Really disappointed about CD Architect news

BrentA wrote on 11/1/2000, 2:33 AM
I just happened to visit the Sonic Foundry site tonight to
see what was new with my favorite products like SoundForge
and CD Architect. Upon reading the CD Architect Forum and
seeing that CD Architect is discontinued, it kind of
knocked the wind out of my sails. For the past two and half
years, I have used Sound Forge and CD Architect in my hobby
of archiving live shows, rarities, and vinyl to CD. The
flexibility and intuitive interface made it a fun
activity...and I often recommended it to anyone who would
listen. I have not used other CD layout packages and hoped
I would never have to.

When I first began using Sonic Foundry's products, I was
impressed by the clean interface. I know that one or more
key employees came from Microsoft (a company I used to work
for myself), and it was clear that they took Microsoft's
User Interface guidelines to heart in designing a UI that
would be very familiar to users of other Windows
applications. Lately, though, with the focus on low-end
products Siren, it seems like some of that original vision
has been lost. I understand the necessity of forward
thinking in business, and it is clear that internet-
delivered audio will be the way of the future, but I think
the decision to discontinue CD Architect is premature. The
compact disc is still a standard and well established
medium for storing and distributing high quality audio and
will be around for some time to come.

Also, I feel that Sonic Foundry is doing a disservice to
it's loyal CD Architect users by quietly discontinuing the
product without an official and consistent explanation. The
only official bits of information seem to come in the
response to questions from disappointed users (see quotes
below). In one message (#549), Sonic Foundry implies that a
new program will be out before Christmas that will contain
similar functionality. In another (#561), they state there
will be no replacement application. In a third message
(#568), they state the reason it was dropped was to focus
on internet delivered audio and that the application was
too difficult to maintain do to the number of new CDR
models introduced each year. Yet in a later message (#594),
they state that CD Architect supports all MMC drives and
that most drives being introduced are MMC-compliant, so it
is unclear exactly how much specific driver support is even
necessary for the product. I wish they could be a bit more
consistent on their reasons for dropping the product and
what, if anything, will replace it.

I suspect that if the product had generated decent revenue,
they probably would have kept it around. Ironically, I
think they doomed it by never dropping the price to $99 or
so. At that price point, I think they could have maximized
their sales and revenue. At $299, it was clearly only going
to appeal to people in pro- or semi-pro audio. It was just
out of the reasonable price range that most home hobbyist
types would be willing to pay, so most people didn't even
bother to check it out.

Anyway, I hope that some other software company recognizes
how great this software is and licenses it or buys it from
Sonic Foundry. It's too good to just orphan indefinitely.

Regards,
Brent

(The references above are taken from the following quotes
from Sonic Foundry personnel posted on Sonic Foundry's CD
Architect Forum at http://www.sonicfoundry.com/Forums/

SONIC FOUNDRY QUOTE 1 (Forum Message #549)
Yes unfortunately we have discontinued CD Architect but we
still offer support if you own it. If not, keep on the look
out for a new program that may be released before Christmas
of this year. If you have any further questions please feel
free to contact any of our Customer Service Representatives
weekdays from 7:00am to 10:00pm CST at 1-800-57SONIC or
reply directly to this email.

SONIC FOUNDRY QUOTE 2 (Forum Message #561)
It was an overall company decision since there were a
decrease in sales. To my knowledge there will not be a
replacement application. Customer service and tech support
will continue to support CD Architect, however we no longer
will carry it.

SONIC FOUNDRY QUOTE 3 (Forum Message #568)
CD Architect has reached it's end of life with Sonic
Foundry because we are focusing on internet content
delivery and there were too many new drives coming out each
year that we could not keep up with for support with CD
Arc. Sonic Foundry is looking towards new methods of multi-
media delivery and are constantly developing new
technologies in the internet delivery area. I hope this
helps to clarify.

SONIC FOUNDRY QUOTE 4 (Forum Message #594)
Enabling drive support for any MMC Compatible drive should
require no coding effort on your part...(CD Architect) will
continue to work fine with any drive that is MMC compliant.
Since the majority of drives arriving to market are fully
compliant this should allow a large choice of drives for
you to use with your copy of CD Architect.

