ampfixer
Says the guy that helped put Gibson and Cakewalk together.

And therefore assisted in keeping Cakewalk alive for another four years. If you have a problem with that, then simply pretend Roland remained unable to find a buyer, Cakewalk disappeared, and use something else.
 
I don't have a dog in this fight. I'm not with Gibson, and I'm not doing anything for Cakewalk. I've been out of the picture except as a user and forum contributor since early October 2017.
 
I will say by any rational standards that given the situation in 2013, it was a long shot at best that Gibson could turn Cakewalk around. It was nonetheless a chance Henry was willing to take. 
 

ionecake
Although one might have seen red flags with Gibson's handling of Opcode, but maybe Craig forgot about that.

 
I was extremely aware of it. My very first personal encounter with Henry was being rude at a press event and asking about it . His answer was civil and logical. Still, before joining Gibson I talked separately with Chris Halaby, who ran Opcode, and Henry about what happened. Their stories matched up. It sounded like a situation where none of the stars were in alignment: The Windows version of Vision ultimately didn't work, most of the developers who knew the program had already jumped ship to Apple, the Mac was poised to change over to OS X (surprise!), and there was disagreement about how to handle the reality of the situation. Gibson thought it was buying a program it could take to greater heights. Instead, Gibson needed a team in place essentially to re-build Vision from the ground up, and wasn't able to do so for multiple reasons.
 

If anything, going to Gibson might have been just the lucky break Cakewalk needed before Meng and BandLab came along. Who knows?

 
The people at Cakewalk AND Gibson were able to bring Cakewalk up to the point where it was in better shape than it was under Roland. I think if the numbers had been the same as when Roland had it, there would likely not have been a buyer. So ultimately, I believe my take that Gibson would be beneficial to Cakewalk was fundamentally correct. The alternative to Gibson acquiring it would likely have been no Cakewalk and no Sonar.
 
I've followed my own advice and am not overthinking this. I downloaded CbB. It works. It recognizes my Platinum stuff. I can keep using a program that's just like Sonar. Thank you Meng, thank you Noel, and thank you Henry for keeping it alive.

Craig, I am also following your advice. Not only about overthinking CbB, but also your long ago tip for future proof archiving. So I am comfortable with just being grateful that Meng and Bandlab have taken on the further development of Cakewalk.

Thanks, Craig! I appreciate your candor and sharing your POV. I for one was harsh about Gibson when things fell apart, and I've always been very skeptical about them (from the Opcode days), but I've since softened my view a bit recently, and what you've been saying about what happened just helps confirm my shifting view.
 
What helped me change the most was digging around and finding some numbers from Cakewalk back during the Roland days when I *thought* (mistakenly as it turns out) that they were doing better than they were... it was clear Cakewalk was in real financial trouble, it was getting worse, and Roland couldn't figure out how to make them profitable. I can see now that Cakewalk would have disappeared a long time ago without Gibson.
 
And even though I still think Gibson did a poor job, they did give it a shot and kept them floating. That's worth something. Gibson just didn't have the right tools/knowledge to make it work. But they tried. I think they made some pretty idiotic decisions during that time, but I can see that they were really trying a bunch of different things -- I'll take your word that they were sincere at it -- and they just couldn't make it work.
 
After learning more about the story, I just feel bad for all involved. I can't really bring myself to blame anyone at this point. For whatever combination of reasons, Cakewalk couldn't weather the perfect storm of frankly a shifting cultural/tech/industry/market landscape. I remember my frustration with them years ago and I got fed up more than once. But I think I understand what happened now, and it's made me much less judgmental about the decisions made.
 
In any case, one hopes that now Cakewalk has found the right home. It deserves it, and I hope Meng continues to put his wallet where his mouth is to give Cakewalk the breathing room it needs to thrive.

Maybe the nature of how this thread digressed is all wrapped up in how people talk a lot about things they know very little about. But - the internet makes them so intellectual and free to espouse their half knowledge with little to no filters about what is real.   Thank you Craig for your insight and actual knowledge / understanding of this situation .... and for sharing it with the forum.

We are all consumers. That's how we came to be here in the first place. Someone offered goods and services that we felt we needed and we chose to invest in them under the conditions offered at the time of purchase. There are many  providers of similar goods and services and some, including myself have invested in as well. No one twisted my arm to force me to continue here. I am here because I want to be. I'm inspired to be taking part of something that I think is bigger than the software itself. So if this place isn't a place where you think you want to be then make way to the other place that inspires you, who ever you are. You need to fair to your own self. 
 
just my 2 synths
 

Rbh
Maybe the nature of how this thread digressed is all wrapped up in how people talk a lot about things they know very little about. But - the internet makes them so intellectual and free to espouse their half knowledge with little to no filters about what is real.   Thank you Craig for your insight and actual knowledge / understanding of this situation .... and for sharing it with the forum.

Slight edit to your post: Maybe the nature of *PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING ONLINE* is all wrapped up in how people talk a lot about things they know very little about...
 
That's how it increasingly looks to me, anyway... The internet, the most incredible repository of knowledge in history, too bad it's 98% full of nonsense, bulls%§t and vitriol. Oh, and porn. But otherwise, amazing!

slyman
I really don't get what the hype is all about with this "new" version and why many SPLAT users are installing it. 
It's the same piece of software.....! 

Not nearly the same as SPLAT 2017.01
http://forum.cakewalk.com/PRV-Shootout-CbB-vs-201701-m3747143.aspx#3747143 

Craig, overall it's working ok after all its the same version as SPLAT so any bugs in SPLAT are this version. They are getting things sorted quickly as they probably now have a few more staff to do the web and updates link etc while they continue fixing the main  core program.
What I don't understand is I have PreSonus Studio 3 scanning the same plugins as CbB/SPLAT but PreSonus is very fast to start up compared to  CbB.
 
It's loading the Plugins that seems to take time as on a new PC with only the standard plugins it loads really fast. I have scan plugins disabled plus background as that even takes longer if enabled.
 
Also, this version  CbB whatever was changed has issues with Nvidia drivers but also PreSonus has some issues with these drivers if you have the onboard memory enabled for use on the card. Nevertheless disabling this still does not correct the driver issues, so not sure if its Nvidia or Cakewalk who can fix this problem. 
Over the coming months, things will improve I am sure.
 
 

Anderton

ampfixer
I downloaded CbB. It works. It recognizes my Platinum stuff. I can keep using a program that's just like Sonar. Thank you Meng, thank you Noel, and thank you Henry for keeping it alive.

Why is this so hard for some people to grasp?  SONAR was dead.  And before it was dead it was expensive.  Now it is both alive AND free!!  What's not to love?  Why all the conspiracy theories?  Why the paranoia?  Why the fear?  If you don't want it, then don't download it.  If you do want it, grab a copy.  FOR FREE!!  IT'S EASY EITHER WAY!!!

That quote is not mine. Please delete that post.