Oddly enough, I seeked out Cakewalk, when I got back into the hobby a couple of years back.
It was from memory of what I thought was the "goto" DAW. I had no idea it would be free (I was willing to pay)
- I think these days, for as much as we are bombarded with advertisement, DAW useage comes more from "word of mouth"/recommendation.
- Reaper has a rabid fanbase (in a good way) who are chomping at the bit to share knowledge.
- FL (don't call it Fruity Loops we are all 'growed up' now) is ALWAYS going to come up when the "I want to become a producer and make beats, which DAW should I get?" question is posted on message boards.
This being said, Cakewalk is doing itself NO FAVORS with this 'you're gonna have to pay, and we aren't going to tell you anything about the new software, but it will have a new (read: "same but uncustomizeable") user interface.
Aaaand the only section/thread specifically hyping up/passing time/increasing excitement here on the official forum... was locked. (and by the way, I'm kind of sick of seeing members here, tell anyone who asks to basically 'shut up and wait.')
Now, all that I really see regarding Cakewalk is the question "so, what are you switching to?"
Even I AM about 10 minutes from jumping ship. And I really don't want to.