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Looks like they fixed the server. I missed all of you! So.... we've got about 24 hours of deals to catch up on!!!

I agree 100%. It's a true success story in a world where bean counters usually strip what they can from an acquisition, then throw it in the trash. Hopefully other companies will learn something from BandLab's example. You mentioned Studio One...for what it's worth, the Studio One contingent at PreSonus was pretty freaked out when it appeared Cakewalk was headed to extinction. They appreciated that Sonar was its own thing, distinct from Studio One, and respected the effort and programming that went into the software. And they also really sympathized with the user base, because they're musicians and could only imagine what it would be like to have the rug pulled out from under you (hence the serious discount for Cakewalk users who were looking for an alternative at the time). The music industry is very different from a lot of other industries, where something like MIDI - a global cooperative effort among fierce competitors - could never happen. I think there's more "competition" among the users of the DAWs than the manufacturers, who are more likely than not to be hanging out at NAMM after hours. I'd be willing to bet that most companies wish Sonar well - as long as it's not well enough to put them out of business

Bandlab bought Cakewalk because they saw a opportunity as a business. A music business. It came with a small dedicated user base that was at the time PO’d. Many had already jumped ship and purchased other DAWS. Seems Studio one was were most of those people went. So think about what they had bought and where it stood in the DAW community. Not very good at all. Generally it had a reputation as a buggy DAW that couldn’t be trusted for pro studios. I think the plan they developed was brilliant from a marketing and business standpoint. Definitely thinking out side the box. How to both overcome the bad rep and build up a larger user base. Simple. Make it free and hire the dedicated staff and set them loose to make it as bulletproof as possible. They most certainly met or exceeded those goals. And they even won back a lot of people who jumped ship. How many threads have I seen started with- “ I tried Studio one but I prefer Cakewalk’s workflow “. Ok on to phase II. We should all be proud to have been part of this process that will result in most of us getting what we wanted. A solid DAW that can now stand head to head with the rest and will be a lot more popular in the DAW community. Good work Bandlab and Cakewalk team. You deserve a pat on the back.

I'm totally confused by this post. The first page of this topic already says there are over 60 bugs fixed in this version. The point of the EA release is to allow a wider user base to verify we've not indavertently broken anything in fixing these bugs. Some such reports have already come in and have been fixed for the main release. There may be bugs that already existed in the 2022.11 release that have not been addressed in this release. This is unfortunate, but we have finite resources and have to draw a line somewhere and release something. It's been 10 months since the last release, and I think the community has waited long enough. This is the Early Access of Cakewalk by BandLab - it's is not going to be priced on the market. Once we're happy no further new regressions are present, we'll either release it as a release candidate prior to a final release, or go straight to final release. Once again, this is a release of Cakewalk by BandLab (i.e. the free product). Work is still ongoing on the new Sonar.

I've spent a short time with this, and here are my initial thoughts, particularly for people who are considering upgrading from Synth Anthology 3. First, it's a totally different thing. SA3 only gave you one patch at a time, with a separate Sub engine. This is two patches at the same time, similar to Analog Lab. Obviously this gives you a lot more options with all the presets. The FX and the arp are way better. In fact, the arp has features you won't find on most, if not all, of the Vintage Vault instruments. Cool stuff, like making a note in the arp add a 9th. Randomizing capabilities. And if you don't like this arp, you can turn it off and use the old one that comes with Workstation or Falcon. As I am an arp-lover, I have been working for a while on a video on the new Falcon arpeggiators that have turned up in Falcon versions 2.5 and 2.8. (Plus the three Euclidean sequencers from Falcon 2.0) There is some cool stuff there. But as I can't figure out how to turn off the arp on SA3 (I don't think it's possible), you may not be able to use any of these new sequencer/arp scripts in Falcon with SA3. The point I'm hoping to make in the video is that these arps are like extra libraries that do amazing things with any UVI synth sound you have. I truly think they are reason enough to get Falcon. And even long-time Falconistas may not know about them because so many of them only came out a year ago. Will I ever finish this video? Stay tuned. But it's easy for you to try them out by adding Script Processors in the Events Category. Back to SA4. I think it's a really good deal. The problem with Vintage Vault for me is that it is a LOT to look through. This is more manageable, and therefore useful. And it is a big leap forward from SA3

