...wicked
Here's my drive-by of the shenanigans I've glimpsed since last time:
 
1) I disagree Paulo. You bought SONAR. It came with oodles of freebies, moreso than many many other DAWs out there. 
 

I guess you have one of those cell phone contracts with "free" airtime, texts and data too, huh ?

Many, though certainly not all, companies post their documentation online.
 
I understand if CW does not wish to do so, but in that case I hope they will find other ways to give us much more detailed information in the coming days. Perhaps we can get blog entries on the goals and how you set about improving what Rapture/DimPro already did or some of the sound designers talking about how they utilized the new capabilities or something like that.
 
Written documentation and/or information has advantages over demos or watching videos - I generally don't litter my machines with demos of things just to take a look, and watching videos is time consuming and might not contain the information I am looking for in any sufficient depth anyway.

Have any ever been as awesome and feature loaded as Rapture Pro?  
 
Software THIS cool has to have a manual.  A THICK manual

ramscapri
1. If it was a completely new instrument, I go by that. But Rapture Pro is a build on Rapture and Dim Pro I believe, should have been an update, at least to Platinum users, Platinum currently being the top-of-the-line purchase model.

 
Cakewalk has been working on Rapture Pro since before the Gibson acquisition in 2013. It's not just a simple update of Rapture or Dim Pro.
 

2. I didn't suggest at all that in providing Rapture Pro with the Platinum model, the core program improvements be compromised by any extent whatsoever. Over and above the core improvements is what I meant, not compensatory.

I know that's what you meant, but if you pay X amount of dollars expecting improvements in the program and X/2 of that goes toward a new instrument, it doesn't leave much left to pay for improvements to the program itself. I believe the whole point of the membership program is to improve SONAR on a monthly basis, not necessarily to offer deals on other Cakewalk products.

Been hoping for the longest while now Cakewalk, updated/fixed, Dim Pro browser.
Then next, expected the GUI's of both synths to be upgraded.
Last, the installations designators to be more flexible and sensible.
 
These synths in their current positions, has excellent audio engines; and when playing a good made preset, ranks with the best in the industry.  
Will this new thingy have a niche to be talked about and get others in the industry looking to "just get it"
 
p.s. Over the last few years I have purchased all of these line of Cakewalk synths except Triangle.
Between upgrading and updating both hardware and Sonar's, Triangle disappeared, I don't miss it.

SimpleManZ
... Triangle disappeared, I don't miss it.

 
FWIW ... Triangle II  can still be got for free from Plugin Boutique.
 
You know you want it :P :).

Currently $US79.00 = $AU101.63.   I would pay for it right now if I could pre order it..

I think the distinction that was made initially has been swayed during the thread. People who purchased Rapture/Dim Pro before it was included with SONAR was the point. Those who got it with SONAR really do not fall into this group IMO. So from that perspective, the best deal being to users who (potentially) got it included is a bit of a slap in the face. Those users who purchased previously paid as much for their SONAR upgrades.
 
As far as the PDF goes, there are far more elegant solutions to (truly) preventing piracy than to deny a potentially paying customer a user manual. I certainly got the "reasoning" but to deter sales (money) as a means to thwart piracy (which will happen regardless without a true deterrent) doesn't make much business sense.

TerraSin
 

boblettnoe
Please correct me if I am wrong, but...wasn't there a time when Dim Pro and Rapture Full had to be purchased as upgrades and not included in any Sonar versions?
 
Those of us who bit  and ponied up the money found that later these were both incorporated in later Sonar versions.
 
How about a special discount for those of us who paid for these upgrades in the past? $49 instead of $79?

Sounds like you were paying for access to the plugin before it was offered in Sonar as a package. A lot of companies do things like this and you're essentially paying for the ability to use and make money with the plugin before it goes to the masses as a free addition. Eventually I'm sure Rapture Pro will also be added to the package with Sonar though I'm sure that will be quite a few years. Right now you'd be paying for the ability to have it and use it in projects before those who get it for free.
 
This is a new plugin that has been built from the ground up and they are already discounting it for previous owners. I'm a bit baffled as to why you think that discount isn't good enough when the price will likely be around $170 - $200 for new users once the promo period is over.

I've never seen anyone required to pay to be a beta tester, and I don't believe CW, under previous companies or Gibson would charge and snicker at you buying something they planned on giving away, test or not, without stating that fact.
Much of the time it is worse for the bottom line being dishonest to the public, rather than to simply leave it alone to trickle, or maybe even updating would be.
Business is always bigger than any single product.... even if you only have one!
 
I'm in marketing among other things, and in business what is most likely is that new products peak, and then sales fall off.
You balance, in order to maximize cash flow, do we update it now, or work on new products.
If it's the latter, put that older product to better use some other way... it's stale now, lets squeeze it as much as possible.. re-heat that taco.
 
