Anderton

AT
Craig already said Cakewalk.  Who in Cakewalk he ain't saying, which is probably a good thing.  But I'm sure everyone in the DAW-making community will know and not be too happy to have their person as their new boss. 

 
The reality is that in today's climate, any plans to secure a DAW's position in the market is going to be a gamble. It may be that Cakewalk was doomed and nothing could be done to fix it without, as LJB noted, proper marketing and a lack of Mac, which were factors as well in Cakewalk's demise. The people in charge were sincere in their desire to keep Cakewalk afloat. We just disagreed about how best to do it.

Perhaps, gibson is in the serious probles as well. I do not know, but Cakewalk can not function like foster child to any company. You have to give new customes a lot...now, and cheap...

Coming from the software industry, a major overhaul by a new company will take years.  I am sure sonar is a large complex program with many of its features coded long ago and past techniques likely intermingled with new code and new programming technologies.  It will also be very difficult to successfully revamp the program without some of the original key developers.   The best we could expect from a new company initially  would have them first fix issues and bugs that already exist which is how most new developers learn code and how new companies tend to take things over.  Only after the team has learned the stuff backwards and forwards will any serious new development take place.  Frankly, I'd be more than happy for the above scenario which would tighten up the bugs and help "guarantee" Sonar to continue working in the cases of overall technology advances.   As for Windows updates, I don't really care if I ever update to another version of windows as Sonar works fine and as long a a new computer can support Windows 8 (I stuck to 8.1) I wouldn't foresee any real issues in the foreseeable future.   BTW, another GREAT task for a new team to learn and master the software would be to complete and successfully port Sonar to MAC.   If the demand was there, that is a great way for the team to learn the ins and outs.   Time will tell.

stxx
Coming from the software industry, a major overhaul by a new company will take years.  I am sure sonar is a large complex program with many of its features coded long ago and past techniques likely intermingled with new code and new programming technologies.  It will also be very difficult to successfully revamp the program without some of the original key developers.   The best we could expect from a new company initially  would have them first fix issues and bugs that already exist which is how most new developers learn code and how new companies tend to take things over.  Only after the team has learned the stuff backwards and forwards will any serious new development take place.  Frankly, I'd be more than happy for the above scenario which would tighten up the bugs and help "guarantee" Sonar to continue working in the cases of overall technology advances.   As for Windows updates, I don't really care if I ever update to another version of windows as Sonar works fine and as long a a new computer can support Windows 8 (I stuck to 8.1) I wouldn't foresee any real issues in the foreseeable future.   BTW, another GREAT task for a new team to learn and master the software would be to complete and successfully port Sonar to MAC.   If the demand was there, that is a great way for the team to learn the ins and outs.   Time will tell.

 
Great observations! Gibson knew that! we do not know how much Cakewalk is in the hole? also, the vision for the future.
 
I put myself in Gibson position, if the product can not be lifted to a new level, if I do not see potential in Cakewalk product personell? I only new 2 people form Cakewalk, Brandon, and Pearlman...not impressed!!!
 
 and if Gibson is tanking, the decision was easy!
 
I do not want Anderton, and other employees shifting blame on Gibson only...they all failed US.

Anderton

 Gibson didn't kill Cakewalk but instead buried the body. 
 

This whole thing just makes me sad.

That's the bottom line for me.  Gibson didn't run CW into the ground or arbitrarily decide to stop development to irk it's customers.  CW had been losing money for some (the documents supporting that are on this forum), which explains why Roland sold it to Gibson.  My guess is Gibson had a time frame in which CW had to become profitable or it would be closed down.  Sadly, it closed.  I don't think any of us could realistically expect any company to continue a product that was consistently losing money.  CW was costing more than it was producing so it was closed.  Gibson didn't have any secret agenda or hidden motive in making that decision.  They're a corporation.  To stay in business that have to make a profit.  Their decision is painful for me, but it makes perfect sense.

Sometimes it are just difficult times. And you cannot put the finger on what would have saved the boat. Let's hope everybody can swim ashore and be saved. The Marketplace for digital audio workstations is changing again due to new hardware and software options. It is what it is. I do hope a feniks will arize. 

There are many bad things I could say about Gibson, but Cakewalk was insolvent when Roland sold them off, so this was a long standing problem.  Cakewalk died due to poor market penetration.  The fact that PreSonus was able to come out of nowhere and consume a big chunk of their market share in only a few short years is something that they have never recovered from.
 
With the death of the V-studio products, Cakewalk never really had a good hardware component to work with.  GC sold tons of PreSonus interfaces and all with Studio One, and Cakewalk did not have an answer.
 
The number of YouTube channels helping folks with Cubase or Studio One or Ableton or even ProTools far outnumbered anything presented with Sonar.