Cakewalk Sonar Platinum is now free!

[JoseC.]

@dellboy - You 100% correct with that assessment. As a long time Sonar user I can confirm that it is one frustratingly buggy program. Complete crashes happen less often (but more than any DAW I've ever used). It's the 'little' odd occurrences that happen frequently and can grind a work session to a halt, like missing midi notes even with a small number of 64bit only vst's, strange volume changes, missing automation data, deleting a clip of muted midi data on a different lane which inexplicably deletes active midi data on another lane, the list goes on. And don't even think about using track freeze. It's never worked right, your instrument will come back changed and completely unrecognizable.

I don't care about Bandlab and whatever they're doing with Sonar, as long as what they are making shares the same code as Sonar I won't get within 100 miles of it. I migrated to Cubase and it's like night and day.

Selecting things in Sonar/CbB has always been somewhat confusing. It is pretty easy end up deleting unexpected things if you are not careful, and not noticing after a while after. When it happens to me, it is always pilot error. By the way, mute or unmute a clip has nothing to do with selecting it or not, or deleting it, for that matter.

[wetdentist]

having used CbB for around a month, so far i am liking it. granted, i do most of my composing in Maschine 2 environment (with MK1 & Jam) and then bounce tracks into CbB. so for what i do, the program seems rock solid with no crashes, but that's just me (now if Native Instruments could just update the Maschine software so that it includes the features they promised us a year-and-a-half ago!)

[starise]

Cakewalk by BandLab is now on an update cycle. If you can get through the download using the BL assistant the rest is painless. There have been some revisions of the assistant. One of those allowed you to turn off the assistant on launch. At least one CbB update with more likely coming soon. You need to RTM if you haven't used CbB before.

The 50 or 100 people here who won't use it probably won't be of much significance. Not that opinions aren't important. There will be thousands who will download and use the software. The value isn't in how much BL charges for it. The value is in the use. I agree new users are being handed a hefty program to learn. There are a lot of ways to learn it online.

Program A costs X amount of money
CbB is free and can likely do what the majority of users need it to do. What do you think is going to happen? There could be hundreds of thousands of new users within a few years or much sooner. If you own a daw company you have every right to be concerned. You may bash all day, but at the end of the day what happens is what matters. New users aren't all pouring into the KVR forum to read negativity.
They will download and use the program. As much as I hate to say it..this thread is insignificant. How many copies of CbB free are already downloaded?
This is the new Audacity on steroids. Look out the bulldozer is coming through. The only potential obstacle to success for someone with little resources is a slow older computer.

Like it or not.

[Zexila]

New users aren't all pouring into the KVR forum to read negativity.

They are on social media networks or following their musical hero's, so yeah, probably just gonna use something majority uses already.

[JoseC.]

You need to RTM if you haven't used CbB before.

Like it or not.

This.

It is a very deep program. Many things are intuitive, but many others are not. And there may be several ways to do what you want, and the best for you may not be the obvious. Case in point: there are four ways that I can think of to zoom. You can click and drag in the timeline, OR you can click the vertical and horizontal little zoom buttons in the corners of the windows OR you can CTL - Left/Right arrow OR you can just hit "Z" to get the Zoom tool and click drag to lasso select what you want to zoom in and Alt - Z to zoom out to where you were. This, not counting "F" to Fit project vertically and Shift - F to Fit everything horizontally.

If you are used to, say, Ableton, you might keep on using its lousy ways of navigation in Cakewalk, instead of finding out that there are better ways.

[VariKusBrainZ]

And quite a bit of it is touch optomised

[zenophilix]

You need to RTM if you haven't used CbB before.

Like it or not.

This.

It is a very deep program. Many things are intuitive, but many others are not. And there may be several ways to do what you want, and the best for you may not be the obvious. Case in point: there are four ways that I can think of to zoom. You can click and drag in the timeline, OR you can click the vertical and horizontal little zoom buttons in the corners of the windows OR you can CTL - Left/Right arrow OR you can just hit "Z" to get the Zoom tool and click drag to lasso select what you want to zoom in and Alt - Z to zoom out to where you were. This, not counting "F" to Fit project vertically and Shift - F to Fit everything horizontally.

If you are used to, say, Ableton, you might keep on using its lousy ways of navigation in Cakewalk, instead of finding out that there are better ways.

I was with you until you called Ableton's navigation methods "lousy." Yeah, everyone's entitled to their own opinion, but if I'm comfortable with one program, is talking crap on it going to make me want to switch..? Maybe I'm overthinking.

[dellboy]

If you are used to, say, Ableton, you might keep on using its lousy ways of navigation in Cakewalk, instead of finding out that there are better ways.

Plain silly to bash Ableton to boost Cakewalk.

I love Abletons navigation, and as a program it just works.

[JoseC.]

You need to RTM if you haven't used CbB before.

Like it or not.

This.