If you juice it with some nice moist bulk samples that appeal to a wide audience, you can squeeze a little more.
When that peaks, you can bundle it with a new flagship product, or even an older one to pump sales on that also, or package it with a new side-piece.
 
Consumers always feel more is better, and companies are there for business, so it works well even if it's only a 5 or 10% increase in that line.
Cakewalk is doing nothing wrong or slight, it's simply marketing 101.
With all due respect, THAT is what companies actually do more than purposeful deceit.
 
Forgive the long post but I'll add some interesting facts people don't realize.
It's all about psychology!
If asked "how much are your popsicles", and you answer, "they are 25 cents each or 3 for a dollar", more than half will want the 3 for a buck..... because it sounds like a deal.
 
In your local grocery store, that shrimp is in a fridge, it don't need ice .... the ice is there to make it look clean and pristine.
 
Store brands are on the right of signature brands most of the time, because more people are right handed and actually might grab theirs on accident. (Same if you have an excess of cream-corn you want to dump.... move it to the right of the whole-kernel stuff for awhile.)
Us in the rock generation are the ones holding the fattest wallets these days... they used to play elevator-jams, now I'm not surprised to hear AC/DC Highway To Hell in a store, because even that is planned to make you happier.
If you are enjoying yourself, you'll stay longer, and spend more. lol
643

This would be great!!!!!
 
Native Instruments has announced a raft of upgrades for its Komplete Kontrol series keyboards, the most notable being the development of the Native Kontrol Standard (NKS), a new format that enables third-party plugin developers to integrate their products with NI's hardware.

ChristopherM
does "Expansion Packs you purchased" imply that things like the excellent Muz3um will not work?

Muz3uM will work in Rapture Pro, it is not integrated with Cakewalk Command Center as a download.  You can still add custom programs, multisamples, wavetables, etc within Rapture Pro.  I'll talk with Francesco and Cakewalk about the possibility of having Muz3uM as a free download for Rapture Pro owners.  That could be really sweet.    : )
 
 
 
 
Let's talk about some features. 
 
Has anyone brought up the FX Sends on the Mixer View yet (as seen on the Features page)???  Rapture Pro has inherited Dimension Pro's Bussed FX.  The Global Effects slots on the Mixer page toggle between Send and Series Mode.  Send FX on Rapture's architecture will be most welcome for flexible sound sculpting and programming!  I'm imagining different chorus Send Levels across all 6 Elements, along with individual Distortion or  Phaser, all going into a final Insert Chamber Reverb. 
 
 

drewfx1

Andrew Rossa [Cakewalk]

...wicked
Haha "S-plat". I Like that!
 
But man though, haters gonna hate eh? A brand new synth that combines DimPro and Rapture with a pretty impressive looking GUI, browser, and huge sound library and you're gonna complain about a $79 price tag? Not me. 
 
As for the dude who owns Omnisphere, yeah you might not need something like this, Omni is pretty much the king daddy in some of that arena. But what did you pay for it? $80 is a very nice night out for me and the missus... I'll start with the apology flowers now.... :-)
 

HAHA, we didn't see this abbreviation coming. Remind me to make sure we review any potential abbreviations for future products :)

At one time long, long ago I had a job working in a group at AT&T called Local Alternative Market Entry and the abbreviation was thus LAME. 
 
It was part of the Local Services Division.
 
I'm not kidding. 

For a funny....  Seattle put in a streetcar line around 4 years ago in the South Lake Union district, just north of Downtown.  They named it the "South Lake Union Transit" line.  Of course it took less than a day for the unofficial name of SLUT.  

This looks like a nice product.
 
Can somebody please clarify:
Does Rapture Pro fully replace Rapture 1.2 and Dimension Pro? In other words, legacy projects aside, if you are starting fresh with Rapture Pro, is there any need to own/install Dimension Pro?
 
Also, has Dimension Pro's life-cycle ended? Is it all merged into Rapture Pro from here on out?
 
Thanks!

Andrew Rossa [Cakewalk]
 
Yes, Rapture Pro replaces both. You get all the legacy content that shipped with the originals plus nearly 10GB of new content. We will discontinue Rapture Classic and Dimension Pro as a new purchase although it will remain in SONAR. 

So tempting...   As someone who's used Dim Pro many times over, and Rapture somewhat less, this really does seem like a great way to get both in a single new package with lots of new abilities that neither one has.  Like the FX Bus comments above from Chad...    I also like the purpose-built page layouts.   Good stuff.    I wonder if there will be a demo...
 

fantini
Are Rapture Pro's multisamples in wav rather than flac.  I certainly prefer wav files.  Originally, Dimension Pro used wav files but somewhere along the way, the newer versions began to use flac files.
I found the original DPro wav files worked for me in many Rapture projects.  To me, the DPro multisamples sound better in Rapture. 

FLAC files have all the benefits of WAV but use far less hard drive space as it is compressed. The compression is not lossy so you will not lose out on quality. I don't see what there is not to like. I wish people would use FLAC more.