Cakewalk Sonar X3

[trimph1]

Anyone notice Craig Anderton's name as the representative of Gibson on the press release? He has a title of Executive VP at Gibson (since February of this year), though I'm not sure how much sway that title comes with. That said, as he's written quite a bit about and for Cakewalk products, it's likely he had some input into the acquisition. Hopefully, he'll have some control over product going forward.

They'll trot him out for pseudo-credibility when they need him, otherwise he's another empty suit.

I certainly hope he does better than be just a PR stunt for them....but one never really knows...

[yevster]

He sounds a little bit more involved and serious than an empty suit might:

http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/2891505

[juffi]

Seems like Roland had enough of buggy cakewalk thingys.

I doubt there's many companies in this business which are doing well, so it's not that much a question of buggy products.

Roland never had a strategy for Cakewalk. It wasn't integrated, there were no synergies, no technologies shared - nothing at all. Just an erratic pursuit of something I could never devise or understand.

No technologies shared? Then what is Roland's V-Vocal and R-Mix doing in Sonar X2 Producer?

[yevster]

That kind of sharing could just as easily be done with a licensing deal, much the way Overloud's TH2 and Breverb are licensed for inclusion in Sonar X2 Producer.

That's a far cry from in-depth collaboration, for example, Steinberg leveraging Yamaha's sound design team to create HalionSonic.

[dredd i knight]

I had hoped Roland and Cakewalk would make something along the lines of Maschine,or great software versions of 808 303 etc...
Fat chance I realise now... This development could be good for cakewalk, but I think for me it just means X1 was the last product I will buy from them... Unless they come out with something A LOT MORE STABLE.

[dredd i knight]

Plus they should never have let Rene go.... Genius synth designer...

[yevster]

Plus they should never have let Rene go.... Genius synth designer...

What do you mean by "let Rene go"? Surely he was not an indentured servant. And he is credited as the development lead for Rapture, Dimension Pro, and the original Z3ta. I have no clue what his scope of involvement with Z3ta2 was, but, IMHO, it is a fine product.

[dredd i knight]

Plus they should never have let Rene go.... Genius synth designer...

What do you mean by "let Rene go"? Surely he was not an indentured servant. And he is credited as the development lead for Rapture, Dimension Pro, and the original Z3ta. I have no clue what his scope of involvement with Z3ta2 was, but, IMHO, it is a fine product.

Um not sure what you think I was implying...
I mean he was a valuable asset and should have been seen as such.
That is all.

[hibidy]

I dunno. I got a lot more mileage out of the TH2 upgrade from sonar than sonar itself. Not sure if that applies to what it being said, but I needed to say it.

[SODDI]

I should amend my statement. Anderton would be a valuable conceptual asset if they choose to use him as such, which I doubt they will.

And it's obvious that some folks have not worked in a corporate environment with multiple units/divisions. If a unit doesn't make its quarterly projections for 2 quarters running, the little men with spreadsheets are going to come in and explain that you can make more money in t-bills than in actually selling any of these losing products and heads roll and the unit is dissolved. I've seen it happen.

[hibidy]

Right. And even though he's always been a big sonar guy, I doubt that the business end will be influenced. Of course, that is just my opinion.

[DrGonzo]

That's a far cry from in-depth collaboration, for example, Steinberg leveraging Yamaha's sound design team to create HalionSonic.

I must say that I am actually impressed with the Yamaha/Steinberg combination. Before Steinberg was a quite irresponsible company releasing new products and technologies without any longterm plan or support. It's quite noticeable that Yamaha have straightened up Steinberg. The new Halion is _excellent_ and the updates of Cubase no longer contains a bunch of techniques and plugins that will be axed a version later.

But this kind of leverage is rare. Just think about Apple and Emagic. No leverage. Complete digestion.

/C

[hibidy]

Really? Hasn't yamaha been around with stieny for some time? They certainly didn't improve that chris beurman (spelling?) a....hole from f.....ng up steinberg. not.

I don't know. Sonar hasn't been nearly as bad as that......

[fmr]

That's a far cry from in-depth collaboration, for example, Steinberg leveraging Yamaha's sound design team to create HalionSonic.

I must say that I am actually impressed with the Yamaha/Steinberg combination. Before Steinberg was a quite irresponsible company releasing new products and technologies without any longterm plan or support. It's quite noticeable that Yamaha have straightened up Steinberg. The new Halion is _excellent_ and the updates of Cubase no longer contains a bunch of techniques and plugins that will be axed a version later.

But this kind of leverage is rare. Just think about Apple and Emagic. No leverage. Complete digestion.

/C

I concur. IMO, the Yamaha/Steinberg tandem is an example of what the merqe/acquisition of a software company by a hardware company can do or be used to. Roland has been launching a lot of hardware and never looked to Cakewalk as a possbility to integrate and create synergies (look the the digital mixers, for example). Apple just bought Emagic for the technologies, and we are clearly see that now. The only acquisition that really resulted in a whole that's more than the sum of the parts has been Yamaha/Steinberg.

[clintmartin]

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/SonarX3PupX2P
Looks pretty sweet to me!