Cakewalk support dissatisfaction

[jkoseattle 20]

Cakewalk is crashing regularly due to a recently added plugin. I wanted to ask support about this, so rather than post here first, I went to the support page > Contact > Email Support. I was then presented with several options. I needed technical support, so I went to the drop down for the product. Cakewalk by Bandlab is not listed at all. A bunch of versions of Sonar are though, so I picked one, and am given a link to articles relating to the product.

There is nowhere I can see to contact technical support with my question.

Bandlab people: Try and remember that when people go to technical support, they are already stressed out. Make it easy on us. If you don't offer support for CbB, just tell us so. If you do, then make it MUCH easier to access. As it is, I'm posting my question here.

[scook 4,317]

Cakewalk.com is the old company website.

The server is in read-only mode and made available as a service to customers who purchased Cakewalk products.

It has been that way since the BandLab purchase in 2018 and created this forum.

All the information I provided about support is from this forum.

The links are from the Frequently Ask Questions area.

There is also a link to support under Help on the CbB main menu

[scook 4,317]

From the Cakewalk by BandLab menu at the top of this forum https://help.cakewalk.com/hc/en-us

 

[bdickens 1,238]

12 minutes ago, jkoseattle said:

There is nowhere I can see to contact technical support with my question.

Nowhere?

 

Took all of about a minute to find.

[jkoseattle 20]

BECAUSE YOU KNEW WHERE TO LOOK.

I went to Cakewalk.com, Technical Support. Seems pretty logical. Also, Cakewalk was crashing, not going to go in there to find help..

Nothing better when someone is frustrated to tell them why they are dumb to be frustrated. 

[bdickens 1,238]

21 minutes ago, jkoseattle said:

BECAUSE YOU KNEW WHERE TO LOOK.

No. I know how to look. Basic research skills. Do they not teach such things in school any more?

23 minutes ago, jkoseattle said:

I went to Cakewalk.com, Technical Support. Seems pretty logical.

Not logical in the least, since Cakewalk, inc. no longer exists. How do you expect to get support from a nonexistent company?

 

28 minutes ago, jkoseattle said:

 

27 minutes ago, jkoseattle said:

Also, Cakewalk was crashing, not going to go in there to find help..

??? What does that even mean?

 

29 minutes ago, jkoseattle said:

Nothing better when someone is frustrated to tell them why they are dumb to be frustrated. 

I get that you are frustrated. I showed you exactly where to go to submit a support ticket. If you choose to somehow take that as an insult, that's your problem, not mine.

You're welcome.

Have a wonderful weekend.

[azslow3 239]

23 hours ago, jkoseattle said:

Cakewalk is crashing regularly due to a recently added plugin. I wanted to ask support about this...

If a DAW crash after using some plug-in, it make sense contact plug-in developers first...

[sjoens 374]

While you're in Cakewalk, the Help > Support menu item will open this page.

Even so, I've often thought it would be nice to have links to other sites from the top of the forum home page.

One or all of these:

Home (main Cakewalk page)

Support (different than Support link above) (in the forum site Links tab which also includes PDF and online Documentation)

Help (same as Support link above)

Edited November 30, 2021 by sjoens

[John Vere 1,506]

Cakewalks whole internet access is pretty bad from my point of view. As the OP just found out Google search will often take you to the old DEAD web pages. Most times however you get the pop up splash screen telling you what you already know. Cakewalk is free!  It might be more useful if it gave you links to actual live pages. 
There’s even pages that lead you to purchasing Sonar?  You can get quite far before you hit the wall. 

And the most important pages that need work are the documentation . It’s a mess and only a few people would figure out how to make the icons and pictures visible. 
Not sure why they keep it on an unsecured site? 
And then there’s the totally dis functional Download and install the actual software. 
None of this bothers me personally but I can see someone who has heard about The greatest Free DAW called Cakewalk becoming pretty frustrated with the Web site and giving up. 
I expect to Google “Cakewalk “ and a page opens with a big fat download link right there on the home page. Instead I get a page dated 2014 with a boring introduction 

Edited November 28, 2021 by John Vere

[Starship Krupa 3,125]

Wow, I just looked, and it's pretty dire. 4 years after most of the content on the site became obsolete, this is what I get when I search "Cakewalk on Google. Cakewalk by BandLab does show up, but it's below a Google review for a local dog walker:

I can imagine a confused person seeing this and thinking "huh, I thought it was free, but here it says 'free for 30 days.'" Those links to support and to demo and purchase SONAR really need to go. Knowing this isn't the place requires knowing that the company Cakewalk closed down, sold off the IP, and then the product was renamed "Cakewalk." The average person can't be expected to know that.

