Ken McMullan

Ah. I see what you did there. My Sense of humour is intact. I appreciate the sentiment!

100% CORRECT! Thank you.

Love it. It's as easy to use as ever.

Like others, you are somewhat correct, but I feel the need to reiterate what I've posted a few times in this thread: The suggestion that I should Google "what should I expect to encounter when I try to install Cakewalk" is unreasonable. I doubt I would have found the response "You'll need to create another social media account and then they'll ask you if you want to install some tools you've never heard of, and which come with no descriptions. I did my research. I knew the tool I wanted, I installed it. I did not know what tools I did not want. I did not know to search for the tools that I did not know I was going to be offered. Nor did I know that I required to login first.

Thanks everyone for your time. The tantrum is looong gone. The piece of work I wanted to do with it was done the very day I installed it. I went searching for Cakewalk because I knew it could do the one thing I wanted it to do. I didn't need to read reams of documentation to find out about all the other stuff I didn't want it to do. I've done a good thing here. I hope simplified versions of your helpful explanations can be stored within the installer at some point in the future and, in doing so, I hope you will increase the size of your user base and your excellent community.

Agreed. But it was at install time I needed to know this.

Again, massively appreciative of your tone and the time taken to ... absorb my concerns. Make no mistake, it is the same wonderfully functional, rapid piece of software I recall and I will certainly be using it (although, it seems I may struggle with community support due to my honesty). My concern remains, though, with the folks who will see unexplained items, which look like additional installers (yes, I now understand they're just harmless plugins, but i reiterate that this is in no way evident at install time) and cop out. My concern remains wit the people who do not have my pedigree, who will see "ANOTHER username and password?" and cop out. I now have 4 plugins and don't know what they're for, and a login to another website, and I don't know why. All it required to fix this anguish was a simple pop-up or help button explaining why I was obliged to create a sign-in and what the purpose of the optional plugins was. Again, I appreciate your time.

II'm afraid I'm going to disagree until I understand what you mean by "manufacturers." Very few software houses FORCE you to register on their social media platform before you're even allowed to download their installer. Bandlab assistant my well be their download manager, but Google Chrome is MY download manager and it's really jolly good and does not require assistance. No-one has yet been able to explain to me why I require Bandlab. Cakewalk used to (and still appears to) function perfectly well without it.

For my [art, the thread is 100% factual. I have listed several shortcomings in the install process which may be terribly offputting for new users. I hope I've done a good thing here. Cakewalk is a superb piece of software and its support community is clearly a knowledgeable one, generous with its time. I would HATE the thought that any potential user be dissuaded by the installer because they thought it was harbouring something they might not want on their computer. With that fact, do what you will. I simply care enough to defend an opinion.

I can confirm that countless software packages do, indeed use this underhand method of piggy-backing other installers, and I'm all to familiar with them. I trust youre' speaking of audio software. Something of which I have no recent experience. Such underhand methods are countless, but thankfully still a minority, and the practice is frowned upon. As it happens, the Cakewalk add-ons were not unrelated packages. They purely looked that way. I can only repeat my concern. They look like tag-ons. They have all the hallmarks of something (potentially malicious) which shouldn't be there. Couple this with the suspicions which were on high alert due to the fact that I was fist forced to install and create an account on a social media platform, and you have every single signature of something underhand. Set aside the fact that the newbie doesn't necessarily want to stop in the middle of the installer to go and Google things which should be self-evident. I really don't mind if my opinion counts or not. If I'm alone in this, then I'm alone, but I wonder how many potential users have given up because they got suspicious of being forced to create another online account, or because they thought they were being asked to install a piece of additional software which came with no explanatory notes? Incidentally, I sincerely appreciate your taking the time to expand "DAW". I much prefer this approach to the assumption that everyone already knows all the lingo. Your email is an excellent one and 80% of its content should be a "Help" button or a pop-up for the uninitiated within the installer.

Not sure which bit you chose to find patronising, but that wasn't my intention. What makes you think I know what a DAW is? I just know that Cakewalk has been (and still is) an excellent MIDI file editor. You repeat the presumption of the software developers that everyone knows all the terminology. Just briefly put yourself in the shoes of someone who's never installed Cakewalk, but knows they'd like to get into computer music. You get partway through the installer and then ... oh, man what's THIS? But hey, ignore my sentiment: I'm clearly a minority group. Just bear in mind, that I care enough to point out the folly; at personal expense.

I completely agree. Which is why I was very tentative just to install these. Piggy-back installers can be a nightmare. So, when software authors are adding them, they should at least have a brief explanation of what they are, so the user doesn't have to stop what he's doing to go research a road block they weren't expecting to encounter. I'm struggling to understand what folk are finding unreasonable about this.

Again, do you often Google the meaning of the popup boxes you get during a software install? I should think not. Most folk just click "Next" to get it over with. Bandlab Marketeers KNOW this. This has all the hallmarks of a covert software deployment. I now know hat it isn't, but as you say, I'm not the only person who's been frustrated by it.

Indeed. Do you often go research the meaning of the cryptic popup box in the middle of your software installs? I should think not. Nor should you have to.

Not sure I've ever needed to read a documentation set BEFORE installing a piece of software. However, the rest of that information alone, as a pop-up tip or something would have been a superb step in the right direction, thanks. I just don't expect to have to go and do that kind of reserch DURING the install. And your marketing people know that.