What happened to V-Studio 700

  I have been away from this forum for awhile, so I guess I'm a little out of touch, but I just noticed that neither Sweetwater nor Musician's Friend carry the V-Studio 700. Has it been discontinued? Is it no longer compatible with X2? Thanks, Jonathan

It makes me pretty mad that I invested so much time and effort (plus a certain amount of money) into this package.

  That is hugely disappointing. I was excited when the V-Studio 700 came out, because it looked like Roland was trying to take an active interest in Cakewalk. I hope this does not mean they are about to desert ship.

It's sad when a great product isn't appreciated. I am a very satisfied VS100 user. Poor relation to VS700 I know, but it's great for the individual creative process before the full studio realisation of a project. You could replace the control surface with a touch screen tablet, but that wouldn't have decent mike preamps and phantom power. And I like transport buttons to jump around tracks, and the ability to set markers and bounce around projects without interrupting the flow of ideas. I must be a member of huge potential market that mostly doesn't know about these control surface/interfaces. And the VS100's cheaper than some guitar pedalboards for goodness sakes!! I'm going to keep using mine till it breaks.

I think it's more a case of lot (like me) would rather buy a more generic solution like mackie that isn't solely great in sonar or limited in other DAW's.

the build quality of the stuff I like, but well it's not flexible enough for me to be generic to use elsewhere.. same goes with the yamaha/steiny stuff.

It seems that touch surface is the way things are going.  It is cheap and flexible.  And Cake seems well positioned w/ Windows 8.

Whoevever manages to integrate touch w/  hardware (I'm thinking vs 100 unit w/ a moving fader and a touchscreen, here Roland) will set a new methodology and sell a ton of units, esp. if can do generic.

@

  Mike, What are the "touch" videos you're talking about? You've got me interested. Thanks, Jonathan

Mike, What are the "touch" videos you're talking about? You've got me interested. Thanks, Jonathan

jonathan: There is a series of videos accessible from Cakewalk's home page (www.cakewalk.com).

I don't know for certain that all studios will be implementing 'touch' - particularly in the near term. My guess is that the larger studios with performance spaces and large consoles will be holding off. That said, who would have thought that DAW based recording would become so prevalent back in the late 1980s?

For me personally the move to DAW based systems has been a godsend, I can't believe the functionality we currently have. I suspect that the world of 'touch' will be the same...but I am speculating.

Regards,

Cakewalk has given the VS-700 a very low priority, but they somehow keep it alive (don't know about Roland, though) i.e. when the X1 series came out, it took until X1d to see issues of VS-700 addressed, and when X2 came out, they had again forgotten about the VS-700, leaving users in total silence if there'd be any further support at all. Hence, you read a lot of negative posts in the VS-700 forum.

X2a addressed a lot of issues we had reported for the VS-700 (however not all); it's again pretty functional but apparently not as tightly integrated into the workflow as it was the case with Sonar 8.x.  I'm personally quite happy with what I can do with it as it's still powerful and intuitive, but since I came in late (bought VS-700 a year ago), I paid a lot less than early adopters and also never used it with Sonar 8.x (hence, I can't compare to what it used to be like).

When I decided to go for it a year ago, I did a lot of research on options available at that time - and there weren't too many in that price range (meanwhile this might have changed). X1d was just out, listing numerous fixes, so I took the risk and jumped onto a unit that was sold off for about half price. I feel that I got a lot for what I paid:

• mic pres are good
• integration with Octa-Capture is super nice (after drive update in Nov 2012), combination of both with 3rd ADAT interface works very stable at low latency
• integration with X2a is much better than you get with MCU or other alternative; no customization or tedious set-up needed, but I wish I could assign a few more user buttons (or combinations of buttons)
• fantom synth I don't get to use a lot (sounds great, but is a bit of a 32 bit troublemaker), ARX is similar situation

There are several units that go for cheap these days. If you look around, you may still get a good deal out of it. Of course, you have to take the risk that Cakewalk might discontinue it as a control surface for Sonar ... but the way it looks like they seem to discontinue any controller for the sake of touch control (e.g. they haven't addressed MCU issues in a long time). Whether or not this is a good strategy the future will tell ...

Touchscreens won't replace analog boards - or I wouldn't, anyway.  If I have $100,000 board I don't need a touchscreen to do the things I can already do.  but navigating, some editing and esp. soft synths/effects should be done easier.

I only had the vs700 for month or so but it was very effective.  I don't know how well the updates have been - bad planning to start making it and then make a major shift in the DAW workings.  And then have the touchscreen start happening.  But imagine a vs 700 w/ a big touchscreen instead of all the knobs (keep the faders and have the touchscreen replicate the channels above it).  That would be cool - and useful.

@ 

konradh


Although a touch screen is cool and can do a lot of things traditional hardware can't, I would hate to see that become the only or the default solution.   I also question the ergonomics of it.  Are people going to start  suffering stiff shoulder, necks and what not if they are forced to move from a hardware console to touch.

Agreed...  I would think there is going to be some degree of precision lost by trying to manipulate some knob via your finger sliding across a screen.  but, that's just a guess.

I can't help but feel there's no unified vision for Cakewalk hardware products going forward in their relationship with Roland.
One of these another of those a few audio devices but no real game plan with no info on future direction.
Kind of makes it hard to invest in Cakewalk.
I'm in for SONAR because it's like an annual or now biennial license fee but if not for my long Twelve Tone then Cakewalk history I think I'd leave the brand for Presonus or similar who seem to have a real vision for the future - something in which to place some confidence.

I'm happy enough with SONAR now but there's just no real wow factor in any of the software developments - no real innovative features and no hype about what's coming.

I think the writing was on the wall for the VS700 when ther were prolonged delays in getting new drivers out when SONAR moved to the SONAR X variant. there should have been drive support at release not as a knee jerk reaction much later. Just my opinion of course.

I also took a long look at this control surface from Mixed Logic:

http://www.mixedlogic.com/

The above site does not work properly in Chrome - I use IE to view it.

The M24 control surface sells for about $2800 on the market, and is something I am likely to buy for myself when my birthday rolls around in October.

Bob Bone

redbarchetta


Looks sweet, way beyond my needs though. There is NO way I could EVER justify that to the wife. 

I wouldn't even try...I would be cut off for months for even asking such a stupid question...ugh....women...

redbarchetta


Looks sweet, way beyond my needs though. There is NO way I could EVER justify that to the wife. 

I have been married twice.  Both times were because my position evolved from justifying my equipment to the wife to eventually not being able to justify the wife.


Happy birthday to me, 


Bob Bone