Sorry I'm late. Did anything happen whilst I was away? ;)

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X3  X3a  X3b  X3c

jkleban
So, the way I hope this plays out is that the bakers are now aware of perception of its user base...

I think there are several ways to interpret it - and they are all good.
 
One interpretation is that X1 and X2 were very ambitious ideas that never really got up to a production level of quality that worked for everybody.  They took the decision that many of the problems couldn't really be solved with small patches, and so they decided to rewrite major sections of the product for X3.
 
And I interpret the rapid patch cycle to be an indication that there are a fair number of smallish issues that they are eager to tidy up so that X3 can be a stable platform without too much of a demand for ongoing support.  That will free resources to move ahead with new features for X4.  I wouldn't expect a bunch of more patches through the rest of the X3 life cycle.
 
It does appear that the user base has lately been very helpful in documenting problems in a way that helps the developers recreate and fix the bugs.  That can make a real difference.

Wow - I am super-impressed ! ! ! !

I stay mostly quiet here even though I have been around since Cakewalk Pro Audio 2XL purchase in (I think) 2002.  People have loudly and sometimes quietly(in my case) hoped or screamed for many things.  Cakewalk of late since the Roland buyout have seemingly gone astray and turned a blind eye to the increasingly loud cries of their fanbase for change.
 
Come X3.
 
Just my take:  people screamed about take lanes, automation, stability, frequency of bugfixes, audio engine gapping, workflow issues, color customization, VST3.
 
I feel like whether anyone else has formally recognized it loudly or not:  Cakewalk have come through BIG TIME with this release.  
 
One of the chief complaints was lack of updates.  X2 for better or worse was an orphaned release.  One could potentially argue the same of X1.  With a corporate takeover, I hope people can cut them some slack but I can understand if they do not.  Here they've been out a few weeks and they are pitching the third patch.  These patches are rapid fire and they are meaningful and they are addressing real issues.  You can write of the "A" patch because a lot of what that entails are issues they knew about internally but didn't have time to implement between code freeze and rollout.  But we're going onto the "C" release in a few weeks.  Obviously the concerns about responsiveness and stability have hit home.  I am assuming we can expect to see X3F in this release at this rate if issues persist across the next 2-6 months.  Likewise, toward Gibson/Cakewalk:  YOU ARE DOING WELL RIGHT NOW: DO NOT MESS THIS UP AND STOP ISSUING FREQUENT PATCHES EVEN IF THEY LESSEN IN IMPACT until your customers stop having verifiable issues.  BEST possible scenario for Cakewalk and customers is if they issue a few more patches and then offer misc hotfixes for specific issues, even if those are in the same vein as the fast track hotfixes of the past few releases.  Seems to be after a few more official patches that further stabilize and deal with things, rather than withhold fixes from the X3 crowd and force upgrade folks to X4 with a new set of breakages, it would serve Cake's reputation and customer satisfaction to offer a few more hotfixes that are "untested and unsupported" for their customers who want to remain on X3 but fix things that are fixable without forcing an upgrade and potentially pissing off loyal fans by forcing them to adopt new buggy features to fix something.  There is always the tradeoff and especially for folks who make a living from their DAW the upgrades are risky.
 
About some of the enhancements that might have been unforeseen:
 
  - Gobbler:  GREAT IDEA.  perfect timing - cloud is perfect for offsite backups, but who wants to try to do this in carbonite when gobbler gets audio programs so much better?
  - Plugin arranging and detection enhancements
  - MIDI (and possibly audio) interface adjustments w/o restarting
  - Toasts to alert w/o intruding
 
Then there are the enhancements many would have expected, done fairly well out of the gate:
  - Comping / take lanes
  - VST3
  - Color customizations
 
The new features this time around have had an all around better feel to them, in terms of initial stability and quality.  *my impression* - does anyone strongly disagree?  The whole systems feels like it's gotten out of the way a bit more, and that's a great thing.
 
Glad that few are carping and most are praising - I think this release is in the right direction and the silence sucked leading up but given the takeover and the evident work that has gone into the new product - I applaud them.
 
Hats off, Cakewalk!
pete
 

satyatunes
I heard video feature is getting some love in this update. Lets see.

No video in C sorry. We had our hands full sorting out as many compatibility issues as we could esp with the release of VST3. We wanted to resolve as many fundamental issues as possible before moving on to new features. We're still shooting to do some improvements in this area but can't announce anything just yet.

To the bakers: Thank you for continuing to develop a fantastic product.

@groove... very nicely written post! I agree wholeheartedly.
 
@Cakewalk... Help enable collaboration with a forum dedicated to such, so *SONAR* users with similar interests can find each other and collaborate via SONAR (nice "sales pitch"). "Cloud" (to me) is in enabler, not a social medium, so *new* DAW users on external social mediums can easily be turned to a competitor. Best of all... no "patch" required
 
Having had Cakewalk since "Guitar Tracks Pro," my frustration has been meeting many musicians over the years who play very avidly, and own no DAW whatsoever. Even when I take the time to show them "possibilities" they still are not sold (most do cover band work, so I guess this makes a little more sense to me). What adds the insult to injury is that most are IT folks to boot.

There were certainly many (including myself) who expressed concern over the lack of transparency pre X3's release. Personally I think the concern was warranted, but at the time I also stated that I was cheering from the sidelines for Cakewalk's future...I never cease to be amazed by the product's workflow.
 
I'm very hopeful for the future given the quality of the X3 release and subsequent interaction by Cakewalk staff here on the forum.
 
I'm still cheering...
 
Regards,

bigboi
I've moved on to Cubase. However, iI must say that I'm rather impressed with the release schedule lately. Definitely a big improvement. Kudos guys.

 
I bought C7 too, and was impressed by the quick and frequent updates that Steinberg released to stabilize the code base.  However, I couldn't resist X3 and I upgraded to Producer to support CW and to take advantage of some of the awesome partnerships that they have established (namely, Celemony and XLN Audio).  Now, I'm really getting back into SONAR since it's rock solid and feature rich, and I am thoroughly impressed with the current level of support and updates. 
 
In my opinion, if CW added chord track/assistant functionality to X3 and somewhat enhanced the score editing...Steinberg might have a serious problem.  Maybe they already do, since the base version of X3 makes C7 Elements and Artist seem even more like demo software.
 
G