• SONAR
  • Why is it always $50 per month? (p.6)
2015/06/19 11:01:04
scook
The links for all the ezines are on this page http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/SONAR/Whats-New and available to everyone.
2015/06/19 11:04:28
joyof60
.....and if stop paying monthly in August 2015, and want to start again in May of 2017, how much would that cost, and what upgrades would I get? I dearly love the concept, and I think the monthly upgrades are great, (heck, I thought the yearly upgrades were great!) just trying to get some concrete numbers so one could know how to proceed. I'm sure there are many whose finances have changed from one month to the next and not always for the best. I just believe that informed decisions are usually best.
2015/06/19 11:14:40
scook
I do not believe CW has published a price schedule through 2017. Walking away in Aug. 2015 would imply monthly payments because the program is not a year old. Failing to make the initial 12 consecutive payments would mean starting over in 2017 at whatever the rate is at that time. See the FAQ here http://www.cakewalk.com/P...s/SONAR/Membership#FAQ
 
edit: grammer
 
2015/06/19 11:21:27
charlyg
It's kinda like a lifetime warranty. Sounds good, but the product(new version, sometimes just a part number change) or company has to be around to fulfill. And it means more when it says Craftsman than when it says Pittsburgh...h/t to Harbor Freight!
 
You can't expect today's realities to remain in place indefinitely. The world does not, and has not work(ed) that way.
2015/06/19 11:42:17
bapu
joyof60,
 
Assuming (for conversation sake) August 2015 was a full year for you (the best model to work from). May of 2017 will have a full upgrade price that CW feels the market can bear. Assuming they continue with monthly payment plans if the full upgrade price at that time is too much (for you or me) then we'll have that option available. Why would anyone expect to expect CW to know 2017 prices in 2015?
 
When X1 came out I'm pretty sure no one asked what would the X3 upgrade cost be. We just assumed it would be roughly the same. And if it changed we either skipped the upgrade (because we were broke) or paid the price available at the time we wanted the upgrade.
 
You have been informed, IMO.
2015/06/19 12:19:00
Teksonik
I've stayed with X3 Producer. At this point if I upgrade to Platinum what do I get ?  Is there a chart or FAQ for that somewhere ?  EDIT: I've found the release notes for Jan thru May.
So if I pay the $149 now I get the latest version of Platinum and whatever new versions are released for the next 12 months ?
 
There are additions and improvements every 2 months ? 
2015/06/19 13:06:02
Teksonik
Anderton
 That shows maybe sometimes it's a good idea for Cakewalk to go in the direction of what they would like to see in the program - everyone there uses it,


Sorry, got to call you on this one. Everyone out here uses Sonar as well.  To place a higher value on the opinion of those who work for CW than on the opinions of those who purchased the software is.....well I think you can take it from there.......
2015/06/19 14:14:52
lfm
Anderton
lfm
forkol
 
Problem that I have here is that it seems so far that the features and requests forums hasn't really seem to drive any of the most recent feature development.  In an idea 'membership' model, what I'd like to see is that top-voted features get some amount of priority development time.  Actually, Cakewalk development seems to go in the completely opposite direction - IIRC, I don't remember many people requesting drum replacer or Vocal Sync.  I'm not saying they were not wanted by somebody, they just don't seem like features that people were clamoring for. 
 

You've got a point there.
First thing I saw this year that is of any interest to me, is start page improvements to get organized.

 
But there's a big difference between saying new features aren't of personal interest to you, compared to saying that Cakewalk development goes in the opposite direction of what people want. This post delineates new features that were requested. Those features must have been important to some people, or the features wouldn't have been requested.

Thanks for commenting.
 
I did write that he had "a point" not that I entirely agreed.
If going forward is scanning and implementing feature requests - you could say that implementing and improving stuff you never saw mentioned even, is going sideways.
 
So not going backwards or opposite - is not what I meant.

 
 

 
More important is that CWBRN's backlog are treated and fixed - nothing comes before that.

 
If you look at the list of bug fixes that occurred between X3 and SONAR 2015, as well as the list of fixes in each release, I think you'll see that making fixes has indeed been a priority. So that's another instance of Cakewalk making changes based on the desires of many segments of the community (i.e., those who place more importance on stability than features). 




Incredible list of fixes and improvements we saw so far this year - thousands of manhours saved in not having to deal with those bugs anymore.
And I don't consider listening to feedback of bugs the same thing as implementing feature requests.
And I don't consider fixing something just broken as implementing feature requests either.
 
But you've got a point that stability fixes aren't always obvious - since things working are just as they should be.
 
