PG Music Home Forums PG Music Wishlists Band-in-a-Box Wishlist Time for a fundamental rethink?

Eddy, first off, my comparision to Sonar is in that i have been using Cakewalk products since the late 90s. I have seen them struggle to keep up with the nonstop barage of request for changes that the forum clamors for. I have also seen the product become less stable rather than more stable. I do think Sonar is a very powerful app, that is designed to compete with the big names in the industry. But whether you personally have issues with the new X-1 there are a Ton of issues being discussed over there, and many can't be dismissed as just user error.

Sonar is a great program, but there was a ground swell movement to get Cake to make major changes to the GUI, and user interface. Programs like Presonus studio 1 was tossed around as a model, Reaper was thrown out as the holy grail, Cubase was used as a measuring stick. X-1 is great looking and for many fairly stable, but for many almost unusable as well. These are not newbies that have never used Sonar, but Vets that have 8.5.3 working smoothly (finally, after several patches) What they got was a program with many design flaws that will take several patches to iron out, and maybe it will not be done until version 2. Hopefully all will go well, but it has cost them. I for one do not want to be forced down that path with PG, just because a group of newer users want it to look like something they are more familiar with. While i understand the desire to have BiaB look and function like a program these folks prefer, is that really fair to the ones who have been hear longer and are comfortable with the existing program?

PG's Sequencers namely PTPA and RB are not in some ways as sophisticated as Sonar, maybe from a pure DAW feature standards, but in their own right they do an awful lot. the BiaB feature in Rb are a complete world until itself and Sonar, Cubase, ProTools, Logic, Reaper, nor any other program on the market is even close to that.

PTPA was never designed as a top of the line top dollar DAW. It was rather a cut above entry level in price, and bargin product with some very niffty features for the money. A product you could buy and use to polish up the BiaB generated projects, or record simple audio midi projects. PG does not even address video, that is another world. If you read over at Sonar, it's video capabilities pale in comparison to other video products.

As far as writing to registry, that is a PG decision, that involves allowing the program to have a very small footprint, and allow for it to be housed on a external hard drive so people can use it on either a laptop or a desktop. It also allows for quick updates and patches. Quick re-installs in the case of problems. It is a fundamental for PG, and i doubt they want to change that, but if they do well we will see.

As far as the numbers, i have no actual numbers, but what i go on is that fact that PG has a very loyal user base and from what i have read here since joining, the vast majority are happy with the program. I would bet that almost all would love to see a slow make over of the programs to a more modern computer look, but doubt seriously that the majority would like a full overhaul. Any Program of this type has to deal with bugs and issues with each new release, Sonar, Cubase, Reaper, PTPA. RB, BiaB, all of them have bug patches, and fixes during the year. If you go with a major overhaul you will add to that issue greatly. Sure I have confidence that PG can handle it. But do all of us want to go thru that? Really!


I use the program three of four times a week as time allows. What i like is I can open it up and knock out a project quickly, i do not have to relearn it and I am sure I am not alone in that view. Whatever changes PG decides i hope that it does not include a total make over that will fundamentally alter the program. I also see what you are talking about, in that some change would be good, slow change that does not subject long time users to completely having to change their process. Simpler menus, a modern look, and such would be cool.

As far as me being a forum vet. If you are incinuating that i spend more time posting than using the program you are wrong. In the last three months i have pounded out three original tunes, and 50 cover tunes for playing live. All mixed and mastered in RB. I post during breaks at work mostly, i use the program at night, when at home and on weekends. I participate in the forum because i learn a lot from other long time users.

I did not attack you, but some how what i said made you mad. I appologize for that, but you want to be mad cause i do not agree with you. I want to see PG grow at a reasoanble pace. But a strongly resist tha notion of a rapid morphing of the two very successful programs into some hybrid. Actually that is exactly waht RB is, and people want more and faster progress i guess. lets be real here for a minute, Rb still has some issues that have not been resolved, with VSTi, with little things like the Juke box, and such let's fix those before launching a full rewrite.

Respectfully Rob