It is a very deep program. Many things are intuitive, but many others are not. And there may be several ways to do what you want, and the best for you may not be the obvious. Case in point: there are four ways that I can think of to zoom. You can click and drag in the timeline, OR you can click the vertical and horizontal little zoom buttons in the corners of the windows OR you can CTL - Left/Right arrow OR you can just hit "Z" to get the Zoom tool and click drag to lasso select what you want to zoom in and Alt - Z to zoom out to where you were. This, not counting "F" to Fit project vertically and Shift - F to Fit everything horizontally.

If you are used to, say, Ableton, you might keep on using its lousy ways of navigation in Cakewalk, instead of finding out that there are better ways.

I was with you until you called Ableton's navigation methods "lousy." Yeah, everyone's entitled to their own opinion, but if I'm comfortable with one program, is talking crap on it going to make me want to switch..? Maybe I'm overthinking.

Maybe you are right, and you are overthinking and I have used a word too harsh. Anyway, I am not trying to make anyone "switch". I've been using Ableton for years, too, and one of the things I like the least about it is navigation, especially using two screens. No screen layouts, limited keyboard shortcuts...It was just an example of what I was saying about reading the manual and not expecting a program (any program, for that matter), to work like the one you are used to.

[starise]

I have been using Ableton recently because I needed to line up a bunch of tracks to play live and trigger them at will. I like a lot about Ableton. Just upgraded to Live 10. Having the two screens is almost like having two programs in one. If you can wrap your head around that in Ableton you're ok. I bought a QuNeo controller to use with it. Doesn't have functional templates in Ableton. Still sees midi commands, so I guess it didn't matter. That isn't the fault of Ableton. The GUI in Ableton can be sometimes difficult to see. Overall it does many things very well IMO. And here's the thing, I am still getting the hand of Ableton just like you will need to get the hang of CbB. Doesn'y matter what the daw is. I have four daws now. None are the same.

If you could get into Reaper then CbB is much easier to grok IMHO. There never has been anything wrong with having multiple daws and using each for it's strenths. I have been over on the Cakewalk forum for years and met a few chaps over there online who own commercial studios and they are good at what they do. They use Sonar for much of their work. What does that tell you?

I use two computer monitors when I mix and I have CbB laid out with console view on the right monitor and tracks view on the left. Almost everything is resizable, drag and drop. There are even 3rd party skins. I can make CbB look like Logic or PT. Though I'm usually happy with the skylight interface.You can quickly collapse windows and there are keystrokes that can also be assigned. So what you see when the program launches can be changed and then the changes you made can be saved to call up later. Heck you can have various different layouts all depending on what you're doing.

My problems with the older Version Sonar Platinum were so few they don't bear mentioning here. Other experiences have been different. While I'm not saying there isn't a bug here and there in CbB..keep in mind that more often than not there can be other factors involved such as the specs of your PC, audio interface setting and plug ins.

I not too concerned about Meng stealing my identity. Literally everything about you is already online. Your balls are hanging out every time to go online. The assistant can be closed. I see it as no more invasive than anything else.

[Steve Bolivar]

Program A costs X amount of money
CbB is free and can likely do what the majority of users need it to do. What do you think is going to happen? There could be hundreds of thousands of new users within a few years or much sooner. If you own a daw company you have every right to be concerned...
This is the new Audacity on steroids. Look out the bulldozer is coming through.

Like it or not.

Interesting thought. I wonder how much does price figure into someone's DAW choice? People can buy a pair of jeans for $20 but instead I see plenty still buying $60-$80 jeans. Same goes for food, cars, housing... Sometimes people get whatever costs less and gets the job done, and sometimes they are willing to spend more to get what they really want. Thousands of new users may get started with a free copy of Cakewalk, but how many will stay and how many will pine for the day they can buy what they really want. I hope it works out for Bandlab and Cakewalk, and I hope it works out for all the other DAWs too.

[stacev]

Cakewalk by BandLab is now on an update cycle. If you can get through the download using the BL assistant the rest is painless. There have been some revisions of the assistant. One of those allowed you to turn off the assistant on launch. At least one CbB update with more likely coming soon. You need to RTM if you haven't used CbB before.

The 50 or 100 people here who won't use it probably won't be of much significance. Not that opinions aren't important. There will be thousands who will download and use the software. The value isn't in how much BL charges for it. The value is in the use. I agree new users are being handed a hefty program to learn. There are a lot of ways to learn it online.

Program A costs X amount of money
CbB is free and can likely do what the majority of users need it to do. What do you think is going to happen? There could be hundreds of thousands of new users within a few years or much sooner. If you own a daw company you have every right to be concerned. You may bash all day, but at the end of the day what happens is what matters. New users aren't all pouring into the KVR forum to read negativity.
They will download and use the program. As much as I hate to say it..this thread is insignificant. How many copies of CbB free are already downloaded?
This is the new Audacity on steroids. Look out the bulldozer is coming through. The only potential obstacle to success for someone with little resources is a slow older computer.

Like it or not.