I own Hyperion and although Theia shows as owned in my account, it is only registering as a demo so far. Plenty of time until that matters. In case anyone feels FOMO'd by the Labor Day coupon, Tracktion trials are three full months, which takes you past Black Friday. I wouldn't be surprised if another sale comes around by then.

Since the forum was down I had to find this 'deal' on my own. Respect to Tracktion for extending Hyperion by creating a nice player and NOT charging Hyperion owners for it. Sonible should take a clue from Tracktion and SoundTheory (Gullfoss) that coming up with lite versions doesn't have to be a cash grab (can you tell that I'm still irate about this?).

Virtual Orchestration is a YT channel from Berklee and OT. The YT page has a download link to a Kontakt (full,6) set of cello artics as shown in the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1UxB1UpXlA

The cynicism in this forum never fails to amaze me. Why on earth would we or any sane company in our field want to hold users' data hostage? You do realize that we are one of the only DAW's whose project files can be opened in pretty much any prior version of the app? Would we do that if we wanted to hostage projects? If someone really needed to, they could open their projects in any prior product like SONAR 8.5 and get most of the data out. We also plan to have free versions of all our apps so if users needed, they could use the free limited versions if they never owned a Cakewalk product ever. The bigger question to ask is why anyone who cared about their music in any capacity would not want to pay a reasonable fee to support the development of a product they use.

https://www.spitfireaudio.com/spitfire-chamber-strings-essentials The new Essentials version features a single (slurred) legato, as well as long, long harmonics, unmeasured tremolo and trill (major and minor second) articulations, along with spiccato, staccato and pizzicato techniques. It is still possible to adjust the overall sound of the instruments thanks to the inclusion of close and Decca Tree microphone signals. Runs in Kontakt Player 5.6.8 Chamber Strings Essentials is available now, priced at £199 including VAT / €229.

https://www.pluginboutique.com/deals/show?sale_id=14188 Starting from 39$ Don't buy prices will drop later I guess

Also works on upgrades

Oh wow.. sorry to hear that Lars... not fun at all.... Like others have said, it all happens for a reason though 🙂 Glad to hear that it's all covered by insurance!

I said the exact same thing to myself...which made it a little (very little) easier to handle.

I'm sorry but when things go wrong it's for a reason Yes, is a fiasco, but if the problem has solution, is not a problem It's just a disappointment

Damn. What a clusterf*** Even if you do get your money back, really sad you'd miss out on a vacation like that.

YAY!!! We're back now!

I guess they figured, Larry's gone this week, so there's no big hurry.

You even see that in instructional videos - "Use these five super-duper pro compressor settings for voice!" Which of course, have very little to do with YOUR voice. I can see someone using Pro Tools if their main gig is transferring audio/video files among multiple studios, but just about any other program is better as a songwriting or compositional tool. So people who follow the herd likely won't end up with what they really need. I think Cakewalk's biggest strength is that it does a lot of things well, so you can go deep if you want, or just hang out on the surface. The definition of "professional" means "relating to or connected with a profession." If any people use Cakewalk to make money on any level, then it's professional software. Case closed.

Erroneous indeed. Even adding up a half-dozen paid SONAR upgrades, my investment in the DAW has been a drop in the bucket compared to plugins and virtual instruments. And all that's a small amount compared to speakers, interfaces, multiple displays, microphones, acoustic treatments and musical instruments. A free DAW is like a drug dealer offering the first taste for free.

