chris.r

I'm not getting any more deals emails from jrr shop. Did they stop sending them, maybe slowing down rate or it's just me?

12 hours ago, Keni said:

Isn’t that what workspaces was created to do?

Or scratchpad... for doing drafts. I know SO has this but didn't look closely, possibly some other DAWs have it too.

19 minutes ago, Craig Anderton said:

Zoom out for a second. With today's DAWs, you have the equivalent of a quarter million dollar studio of not all that long ago, and a totally amazing backline. 

Think of it this way...you visit Abbey Road in 1985 and talk to the studio manager. The good news: Sessions are only 50 cents an hour! The bad news: There's no engineer, no one to maintain the machines, no tape operator, and good luck figuring out the patch bay. That's the position people are in when they buy a DAW. No studio is intuitive, and that includes software ones.

Those were also the days with the nastiest subscription plan in history: Sure, you owned your 2-inch, 24-track multitrack recorder. But you had to shell out around $150 to $250 every time you wanted to record 44 minutes of audio at 15 ips.

Is this part of the reason why I am getting the impression that songs that make a way to radio stations today are nowhere near as good as songs from those days?  

16. Updated MIDI editing.

We all love to work in Cakewalk because we feel almost at home. That doesn't mean we can't see things that work better in other DAWs. Off hand example would be how clip gain works in Studio One, you just grab it, that's it. In Cakewalk many of us were so happy to see dynamic waveforms coming to it, so there was a big hope we could get closer to clip editing nirvana but actually not there yet, because we have to either use a modifier key or change focus in track properties first. So we can't do both - editing clips and their gain envelopes - at the same time. There's more that you can do easier or quicker in Studio One, that's probably what Mike meant, pure workflow. SO is also great in how it handles plugins.

And oh, should I really come back again to how lasso selecting feels like today after all the years now 😱 back in the years I used to be extremely efficient in editing in PRV with the combination of just the left mouse button and key modifiers/shortcuts (right click was typically for the note properties-thus very important on it's own). Even now after years of practice all I can say is it didn't become second nature, I'm still not that fluent I used to be back then, let alone someone coming from another DAW. I don't know how it works in MacOs but if you're windows guy then left click for you is always for lasso-select, and right click is for context menu . Have you ever tried to clear selection with right-click lasso on an empty space in windows explorer😂?

Another thing coming to mind is that there was someone trying Sonar and comparing it with all the most popular DAWs and noticing how difficult it was sometimes for him hitting some functions with the mouse, he's called it a sweet-spot or something like that, for mouse areas of operation. Indeed, there's some exercise when trying to grab the end of a note or clip, I'm also aware of it when working in the browser, wish it could get slightly easier (read: quicker). Those little things are often unnoticeable until someone actually points it out and then you go and try it yourself in other places.

Of course Cakewalk has it's own strengths, that's why we're still here right?

edit: absolutely with scook on routing.

edit2: forgot to add how having busses after the separator can be inconvenient for those on hardware MIDI consoles/controllers

3 minutes ago, Keni said:

My win8.1 machine is still intact except for the waves debacle losing my Abbey Road Studio 3...

Melodyne is another example.

40 minutes ago, michaelhanson said:

Yup, and they are still running Windows 7.  🤣

 

Personally I don't see anything funny about still running Windows 7. Windows 10 is nothing but a headache coming back on a regular basis, at least for me. Windows 7 and previous versions were more like 'set and forget', that gave me peace of mind for years where I wasn't distracted with all the buzz about new forced updates braking compatibility or functionality of software, subscriptions or nagging screens to create accounts, updates to the DAWs or plugins for fixing what the windows update broke apart from new features, next windows update going in the background during Cakewalk session... eventually Windows 7 will have to die due to being left unsupported anymore by all the software that is under pressure to move on, same will probably happen to CbB. It was good while it lasted  

8 minutes ago, kennywtelejazz said:

I'm currently on Mixcraft 10 Pro

What is the authorization method, Kenny? For instance, I like what Mixbus does - you just put a text file, containing the registry code, somewhere on the disk - and voila! Cubase OTOH requires re-authorizing once a year, that's bad... still twice better than Cakewalk 😄

3 hours ago, User 905133 said:

4 hours ago, Misha said:

However, it shouldn't be hard to understand to why I repeatedly insist  that at least  versions sold under Gibson should be permanently unlocked for those who bought them. 

Isn't that why an unlocked / one-time only activation version of Home Studio was made available (so that people would continue to have access to their projects)? 

Not necessarily. There were a few features introduced at different points of time where it could make it impossible to open newly created projects in previous versions of Cakewalk or Sonar, aux tracks being one of them. Now I started wondering if projects that include some of the other new features, thinking about Articulations or Arranger here, could possibly render my recent projects unusable in Sonar Platinum or even earlier versions of CbB. In fact you just made me go try open all my projects, that matter to me, in Sonar Platinum and see how it goes  probably will have to create a few quick projects for this test as well.