Comments

Rednroll wrote on 11/2/2000, 1:23 AM
I couldn't have said it better myself Brent. I have a copy of
Wavelab staring me in the face everyday and still continue to use CD
architect for it's great user interface and I dread having to learn
another program when I know this one so well. The smart marketing
technique would have been to implement it right into Sound Forge, so
you didn't have to pay even an additional $99 for it, and once you
did that it would make Sound Forge, a more attractive software to
purchase, just like Steinberg did with Wavelab....Now this move makes
Sound Forge an inferior product to Wavelab, you can't burn Cd's with
sound forge, but you can with Wavelab...and the combo of Sound Forge
and CD Architect was about $350+$250=$600 Versus Wavelab $399.
Abandonment before replacement...makes no sense to me.

Brent Aliverti wrote:
>>I just happened to visit the Sonic Foundry site tonight to
>>see what was new with my favorite products like SoundForge
>>and CD Architect. Upon reading the CD Architect Forum and
>>seeing that CD Architect is discontinued, it kind of
>>knocked the wind out of my sails. For the past two and half
>>years, I have used Sound Forge and CD Architect in my hobby
>>of archiving live shows, rarities, and vinyl to CD. The
>>flexibility and intuitive interface made it a fun
>>activity...and I often recommended it to anyone who would
>>listen. I have not used other CD layout packages and hoped
>>I would never have to.
>>
>>When I first began using Sonic Foundry's products, I was
>>impressed by the clean interface. I know that one or more
>>key employees came from Microsoft (a company I used to work
>>for myself), and it was clear that they took Microsoft's
>>User Interface guidelines to heart in designing a UI that
>>would be very familiar to users of other Windows
>>applications. Lately, though, with the focus on low-end
>>products Siren, it seems like some of that original vision
>>has been lost. I understand the necessity of forward
>>thinking in business, and it is clear that internet-
>>delivered audio will be the way of the future, but I think
>>the decision to discontinue CD Architect is premature. The
>>compact disc is still a standard and well established
>>medium for storing and distributing high quality audio and
>>will be around for some time to come.
>>
>>Also, I feel that Sonic Foundry is doing a disservice to
>>it's loyal CD Architect users by quietly discontinuing the
>>product without an official and consistent explanation. The
>>only official bits of information seem to come in the
>>response to questions from disappointed users (see quotes
>>below). In one message (#549), Sonic Foundry implies that a
>>new program will be out before Christmas that will contain
>>similar functionality. In another (#561), they state there
>>will be no replacement application. In a third message
>>(#568), they state the reason it was dropped was to focus
>>on internet delivered audio and that the application was
>>too difficult to maintain do to the number of new CDR
>>models introduced each year. Yet in a later message (#594),
>>they state that CD Architect supports all MMC drives and
>>that most drives being introduced are MMC-compliant, so it
>>is unclear exactly how much specific driver support is even
>>necessary for the product. I wish they could be a bit more
>>consistent on their reasons for dropping the product and
