I just want a patch to fix a few things. No secrets exposed, no business plans exposed. Just a few fixes. Adobe, Microsoft, Oracle/Java, Apple, my little 100-employee development company, and many other players do this, I know direct competitors may not, but hey, someone should take the initiative.
 
My fear is that there's an angry cat still stuck in a bag, and when he gets out, he's going to be biting a lot of people. He won't be very nice, I expect.

Andrew Rossa [Cakewalk]

Studious
No matter how well we articulate the one core issue, over and over, it's still being belittling by people defending the wrong issue!!
 
We are not asking about what is going on in the lab, X3 features, what special plans Cakewalk has, what is "next" for Sonar, etc.
 
We are adults. We understand certain things are private business.  They can take all the time they want, in private, to work on new goodies.  The issue is with the product in hand, and the fact that the company we bought it from has not said a word about its CURRENT STATUS since 2012.
 
A maintenance update, or its potential to exist in the future, should not be classified information.  If you believe otherwise, then we fundamentally differ on this subject.

The issue is clear to me. You want to know when X2b is coming out. Right now, we don't have any information to announce. We have been collecting information and when we have news, we will definitely let you know. I know this may seem frustrating but I would rather tell you facts than plans or ideas. 

All we need to know is IF X2b is even in the works. I think you will be able to quench the fires with just answering that!
And this is why Roland doesn't come in the public threads too often. It would be better for them to ignore the forum rather than give information we can't use...

I help folks here all the time, sometimes even letting my stuff go, when trying to help with a complex issue.  Others have done the same for me, and for others.
 
I can say from personal experience that there ARE quite a few times when people blast off on Sonar but have not posted any issues, or if they do, they post so little detail and are so uncooperative with the people trying to help them that they get left to fend for themselves.
 
CERTAINLY there are bugs, and just as certainly, Cakewalk IS dealing with some number of them in some sort of upcoming release.
 
When that release appears, and what form it will be in, is really mostly only relevant to those who have real show stoppers with something in X2a, where the show stopper IS directly the fault of X2a, versus either someone wanting a color changed, or someone having issues with either incompatible ancient hardware/software, or operator error.
 
Most of the existing bugs in X2a have some sort of work-around.
 
Cakewalk has a multiple DECADE history of bettering their products, and I for one greatly appreciate and value their willingness to not only provide free tech support, but also the occasional drop-in to assist someone with a nasty issue.
 
They will release their release when they release it.  That's the way it is.
 
Bob Bone
 

Guitarmech111

Andrew Rossa [Cakewalk]
It's not realistic to expect us to communicate about product plans, road maps, or business plans. I understand the frustration but don't take the silence as a sign of something bad. FWIW, this kind of speculation has been happening for over a decade. It's nothing new. We are all hard at work and when we have something we can discuss, we'll definitely communicate that to our customers via our website, emails, and forums. 
 
I do want to stress that anyone having serious issues should always contact Cakewalk support directly. We are happy to help out and often times a quick call can resolve an issue. 
 
 

Andrew, Many already have reported issues and there is STILL NO X2b update mentioned or available for download. Come out with a statement about that and I can be swayed.

With that said, I know a lot of the older users who I have communicated with for many years are now switching to Cubase and Studio one. Since I do not use X2, I am seriously thinking about trying the other guys out. I still have 8.5 which works flawlessly though, so I am not in  hurry to crossgrade. I would like to use what I paid for as a loyal Cakewalk supporter and user, but I don't know how long that will last.

Just to be clear, there are many more customers who love SONAR X2. Our survey results expressed that very fact. I understand people have issues and problems come up. But basing an opinion on a product from reading a help forum is not the best idea. It's like going to a mechanic shop and asking the customers there how they feel about their car at that moment. 
 
It would be much better to try out the demo yourself and make the judgement. 
 
And again for people having issues, please contact us directly. We are here to help.

Ryan Munnis [Cakewalk]
We have a mechanism on our site for users to report such issues to us as well. We'll confirm if it's a legitimate bug or not and notify end users of the facts. I'm sure most of you are aware of it. It's here: http://www.cakewalk.com/support/contact/problemreport.aspx
 

Thanks for info, that is great. Could you just publish in advance the list of already solved bugs? And about that issue tracker forum, it could be just peer to peer section. Sometimes I do not know if it is bug or my fault :). I just would like to search for the issue on the forum if it is already reported and discus the things with users before I report it to you because bug reporting is sometimes really time consuming. 

