No more Cakewalk with Aardvark peripherals! Whats up with that?

[bloozguy]

I have been converting a practice room in our high school band room into a recording studio experience for students.

I intended to duplicate my system to some degree that I have at home, which is a multi media computer with Cakewalk. I started with Cakewalk 9.0 Pro Audio which came bundled with the Aardvark Direct Pro 24/96....and upgraded to Sonar 2...

We had a multi media system built, purchased a Shure KSM27 vocal mic...and I ordered the Aardvark Direct Pro...only, while Musician's Friend advertised it was bundled with Cakewalk Pro Audio 9.0....it came with Magix Audio Studio 7 deluxe software.

I shot off a question right away to Musician's Friend to ask what the heck??? ...but a google search revealed that now Aardvark comes bundled with this Magix....

So, what's the deal anyhow? Anyone familiar with this Magix software? I imagine its much cheaper than the Cakewalk Aardvark use to bundle, so they get more money no doubt on their sale.

What can anyone tell me about this software....as I need encouragement at this point. Not looking forward to having to spend nights at the school learning a new system so I can turn around and teach it.

thanks...

Bloozguy....

[Qwerty]

That really, really sucks.

Maybe return it and see if you can find some old stock somewhere.

Q.

[moskus]

Originally posted by bloozguy
...only, while Musician's Friend advertised it was bundled with Cakewalk Pro Audio 9.0....it came with Magix Audio Studio 7 deluxe software.

This has been going on for quite some time. PA9 is getting rather old, so it was due for a change a long time ago.

You can do a search on eBay and see if you find an unregistered copy of PA9.

[Qwerty]

Originally posted by moskus
This has been going on for quite some time. PA9 is getting rather old,

Was the cheapest way of becoming a full blown Sonar user.... I effectively got CWPA 9 for free with the sound card and spent another $Stuff $All to upgrade to XL 2.2.

Sad to see it go..............................

Q.

[bloozguy]

I fired off an email to Magix as well...since the tutorial and help are something to be desired. Minimal.

They have evidently an online manual...however, this system in the practice room is set up to not be connected and thereby controlled by the school's networking administrator, therefore it is not online.

Grrrrrrr......


Bloozguy

[jdier]

Originally posted by bloozguy

I intended to duplicate my system to some degree that I have at home, which is a multi media computer with Cakewalk. I started with Cakewalk 9.0 Pro Audio which came bundled with the Aardvark Direct Pro 24/96....and upgraded to Sonar 2...
Bloozguy....

If I were you I would send an email to Cakewalk with your story. I would guess that they would prefer to have the $$$ for the upgrade opposed to you going to another platform.

Send an email to webmaster@cakewalk.com and make the subject line: Please forward to Greg Hendershott

Then launch into your pitch.

Worth a try.

[jdier]

Originally posted by bloozguy

So, what's the deal anyhow? Anyone familiar with this Magix software? I imagine its much cheaper than the Cakewalk Aardvark use to bundle, so they get more money no doubt on their sale.

My guess is that Aardvark paid NOTHING for the Cakewalk disk. It was included at the request of Cakewalk so they could capture the upgrade $$$. They likely never intended people to use PA9. It is for this reason I suggest that you will still be able to get the upgrade if you ask for it.

[bloozguy]

I just read an email from Aardvark...and they are sympathetic.

Seems that the Cakewalk software is unable to run on Windows XP, so that a change was inevitable.

Whomever actually wrote me, as it was simply signed off by "Aardvark"... certainly did not appraise the Audio Studio 7 deluxe software highly. I don't mean he/she berrated it, but referred to it as...well, here is the quote-

Aardvark-

we had to
change to a lesser program that had more compatibility with the OS. The
money you spent on our sound card went 100% to the cost of the sound card.
We only include a light version of software to record basic tracks and play
back.

the "light version" refers to the Audio Studio 7....

Well...I guess I'll have to present the situation to our grant writer now in charge of the monies for the afterschool program, and see if money is possible to be had to purchase Sonar 3....

