I've been working through the manual and an alarming amount of features detailed in it just simply do not work. It's rather frustrating spending so much time learning stuff only to have it do absolutely nothing.

Well my view is that if you want everything to be perfect then install the previous version (X1). That will have the final service pack (X1D).... If you want innovation that is slightly rough round the edges then use the latest version with the latest service pack (X2A). Software takes a long time to develop as it is so complex, and the cheapest way nowadays is to let the users test it. Unless you prefer the price of Sonar to go up into the thousands.
 
Please don't expect software nowadays to be mature until the final service pack is launched. That's just the way it is.

CakeAlexS


I've been working through the manual and an alarming amount of features detailed in it just simply do not work. It's rather frustrating spending so much time learning stuff only to have it do absolutely nothing.

Well my view is that if you want everything to be perfect then install the previous version (X1). That will have the final service pack (X1D).... If you want innovation that is slightly rough round the edges then use the latest version with the latest service pack (X2A).
 
Please don't expect software nowadays to be mature until the final service pack is launched. That's just the way it is.

X2 is just a far better program than X1 IMO so that would be a waste of time. I know X1 is there if I REALLY need it but I'm going to stick to what I intend on using for the next couple years. I know it will be patched eventually to the point X1 was by the time D rolled around. I see all the old threads and the majority of the really bad complaints were from C and earlier. I have faith but I am getting a little antsy for something a little more solid. As far as I can tell the A patch was more to get the Win 8 functionality up to speed and the fixes were kind of taking a back seat to that. This also seems to have introduced more problems than were solved. They probably should have waited until Win 8 was fully released before releasing X2 so the first release would have been what the A patch is now. But I guess they needed the money or something which I cannot fault them for. Business is business.

I posted in another instance that I personally would pay $700-$800 for a version of Sonar that has been through a "critical mass" test-bed. In other words, offer up a reward for beta testing the software and use this higher price to pay incentives to those who can reliably submit bugs. As it is today, there's absolutely no incentive to report bugs (no monetary thanks, no thank you from Cakewalk, no credit, nothing but a ticket # and a form to fill out), so many will go unreported. Call THIS version of Sonar "Sonar Commercial" for those who make money with it, and THEN they will compete with ProTools on a more level playing field. 

Keep the current level of software for those who don't use it for business needs, and they can play with features on those versions. 

But first, Cakewalk needs to change the culture. Culture makes for better product. I work for a company who's success is strongly due to the culture that surround it. Roland needs to "let" them do what they (and we) know needs to be done. I'm NOT kidding! 

I really do want to help them get the product together but to try to explain/describe the bugs is difficult for me as a relative beginner and as you said there isn't much incentive for me to spend that time going through it all when I can only assume that many of the bugs I'd be reporting anyway have already been covered by some of our more thorough members like Freddie.

IDK... it's kind of lame of me to think that way but I've spent almost a whole year trying to learn the program and now I just want to get to work... not be a free beta tester. Maybe I'll be less selfish in the future but I also did pay quite a bit for this software so I guess I can't feel too guilty about it.

;-p

No you're not selfish to think that. But the way it's done is simply part of biz in a publicly traded company. I'm not faulting Roland or Cakewalk, because part of releasing new code or features is with the understanding that some support calls will help them realize a certain percentage of bugs. In the 90's I worked for a major telecomm hardware manufacturer as a guy who hunts down and finds bugs. It's what I was paid to do, and I was pretty good at it. That's part of why I found at least three bugs in X2 within 10-15 minutes after installing it. I know how to hunt for bugs. I was trained for it. Not everyone is that way. 

Part I of my training was to run through hundreds of pages of Design Verification Tests (DVT's) testing all things the engineers deemed necessary, then,

Part II of my training was using the product and trying to break it. This is where my creativity paid off.

My engineering group was the most successful at releasing bug-free products which remained at the lowest Revision levels in the whole company. We were praised for that. Now I work as a Network Engineer for my day-job, and hit up Sonar at night. So, any time I spend for Cakewalk is on my dime, not someone else's. I know how you feel. 

@brconflict... Maybe what they could do is for every unique bug reported offer the reporter a $5 credit to their account. Then keep an ongoing list of the bugs reported and their status somewhere here on the forum. Complete transparency and we'd likely end up with one of the most stable DAWs on the market... provided they actually follow up on those bugs. Considering they aren't paying out any hard cash it wouldn't cost them a cent.

That would definitely get me putting a list together... and guys like Freddie would have free upgrades for life. lol

brconflict


I posted in another instance that I personally would pay $700-$800 for a version of Sonar that has been through a "critical mass" test-bed. In other words, offer up a reward for beta testing the software and use this higher price to pay incentives to those who can reliably submit bugs. As it is today, there's absolutely no incentive to report bugs (no monetary thanks, no thank you from Cakewalk, no credit, nothing but a ticket # and a form to fill out), so many will go unreported. Call THIS version of Sonar "Sonar Commercial" for those who make money with it, and THEN they will compete with ProTools on a more level playing field. 

Keep the current level of software for those who don't use it for business needs, and they can play with features on those versions. 

But first, Cakewalk needs to change the culture. Culture makes for better product. I work for a company who's success is strongly due to the culture that surround it. Roland needs to "let" them do what they (and we) know needs to be done. I'm NOT kidding! 

Did you read post #75? If you want stability as you think this is critical for business then use X1D (the previous version). This is what some companies do, for instance there is no way a bank will install Windows 8 right now... not in their right minds. So there's absolutely no reason why people have to pay more, and anyway clearly there is a market for this product in this price range.

@brconflict have you heard of SCRUM methodology or "agile software development"?

If not I suggest you brush up because what you've written is a very outdated philosophy, I had that way of thinking in the 90's as well. Things have moved on considerably...  Pretty much everybody is doing this nowadays....
  
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrum_(development)

Well... here's an extremely obnoxious bug that I haven't encountered before. When I mute previous take lanes the damned things aren't muted when I try to record another pass. If I click the mute buttons again they'll mute but when I try to record they are audible. This is stupid and I have no idea why it has just started doing this now. Grr...

Yeah I've had that one.... I stopped using take lanes after that and used track templates instead.