John Vere

On 6/25/2025 at 6:44 PM, T Boog said:

John, is there any chance of losing some stock plugins from CbB by downloading free Sonar? In a diff post someone mentioned a couple missing plugins from CbB after they download the free Sonar.

At moment I 'm editing a project using TH-3 and SI Strings, I dont think either of them is included with free Sonar. 

No

While we are on a roll could you please change the default Workspace to “None” so we don’t have to tell new users over, and over, and over that this is why half of the options are missing from view. Thanks. 

By default everything on a channel strip is from top to bottom. Simple. 

It is found in your my products page of your legacy account. But best to install the new update version of Command Centre and install it from there. The older CCC won’t work. 
Instructions for retrieving your legacy account are posted above. 

It takes less than 10 minutes to find out for yourself. Cakewalk we are now told is a goner. So no point spending any more time on it. 

If this new TH-U is tied to the membership plan then you might want to consider going directly to Overlouds site and purchasing a permanent license like I did. Then it’s yours for life as well as it is not just tethered to one Daw. 
Sign up for Emails and get some great deals on more add on’s. I bought the American Classic addition for under $20. Only thing missing is that very cool compression pedal. 

2 hours ago, GIM Productions said:

I was referring to Sonar in general and yes now, for me, another DAW has made incredible improvements but obviously out of politeness I won't mention it

That’s OK we all know which Daw it is the one with the user forum where you find all the people who are now missing from here. 
 

So you are part of a large group of us who really want to see Sonar restored to its original glory. 
 

As someone else mentioned before Sonar is a very low priority for the current owners. This is the Bane of many Daw’s.
I like the story of Traction/ Waveform. It was bought by Mackie ( Loud Industries) they killed it. but the original developer Julian Storer bought it back and still owns it. 
 

Best thing that could happen to Sonar is that a small independent company took it over and put together a full crew including web page design, education and marketing. 
 

It makes me nervous that Fender now owns that Daw that a lot of us have started using. They too tried Subscriptions and backed off. 
 

All we want to do is make music! It all makes me want to dust off my Yamaha MD8 8 track machine. 

This forum deleted me as Sock Monkey but I still was able to access my PAID FOR Bandlab account. 
Even though it doesn’t expire until mid July I decided to delete the account.

As I said,  it really, really didn’t like this and at least 6 “Yes I’m Sure’s “ later I got to a button that said Delete Account. 
That returned me back to the first Delete Account page? So this had my blood pressure going up and I proceeded to do it all again. Back to the start! I gave up. 
Later that day I opened my email account and found 2 emails asking me to confirm my decision to delete my account!!! 
And ya-all wonder why I hate Bandlab and now with a passion!!! 
All that BS is the work of evil web page owners if you ask me. And that 10 million users is probably BS too. 

I figured it out. I had only installed it using X3. I never opened x3. I did today and found TH3 listed so I inserted it into a track. It asked me to activate it and I had luckily saved all my serial numbers. The bummer is it seems tied to Cakewalk and can’t be used in other Daw’s. 

This got my curiosity because when I rebuilt my computer I installed TH-U which I had bought the basic version for $30 I think last fall. 

But it is missing stuff like the Compressor pedal and a few Amps that I had used. 

Reading this I did a little digging and first yes TH3 was included with Artist/Professional and Platinum. 

But oddly I don't see any installers for it on my Command center or products pages. 

I guess it is in the program installer and I must of missed it while installing Platinum. 

@warrickhale      A few things to understand. You will need to remember your email and password to your old legacy sign in. It was the same one used to get on the old forum. Then you will need to download and install the new version of the Cakewalk Command center, the old one won't work. It's found here ttps://legacy.cakewalk.com/Command-Center

You can also use that log in to get at all your products going back to X1. 

I

39 minutes ago, timboalogo said:

So tell me, if I bite and pay the $49, what happens at the end of the year. Do I still get to use Sonar Premium?

No. it would revert to the Free Version. Pro's- You are supporting the developers. This will help keep Sonar going. 

Cons-You are supporting Bandlabs Membership plan which many do not wish to participate in. 

I find it odd that the exact say button took me to the $49 a few days ago. I tried my laptop as well. How on earth would anyone using the free Sonar know about the hidden link? 