Meanwhile...jdier, I'll try your suggestion and contact Cakewalk...
thanks,

Bloozguy

[bloozguy]

haven't heard from Cakewalk yet, but our afterschool program director told me to find the best price on Sonar 3...and go ahead and order it!!!! Yippeeee!!!!

Musicians Friend apologized...for the misinformation in their catalog...and offered a small discount on other software. Ssheesh....!!! Nice of 'em, eh!

I responded, asking what kind of discount they were talking about.

I spent a bit of time on the Audio Studio 7 tonight...laying down some basic vocal tracks.

Its easy enough to use...and I might find it useful for teens needing a basic intro. Hard to mess things up with it, as it doesn't offer too much to get confused with. No drummers...things like that.

They have halfway decent effects with reverb, echo, compression, yet minimal indeed.

So...having XP...I guess I have something to look forward to with the new Sonar 3 from what I gather....!!!!

take care

bloozguy

[spankenstein]

Cakewalk stuff runs just fine on XP. Pro Audio 9 was fine and SONAR 3 Pro is even better

[bloozguy]

Originally posted by spankenstein
Cakewalk stuff runs just fine on XP. Pro Audio 9 was fine and SONAR 3 Pro is even better

hhhmmm...that's weird, pro audio 9 runs on XP? Not what the Aardvark person said...

at any rate...some will get a kick out of this. I've spent about $2000 at Musician friend this year and past, will be spending another $600 soon...and they offered me a whopping 5% discount off a new copy of Sonar 3 for the inconvenience of their having advertised Aardvark with Cakewalk 9.0 and my buying it naively thinking that's what I would be getting for my dollars spent. Wow...$15 off....!

I must be one of their preferred customers! hee heee....awfully big of them.

bloozguy...

[spankenstein]

Originally posted by bloozguy
hhhmmm...that's weird, pro audio 9 runs on XP? Not what the Aardvark person said...

at any rate...some will get a kick out of this. I've spent about $2000 at Musician friend this year and past, will be spending another $600 soon...and they offered me a whopping 5% discount off a new copy of Sonar 3 for the inconvenience of their having advertised Aardvark with Cakewalk 9.0 and my buying it naively thinking that's what I would be getting for my dollars spent. Wow...$15 off....!

I must be one of their preferred customers! hee heee....awfully big of them.

bloozguy...

Of course they are going to say that, they aren't shipping PA9 anymore

[bloozguy]

hhhmmm.... too bad a guys got to wear knee high boots to wade thru what one hears trying to simply get at the truth!

thanks...

bloozguy

[Teacher]

Originally posted by bloozguy
hhhmmm...that's weird, pro audio 9 runs on XP? Not what the Aardvark person said...

at any rate...some will get a kick out of this. I've spent about $2000 at Musician friend this year and past, will be spending another $600 soon...and they offered me a whopping 5% discount off a new copy of Sonar 3 for the inconvenience of their having advertised Aardvark with Cakewalk 9.0 and my buying it naively thinking that's what I would be getting for my dollars spent. Wow...$15 off....!

I must be one of their preferred customers! hee heee....awfully big of them.

bloozguy...

you may want to look into upgrading to samplitude 7 if your just using audio...cuz samplitude IMHO is the superior audio program between the two...but with a mixture of audio and midi i'd stick with sonar 3

[Qwerty]

Originally posted by spankenstein
Cakewalk stuff runs just fine on XP. Pro Audio 9 was fine and SONAR 3 Pro is even better

There is a big difference between "runs just fine on XP" and being designed, certified and having passed a complete quality assurance sweep to determine operating system compatibility and compliance.

Cakewalk will sell OEM versions of their products which will be governed by a contractual agreement specifying what their product can and can't do. If they claim XP compatibility and all of a sudden their OEM partners start to get heaps of calls regarding that platform, then Cakewalk are open to legal action.

There is no way the legal team at Cakewalk, or any legitimate software company for that matter, were going to let any product manager, however eager, take that risk.

Still sucks though!

Q.