VS-700 developpement priority

I fear that the answer is what everyone don't want to hear...  The VS system devellopement is over.   


Nothing will ever be made to give it the edge we are hoping for. It will forever be "patched" to hardly follow the dance until it will become "too old".  It will work, but nothing will be made to push it to the top we know it can reach and it will never be a priority again. 

The time elapsed speaks for itself.  3-4 years?  What we have is some patches and a new driver that, in fact, was develloped for the octa-capture, not the VS. 


Sonar X1 is the evidence the VS was not at all in the devellopers mind. With the patch it will work, but I doubt this patch will bring something new. It will make X1 work as 8.5 worked with the console, with nothing more and will be left as is for some years until they release a new Sonar and will eventually stop supporting the VS system, or patch it till judgement day comes. 


Cakewalk are nice peoples, but Roland discountinu flagship products without any hint for users... I bought a Rd700sx 3 years ago and when I bought it at full 3000$ retail price they got the rd700gx ONE MONTH after.... No more support for the sx. Same thing for the Fantom X... and vs700??? And since Cakewalk is now out of the hardware design, I fear what Roland plans now... by the way I heard Roland won't devellop any new ARX cards cause they will do something else instead....  Rumours? What show us they can't actually do it? It's been a long time since ARX-03... 


Understand one thing: I JUST WANT TO BE WRONG.... but I need facts now. I need to know that the system still mean something. 


For us users, knowing those things from Roland is impossible, but for YOU at Cakewalk it may be possible...  So please.... could you gather answers concerning the importance of the whole system, future plans and our feature request concerning it?   

And can you assure us that the VS700 will go back to the Cakewalk labs and will be the next priority? After that X1 rush?  

I know there's a lot of feature request that could bring the VS-700/Fantom where it belong: to the top, in it's own class. 

Time is over for promises.... we, faithful consumers, need the truth now, no matter how cruel it is. If the Fantom CANNOT be integrated in 64bits, TELL US PLEASE.  If nothing new will ever happen with the VS, TELL US PLEASE. 

Answers needed please, sorry if I sound negative but optimism ultimately dies when no one feeds it... 


If anyone agree, please add your voice. 

It is important to see how many peoples actually think the same. 


Thanks

I would very very very much like to see an add on for the VS700 Like what mackie did

Being able to add another 8 Faders to the desk would be a dream to me plus if it was ou on the right side the transport control would be center of the desk and it would kick the arse off of the SL Neculeus http://www.solid-state-logic.com/music/nucleus/

I had a convo with Mully about this before and how awesome it would be to add another 8 bank on the right side!

I can dream I guess :)

Norrie

Yes, the SSL Nucleus, while it looks nice, only has 2+2 channels of audio usb interface... I successfully recorded 7 channels of audio simultaneously using the VS-700... The Nucleus is poorly thought out in my opinion...

Crg

I can't see into the future, neither can you or Cakewalk or Roland for that matter. A lot of things influence whether or not a peice of equipment will survive. First of all how many were sold, who uses it, what class of equipment it is, whether or not technology outpaces it and one that relates to who uses it, whether or not the bad fallout from discontinueing a peice of equipment that is the hub of someones ( multiple someones ) bussiness, will carry over to other products in the brand name. It won't be decided by whether or not the knobs line up on a plugin. 

Of course we can't see in the future but companies have plans for the future. 


They don't decide everything they will do each day in a meeting each morning. They plan things like devellopement and ressources for months to come. And that's my point.


Why they take decisions is not of my concern.  If they reserve something new for the VS IS my concern. If they consider "Feature request" is my concern. 


Let's face it, nothing new as been added since it's introduction.  New UI for the surface doesn't count. New driver for the Octa-Capture doesn't count either.


The knobs in the Prochannel that don't line up just show without doubt the VS is an aftertought, an "obligation" they fix later....

Not sure why we think the 700 series may go the way of the dodo.. the X1 release indicates to me that they have been quite occupied for some time.

Across the board the thing that people 'seem' to like about as options for the 700C is the addition of faders and better plug in integration. Apart from these two things, what doesn't it do as a (basic) control surface. Personally I'd love it to be more like some of the Pro Tool surfaces which simply look and function as killers. Nothing left wanting really.

