djtrailmixxx
Dorism,
 
Can you use Google Voice or Skype calls? I'm not sure if that is a viable or affordable option for you. There must be a free option somewhere.

That's a good call (pardon the pun). I actually hadn't considered it as I rarely use VOIP as it has poor voice quality in my experience. 
 
The main issue is not being able to show tech support. If they ask me what am I seeing I'll mumble the same stuff I put in the bug report. Sort of thing you cant actually really nail down easily in words, unless you see if for yourself. I used to be a developer in the day, so I do understand the frustration on both sides. Getting some screen cast solution would solve it I think and also give the developers a lot more insight.
 
Google +. Cakewalk is on it already, it is free, and offers these features, Potential option?

dorism
...
 
The main issue is not being able to show tech support. If they ask me what am I seeing I'll mumble the same stuff I put in the bug report. Sort of thing you cant actually really nail down easily in words, unless you see if for yourself. I used to be a developer in the day, so I do understand the frustration on both sides. Getting some screen cast solution would solve it I think and also give the developers a lot more insight.
 
...

You might want to consider join.me. It's a very easy (and free) way to show somebody else your desktop.
We use it at work all the time.

I believe CW support uses a similar approach to see client desktops

dorism

That's a good call (pardon the pun). I actually hadn't considered it as I rarely use VOIP as it has poor voice quality in my experience. 
 
The main issue is not being able to show tech support. If they ask me what am I seeing I'll mumble the same stuff I put in the bug report. Sort of thing you cant actually really nail down easily in words, unless you see if for yourself. I used to be a developer in the day, so I do understand the frustration on both sides. Getting some screen cast solution would solve it I think and also give the developers a lot more insight.
 
Google +. Cakewalk is on it already, it is free, and offers these features, Potential option?

You could do a video and post it on youtube as well, then submit it as part of a report

Keith Albright [Cakewalk]
 
I understand nothing is perfect.  But know we are committed to quality and new compelling features as well as continuing to improve on existing features.
There was an X2A.  That easily had two hundred fixes in that.  It wasn't a tiny patch by any stretch. 
 
As a demonstration of our commitment to quality, we built an automatic fault reporter and added fault detection to the applications.
In addition we have the web problem reporter.
https://www.cakewalk.com/support/contact/problemreport.aspx
 
We do look at both the automatic and web entered reports and work to address them.
Obviously we don't have infinite time or resources, so we must prioritize.  But, the more everyone uses these systems, the better the priorities will be. 
 
Thanks.
 
Keith

 
Absolutely Cakewalk has improved the fault reporting system, and given the fact that most users are musicians and not computer experts, it is far more likely you will receive reliable and useful data from a robot than from a user. Definitely there have been numerous bug fixes included in the update packages, proving that Cakewalk does investigate and fix problems.
 
Now I would like to suggest a new support feature that would save users thousands of hours of wasted time:
Include a known issues page on your support website, that will tell users what bugs you have found and what features do not work as most users expect they will.
A user who finds something is not working as expected may spend hours repeating his attempts to get it to work, uninstalling and re-installing plugins that are not to blame, searching this forum (good luck with that) to see if it is only a problem on his system and finally reporting it to Cakewalk. In many cases these bugs or whatever you choose to call them will already be well defined in your support pipeline, and if the user could see what bugs you already know about it would be very helpful as a first step in troubleshooting his problem.
I appreciate it when you proudly list the bugs that you have fixed in the new update. That is not just good information to decide if the update should be applied, but good marketing. But that does not really help recover wasted time when the user uncovers the bug on his system before it is fixed. I also understand that listing problems that exist but have not (or will not) be fixed  is bad for sales. A prospective buyer may be put off by a list of dozens of things the do not work. But there might actually be some who are impressed with the integrity implied in such a resource. And you might find that your support costs would be less, and your response times better if you did not receive duplicative emails and calls from users who had all discovered the same bug, to whom you have to individually reply that this is a known issue that you are working on (or not ).

I would add that having an accurate list would eliminate a bunch of the 'built on sand and fable' claims where an unfounded/incorrect claim from one post is referenced as FACT - which in my mind is not only difficult to counter (though I do attempt to do that from time to time), I believe that kind of scenario to be quite damaging to the product's perceived perception and may turn away otherwise paying customers.
 
Further, going to such a list when one encounters issues would save loads of time from having to either search for prior threads, and also save forum members from having to constantly type and retype for threads that keep popping back up from time to time, when all of it could have been avoided by there being a list of "here's stuff we are aware of with this release of our product".
 
I would welcome such a list.
 
Bob Bone
 

I've always felt that too many people don't have quality machines/setups, so a good deal of problems are there. I also think some people just don't know what they are doing. Then, there are the ones whose pirated warez don't work well together.
 
Take away all those above and X2a is pretty solid. Not perfect, but solid.

I wandered from Sonar about 8 years ago, after being a user since it was a midi program only.  I bought a Mac to run PT and Logic.  I bought Live and S1 as well.  I have been keeping my Sonar license active because I also have a nice PC setup as well.  I just purchased the half off deal and though it's installed I probably won't use it due to some off the things I've read here.   I will be very careful with my upgrades from here on out.  As an old Oberheim owner, I don't have much confidence in Gibson's business practices.   I hope Cakewalk does well in the future.  Its a great DAW.  
 
Cary

Hmmmm, I'm feeling a little like Cary.  I had some family stuff to deal with, so I haven't upgraded since Sonar 7.  I'm loving the fact that the groove matrix is now in Sonar and I'm liking the new layout, but when I read about some of the problems you guys are having, it's making me wonder if I'm in for a shock when I actually start working with it again.  It's been much more complicated to move to 64 bit than I anticipated and it seems like every turn there's some new hoop to jump through,,,   It was kind of nice to just use Sonar 7 and not spend all my time learning new stuff. 
 
I didn't know until just now that Sonar X3 was so close, either. 
 

PS, I miss the old gang in the Project 5 forum.  I always had a foot in each program.  It's nice to see familar faces still here. 
 
I thought the Roland deal was cool, because I am a keyboardist.  I hope for the best for the future, because I'm planning on getting deep into my studio again.  I'm really excited about the chance to do that!! 
 
 

Just remember a few things:

1. A large percentage of the reported "problems" are due to either user error or a badly configured system/hardware setup
2. This forum represents a very small percentage of the entire user base (< 10% so I'm led to believe)
3. Certain posters - even long standing ones - will take every opportunity they get to bash Cakewalk/Roland/Gibson/Tascam, just because they can

 
From what I've read over the last year or so, X2a is completely stable for the VAST majority of users who post here, so if you have any specific qualms, please feel free to post them and someone will without doubt come up with an answer