I have a CWBRN from january, of things that were an issue in X3e. That moved to "awaiting reply" whatever that means. I put fresh update now that this still not working in Artist Everett and will see what happends. Some plugins loaded inside Metaplugin does not initialize to host sample rate in Sonar. It works in Cubase, StudioOne, Reaper, Mixcraft.
 
Another CWBRN that also is ignored since X3 early makes console view take up an extra inch in height of screen - the EQ plot does not entirely go away if I uncheck it, you get some blob covering other things in CV.
I tried to gain some extra screen space - but this is ignored in favour of things nobody asked for(in all honestly like forkol said, somebody sure did, but how many).
 
This is - just me - having to deal with these for me annoying issues.
 
CWBRN are incemented by a thousand each month - userbase trying to communicate back to Cakewalk things that they are bothered by, and maybe even stops the show for them.
 
This means that all these Cakewalk customers have each spent hours to troubleshoot these issues and report this - and too many are ignored. Think about it - one thousand users each month report stuff - maybe an hour each to troubleshoot enough to make a report. Many of these are surely double reports of different users having another approach to the same issue. I know the drill, ran my own software business for 16 years. But looking at them all as a whole usually point you towards where the problem is. A lot of wasted manhours in userbase this - so think about that when making priorities.
 
There were other threads about what forum members felt Cakewalk should focus on. One guy made a list of 5-6 topics, and this was the most quoted topic in that thread, having stability and fixes as top of list.
 
So again, just emphasizing this about fixes...I can understand the urge for devs to list new implemented features, but why not pick those asked/voted for first, rather than make up features?
 
I see good things about startup page, as I said, to get organized - but where do news list come from?
How many of us are really online with running Sonar?
I connect purely to check for updates with CCC and do installs - nothing else - for convenience.
I don't want any software like Adobe Flash, Acrobat or Windows updates check things over network while audio is running(some plugins with built in store also do network accesses as started). Attacks from outside to firewall that also may use cpu from time to time.
After updates/installs I reboot computer with router turned off - no network activity that can jeapardize audio.
 
That part about news on start page seems to me more be of Cakewalk interest spreading info about this and that.
I may be out on a lim here - but just an assumption that many do like I do.
Maybe put news part in CCC instead - then surely your are online.
 
Just feedback from one user running sneak Artist version - but thinking of going to Pro if Cakewalk is going the way I go - forward not sideways.
 
2015/06/19 14:22:04
Beepster
Okay... so I don't have time to read through everything that's been posted since last night but in regards to feature requests being implemented...
 
Things that I have SPECIFICALLY requested to be fixed or added to the program...
 
All that crazy Control Bar stuff was EXACTLY what I had been asking for since I first installed Sonar X1... and they added way more useful stuff that I hadn't even conceived of to the CB.
 
There was a very specific bug in X3 that made the TV jump away from an in focus lane up to the parent track that was a major problem for me. Fixed in Platinum.
 
There is a bunch of other stuff too that I've pointed out here on the forum and magically it appeared in X3 or Platinum. Thing is it does take time to code and implement these things and those request were made quite some time ago and were NOT made under the new FR forum. Just general ramblings and threads before the site redesign.
 
So I figure at that rate since the new FR sub has only been around, what 8 months now?, we'll start seeing some of the more popular request happening... well probably very soon.
 
Seriously there is a ton of other stuff I've blathered on about that has been implemented but my mind is elsewhere. They are listening but these things can't happen overnight. If they just slam it into the program without properly testing it all everyone would scream bloody murder that things are broken and the number ONE request has been for stability/bug fixes. That seems to be happening more than anything... despite the few blork outs... and even then they release patches for those flubs very quickly.
 
Something has changed since X2 days. IDK what it is exactly but I no longer feel like I'm out in the wilderness screaming at clouds. It's a good thing.
 
Peace.
2015/06/19 16:46:57
dwardzala
Teksonik
Anderton
 That shows maybe sometimes it's a good idea for Cakewalk to go in the direction of what they would like to see in the program - everyone there uses it,


Sorry, got to call you on this one. Everyone out here uses Sonar as well.  To place a higher value on the opinion of those who work for CW than on the opinions of those who purchased the software is.....well I think you can take it from there.......


I think this a bit short sighted.  Those who write the software understand the full capabilities of some of the new things that they are implementing - an example is using ARA to expand Audio to MIDI capabilities.  The people who write the software are experts in its use and understand far more of what's going on under the hood and can leverage that knowledge into new feature ideas a lot better than most of us.
© 2026 APG vNext Commercial Version 5.1

Use My Existing Forum Account

Use My Social Media Account