I don't see why a new forum is necessary. Everything's great here isn't it?

I didn't know new people weren't welcome.that surprises me.

gswitz
I didn't know new people weren't welcome.that surprises me.

This is what bothers me the most. The pop-up before logging into this forum is annoying for me because it is peddling CbB, yet the converse it not true.

msmcleod

pwalpwal

msmcleod
 
This forum works pretty well for the most part IMHO.

except for no new users, no notifications, pretty much abandoned imo, you can see the big drop in posts...

Yeah, good point... though offline help and/or decent online help integration is really needed before this happens, else the forum will be flooded with newbie RTFM type questions.

Problem with that?  This forum is how I learned at least 90% of what I know about Cakewalk/Sonar.  The smaller manuals (start up guides) are useless and it takes forever to find something in the 500 page Reference guide.  I've found that most of the time it's quicker to just get on the forum and post my issue/question.  I usually get an answer within an hour.
 
FWIW-I'm also for leaving the forum as it is.  Just make it open to newbies and restore the email notifications.
 
JB

msmcleod
I should have made more emphasis on help integration - i.e. context specific help.

Like the Help Module?

I've always found it disappointing that there seems to be a scarcity of YouTube video tutorials on Sonar/CbB as compared to other DAWS.  You can find almost anything on Pro tools real easy.  If you go by what you find on YouTube, EVERYBODY uses Pro Tools! And after that is Ableton.  Do a search on Sonar or Cakewalk by Bandlab and you might get a small handful.  Very limited and there is a lot of repetition on those.  Sometimes it seems as if YouTubers just make videos to see themselves on YouTube.  If you're going to make a tutorial try to make ones on topics that haven't been covered yet. 
 
JB

I don't think any reference manual is part of the Cakewalk by Bandlab download nor is it listed by the Bandlab Download Assistant as an add-on download.
 
I'm a little surprised at all the talk about a 500 page reference manual. Acrobat Reader indicates the Sonar Reference Manual pdf file I received with Sonar Home Studio is 2348 pages.

57Gregy
Does this still work?
http://www.cakewalk.com/CakeTV
 

Yeah.  Forgot about those.  But too big for the small details.  Most of my issue with Sonar/CbB were about small details.  The Reference Manual and the Cake U vids have the small details in them, but you have to dig deep to find them.
 
JB

Johnbee58
A good example of what I'm talking about:
A while back I was working on a project and I came to depend on the "Aim Assist" function, which was running fine for me as set by default.  Well, one fine day I must've bumped the X key by mistake and the Aim Assist went away.  So, I'm going nutz trying to find out how to re enable the Aim Assist, but I didn't even know what the hell to call it.  I didn't know what the name of that function was to even ask somebody "Hey, how do I re enable the Aim Assist function.  I must've accidentally killed it". But I got on the forum and described it as "that thing with the numbers on the top of the timeline when you run the cursor over it."  I didn't even know what to call it to look in the glossary of the Reference Manual for it, and the Cake U?!  Which vid would that be in??   My crude description that I posted on the forum was quickly seen by somebody who made the connection to what I was talking about and solved my problem.
That's the great thing about a forum.  Instant answers to anything you need to know.
 
JB
 
 

 YUP! Right on.

msmcleod
Actually the BandLab produced CbB videos are really good, but their existence should be made more obvious

Uh, no kidding, I'm dying for instructional materials and this is the first I have heard of BandLab having produced any videos or anything else other than updating the online documentation to incorporate the new features. They're on YouTube, I take it?
 
Also, regarding this rumored 2000+ page manual that supposedly exists somewhere in PDF form....I say "supposedly" because I have directly asked in a tech support request for a copy of this beast and no dice. Tech support tried to help but all they had access to was a Quick Start guide. Nobody's stepped forward to Google Drive it.
 
Technically I suppose the IP in that PDF does now belong to our friends at BandLab and distributing it for free (same as they do the entire Cakewalk by Bandlab suite) would technically violate the terms of the SONAR license, but I have a hunch that as long as a person were quiet about it they wouldn't be too offended.

msmcleod
 
The Sonar manual used to be in CHM (Windows Compiled Help) format, but the html online version - which is exactly the same, except up to date - is here:
http://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=Cakewalk&language=3
 

Maybe I got it in another format and converted it.  It was quite a while ago, in my early days with Sonar.  Thanks, Mark for all of these useful links.
JB

I will say his about accessing this or any other forum on a cell phone.  It is a royal pain in the butt to try and read or do any serious studying of material.  Give me a laptop or pc screen any day of the week.  I come here daily and there are very few days when I don't pick up something.  I thank all of you who participate for that.  Thank you.

This forum has one issue and one deficiency that specifically bother me, the SPAM filter and message images.
 
The issue is the forum has an overly aggressive SPAM filter that is quick to remove a message, especially when the poster edits a message.  Many times I will not catch an editing mistake until after a message is posted.  Too bad because if I edit the message it will likely end up in the SPAM folder.  Then I have to decide if the message is worth the hassle of a private message to a forum administrator requesting they find and recover the message or, post a second message asking, "Where's my post?!"   Either way a silly mistake ends up bothering multiple people or cluttering up the forum.
 
The deficiency is the lack of support for hosting animated gifs or screenshots.  A poster can insert a url pointer but the image itself is not saved with the message so if the link breaks, the message is likely useless.  As everyone likely knows, sometimes a picture is worth a multitude of words.
 
It worries me that new CbB users can not join the forum and ask for guidance or assistance or just comment on their likes and dislikes.  This forum is a huge component of what makes Cakewalk fun to use!  However limiting access to this resource does kind of force Bandlab to actively develop their own CbB support system.  So maybe this limitation is a way of "forcing" Bandlab to maintain their focus on continual development of their support system.