>>what, if anything, will replace it.
>>
>>I suspect that if the product had generated decent revenue,
>>they probably would have kept it around. Ironically, I
>>think they doomed it by never dropping the price to $99 or
>>so. At that price point, I think they could have maximized
>>their sales and revenue. At $299, it was clearly only going
>>to appeal to people in pro- or semi-pro audio. It was just
>>out of the reasonable price range that most home hobbyist
>>types would be willing to pay, so most people didn't even
>>bother to check it out.
>>
>>Anyway, I hope that some other software company recognizes
>>how great this software is and licenses it or buys it from
>>Sonic Foundry. It's too good to just orphan indefinitely.
>>
>>Regards,
>>Brent
>>
>>(The references above are taken from the following quotes
>>from Sonic Foundry personnel posted on Sonic Foundry's CD
>>Architect Forum at http://www.sonicfoundry.com/Forums/
>>
>>SONIC FOUNDRY QUOTE 1 (Forum Message #549)
>>Yes unfortunately we have discontinued CD Architect but we
>>still offer support if you own it. If not, keep on the look
>>out for a new program that may be released before Christmas
>>of this year. If you have any further questions please feel
>>free to contact any of our Customer Service Representatives
>>weekdays from 7:00am to 10:00pm CST at 1-800-57SONIC or
>>reply directly to this email.
>>
>>SONIC FOUNDRY QUOTE 2 (Forum Message #561)
>>It was an overall company decision since there were a
>>decrease in sales. To my knowledge there will not be a
>>replacement application. Customer service and tech support
>>will continue to support CD Architect, however we no longer
>>will carry it.
>>
>>SONIC FOUNDRY QUOTE 3 (Forum Message #568)
>>CD Architect has reached it's end of life with Sonic
>>Foundry because we are focusing on internet content
>>delivery and there were too many new drives coming out each
>>year that we could not keep up with for support with CD
>>Arc. Sonic Foundry is looking towards new methods of multi-
>>media delivery and are constantly developing new
>>technologies in the internet delivery area. I hope this
>>helps to clarify.
>>
>>SONIC FOUNDRY QUOTE 4 (Forum Message #594)
>>Enabling drive support for any MMC Compatible drive should
>>require no coding effort on your part...(CD Architect) will
>>continue to work fine with any drive that is MMC compliant.
>>Since the majority of drives arriving to market are fully
>>compliant this should allow a large choice of drives for
>>you to use with your copy of CD Architect.
MacMoney wrote on 11/5/2000, 11:24 AM
Hi Brent
You really hit home with this one, We LOVE Sonic Foundry products CD
Architect IS one of our favorite products like Sound Forge. We have
made a very good living of CDA, SF, Acid and Vegas. We feel like they
just cut a limb out of our studios. We used it for custom x-fades
with really cool interludes and to read audio CD to pull loops up so
we could use them in Acid. We will keep using CDA until it does not
supports any of the CDR that are out. The only thing We've seen in
our 9 years of doing this that comes close is Masterlist by
Digidesign. The only improvement we hoped to see was CD24 (24bit
Audio CDs) We believe in Sonic Foundry and hope that they will offer
as a standalone or as a feature in SF, Acid and Vegas another product
like CD Architect. We also are VERY DISAPPOINTED about CDA being
discontinued.

