midi(loops) I  need.

Sorry to be OT here-But I use both of those (EZD3 & EZkeys) and they "were" part of the midi that I was trying to "delete the hole" So I don't get how that has anything to do with the delete the hole bug-You make it sound like having those makes the bug go away?
 
- Now on topic-I have all I need so just making Sonar better is OK with me-yes I like the little goodies too, but I don't even use all that I have now-not to mention all the 3rd party stuff i have. But in the end some of the new stuff I am using, so.................?

I'm just doing basic loops, I pick an intro, verse, chorus, solo, and outro, and  clip drag the loop to the length needed. If I want to add a fill,I just drop it where needed. I would probably be in melodyne to do anything else with the part.
 
 
I also freeze when I am happy with what we have.fwiw

irvin
So, if I understand correctly, Cakewalk advertises the content as part of the membership's benefits even though it doesn't cost them anything because they are getting it for free?

 
As I explained before, the content and the visibility the companies receive have value. The members benefit from the content, Cakewalk benefits from not having to devote resources to it, and the manufacturer receives greater visibility. No one is forcing anyone to use the content, and those who benefit from it can download and use it.

No offense intended, but that explains why it's so low quality and generic...Still, I would prefer that Cakewalk provided better features and more bug fixes instead of this free content. But that's just my preference; other people may find the "free" (free only to Cakewalk, we users are paying for it even if we don't like it) content valuable...

Well, it's not clear exactly what you're referring to. You mentioned "7,000 guitar loops" and although that's fictional, I assumed you were using that as an umbrella term for the content that ships with the membership updates like loops, instruments, and FX Chains. However maybe as Kamikaze is proposing, you actually mean the add-ons to SONAR like Nomad, Soft Tubes, XLN and AAS.
 
As I've said twice before, the content I provide for the membership doesn't cost you anything, so I guess you're not referring to that? It would probably further the discussion if you quantified the content you find "so low quality and generic" as I don't think anyone knows for sure what you're referring to. (If it's the core Audio Library that ships with SONAR, I consider that an uncurated mess. It was set up years before the acquisition, and there will be significant changes to it in the future. I can't give details but what we are working on involves content that is considered by many the best in the industry, will not impact development, and will not cost money to users unless they want more than is provided.)

irvin
I firmly believe that the majority's opinion should rule.

While that sounds good in theory, it's a little more nuanced than that. My favorite example comes from when I was running Electronic Musician magazine. We had a record reviewer named Robert Carlberg who was both snarky and intelligent. In reader surveys, 85% of the readers said they didn't want to see record reviews in the magazine, they would prefer the space was used for something else. But the 15% who wanted the reviews loved Carlberg's writing, and many of them said those reviews were the primary reason they subscribed to the magazine. So we kept the reviews because they were extremely popular among a very loyal group of readers.