Jeremy Oakes

3 hours ago, Milton Sica said:

My intention in commenting on this topic is not to create controversy or conflict. I do so to express my opinion, which I hope will be respected by all who have had access to it.

I have also been a user since the days of Cakewalk DOS. I used the free Cakewalk Bandlab for a long time and had serious reservations and participated in several topics about its approach.

With the release of the Cakewalk SONAR version with a free option, with some improvements that I think should be included in the features of the free version, which I think should include ALL OPTIONS in Cakewalk Bandlab, such as the dithering option, etc., I am fully in favor of discontinuing Cakewalk Bandlab.

I reaffirm and ratify the need for all those features that are included in Cakewalk Bandlab to be included in the free features of Cakewalk SONAR.

This is a way of ensuring continuity for all those who join as members of the new tool and also as a matter of honesty towards the users of the discontinued product.

I think this would be the most sensible and fair solution and the best argument for more people to adopt the new SONAR.

Until then, the question will always be: why do I have to pay for the ditherings I had in the old version now?

I seem to remember reading that the dithering algorithms are not proprietary,  so its normal they become paying.

J

17 minutes ago, Milton Sica said:

When opening Cakewalk Bandlab today, I and all users of the free version received this notification, which is, in fact, an almost contractual notification that "invites" us to migrate to the free version of SONAR.

 

With each passing year, I see the tool evolve with the times and setbacks of the community that chose it as their DAW. Technically, there are many developments.

However, with approaches like this, I end up confirming my perception that the company's technical team and business managers do not work together.

I think this approach is almost a self-mutilation of the company itself, because at one time it brings one speech, at another time it brings another speech.

The company itself is the one that causes damage to its own credibility.

I have already emphasized in other topics on this subject that the minimum, let's say, THE MINIMUM that the company should provide is that ALL, I said, ALL FUNCTIONALITIES contained in Cakewalk should be treated the same in SONAR FREE.

I sincerely hope that the Marketing, CRM, DATA and BUSINESS sectors have this minimum business vision.

What ‘s missing ?

J

1 hour ago, John Vere said:

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. 

Pure supposition, just like adding oil on a fire. Why don't you just do what your last phrase says ? Make Music.

I would argue Sonar has now exceded its former glory, its better than ever, certainly versus the Gibson fiasco. Been there, lived it, moved on BTW.

Sheesh, your posts are getting a little repetitive John, go back to what you do best, helping people.

J

16 minutes ago, Bandlab Unknown said:

Does this increase the time between activations?  I can activate them manually myself I would just prefer not to have to log onto x amount of machines every month to do this.

I wouldn’t think so, why not try it ? But really, I have no idea, my pc and laptop are connected 100% of the time.

J

3 hours ago, Bandlab Unknown said:

Due to the machines in question not being used by administrators or having full internet access, the activation always seems very random on whether it works.  So not having to do it after the first initial time would be a definite advantage to the paid version.

Off line activation exists via Cakewalk Product Centre.

J

If you need to open a file in CbB, in Windows Explorer right click on it and in the menu that drops choose Open With, (opt for once only as against always).

yes the Cakewalk files are compatible withSonar and CbB, the caveat being if you use any new features in exclusive to Sonar, they will not be available in CbB.

Your vst’s used by CbB will show up in Sonar.

I’ve used Sonar for nearly a year now, and personally would never go back to CbB. If i stop my sub, i’ll still have the free tier of Sonar - the majority of things crippled in the free version i don’t use. YMMV of course.

J

1 hour ago, sjoens said:

As stated, only one app can be assigned to open a specific file type.  When right-clicking, you can also select Choose another app and check the box Always use this app which will permanently reassign it.

Cakewalk/Sonar normally maintains the same file type between versions.  Other DAWs like Mixcraft change the extension with each new version (.mc8, .mc9, .mc10, etc.) so the version it was last saved in opens the file when double-clicking it.

.mc9 etc is this : 

https://fileinfo.com/extension/mc9

You mean this :

https://fileinfo.com/extension/mx9

J

Yes, the question has been asked. And the answer is still the same : nobody knows.

J

7 hours ago, Bandlab Unknown said:

I see with the free version you have to do an online activation every month.  Does anyone know if this is increased if you pay for it or does it need to activate just as often?

Yes that is so, but it will do it in the background if your machine is on line all the time or often.

Sub version : as per what Mr Jonesy says.

J

You could simply right click on the file in Windows Explorer then in the small window that opens choose Open With, and select CbB from the list. Its a non-issue.

J

10 hours ago, timboalogo said:

I wonder why I don't get the discount.

For the previous time this deal was announced, i had to clear my browser’s cache/cookies (Firefox) for the Bandlab website.

I then had to manually sign in, and when i checked out, the deal worked.

J

Just been announced on the Bad Co FB page.

https://variety.com/2025/music/news/mick-ralphs-bad-company-mott-the-hoople-dead-1236438527/

J

I have a F/W Focusrite LS56, it works fine on W11 (out of the box, no need for the W10 legacy driver), with a TI chipset, but sometimes the unit needs re-booting. So I don't fire it up very often.

