From Angus Hewlett - CEO and founder of FXpansion:

"One of the things we learned the hard way with DR-008 is that, as developers, listening too closely to your loudest and most vocal fans can sometimes lead things in the wrong direction – they don't necessarily represent the wider user-base."
http://www.kvraudio.com/interviews/interview-with-angus-hewlett-of-fxpansion-15459


Maybe Cakewalk should listen to the Notation and Video people once in a while?

vintagevibe

Maybe Cakewalk should listen to the Notation and Video people once in a while?

Wait.....


Aren't they the loudest most vocals fans?

I think he's talking about the all the years spent trying to add more cowbell.

What's wrong with a lot of cowbell?

How about; They are only half as fun as an Agogo?





:-)

I wish they'd put dates in a more obvious place in these interviews. 
Can't find it anywhere but I have read this before and Angus is indeed a very wise man.

A lot of sonar users probably don't know (or care for that matter) that we wouldn't have vst support in sonar were it not for Angus and fxpansion as it's his code that cakewalk has been using AFIK since his vst adapter.
I bought it when it was just him on his own and emailed him a few times with some issues and he was always really helpful.


Worth a second read though 

Steve

Another very true and quite depressing quote from this interview

I'm amazed by how many people nowadays are scared at the thought of doing their own sound design. Sure, the bar has been raised higher than it used to be in terms of factory presets and sample CDs, but it's really not that hard to make your own. It's almost like the sound companies want to keep people coming back to buy more sounds instead of helping customers learn how to make their own. 


Whilst I use presets for a lot of things and am therefore a hypocrite for saying this, I do get so tired of hearing lazy people winging about how crap something is because it doesn't just sound great out of the box and enhance their mix. 
Presets are like a junk food equivalent of ready meals for musicians, just add water and your good to go.


Steve

To ignore your user base is akin to cutting your throat with a dull spoon. Once a product hits the market, listening to your users current & future requests (with good comms too) is longterm what keeps your business highly profitable. There is nothing wrong with adding (or subtracting) to that request list with your own ideas and answers as to why. All of this is within reason of course (<<<key words here) , and maybe taken a bit out of context,  and all this "may have been" what Angus meant. I really think he knows where his bread and butter is. Otherwise and if not, then I think Angus was smoking something when he said that... You ALWAYS listen to what the customer wants, and then if you cannot give him that, tell him/her why not. Communication is VERY important and right up there with making a good product for the masses. Back to the point of the OP, If the Bakers can not give the masses (us) what we desire within the next update, then they need to take "5 MINUTES"  of their time (and I have seen them do this many times here) and explain whats up... To know that they are listening means soooo much to the user base, and it is sometimes overlooked because of busy and hectic schedules... That and add to the fact that humans are responsible for all this... 

mikey


To ignore your user base is akin to cutting your throat with a dull spoon. Once a product hits the market, listening to your users current & future requests (with good comms too) is longterm what keeps your business highly profitable. There is nothing wrong with adding (or subtracting) to that request list with your own ideas and answers as to why. All of this is within reason of course (<<<key words here) , and maybe taken a bit out of context,  and all this "may have been" what Angus meant. I really think he knows where his bread and butter is. Otherwise and if not, then I think Angus was smoking something when he said that... You ALWAYS listen to what the customer wants, and then if you cannot give him that, tell him/her why not. Communication is VERY important and right up there with making a good product for the masses. Back to the point of the OP, If the Bakers can not give the masses (us) what we desire within the next update, then they need to take "5 MINUTES"  of their time (and I have seen them do this many times here) and explain whats up... To know that they are listening means soooo much to the user base, and it is sometimes overlooked because of busy and hectic schedules... That and add to the fact that humans are responsible for all this... 

Yes, he's always listening to the customers...just not assuming that the loudest voices represent the majority.

I thought this quote seemed like the voice of experience:

"I'm not really a fan of the annual release cycles some companies seem to be on, I think it's a recipe for "bloatware," as it doesn't give you enough time to step back and design the next version."