George Ware (Mac Money Studio A)
Billy Townes (Shade Records)
Tony McElveen (Mac Money Studio B)
Ron Jones (Mac Money Studio C)
George Scott (Nght Wind Studio)
Edger Copeland (Night Wind Productions)


Brent Aliverti wrote:
>>I just happened to visit the Sonic Foundry site tonight to
>>see what was new with my favorite products like SoundForge
>>and CD Architect. Upon reading the CD Architect Forum and
>>seeing that CD Architect is discontinued, it kind of
>>knocked the wind out of my sails. For the past two and half
>>years, I have used Sound Forge and CD Architect in my hobby
>>of archiving live shows, rarities, and vinyl to CD. The
>>flexibility and intuitive interface made it a fun
>>activity...and I often recommended it to anyone who would
>>listen. I have not used other CD layout packages and hoped
>>I would never have to.
>>
>>When I first began using Sonic Foundry's products, I was
>>impressed by the clean interface. I know that one or more
>>key employees came from Microsoft (a company I used to work
>>for myself), and it was clear that they took Microsoft's
>>User Interface guidelines to heart in designing a UI that
>>would be very familiar to users of other Windows
>>applications. Lately, though, with the focus on low-end
>>products Siren, it seems like some of that original vision
>>has been lost. I understand the necessity of forward
>>thinking in business, and it is clear that internet-
>>delivered audio will be the way of the future, but I think
>>the decision to discontinue CD Architect is premature. The
>>compact disc is still a standard and well established
>>medium for storing and distributing high quality audio and
>>will be around for some time to come.
>>
>>Also, I feel that Sonic Foundry is doing a disservice to
>>it's loyal CD Architect users by quietly discontinuing the
>>product without an official and consistent explanation. The
>>only official bits of information seem to come in the
>>response to questions from disappointed users (see quotes
>>below). In one message (#549), Sonic Foundry implies that a
>>new program will be out before Christmas that will contain
>>similar functionality. In another (#561), they state there
>>will be no replacement application. In a third message
>>(#568), they state the reason it was dropped was to focus
>>on internet delivered audio and that the application was
>>too difficult to maintain do to the number of new CDR
>>models introduced each year. Yet in a later message (#594),
>>they state that CD Architect supports all MMC drives and
>>that most drives being introduced are MMC-compliant, so it
>>is unclear exactly how much specific driver support is even
>>necessary for the product. I wish they could be a bit more
>>consistent on their reasons for dropping the product and
>>what, if anything, will replace it.
>>
>>I suspect that if the product had generated decent revenue,
>>they probably would have kept it around. Ironically, I
>>think they doomed it by never dropping the price to $99 or
>>so. At that price point, I think they could have maximized
>>their sales and revenue. At $299, it was clearly only going
>>to appeal to people in pro- or semi-pro audio. It was just
>>out of the reasonable price range that most home hobbyist
>>types would be willing to pay, so most people didn't even
>>bother to check it out.
>>
>>Anyway, I hope that some other software company recognizes
>>how great this software is and licenses it or buys it from
>>Sonic Foundry. It's too good to just orphan indefinitely.
>>
>>Regards,
>>Brent
>>
>>(The references above are taken from the following quotes
>>from Sonic Foundry personnel posted on Sonic Foundry's CD
>>Architect Forum at http://www.sonicfoundry.com/Forums/
>>
>>SONIC FOUNDRY QUOTE 1 (Forum Message #549)
>>Yes unfortunately we have discontinued CD Architect but we
>>still offer support if you own it. If not, keep on the look
>>out for a new program that may be released before Christmas
>>of this year. If you have any further questions please feel
>>free to contact any of our Customer Service Representatives
>>weekdays from 7:00am to 10:00pm CST at 1-800-57SONIC or
>>reply directly to this email.
>>
>>SONIC FOUNDRY QUOTE 2 (Forum Message #561)
>>It was an overall company decision since there were a
>>decrease in sales. To my knowledge there will not be a
>>replacement application. Customer service and tech support
>>will continue to support CD Architect, however we no longer
>>will carry it.
>>
>>SONIC FOUNDRY QUOTE 3 (Forum Message #568)
>>CD Architect has reached it's end of life with Sonic
>>Foundry because we are focusing on internet content
>>delivery and there were too many new drives coming out each
>>year that we could not keep up with for support with CD
>>Arc. Sonic Foundry is looking towards new methods of multi-
>>media delivery and are constantly developing new
>>technologies in the internet delivery area. I hope this
>>helps to clarify.
>>
>>SONIC FOUNDRY QUOTE 4 (Forum Message #594)
>>Enabling drive support for any MMC Compatible drive should
>>require no coding effort on your part...(CD Architect) will
>>continue to work fine with any drive that is MMC compliant.
>>Since the majority of drives arriving to market are fully
>>compliant this should allow a large choice of drives for
>>you to use with your copy of CD Architect.
dsmith wrote on 11/8/2000, 8:25 PM
Man what a bummer. I think Brent pretty well summed it up. I've got
a fair amount of money and time invested in the Sonic Foundry product
line. All my work culminated in burning a CD with CD Arch. Now I'll
have to look for, buy, and learn an other product. I was hoping
they'd add CD Text. I asked for it about a year ago.

For the last two years I've been recording, editing, and producing
CDs of solo piano concerts at my church. I'm even licensed by each
artist to do so ! As the cost of a CD-R has dropped so much, I was
looking into burning CDs of weekly sermons instead of making cheap,
crummy, and relatively expensive cassette tapes. So much for that
idea.

If anybody knows of a product with similar functionality, please pass
it on.