Imagine a C24 surface for Sonar???? Yeah baby... but I am a Instrument Tech by trade so I froth easily over good control gear....

If there was one thing that stands out to me is the number of people who swear by the addition of the Nocturn plug in controller.... that tells me that the 700C could have better integration with plug ins and I would have to agree... it is very hard for the 700C to be the one hat that fits all heads.

...quite hopeful about the coming integration with X1...

If they pop with a new 8 fader expansion or something like that, it will be no surprise... Not for me at least... But if They change the ProChannel knobs sequence I will be totally suprised... It takes lots of consumer respect to do such a humble (and just) adjustment.

I am pretty shure that something, between VS 100 and VS 700, is going to be announced by the end of this year, or sooner... And when I say "pretty shure", I mean it... I really do. (really)

Lets keep the vibe alive...

Peace.

ProMusic27


If they pop with a new 8 fader expansion or something like that, it will be no surprise... Not for me at least... But if They change the ProChannel knobs sequence I will be totally suprised... It takes lots of consumer respect to do such a humble (and just) adjustment.

I am pretty shure that something, between VS 100 and VS 700, is going to be announced by the end of this year, or sooner... And when I say "pretty shure", I mean it... I really do. (really)

Lets keep the vibe alive...

Peace.

Something that has 8 faders and can be added to the VS700

Now that would be awesome !!!!!!!

I dont know how hard the codeing would be to make it work if they were to make such a thing but I do know if they made it I would be fight ing to get to te front of the que to get one :D

Norrie

Dyonight


Yeah you're right. 

Let's hope they hide things like they did with X1.

Even an add on with control for the Fantom/plugins with extra faders would be absolutely awesome!  Something that nail the new X1.

+1 on the

With full fantom 64bit of course now that would be a dream machine !!!!

One Controller to rule them all well 2 :P since it would be an add on haha

This will just get me excited and disapointed if I never see it ;(

Norrie

Crg

The knobs in the Prochannel that don't line up just show without doubt the VS is an aftertought, an "obligation" they fix later....

 
It indicates nothing. The whole knob thing is rediculous. Should they line up every knob in every window of every effect and synth the console can control?

Desagreed... 


They should simply taked care of it in the very beginnin of X1 development. EQ is a basic function, just like faders (volume) and pans(placement). But we already said that. As Frank has posted earlier in other thread. Why they labeled it if they don't have the intention to use as it is? Or, why they don't just respect the sequence? They are the ones who labeled the damn thing. Would you like if the button labelled "mute" become the "solo" button? Why labelling them? I guess there will be changes in the access panel adressment, shure will be. I believe this changes will make a lot of noise too.

Peace.

Which is an attempt to introduce a straw man argument used to ridicule people

 
Well this has gotten just too rediculous now. Before it turns into a Sh** fight. I see it one way, some see it another way. Have a nice day, I've said all that I need to here.

Double post sorry

Crg

The knobs in the Prochannel that don't line up just show without doubt the VS is an aftertought, an "obligation" they fix later....

 
It indicates nothing. The whole knob thing is rediculous. Should they line up every knob in every window of every effect and synth the console can control?

One last thing here:  They did the Prochannel, released X1 and said "woups... the VS700 "FLAGSHIP", well let's do a patch...." No one can argue with this, THIS IS AN EVIDENCE.


They should have done: The VS700 is important and we will design X1 WITH HE VS IN MIND, not try to integrate it later.

Dyonight


I fear that the answer is what everyone don't want to hear...  The VS system development is over.   


Nothing will ever be made to give it the edge we are hoping for. It will forever be "patched" to hardly follow the dance until it will become "too old".  It will work, but nothing will be made to push it to the top we know it can reach and it will never be a priority again. 

The time elapsed speaks for itself.  3-4 years?  What we have is some patches and a new driver that, in fact, was developed for the Octa-capture, not the VS. 


Sonar X1 is the evidence the VS was not at all in the developers mind. With the patch it will work, but I doubt this patch will bring something new. It will make X1 work as 8.5 worked with the console, with nothing more and will be left as is for some years until they release a new Sonar and will eventually stop supporting the VS system, or patch it till judgement day comes. 


