Just curious really, but with the frequent rolls-out of new releases in the new model, is beta testing still being done? If so, how does it fit into the much more compressed time-scales? If you are a beta tester, and you reply to this, I realise that you will have to use expressions like "allegedly"; "some say that ..."; "it could be imagined that ..." to avoid breaching any NDA 

I am not one but even disclosing you are a beta tester can breach some NDAs.

Mudgel - Thanks for pointing out that you are nudge-nudge "not" a beta tester, but in your capacity as a non-beta-tester, do you know the answers to my questions?

As far as I'm aware there is still a Cakewalk beta program. They make no secret of there being an application for membership to the beta program on their website so there must be one. I just had a look now and can't find the application anywhere but I'm sure if you PM one of the regular Bakers here they'll let you know.

I am not a beta tester for Cakewalk or any associated brands.

We have an ongoing beta team as before and they have access to builds as they are being developed. Since there are fewer changes in a release its actually more likely they will catch problems since testing can be more focused.
The downside is testers always have something to do :)

Thanks, Noel.

I was one for a while; I'm not any more, so I don't imagine I'm breaking any agreement by saying so.
 
Just wanted to comment on this:
 
> is beta testing still being done? If so, how does it fit into the much more compressed time-scales?
 
In my experience, it wasn't like there was a short period of testing just before a release. It was more continuous and on-going than that. So the new approach to releases wouldn't really change that.

Ah! [light goes on] - the cycle for testing can be longer than the release cycle. But doesn't that imply that we all become beta testers or gamma testers or something? I suppose I'm struggling to understand how the quality of the release can be as assured when the releases are happening every month.

I *hope* they're working ahead some rather than starting the process for end-of-May at the beginning of May.
 
Really the best we can hope for is to speculate at this point though.  The last thing we need is for Cake to 'open their Kimono' and start having process rationalization discussions in the forums. 
 
I could be wrong about this, but I'm pretty certain they have more important things to do.

Because the releases have fewer changes than if it were done once annually. Since there are fewer features to test, problems if any are more likely to be found earlier on by QA and testers. Also major features like the virtual controller for example continue to be developed and tested over several months.