Another step to futureproof own works would be render to audio but it takes much space and I'm on a tight space here. Alternatively migrate projects to another DAW but while I believe I'm still capable in learning something new I can't be sure I don't already overestimate myself 😂 so I'll wait and see what will come, then decide.

11 hours ago, Lord Tim said:

Totally get that people are going to see it as they're going to see it though, and moving to a paid model may make some people move on - I think that's fine and expected. Nobody really knows what deal it'll be going forward, what goodies we'll get, if anything will be free as an incentive... it's all basically speculation for now, so rather than worrying about if the sky is falling, I'd personally hold tight and wait to see what's going to happen and then make a decision. There's been a lot of goodwill over the years, so it'll be interesting to see how it all pans out. I'm optimistic.

For me personally, it makes no sense to go elsewhere to another paid product that I have to learn as well as I do Cakewalk, no backwards compatibility with my old projects, etc. just because I have to pay for this one. If I'm going to pay for anything, I'd like to pay for something that's going to be the easiest transition for me so I can just get the hell on with getting my work done.

In my opinion best approach would be to keep Cakewalk Sonar in it's base form (as CbB is now) free and supported for those who aren't making money from doing music or are on tight budget, and then start adding new features and content in higher tiers for those who want to pay for it. Best of both worlds.

On 6/8/2023 at 7:57 PM, Alan Tubbs said:

Yet cakewalk by Bandlab will remain free even after another update.  It should be good to go for as long as the OS updates work with it. until they will pull their plug out (speaking about the 6 months time-out).

corrected for you  

1 hour ago, Alan Tubbs said:

One also has to figure in how much time and cuss jar fees are involved in learning a new DAW.  If you get older such becomes a real time suck.  I can barely find time here at home to work on music.  I certainly don’t want to spend that time re-wiring my brain when I could be creating.  And at this stage of my life I can afford money over time and whatever Cake charges doesn’t touch the hardware here at home...

I hear that is a big reason for a group of oldtimers now being more active, ready to pay whatever money is needed just for keeping things like in the old days, now that would make sense. Wondering what part of the overall userbase would that be. I see a lot of the newer users, since the free Cakewalk, are already confused whether they should stay or jump onto something else, free or cheap. And that's even before any details regarding the price are given. As for me I know I won't have steady income.

5 minutes ago, Colin Nicholls said:

11 hours ago, Helios.G said:

Just saw a preview of pricing.  Apparently $499 is the price for the top tier level.  It scales down from there.

By all means get your information from an out-of-date google cache. This is almost certainly archaic pages from the olden times. The image in the preview and the other text refer to Sonar Platinum.

Wow, those were the times. I paid slightly above $100 for lifetime updates on biggest discount and was watching every penny closely on both sides before spending. Decided to go for it mainly to get things like Addictive Drums 2, Pianoteq or Melodyne, in addition to the full Sonar version, but also because I realized that I wasn't in position to shell out a hundred or more $$ every year for keeping the DAW current.

1 hour ago, Bruno de Souza Lino said:

Looking at this absolute masterful piece of job, I have my doubts:

Well suited for lo-fi music FWIW.

10 hours ago, User 905133 said:

LOL.  I just saw this.  Please don't blame me for bringing up the issue of activation!!!!!!  😛 

Now I know why JohnnyV (the Cakewalk Tutorialist formerly using "Cactus" in his name) asked me(...)

pretty sure there is no intent to remove the time limit, I've been told way too many reasons why they need to keep it, of which none makes a real sense to me so I read it as they want to keep it for some reasons they won't talk about and we'll have to accept it that way, end of discussion, and I've been crossed with stuff about this for at least 5 years now, there was no mention about removing it except Noel vaguely declaring earlier that it would get unlocked as a last resort should there happen a definite end of cakewalk development, and he just repeated this today

I mean I would much appreciate a change in the approach but really not expecting it, why would they let us for example use CbB in the form it is now (will be after the last upcoming update) if there's much chance it will work for several more years, when there will be a paid software you could be kindly 'forced' to buy? sorry for pessimistic note but I live long enough to understand the intentions and incentives of companies, even the most ethical amongst them... time will tell, I'd love to be proven wrong!

47 minutes ago, Noel Borthwick said:

Cakewalk as a company closed in 2018. My question to you is can you still use SONAR Platinum today? If the answer is yes, then you have your answer for the future.
Most ethical companies handle terminating events like that gracefully and we are no exception. When Cakewalk was shut down, we had escrow plans to unlock licenses for users permanently if it came to that. We never needed to, since BandLab acquired the software and keeps the license servers running even though we make no profit off of it. 

Thanks, pretty sure many are grateful for the servers being kept live, including me. Still for me (pretty sure for many others too but let me speak for myself), calling a buying scheme "rent to own" then keeping the software on a 6-months period of re-authorization leash is quite disconcerting for the "owner". A potential license unlock assurance helps just a little, wouldn't want to buy a car under such agreement  

2 hours ago, Noel Borthwick said:

My car is already subscription (OnStar). If I want remote access to it or to check stats, I have to pay $15 a month
I got a few years of free access when I bought it. Actual appliances have already gone this way.