This is free for Hyperion owners. Use Tracktion Download Manager to install. $65 Regular price but code LABOR23 makes it $39 Purchase entitles owner to upgrade to Hyperion for half price. https://www.tracktion.com/products/theia

…they’re really not that great. Wholly inferior to that Prince of Foods, the Burrito. I try not to get too political in these songs, but sometimes you’ve just got to tackle the important issues and speak uncomfortable truths. Nearly all shots were generated with Adobe’s “text to image” AI mcjibble, so that’s why they’re all a liitle “off”. AI doesn’t understand the number of strings and tuners on a guitar, what human hands look like, whether taco stuff goes on the inside or outside of the shell, and so on. But they’re colorful things to look at while the song plays, and that’s largely the point of a music video.

Well, since I lost that cruise I was just able to book another cruise on MSC out of New York in January... which doesn't thrill me, but it's an 11 night instead of an 8 night, and it only cost me $589 TOTAL!!!

As I said in my update I'm bumping this old thread and then I liked a bunch of you so you can read what you were thinking 2 years ago.

I'm sorry you're dealing with that stuff, Larry. I hope the travel insurance works out and possibly you can do everything you planned at a later date.

$94.99 at B&H https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1730628-REG/sandisk_sdssde30_2t00_g25_e30_2tb_portable_ssd.html

Send all the drum tracks to a stereo bus and export just that bus. I'm glad you're making progress. 🙂

Use promo code ICONIC50 to SAVE 50% https://www.softube.com/icons-the-compressor-collection

run VA

I feel we live in an age of higher incompetence.

You have it turned on here

OG Larry post. Sorry for your vacation troubles. Getting you back is bittersweet.

The thing about music is it's art and it's entirely subjective. It's not a competition as to who is being the "most honest." I'd be fairly upset if I was watching, say, a talent show and it was revealed later that the singer was using real-time autotune on their voice rather than competing fairly in the competition, but this is NOT a competition... if this is a recording and someone feels that this is the sound they want on their voice, who are we to argue? That's THEIR art, and we can choose to like it or not. Same goes for adjusting timing. You also have to wonder where the line is too. "I didn't use any studio tricks to get this recording... well, except for mic placement to get it sounding nice, compression to even out the levels, EQ to add some presence to the sound, reverb to make it sound more spacious, tape compression to give it some grit and then mixed it in with everything else in a flattering way. But other than that's this is EXACTLY HOW I PERFORMED IT IN THE ROOM." I'm still pretty firmly in the camp that just because you CAN fix stuff, it doesn't mean you SHOULD fix it. Some stuff just works better a little bit looser. Perfect is the enemy of greatness. But if perfect is the goal of the artist, then why not use the tools we have to get us there? And it's exactly right what was said earlier - absolutely NOBODY cares that you spent 10 months trying to nail that one drum part to be exactly on the beat as opposed to 20 minutes fixing it with software. It's how the listener feels at the end of the day. For a studio recording, both things are absolutely valid!

Bah. Now I have to reply with only memes written in ASCII

Hey, they fixed it! 😃

Haha! The chronic procrastinator scored again! I too had received a free Drumazon license from Plugin Boutique but I never got around registering it. Guess who just got Drumazon 2 for free?

I mostly record our bands live gigs, No amount of cheating would ever make those recordings something you would release commercially. But we get a kick out of listening to our progress over time. And our friends and families think it just great. Live recordings are what they are and I myself will often listen and enjoy those recordings of well known bands and I could give a S--t about the recording quality and the mistakes. The vibe and energy are way more important to me. A good song is a good song even played on a lo fi cassette player in a 1882 car.

Love this! Always found Hyperion a bit difficult but hugely rewarding sonically, so this is a very welcome player.