How many shuttered companies still have functioning websites up 4 years after they closed the doors? It's time to narrow it down to just the download and licensing server(s) and take the rest offline. Or put in those html codes that tell Google's spiders not to index.

Especially in matters of support, I've seen this trip people up over and over. At least just make the support email address forward to the (hardly) new support staff.

[sjoens 374]

A quick Google search for "Cakewalk" lists the "new" old site with links to Sonar and the old forum 1st and the current relevant site 2nd.

 

To have the relevant site listed at the top 1st, enter "Cakewalk by Bandlab". 

... where Help and Forum links are right on page top.

Confusion could be reduced if the main site link was at the top of these pages as well.

[Starship Krupa 3,125]

Yes, just a link with "click here for current Cakewalk for BandLab support" would surely save a few lost souls.

It's always a reminder that some people just use software without paying attention to corporate machinations. Hard for a geek like me to grasp.

Cakewalk by BandLab still has no Wikipedia entry. I was working on one for a while.

[bdickens 1,238]

Since I am here on this forum, the official forum sponsored by the company that produces Cakewalk, it seemed obvious to me to  look around here for links.

Up near the top right corner is what looks like a menu. A little exploration of said menu reveals the link to "support center." A little bit more exploration reveals "submit a request."

Some people give up too easily when they don't get spoon fed everything.

 

I agree that all the old legacy stuff needs to be cleaned up and perhaps subsumed into the new site

[John Vere 1,506]

Oh by the way, Mr. Seattle said goodbye to us about a week or so ago. It was a nice polite goodbye post, one of the better ones I've seen, I think they moved to Studio 1.    

 

Edited December 5, 2021 by John Vere

[bdickens 1,238]

Brings me back to my comment about spoon feeding....

[MarkP 11]

Got a bit dazed, flummoxed and befuddled myself when I returned to Cakewalk earlier this year. Spent a few days using the online Bandlab DAW, all the while thinking 'Is this it? Really?' Great relief to discover that the real thing was all the time there in the thicket too!

I think I downloaded and tried about four DAWs at the time. I wasn't in the mood for small print. Even now, I can still go astray in the array of Cakewalk-related support pages, and this is probably due to my habit of using search engines to get to what I want - a habit that I gather is quite widespread.

[John Vere 1,506]

What’s bugging me right now is on 3 computers using 3 different browsers the Documentation pictures are just icons. And ya, ya I set Cakewalk web  site to be allowed cookies. It only works on my cell phone. 
So I’m sure I’m not the only one who finds the Documentation frustrating 

[Lord Tim 1,072]

Yeah this happens to me too. I think it's a permissions/certificate thing.

I definitely agree, it's been great that the legacy site has been up there for so long to ease the transition - that was a good decision - but I reckon it's probably starting to hurt as much as it's been helpful at this point. I'm sure it's on the to-do list, but there's a LOT of stuff up on there - it'd be a pretty huge job, and just trashing it and starting over would lose a heap of valuable info, so it'd need to be migrated carefully.

[scook 4,317]

4 hours ago, Lord Tim said:

Yeah this happens to me too. I think it's a permissions/certificate thing.

That's right

See

 

[John Vere 1,506]

I tried that and for some reason it doesn’t work. On one computer it worked the first time and now it doesn’t. 
Personally if I put up a Web site of any kind and people tell me it’s screwed up I fix the issue ASAP. 
How hard is it to post the Documentation on a proper secure site. It’s a pretty important part of marketing your products as well as providing seem less support for new users. 
Not everyone will find this forum in a Google search 

[mgustavo 32]

Hi, John Vere

I guess changing https to http could help Cakwalk site show pictures instead of broken icons.

Edited December 9, 2021 by mgustavo