I just logged in to my other account ( sock monkey) to cancel my membership, man does it not like that, was at least 6 warnings. I was looking for the option where it asked why I was cancelling for " I don't need to pay anymore Sonar is free". But there's actually not even a mention of Sonar anywhere on the entire web site. I saw the option to delete the account so I did that because I no longer need it.  Once again 6 warnings about are you sure!! Geez. 

So I then logged in to my proper user account and I clicked on the purchase membership and it is now $99 again. I opened Sonar and that link is also to the $99 price. I guess the deal has ended. They must of met some sort of quota very quickly. Long live the free version. 

We are advised that it is best to install each version from the oldest version to the newest. 
So to get certain legacy plug ins I start with bare bones installation of 8.5, and then X3.
Then I run CCC and install Platinum and any plugins I might need. That’s become much less now after discovering better plugins from other developers. 

Buy then I will have all the stock plugins that are included with CbB and new Sonar. Like Sonitus and SI instruments. Boost 11. Those plug ins have never been updated since 8.5. I avoid anything 32 bit. 

The basic programs don’t use much space on a modern hard drive. I never bother with any additional content as that does take up space. 

Warning- Do not ever install Sonar Home Studio! I found out the hard way that the folder it created is identical to New Sonar. 
Back in those days the folders were named with Platinum, Professional and Artist? but Home studio was just called Sonar. I basically was forced to re install my OS to clean it up. 

The key to the mystery is that Cakewalk Next had no issues. I would have been interested to see what would happen if you installed another Daw like Waveform ( free) which is also cross platform. 
 

And make sure you download and use the ASIO driver directly from the manufacturer web site. 
 

I do this often. I use an instrument track for the notes.I insert a midi track. Set the output to the instrument track and then record my joystick stuff. That way I don’t have to think about it when recording the music.. but once I’m happy I drag the midi data to the instrument track. 

You should take this opportunity to make a complete backup of the projects before you proceed. Put them all in a folder and name it Cakewalk projects June 2025. 
Best to put this in two separate locations. 
 

Simple things like the record button. I don’t know how many times I’ve hit the solo or mute buttons instead!! That just seems wrong. I’ve used this software since 2005 and my muscle memory should know where the tracks recording button is but now it’s elusive.
 

Possibly my biggest problem is that the PVR is so dark I can’t see the lines so I make mistakes. I have to switch to the Mercury theme to work efficiently in PVR. Then the Track view now looks like 1998. I miss Scooks custom themes. 

I almost get the impression that there’s only a bare bones development staff working on this. It has been 2 years and very little has happened. 
 

If Cakewalk users demo the new Sonar and hate the graphics just like the rest of us did 2 years ago it will be a hard sell. 
I just slowly kinda got used to the shortfalls and stopped thinking about it but this thread reminds me of my first impressions. 

Ok so it was in the last days of Splat. I probably ignored it for a long time. 

During the CbB era the developers added a lot of new features. Workspaces was one. I personally think it’s a great system for customizing your views and a zillion other things you use. 

I don’t think many old time users even took the time to explore what you can do. So they just ignore it and set it to none. Many had figured out screen sets and still use them. But screen sets are very limited compared to Workspace. 
 

The biggest problem is that for some dumb reason the developers instead of setting the default Workspace to none , or advanced, set it to Basic. This has resulted in countless posts here on the forum where people can’t find stuff they know should be there. Basic removes a ton of features. When asked why they did this they responded with “ This is so new users will not be overwhelmed by all the features.”

The views menu default is missing items. Choose the Advanced workspace to see all features. The Basic workspace is bare bones. Stupid choice for a default. 

There’s a zillion different ways to make it work. 
Im thinking you could use velocity to make individual notes louder.?

2 hours ago, 57Gregy said:

When opening CbB I get a message about the special deal for Sonar. While it is a deal, I can't justify adding another monthly payment to my budget. Anyone who has ever heard my music knows I use almost none of the extras included in any Cakewalk program. I record, do a little mixing and that's it.
And SONAR Home Studio 6 is still working well.
But for those who go far beyond just recording, I say go for it. 

Hey there @57Gregy

The free  version is all you need. Trust me old friend. 

Why don’t you just go ahead and download it and try it for yourself?  

There’s also the option under the track view menu item Tracks to choose all inputs or outputs.