Doktor Avalanche
I will be very controversial here and no doubt will get a rebound heading towards me.
You gotta be kind of dumb not to read the ezine. Don't expect to be spoon fed.
The ezine is about a 5 minute read for me.
 
(EDITED - Would you believe this is a "nicer" post  )
 

No, no, no . . . I refuse to believe that Dr Alex
 
But yes it's a simple matter to read the ezine, I've got into the habit and always download them and store them away, was looking forward to the Jamstix review, but sadly it didn't make it, although I got a new tuner out of it

The Start Screen added helpful features such as Quick Tip and Notifications, but on the other hand it now takes me longer to open a desired project from the recent projects list. First, it takes a bit longer for the screen to appear compared to the old Quick Start dialog. And, since all my projects look the same (because they were created from my custom project template that contains the same color-coded tracks, synths, Screensets, etc.), the thumbnails in the Recent Projects page are not only unhelpful/useless in identifying a project but also makes it less easy to identify the name of the project I'm looking for (because more eyeball movements are needed, compared to the old Quick Start dialog).
 
I really wonder why CW didn't add the option to change the view (from the thumbnail view to a view that lists project names, modified date, sample rate, etc. without the thumbnails, just like you can switch views in Windows explorer). If this was possible and the Start Screen was re-sizable (to a full view), users would probably be able to see 20+ or maybe 30+ projects in the screen without having to use the mouse wheel or the almost-invisible scroll bar at the right, and a very long project name would be fully visible too. You might think the info page that appears by clicking the [...] button is helpful when you want to compare tempos, sample rates, etc. between projects, but you have to bother to click that button per project, and, you can't tell which projects are which because that info page doesn't show the project's name. I must say the new Start Screen is very incomplete. The Bakers should have spend more time on it IMO. Sure, I can disable it and use the recent project list in the File menu, but I'd rather use the old Quick Start dialog which I've been using and accustomed to, IF it was still available in Hopkinton.
 
If the Bakers also use competitor daws (I believe they do, because a Baker said so in a thread a few years ago), they should have checked Studio One's start screen more carefully. That one is really well-designed and easy to use. Although you can't pin a project, I don't find it inconvenient since I can see many projects at once (not just 8) in the recent projects list and it's possible to delete a project from the list using a right-click menu. Sonar's Start Screen doesn't have a delete project option.

If we're talking about constructive feedback, then what I would say has been said by icontakt. Give me a list/details pane where I can see 15 or 20 projects at once, with their names/dates/tempos/time signatures all displayed and sortable by those criteria.
 
The screenshot thumbnails are worthless for me - my projects look identical, so that's just screen space wasted.
 
As for the start screen highlighting the usefulness of templates, I've never found a useful template among the ones provided, but would probably use my own templates more if they weren't saved in the Cakewalk Content folder by default. Separate Cakewalk's data from the user's data please!

Right now I like the previous Quick Start dialog box better but the Start Screen would be ok if I could select multiple favorite templates which would be displayed at the top of "New From Template" so I don't have to scroll down to find them.
 
"New Project" is a bit annoying to me because I now have to create a new folder and browse to it to save. Before it was simpler - If I wanted to create a temp test project I would simply type in a one character name and click ok. Unless I decided to manually save it was gone when I closed the project (I don't use auto save). If I wanted to save it things were already in there place.
 
Since it seems the goal is to reach out to a wide base, being able to customize what is displayed to the user (Video Tutorials, Notifications, etc) would be helpful.
 
 

rcklln
"New Project" is a bit annoying to me because I now have to create a new folder and browse to it to save.

Anderton
Not necessarily, choose File > New for new projects. 

IMHO good to point that out but a workaround.

The other concern I have (somebody could test this) is does it slow down sonar startup with 100's of projects?
 
i.e.
Do you have to wait for Sonar to start whilst it indexes, or does it start immediately (although you still have to wait for it to download stuff from the internet in it's current form), and then it does a "lazy load" of the project icons afterwards (preferable), which you can interrupt by double clicking a project file (just get on with things). And then how well are these screen preview thumbnail icons being cached? (EDIT - Obviously the first time will be slow whilst it is being cached).
 
Cheers...

Doktor Avalanche

rcklln
"New Project" is a bit annoying to me because I now have to create a new folder and browse to it to save.

Anderton
Not necessarily, choose File > New for new projects. 

IMHO good to point that out but a workaround.

Agreed. I lobbied for per-project file creation, but it was felt that added another step to a process they were trying to simplify.

That said "New from template" gives more or less the old behaviour.

Random does not imply a value judgement or a personal criticism, but a characteristic. My use of "random" refers to posts that don't follow a particular pattern, as contrasted to documentation (e.g., the eZine), where information is at least intended to follow a pattern and purposeful direction (i.e., the opposite of random) in order to present a complete picture. I of course recognize that more often than not, the intention of these posts is to be helpful, regardless of the ultimate outcome.
 
I think what rubbed people the wrong way, myself most definitely included, was the ease with which "conveniently omitted" could be construed as an implication of disingenuousness. This seemed all the more curious given that Ryan had in fact answered the question which you later claimed he did not. So, it's much appreciated that you clarified that you indeed appreciate Ryan's contributions to the forums. 

I think THAT gets the award for the most random post of all time.

John T
Aaaaaaanyway.
 
The start screen.
 
Starting to notice some other odd behaviours. So I close a project, and the start screen pops back up. If, however, I've already beaten it to the punch, by loading another project from the recent files list in the file menu - which is not hard, given how slow the start screen is to appear - it doesn't go away, but sits there in front of the project, waiting to be closed. A bit messy, I think.

http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/3278812

This may be obvious or already posted, however I tried creating an 'Unused' folder in the project template folder and moved all the templates that I never expect to use. It hid those templates and now the template start screen is much more manageable to me.

Also I appreciate the Mix template examples. It gave me some ideas. Primarily with hidden folders and grouping. 

ArcRex
This may be obvious or already posted, however I tried creating an 'Unused' folder in the project template folder and moved all the templates that I never expect to use. It hid those templates and now the template start screen is much more manageable to me.

Also I appreciate the Mix template examples. It gave me some ideas. Primarily with hidden folders and grouping. 

Great idea.

tvolhein
I would use the Start Screen if it dealt with new files the way the File>New menu does.  Now the new Start Screen will start with my default template, but then it just dumps the cwp file and an Audio folder into the folder set in Preferences.  For me, I have a folder for every CD (Album), and need to have the "new project" button create the song cwp folder within the CD (Album) folder.  So for me, having to create a folder outside of Sonar and set it as the folder (File Locations) for the new cwp file to be saved.  I would have to do this for every new song I start.
 
I hope this is understandable.  So, for now I am going to turn off the new Start Screen.  It sort feels like an alpha version, with improvements yet to come.
 
t
 

You don't have to do that, you can do it all without leaving Sonar via the save/save as dialog. I have my projects saved on G:\Music\Cakewalk in the preferences, open a new project, save/save as, create the new folder/file name within the dialog, and it updates the path below for project and audio folder to reflect this automatically, and everything gets placed where it should. A few extra steps, but the result is the same.