Cakewalk are nice peoples, but Roland discountinu flagship products without any hint for users... I bought a Rd700sx 3 years ago and when I bought it at full 3000$ retail price they got the rd700gx ONE MONTH after.... No more support for the sx. Same thing for the Fantom X... and vs700??? And since Cakewalk is now out of the hardware design, I fear what Roland plans now... by the way I heard Roland won't devellop any new ARX cards cause they will do something else instead....  Rumours? What show us they can't actually do it? It's been a long time since ARX-03... 


Understand one thing: I JUST WANT TO BE WRONG.... but I need facts now. I need to know that the system still mean something. 


For us users, knowing those things from Roland is impossible, but for YOU at Cakewalk it may be possible...  So please.... could you gather answers concerning the importance of the whole system, future plans and our feature request concerning it?   

And can you assure us that the VS700 will go back to the Cakewalk labs and will be the next priority? After that X1 rush?  

I know there's a lot of feature request that could bring the VS-700/Fantom where it belong: to the top, in it's own class. 

Time is over for promises.... we, faithful consumers, need the truth now, no matter how cruel it is. If the Fantom CANNOT be integrated in 64bits, TELL US PLEASE.  If nothing new will ever happen with the VS, TELL US PLEASE. 

Answers needed please, sorry if I sound negative but optimism ultimately dies when no one feeds it... 


If anyone agree, please add your voice. 

It is important to see how many peoples actually think the same. 


Thanks

Dyonight,
 
I am the Product Manager for the VS-700 and I have been part of the team working on the VS-700 for the last three years and will continue to work on the VS-700 for the foreseeable future.
 
I would like to make this perfectly clear -
 
VS-700 development is not ending anytime soon.
The VS-700 is not being discontinued anytime soon.
 
As I have mentioned in a post in another thread we are currently working on a comprehensive update to provide better integration with SONAR X1. We have been working on this for months. Also as I mentioned in another post, we will not post any specifics about what is in the update until we are further along in development.
 
The next update for the VS-700 control surface plug-in will be available in early March.
 
Personally, I find it hard to understand why anyone would think this product was being discontinued. There was a significant VS-700 control surface update last Fall that provided comprehensive integration of the Octa-Capture USB audio interface to expand the I/O capabilities of the whole system. That was a new hardware component to the system and a software update. And yes, there are NEW drivers for the VS-700 and new firmware as part of this update. They are available here:
 
http://www.cakewalk.com/support/kb/reader.aspx?ID=2007013193
 
Regarding FantomVS x64 - this is an incredibly complicated issue and we are actively trying to find a viable and sustainable solution. We have no schedule as to when we will have a more permanent solution however we are exploring options. That is sincerely all the information we have right now, and that will have to suffice. As soon as we have more information we will post it on the forum.

Regarding there not being a update for the VS-700 "right away" when X1 was released it would have been impossible - there was so many changes in X1 we had to wait for the dust to settle before we could possible begin to determine the best workflow solutions when using the VS-700 and X1. I highly doubt you all would have preferred some half baked implementation. It takes time to research and think through how to map new controls like the ProChannel, and how to address new workflow concepts like the MultiDock from the control surface.
 
Finally, I understand the lack of "official" information from Cakewalk can be frustrating, however it does not mean we are not actively working to resolve current issues and concerns in addition to developing new features and functionality that will keep the product fresh.
 
As I have said before, I do monitor the forums and I do take the suggestions and feature requests posted here into consideration. I am also sure you would prefer me to be doing my job, which is to plan out the updates and work with development to implement and release them in a timely manner.
 
I sincerely hope this post clarifies any confusion and puts an end to any rumors and thinking the end is near for the VS-700.
 
Thank you to everyone for your support and patience.

Feeling better now...

Thanks Samara for your explanation... Was not exactly what I like to have as an answer, but helps a lot to settle things down.

1 month...And we will see. I can wait, thats for sure.

Peace.

Just to clear up any confusion about the recently released VS-700 driver, it has features and benefits for the VS-700, not just the OctaCapture.

At the heart of the new VS driver is a smaller buffer size and lower latency than in the original. This is something we worked on with Roland back before the VS-700 had the OctaCapture as an add-on.

The new driver also has an updated settings UI and Control Panel icon, both of which we requested before the OC was even a thought.

Yes, the new driver does add support to add the OC to the VS-700, but the real features of the driver were born from and designed for the VS-700.