 

We did at one point in time offer 24/7 paid support (I'm definitely not doing it for free ;). Unfortunately it was incredibly unsuccessful. Nobody wanted to pay. We ran it for months and only sold a few cases. I'm not saying I'm opposed to reconsidering this effort at some point in the future, but one thing was for certain, it didn't work out well the last time we took a stab at it.




How much was it? Sometimes, an On-Call support works pretty well. If nobody uses it, free money. However, the support person can respond in an hour or through email.  And what about email support vs. a phone call? Do you guys offer WebEx/MeetMe type support? Those are great as well.
 
As a Network Engineering Manager, I know how On-Call can either be great or bad for the support tech. In my case, I joined in the foray of after-hours support, even though I'm salaried. But I'm still Cisco Certified, and know more about Cisco Networking than much of my team, so it helps everyone out if I get into it. But we only received 2-3 calls per week, if that. We didn't charge for it, but we certainly could have charged $30/yr and still made money. If nobody buys the support, then fewer calls come in, but you don't eliminate the ones who might need to. 
 
Thanks!

Guitarmech111

Andrew Rossa [Cakewalk]

Studious
No matter how well we articulate the one core issue, over and over, it's still being belittling by people defending the wrong issue!!
 
We are not asking about what is going on in the lab, X3 features, what special plans Cakewalk has, what is "next" for Sonar, etc.
 
We are adults. We understand certain things are private business.  They can take all the time they want, in private, to work on new goodies.  The issue is with the product in hand, and the fact that the company we bought it from has not said a word about its CURRENT STATUS since 2012.
 
A maintenance update, or its potential to exist in the future, should not be classified information.  If you believe otherwise, then we fundamentally differ on this subject.

The issue is clear to me. You want to know when X2b is coming out. Right now, we don't have any information to announce. We have been collecting information and when we have news, we will definitely let you know. I know this may seem frustrating but I would rather tell you facts than plans or ideas. 

All we need to know is IF X2b is even in the works. I think you will be able to quench the fires with just answering that!
And this is why Roland doesn't come in the public threads too often. It would be better for them to ignore the forum rather than give information we can't use...

You are just asking the question in a different way :)
 
I understand you want to know and I am responding so you don't think I am ignoring you. We don't have an announcement on SONAR X2b right now. We can't comment on if it's in the works, when it would come, etc. I hope you can understand.
 
Many at Cakewalk have read this thread so we all know this is top of mind for some users. 
 
I think the point has been made.

ekral

Ryan Munnis [Cakewalk]
We have a mechanism on our site for users to report such issues to us as well. We'll confirm if it's a legitimate bug or not and notify end users of the facts. I'm sure most of you are aware of it. It's here: http://www.cakewalk.com/support/contact/problemreport.aspx
 

Thanks for info, that is great. Could you just publish in advance the list of already solved bugs? And about that issue tracker forum, it could be just peer to peer section. Sometimes I do not know if it is bug or my fault :). I just would like to search for the issue on the forum if it is already reported and discus the things with users before I report it to you because bug reporting is sometimes really time consuming. 

Hi - I know there are problems in searching the forum, from within the forum.  But, searching from Google works quite nicely, for finding out if others are having similar issues to whatever you are facing.
 
What I have found to be pretty effective is to search with something like the following:
 
Type in the address bar: site:cakewalk.com forum term1 term2 term3 etc.
 
In the above, substitute whatever terms would apply for each of the term1, term2, etc., for example:
 
site:cakewalk.com forum x2a snap grid problem
 
Give the above a try.  You can always refine or adjust it to get better results.  I do this a lot when helping folks figure out stuff, and it is quite effective in that.
 
Hope that helps, 
 
Bob Bone
 

 
You are just asking the question in a different way :)
 
I understand you want to know and I am responding so you don't think I am ignoring you. We don't have an announcement on SONAR X2b right now. We can't comment on if it's in the works, when it would come, etc. I hope you can understand.
 
Many at Cakewalk have read this thread so we all know this is top of mind for some users. 
 
I think the point has been made.

OK, yes it is clear :). I think that people discuss because they like Sonar and they would like to use. OK, it is better to go to make music now :)

Andrew & Ryan, Thank you so much for your input and insight on this thread. You've both stated your position clearly, professionally and in at least one case eloquently. 
 
To the naysayers, Keep Calm and Cake On