My single question would be, can you still drive your car or keep using your appliance in case the maker decide to close? (not wishing you any of it)  

2 hours ago, JohnnyV said:

It was not exactly stated but the quote most certainly reads that way to me. 
It makes perfect sense. Why pyzz off thousands of users when it would cost you nothing to do this. They said the only reason for the activation was to keep track of how many people were using the software. They no longer will need that info. It will also keep the pirates away. 

It's the same thread I read from 😆

Thanks. I was just sitting like that and wondering should I start making some music or update some software... thankfully there's that  

21 minutes ago, Tommy Byrnes said:

I occasionally mess about with MixBus (latest version) but it doesn't speak to me the way CbB/Sonar does.

Are there any new features worth special mention in the latest Mixbus? I stopped following the changes somewhere between version 4 to 6  but Mixbus does offer good sale on upgrades so I could always think of going back assuming it's growing nicely as a DAW and getting that polish a Cakewalk user would be looking for.

7 hours ago, JohnnyV said:

So we will get one last bug fix and they said they are removing the activation time out with that update. So be sure and update when offered.

Where did you hear that? I would feel much better seeing that's true, unfortunately I don't see them removing the activation time-out. All I read is they will render it (CbB) unsupported, and nothing from the new development since the start of this years is going to be added in the upcoming final update.

6 hours ago, flangad said:

15 hours ago, Noel Borthwick said:

>>"Annual" means no expiry / no deactivation after one year,   just no further free updates after the year, right?

Exactly. We were one of the few companies offering this model even in the SONAR days. How it works is you either pay for 12 consecutive monthly subs OR you purchase a one year subscription upfront. In both scenarios the last months version is permanently unlocked for you and you own it(...)

 

This model is fair if "updates" means "new features", but what about bug corrections? if someone paid for a software with lifetime use, at least bug corrections should be available for free with no time limits.

I'm afraid there will be no such thing as "permanently unlocked" and "you own it" nor even lifetime use the way we would like to see it. The 6 months authorization period is embedded in Cakewalk's code since at least Sonar Platinum if not earlier. They'll still hold the plug and ultimately they will decide anytime if they want to pull it out or not, we're depending on their grace and I don't even expect it to change in a slight way, period.

Ever since CbB has started with this sort of lock scheme I had the feelings something is going in the background, even in a post I compared the 6-months authorization to a (free) subscription when I got bashed in the head by many, only now it occurred to me that after 5 years of some sort of an intermission period they now can go back to the previous scheme of business. To me it seems clear now that was probably the hidden plan since beginning. A free software with 6-months authorization, oh come on!

How many times you can step into the same river? Once in my life I decided to make an exception and took a risk when buying into lifetime updates, LOL! And I even wasn't aware of the 6-months lock scheme at that moment.

6 hours ago, JnTuneTech said:

But make no mistake - software is not like the hardware it runs on or say, a toaster or a pair of shoes for instance, -perchance in our world maybe a nicely crafted guitar even.  -With software, all that is sold, or given access to for free, -depending on the licensing terms-, is whatever rights are stated in the TOS for us to use it. -Not own it. I know I never have. I don't own any software products or IP.

We know, it's just a wording. Example: I bought a keyboard and I can still use it even after the company has gone, I can use it until it's broken. With the licensing, what we would expect is to hold the right to use a paid software anytime (even after end of a company), not just 'rent' the right to use it until the company changes rules. Hold rights to use, not own the software, we get that.

For now with Cakewalk it's: renew your right to use it every 6-months, it's not "permanently", "owned" not even lifetime in it's original meaning (life of the company), in fact it's: util we pull the plug out. To me it's like false marketing, it's more like 'rent' and I never want to pay for that. I would want my software, that I hold rights to use indefinitely after I've bought it, to be able to install and run even after the company is gone provided all factors such as hardware and OS are intact. We're not getting it at all since some earlier versions of Cakewalk, think it's X2 or X1, we're only 'renting' it so long they allow us (have you experienced it going demo mode? I had, when there was some server error). Thankfully they keep it live so far.

The software may get "broken" by OS updates or change in hardware, or incompatibility with new plugins. Here's where we need the updates, that is fixes (apart from new features), free or paid depending on the company's chosen scheme. Lifetime updates should then grant you at least free updates (fixes) for the rest of life of the company. As simple as that.

24 minutes ago, Sergio said:

I got the Cubase crossgrade when Gibson abandoned Sonar and I'm keeping my license current.

How is the new license scheme from Cubase v12 on in practice, is it fine? I keep my Cubase 11 on soft elicenser and didn't switch to v12 even though I'm eligible. Decided to wait and see if this new licensing system is ok or something wrong with it.

So much for "Cakewalk will now be always free" I guess  

It showed up in my account under 'not registered' just fine (I asked grandma to wait a little, though ) but it won't show up at all in my v1 NI Access even thought I manually registered in NA, and now it currently sits under 'registered products' in the account. Same for Hypha.