CDA the big picture

djfake wrote on 8/10/2001, 6:46 AM
Another way to look at it is "complete audio solution" that SF is just now beginning to offer with SF 5.0 and Vegas Audio. I think we would all consider CDA an integral part of that - the point after all is eventually about burning CDs! Keeping CDA would complete SF's offering to PC user with a 100% SF audio solution - wav to disc - so to speak.

CDA wasn't their biggest money maker, and the $300 price tag didn’t help matters, especially when every burner had something included for free. I myself use Music Match when I just want something quick and easy for mp3 to disc. The fact that it is an audio-only product is also part of the problem. But CDA was never about that, and I for one didn't buy it for either of those uses. We all know profit isn’t the only reason to do things, even for publicly traded companies!

One solution may be to pick a few burners - like the hugely popular Plextor Plexwriters - and OEM the program to the drive manufacturer as a bundle. Certainly there is a market for professional audio CD creation. I've created many a CD masters with CDA, and there is nothing even close to it, PC or MAC. I’m sure that SF is committed to keeping their users on the PC with the best tools they can provide. In that respect, CDA is well worth the effort.

Comments

Rednroll wrote on 8/19/2001, 11:39 PM
I agree, fortunately I own CD Architect and do have an all inclusive system with Sonic Foundry Products using my plextor 8/20 drives to do the burning. Too bad newer users can't have the same abilities that I do. I agree the $300 price tag on CD architect was too high. Combine that with the $350 price tag of sound Forge at the time, you have a $650 program for doing mastering and burning Redbood CDR's. Wavelab did the smart thing and combined them as an all in one software, and sold it for $400. That's $250 less. I thought Sonic Foundry was a smart company and would include CD architect in with Sound Forge 5.0 as a complete bundle and compete with that $400 competitive software, and beat it hands down. Instead they abandoned Sound Forge of being a complete Pro mastering tool, and threw a $99 price tag on it and is living off the reputation that Sound Forge 4.5 combined with CDA built, and now new customers are being highly disappointed because this great product they heard about doesn't do everything they expected it would. So basically they accomplished to piss off the loyal customers they had and attracted a bunch of new customers and pissed them off too. This was a Brilliant marketing plan.......how do you say the next step? "BANKRUPT"
PaulO wrote on 8/27/2001, 1:21 PM
All of which supports my belief that CD Architect was actively withdrawn for reasons unknown.

There are many simply solutions if there really was a desire to keep the product alive. All the hard work in CDA (the editor and GUI) has been done and works. So far as the CD burning engine is concerned, SF could even go out and buy a complete CD burning library to bolt onto the back end in lieu of the existing burn engine, and thus avoid having to re-invent this particular wheel. The cost of such a library is around $5k.
SeanC wrote on 9/5/2001, 8:05 PM
it's easier than that. Simply make sure the MMC compatible driver is up to date with new operating systems, and we'll all be happy to make sure our drives are truly mmc compatible.

I've had total success of using CDA up through this week. I'm beta testing win xp, and find that CDA will no longer find my plextor 16x.

The same disolvement happened with another CD burning product I used that was a plugin for SAW. They simply couldn't keep up with drivers for all the drives with the low volume software sales. Eventually you're paying loads for support and seeing very little come in.

I wish they would integrate the CDA program inside SF5. I'm sure many of the CDA users would gladly upgrade if it meant years of happy burning.

Sean