KVR Audio

baggio · Post by **baggio** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 7:55 pm

I purcahsed Cakewalk Sonar 4 within days of the Sonar 5 announcement and thought quite reasonable that I would qualify for a free update.

I have tried to email Cakewalk twice to confirm this but they have chosen not to respond to a simeple question - do I get a free upgrade.

Now I have noticed in the Cakewalk forum that cakewalk will give a free upgrade to customers who have proven they have purchased the product in September but must snail mail their reciept to Cakewalk by the end of September - what kind of lame practice is this.

Also, as a European customer why haven't Edirol even mentioned any of this on their site.

At the moment thatnks to the lack of information I am one very pissed off customer.

AD80 · Post by **AD80** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 8:01 pm

Just a thought, I dont think they have Call/Response copy protection right? So how would they be able to tell if you bought your product during the right time or not, other than the reciept?

baggio · Post by **baggio** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 8:06 pm

I have a reciept - I am willing to send it to them but if they don't tell me what I need to do and then have a cut off date to get the free upgrade what am I supposed to do?

riley4reason · Post by **riley4reason** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 8:29 pm

baggio wrote:I have a reciept - I am willing to send it to them but if they don't tell me what I need to do and then have a cut off date to get the free upgrade what am I supposed to do?

Hey Baggio,
I did their little song and dance when I bought P5v1 for the free upgrade to P5v2. I had to mail in a reciept too. However! They had very clear and precise instructions posted on their website for me to follow and it all went very smooth.
I also know that if you raise enough hell with them, they will give you what you want..
I hope you don't have to do the latter.

Did you see where you could enter your serial number and see if it qualifies?

Link: http://store.cakewalk.com/product.asp?id=102

Maybe they do it that way now.

Riley

whyterabbyt · Post by **whyterabbyt** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 8:29 pm

Edirol are pretty crap with regards to Cakewalk offers/deals IMO. Your best bet is to phone Cakewalk direct. Bit annoying if you're not in the US, but from what I hear, they're pretty good 'in preson'.

Hink · Post by **Hink** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 8:41 pm

whyterabbyt wrote:Edirol are pretty crap with regards to Cakewalk offers/deals IMO. Your best bet is to phone Cakewalk direct. Bit annoying if you're not in the US, but from what I hear, they're pretty good 'in preson'.

fwiw it is not a toll call for me, in fact they are quite close to where I use to work...so if someone wants me to make a call for them, just pm me with the details...

jens · Post by **jens** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 8:42 pm

baggio wrote: Also, as a European customer why haven't Edirol even mentioned any of this on their site.

perhaps it's too early (because it ain't out yet in Europe) - as an European customer you have to do your business with Edirol Europe but not with Cakewalk directly as they can't (aren't allowed) to help you. But that's not a big deal as you can call Edirol directly and the guys there are very friendly and reasonable. - They are London-based but have phone-numbers for national calls (with a redirection to an international call for which they will pay) and if you call the local number for your country you'll be connected with someone who speaks your language - perfect support!

ResonantOrder · Post by **ResonantOrder** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 8:52 pm

They are totally swamped with the new release, and I doubt they'll be answering emails for a while. Definitely call them. They're really good about working things out.

baggio · Post by **baggio** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 8:57 pm

I have emailed edirol to see if they can shed some light on this.

I have no problem with waiting until all the new SOnar 5 customers are sorted but I think there should be some sort of info for people in my position as in previous upgrades it has been made clear that if you were unlucky enough to purchase within say a month of the upgrade then you would get it for free.

kevink · Post by **kevink** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 9:25 pm

While Edirol Europe have given customers reason to complain about their policies and pricing from time to time, I was very pleasantly surprised when I took the trouble to actually *phone* Edirol France to ask how I could get an English-language Sonar 4 as an upgrade to the Sonar 3 I had bought directly from Cakewalk in the good old days when they dealt directly with European customers. I was expecting the usual sort of sorry-but-it's-simply-not-possible run around that one often gets in France, but in fact it was totally painless and quick. Try calling them at whatever number they provide for your country of residence.

Keep in mind, though, that if Sonar 5 pricing and availability haven't been announced for Europe, they may not be able to tell you officially whether you qualify for a free upgrade.

dougsyo · Post by **dougsyo** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 9:42 pm

AD80 wrote:Just a thought, I dont think they have Call/Response copy protection right? So how would they be able to tell if you bought your product during the right time or not, other than the reciept?

I got the impression it's more like pre-registration (for upgrade customers - which means you can't resell an upgrade as easily) and/or forced registration. I don't know that it actually limits how many machines you install on so much as that it requires you to register your copy. This is what happened to VSampler3 after the initial C/R fiasco.

More information from new owners here would be appreciated, although I have (grudgingly) already drunk the C/R cool-aid, since I own GPO, Kompakt, Tassman, ST2XL and LE, and SoundForge Studio (and FLS also dabbled with C/R for a while). It still beats a dongle, IMHO.

Doug

billybk1 · Post by **billybk1** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 3:16 pm

I don't know that it actually limits how many machines you install on so much as that it requires you to register your copy.

Yeah, I got my SONAR 5PE upgrade the other day. It was waiting for me, on my doorstep, when I got home.
I promptly installed, from the DVD, onto both my desktop DAW and laptop, using the serial number and registration code, provided to me via email, two days earlier. It worked like a charm.
So still no problem installling, on both your laptop and desktop. As long, as it is for personal use and you are not using the both, of them, at the same time, you are not violating Cakewalk's EULA.

It still beats a dongle, IMHO.

No doubt!

One thing I did notice, the SONAR's excutable file(sonar5.exe), is a whopping 1.5GB (hence the DVD).

Ten times the size, of the previous version (SONAR 4), which was only 150MB. Probably makes it more difficult, or simply not worth the trouble, for warez users to quickly download a 1.5GB app, than it is for a 150MB one. "Hey, I'm almost there, only another 200MB's to go.......oh shit, I just lost my connection......"
A disgruntled warez user

What are Cakewalk playin at?