Thanks


Brent Aliverti wrote:
>>I just happened to visit the Sonic Foundry site tonight to
>>see what was new with my favorite products like SoundForge
>>and CD Architect. Upon reading the CD Architect Forum and
>>seeing that CD Architect is discontinued, it kind of
>>knocked the wind out of my sails. For the past two and half
>>years, I have used Sound Forge and CD Architect in my hobby
>>of archiving live shows, rarities, and vinyl to CD. The
>>flexibility and intuitive interface made it a fun
>>activity...and I often recommended it to anyone who would
>>listen. I have not used other CD layout packages and hoped
>>I would never have to.
>>
>>When I first began using Sonic Foundry's products, I was
>>impressed by the clean interface. I know that one or more
>>key employees came from Microsoft (a company I used to work
>>for myself), and it was clear that they took Microsoft's
>>User Interface guidelines to heart in designing a UI that
>>would be very familiar to users of other Windows
>>applications. Lately, though, with the focus on low-end
>>products Siren, it seems like some of that original vision
>>has been lost. I understand the necessity of forward
>>thinking in business, and it is clear that internet-
>>delivered audio will be the way of the future, but I think
>>the decision to discontinue CD Architect is premature. The
>>compact disc is still a standard and well established
>>medium for storing and distributing high quality audio and
>>will be around for some time to come.
>>
>>Also, I feel that Sonic Foundry is doing a disservice to
>>it's loyal CD Architect users by quietly discontinuing the
>>product without an official and consistent explanation. The
>>only official bits of information seem to come in the
>>response to questions from disappointed users (see quotes
>>below). In one message (#549), Sonic Foundry implies that a
>>new program will be out before Christmas that will contain
>>similar functionality. In another (#561), they state there
>>will be no replacement application. In a third message
>>(#568), they state the reason it was dropped was to focus
>>on internet delivered audio and that the application was
>>too difficult to maintain do to the number of new CDR
>>models introduced each year. Yet in a later message (#594),
>>they state that CD Architect supports all MMC drives and
>>that most drives being introduced are MMC-compliant, so it
>>is unclear exactly how much specific driver support is even
>>necessary for the product. I wish they could be a bit more
>>consistent on their reasons for dropping the product and
>>what, if anything, will replace it.
>>
>>I suspect that if the product had generated decent revenue,
>>they probably would have kept it around. Ironically, I
>>think they doomed it by never dropping the price to $99 or
>>so. At that price point, I think they could have maximized
>>their sales and revenue. At $299, it was clearly only going
>>to appeal to people in pro- or semi-pro audio. It was just
>>out of the reasonable price range that most home hobbyist
>>types would be willing to pay, so most people didn't even
>>bother to check it out.
>>
>>Anyway, I hope that some other software company recognizes
>>how great this software is and licenses it or buys it from
>>Sonic Foundry. It's too good to just orphan indefinitely.
>>
>>Regards,
>>Brent
>>
>>(The references above are taken from the following quotes
>>from Sonic Foundry personnel posted on Sonic Foundry's CD
>>Architect Forum at http://www.sonicfoundry.com/Forums/
>>
>>SONIC FOUNDRY QUOTE 1 (Forum Message #549)
>>Yes unfortunately we have discontinued CD Architect but we
>>still offer support if you own it. If not, keep on the look
>>out for a new program that may be released before Christmas
>>of this year. If you have any further questions please feel
>>free to contact any of our Customer Service Representatives
>>weekdays from 7:00am to 10:00pm CST at 1-800-57SONIC or
>>reply directly to this email.
>>
>>SONIC FOUNDRY QUOTE 2 (Forum Message #561)
>>It was an overall company decision since there were a
>>decrease in sales. To my knowledge there will not be a
>>replacement application. Customer service and tech support
>>will continue to support CD Architect, however we no longer
>>will carry it.
>>
>>SONIC FOUNDRY QUOTE 3 (Forum Message #568)
>>CD Architect has reached it's end of life with Sonic
>>Foundry because we are focusing on internet content
>>delivery and there were too many new drives coming out each
>>year that we could not keep up with for support with CD
>>Arc. Sonic Foundry is looking towards new methods of multi-
>>media delivery and are constantly developing new
>>technologies in the internet delivery area. I hope this
>>helps to clarify.
>>
>>SONIC FOUNDRY QUOTE 4 (Forum Message #594)
>>Enabling drive support for any MMC Compatible drive should
>>require no coding effort on your part...(CD Architect) will
>>continue to work fine with any drive that is MMC compliant.
>>Since the majority of drives arriving to market are fully
>>compliant this should allow a large choice of drives for
>>you to use with your copy of CD Architect.