Too optimistic. Cakewalk being free is going to have little impact on other DAWs. Thousands may download it to try, but how many will want to use this buggy, quirky and slightly outdated program? Who will want to migrate from already purchased and learned other DAWs? People value not only money but also their time and their workflow. Of course it is very good, that Cakewalk remained alive and even became free. But there is no wonder why it went down being sold at $500 price point. Bandlab still should do huge work to make it appealing to significant potential user base even at $0 cost. I think today very few will find it good enough for everyday use.

[starise]

I don't have either the time or the desire to lock horns once again over which daw is the better one or which daws have the most bugs because they ALL have em'.

Everyone has an opinion and I respect yours, however I think the main reason people who will download the program and not use it will be lack of patience to learn it.

I will agree that those entrenched in existing daws probably won't move to CbB unless they are unhappy with the one they have. I would compare it to the old PT .vs everything else situation we once had. Meanwhile people will be making music on CbB just fine. You can blow all the smoke you want. It doesn't matter. I think there will be the tendency for those using something they paid for to find reasons why they paid for it and maybe even adopt a sense of superiority to those using CbB. I see some of that here already.

Similar to the PT snobs of the past who said that they had a pro setup just because they use PT, meanwhile the home studios were taking the carpet right out from under them using Reaper, Sonar, Ableton and others.

I won't even attempt to come back at those comments about the bugs and quirks because it isn't going anywhere either way. I have heard all of it twice...and outdated? Don't even go there. They were the first to adopt 64 bit, They have touch screen technology, ARA...on it goes. The GUI is one of the very best IMHO.You have no solid argument in calling CbB outdated.

Those who frequent the KVR forum are likely not the target. If you're getting into music production and/or want to learn more about it and don't have enough money for a daw you have several options. You can download the basic version of Studio One for free or a program like Audacity. Both are limited, but Audacity is the most limited. If you have a Mac you will likely use Garage band and maybe upgrade to Logic at some point. OR..........you could download CbB. Which will it be?

[starise]

Program A costs X amount of money
CbB is free and can likely do what the majority of users need it to do. What do you think is going to happen? There could be hundreds of thousands of new users within a few years or much sooner. If you own a daw company you have every right to be concerned...
This is the new Audacity on steroids. Look out the bulldozer is coming through.

Like it or not.

Interesting thought. I wonder how much does price figure into someone's DAW choice? People can buy a pair of jeans for $20 but instead I see plenty still buying $60-$80 jeans. Same goes for food, cars, housing... Sometimes people get whatever costs less and gets the job done, and sometimes they are willing to spend more to get what they really want. Thousands of new users may get started with a free copy of Cakewalk, but how many will stay and how many will pine for the day they can buy what they really want. I hope it works out for Bandlab and Cakewalk, and I hope it works out for all the other DAWs too.

I would compare it to Reaper. Why did people buy it? No two consumers are exactly the same. Some will pay more for a perceived value over something they see as a lesser product. Plenty of people gladly payed 500 dollars for Sonar when it was Sonar. I don't think it's a question of functionality or a lesser product here because loyal users payed for the software.
Obviously a percentage of those who download the product will do so out of curiosity. There will be some who aren't really serious to begin with, but since it's free, hey, why not? Those people wouldn't have been dedicated users anyhow.
This is putting the millennials on the teat early. The old school will die off and meanwhile the new customer base is growing. This is JMO...it might not go down exactly like that, but most corporations know that starting a consumer off early can make a customer for life.

[Jace-BeOS]

@dellboy - You 100% correct with that assessment. As a long time Sonar user I can confirm that it is one frustratingly buggy program. Complete crashes happen less often (but more than any DAW I've ever used). It's the 'little' odd occurrences that happen frequently and can grind a work session to a halt, like missing midi notes even with a small number of 64bit only vst's, strange volume changes, missing automation data, deleting a clip of muted midi data on a different lane which inexplicably deletes active midi data on another lane, the list goes on. And don't even think about using track freeze. It's never worked right, your instrument will come back changed and completely unrecognizable.

I don't care about Bandlab and whatever they're doing with Sonar, as long as what they are making shares the same code as Sonar I won't get within 100 miles of it. I migrated to Cubase and it's like night and day.

As a person who's been criticized for his criticism of Cakewalk, I'm another person willing to give Cakewalk the benefit of the doubt here. I suggest your selection actions might be part of the problems you're experiencing, in regard to objects selection/muting and deletion.

Cakewalk has always done track selection via clicking on the timeline/clips. When i moved to Logic, it took me time to adapt to this behavior not being present. Now Logic also has it (optionally) and it took me time to adapt back to it.

On top of that, another behavior was added in Logic where selecting multiple clips on multiple tracks lead to the tracks themselves being active and also being muted/soloed when I thought I was muting/soloing only the one track. In that case, it was user error on my part.

Check Cakewalk for something similar. It's easy to lose track of object selection. Also, check for whether or not you're working on linked clips instead of copies.

As for your statement that freeze track "never worked", this isn't factual. I stopped using Sonar at 8.5, but I don't recall having problem with track freeze at that point. Maybe there's a new bug or maybe there's an unintuitive feature causing problems. Do post more details on your exact actions, what you expected, and what happened instead.