Have been reading this thread each day. Ben your last 2 posts where excellent. I will say even though I don't use that feature, I follow what you are saying and I support your viewpoint. 
 
I have not bothered to download the last couple of updates. I think I'm still at B. The limited amount of time I have to get any recording done I'm not willing to waste on fussing with the software. 
And as everything I use is working smoothly why would I? New features? Some of us are to busy recording to have time to play with new toys. 
Anyhow, my point is Cakewalk has a huge variety of customers both old and new. I would hate to have to sit there and second guess what everyone would like to see next. But I would put STABILITY at the top of the list because I cannot think of one type of customer who would wish for otherwise. 
 

Doktor Avalanche
Ultimately a fairly complex argument will be whittled down to basics... Now this thread is 100% about drum maps, yet there was actually a point being discussed away from it.

 
I see DM getting the focus because DM was presented as the shining example - the smoking gun of support for the case.  I have seen/read agreement from a very large number of folks, Noel included, that they need to improve the process, ultimately leading to an improved user experience.
 
 

Doktor Avalanche
People like me end up typing rubbish like this...
 
Same old Alex ... 

I fixed that last one for you 
 
Seriously, Noel opened his proverbial Kimono for all the world to see. 
WTF else does anybody expect to happen here? 
The OP made his point.  Noel has the ball now.

I think Dr.A made some good points. His last post was spot on. Except the last part, it wasn't rubbish.

Well sirs, you have Cakewalk defending themselves thrown in with comments from satisfied customers like me. It is not all smoke and mirrors from folks with a dog in the "fight". I would be willing to bet happy gets more votes than, well, the other side of the coin.....What I don't approve of is assuming we(mostly CA, but all satisfied customers) must have something to gain for defending the company. You can always assume the worst, assume the best, or take it for what it is worth, a small problem in a world filled with many bigger ones.

Bristol_Jonesey

Kylotan

brundlefly

Kylotan
WE CURRENTLY CANNOT USE THE DRUM MAPS AT ALL.

Shouting something does not make it true. If you reload the map, or reset the output of just one note number, the map will start working. It's only on initial load of a project with an existing map that they don't work. Yes, this makes switching projects frequently kind of a pain, but it's far from unusable.

So, you found a workaround, well done. This is hardly obvious and I wouldn't have found it myself. At the point where I posted, as far as I was concerned, this was true - the drum maps were not working, at all, in any project.

I'm afraid this isn't a workaround, at least it doesn't work for me.
I've tried with 3 different projects so far with zero success.
 

 
Sorry, I've been busy, and didn't have a chance to check back in. All I know is that when I saw the port/channel was blank at the bottom of the map, my first thought was to reset output ports, and I started by just doing one. When I saw port/channel was repopulated by doing that, I tested playback and found the whole map was working again. I tried one other project, and it worked there as well, so I'm not sure why it didn't work for you, but I would guess something else is going on in addition to the port assignment issue in your case.
 
I didn't realize no one had yet posted any workaround at the time or I would have been more gentle in my response. 
 
 
 

mudgel
To those who are worried about monthly updates and stability and testing whatever. You could always stay with the version you're happy with.

I think the point of the OP was that there is no option to get fixes without introducing new features (the OP doesn't want or need), which may in turn break core functionality.  Personally I would be very happy to see the new functions added only once every three months and have the other two months be 100% bug fixes.  That way a person looking for stability instead of "gee whiz, isn't this way cool?" could wait until the 3rd month to update his system.
 
To make that more clear, the calendar might look like
January - major functions
February - bug fixes only
March - bug fixes only
April - major functions 
etc.
 
A person valuing stability could upgrade in March, June, September, and December.

You have the ability to keep as much as you want in the red. If everyone valued stability to the nth degree, there would be no users finding bugs that the bakers didn't happen to catch. They can't predict every  scenario.

All I try to do is inject comments concerning the reality of a situation, because I know more about how this company (and the industry) operates than the majority of the people who participate in these forums. My comments about these realities are based not just on my experiences with Cakewalk but also with Steinberg, Avid, Mixcraft, Magix, Sony, InMusic, Ableton, PreSonus, MOTU, and others. When Cakewalk works on SONAR, they face virtually all the same questions and considerations that other companies in this industry face.
 
I try to communicate this data as accurately and completely as possible. People can make up their own minds as to the implications of the data. They can also choose to ignore it, which many do.
 
However in the big picture, whether they accept it, reject it, or ignore it, that will not alter the constraints under which this industry operates. The only element that removes constraints for any company is additional resources. Unfortunately, the music software industry is very competitive, with thin margins and a small customer base. In my experience, the only factor that keeps the software flowing is that all (yes, ALL) these companies are populated by highly dedicated and motivated people who do not prioritize making a nice living over creating products of which they're proud. They're artists, not just "engineers."
 
This is why I have little patience for those people who get upset that the tools they use aren't up to their subjective "standards" (and this is not just about Cakewalk by any means). The reality is that it's amazing these tools exist at all.
 
Every time I boot up SONAR, Live, Reason, Studio One, Vegas, Wavelab, etc. I am truly grateful they exist because I know what goes into creating them, and the people who spend the long hours making them work. If something requires a workaround, that's a small price to pay for the incredible functionality these tools do offer us at what is an unrealistically low price. The only way these companies could meet the expectations of much of their user base is to double or triple the price of the software. How many customers are willing to support that? I would venture to say very few.
 

charlyg
You have the ability to keep as much as you want in the red. If everyone valued stability to the nth degree, there would be no users finding bugs that the bakers didn't happen to catch. They can't predict every  scenario.

At risk of sounding like a smartarse, I've done QA professionally for years. If I saw in the fix list something about drum maps templates being fixed during a save, the first thing I would have done is test the save/load functionality everywhere for drum maps.

That's not to put down Cakewalk QA, they simply may not have been given the time to test it, although the bug would probably have been uncovered in less than an hour with basic tests.

Ya know, whenever a new fall version of Sonar dropped, It would take quite a while for me to master and get comfortable with what was new, and what was broke.
 
At this breakneck rate of once a month it puts me in a perpetual state of the above.
 
I'll try to get with it. :-)