Amen John. However, I don't look at it as cheating. And if it is, then the studio has always been about cheating. Just the ability to do a second take is technically cheating. You can't do that live. And how long have people been doing punch ins, cutting tape, etc? No, I view being a musician like being a NASCAR mechanic. The studio is the garage where we're EXPECTED to build an outstanding car because everyone knows we have the luxury of time & lots of tools. And we HAVE to build an outstanding car to compete because every other pro is using those exact same advantages. Now playing live, that's our race day where we show how well we handle the pressure of the pit with no second chances. But the beauty is, unlike the studio, no one is expecting perfection live. We just need to show that we're not all smoke & mirrors. Even from the pros, we expect to hear a few off notes, tempo fluctuations, etc. Which is why even live albums are almost always doctored. Btw, Tom Scholz of Boston is a big hero of mine. In one of his interviews on youtube he points to a few TALL stacks of cut tape. He says that those are all just the drum edits for the song Don't Look Back. Not the whole album, just one song. He follows that by saying, 'I'll do whatever it takes to get the sound I'm hearing in my head". Bottom line, if editing is cheating then I'd guess around 90% of pro musicians belong in jail. (Even if their producers did the dirty work)

https://beastsamples.com/beastverb/ Available for the next 43 hours or something from posting. Normal price $69.

I use a lot of different DAWs. They all have bugs. Windows has bugs. MacOS has bugs. More complex programs have more bugs than simpler programs. Books have typos. Movies have continuity problems. Doctors misdiagnose. NASA lost the Mars Climate Orbiter in 1999 because of a miscalculation translating between metric and imperial units of measurement. And I wouldn't get into a self-driving Tesla, if you know what I mean. Although a lot of people claim to have come up with the phrase "the grass is always greener where you water it," the phrase originated with Robert Fulghum: “The grass is not, in fact, always greener on the other side of the fence. No, not at all. Fences have nothing to do with it. The grass is greenest where it is watered. When crossing over fences, carry water with you and tend the grass wherever you may be.” I don't have problems with DAWs because I live within their limitations, which all DAWs have. There will never be a perfect DAW, so the goal is to work with the one that best fits your needs. But also remember the words of Erma Bombeck: "The grass is always greener over the septic tank."

There is NO software out there that does this. All software has bugs, and saying "if there's bugs then it should be free" is a good way to send a company broke. I don't think anyone could name a company with complex software like this that hasn't released updates to address problems. Have a look through the change list since 2017 and the bug fix list is massive. Just look at the Early Access release and the bugs fixed between 2022.11 and now - even that is substantial. Ongoing work means ongoing staff that need to eat, right?

I think you are reading too much into it. There is no timeline to phase it out currently so it will be around awhile. No need to be concerned, users will be given plenty of time to make up their minds whether the new Sonar is for them. 6 months is just the standard reactivation period that has been in place since the start. That said, for anyone using CbB regularly it seems like it would be a no brainer to upgrade to a product that will be supported and receive updates, instead of using an older unsupported version. Hopefully the new features and the cool new UI will be exciting to most users. The reactivation requirement is for multiple reasons - Cbb/Sonar/Next are all connected apps that integrate with the BandLab ecosystem. There are often backend changes, that require cached state to be refreshed to work properly, not very different from the reason digital certificates and cookies expire. Additionally, these changes require us to change the application to continue to work properly, which is why we occasionally need to do updates that in turn refresh activation. The other reason is to ensure that for support purposes we have users running on the latest versions.

Indeed while its not unique to us, its particularly bad in our industry because many folks have a herd mentality to follow by recommendation rather than by exploring needs. We have had our share of problems in the past so some flak is deserved, but I still see quotes of completely out of date information from decades ago that has long since been addressed. Products with a legacy as old as Cakewalk are bound to have baggage that a newer program won’t have (although the new program will also have bugs, just different) The “professional” tag is downright snobbery perpetrated by biases, whether it be Mac vs PC or other factors that equate cost vs value. We’ve even had people who said we weren’t professional because for the longest time there was no copy protection. The free aspect is also a factor since free can be associated mistakenly with unsupported freeware. The bottom line is user base demographics have been changing. Its not all about how many esoteric features you have anymore but how usable and inviting the product is and new users today have different expectations now than they did 10 years ago.