I believe the main issue is that the drivers were written for W8 and never updated.

J

On 6/10/2025 at 7:22 PM, John Vere said:

I have abandoned all the Bandlab owned products and have installed the very last version of Platinum using the CCC.
No more problems with authorization and I can still open all my projects. I get a warning about missing features but once it is saved they go away. 

A lot of people have moved to other Daw’s now mainly because like me , they can’t trust Bandlab to maintain software that we will have unobstructed access to. 
So Platinum is the only choice for now just to always have access to my old projects. All new projects are started in Daw’s I have unobstructed access to for the foreseeable future. 
Biggest bummer is Platinum is still controlled by Bandlab because they have control of the Command Centre. 
But then there’s X3. 

IBTL - @John Vere, every time you come here now you seem make a point of dissing either CbB or Sonar or Bandlab. I generally ignore your input nowadays, BUT.....  OK we get it. You think you were hard done by at one point for whatever reason, now c'mon, move on and be productive instead of so negative. Try helping people like I remember you used to do so well.

@Dana Moore your reasoning is ridiculous. Points 4 and 5 made me laugh, really. Nobody is "jerking" you around. You should perhaps spend some time troubleshooting your system. BTW, the Splat of  the Gibson days has nothing whatsoever to do with Bandlab, who, I believe, simply bought the IP of the old Sonar software, then set about making it better.

 But if you installed Splat AFTER installing CbB or Sonar, then you've probably over written certain files in the Sonar set up. And BTW I have/had a GeForce 960 card, which worked wonderfully with Sonar (FYI the reason I updated it was to have more VRAM for games, nothing to do with Sonar graphics). 

I use the new Sonar, I have a sub, so what ? Its a great DAW and getting better and better all the time. But you can't please all the people all the time .......

J

Make sure all your browser apps are closed. Not put in the task bar, but closed.

Open CbB and in the Help Menu choose Login …. Etc.

A browser window will open and let you login using your Bandlab creds.

If, in the Help Menu, its showing logout (as against login) then do just that. Close CbB.

Re-open it and then in the Help Menu choose login …… as stated above.

This works every time for me (i use Sonar, but still fire up CbB every now and again simply to keep it activated).

J

Nope, not for me.

J

24 minutes ago, John Vere said:

Yes Windows seems to have made installation very easy for even a person who knows zero about computers. It totally guides you through the process. 
I decided to re install W11 because after a year of installing 17 different Daw’s my machine was a mess. They had sort of left behind lots of unwanted junk. Ableton and Cubase seem to install a ton of bloatware etc. As well as a bunch of plug ins that expired. 

So Windows gave me a choice of keeping my programs or starting fresh. I definitely wanted fresh. 
It was a simple process that took less than 20 minutes and boy did I notice a big difference right away. Well worth the effort to get a nice clean machine back with no clutter. I just installed my programs as needed. 

For Sonar I started with the 8.5 installer and grabbed the few plugs I needed. I then ran Command Centre and installed Sonar Platinum. I didn’t bother with CbB as it’s abandoned now and my membership runs out in a few months so no point in Sonar either. I’ve got Platinum if I need to open old projects. 
But I highly recommend a fresh install when you feel like a performance boost is in order. 
 

Thats fine …… if you only have a few apps installed. Most people do not.

FWIW, if your W11 is sluggish, you can now do an in-place “repair/install” which will freshen it up but not erase any precious data/files. See MS for details.

J

Personally I have no issues with autosave.

I did have problems with a service called MS Compatibility Telemetry. It collects info about your PC and then phones home at certain inopportune times and it froze my PC for several seconds. I have now disabled it completely.

Note : It’s not a problem for everyone (it’s still installed on my laptop which works perfectly)………

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/microsoft-compatibility-telemetry-what-is-it-and/7653b847-23f1-42c4-9390-ba2d35978e4e

However it can be disabled or even got rid of - Solution 3 of this next article is what i use (not necessarily for the faint hearted) :

https://www.diskpart.com/articles/microsoft-compatibility-telemetry-1503.html

As always, be careful what you change/uninstall, and even if you’re ok with making such changes do make back ups before hand.

J

Makes sure that Windows ( in Sounds > Properties > Advanced ) is using the same rate as Sonar / audio device ie both set at 44.1, or 48 etc.

J

8 hours ago, pwalpwal said:

honestly, i know they don't have the business relationship with roland anymore, but i'd expect them to still/keep support/ing it (and the other cw/edirol hardware)

good luck sir

/disapointmentrantover

Why ? 
J

This so called “data base” has been around as a freebie for many years on the good old internet - i believe someone pirated/hoovered the Ultimate Guitar website at one point.

IMHO it’s better to go to the UG  site and download (legally) their more up to date GP files. Plus you can d/l pdf files of the GP tabs. Personally i would spend my money there.

I doubt very much this site has the legal authority to sell such a data base.

J

On 4/13/2025 at 6:25 PM, Mauro Gaspa said:

@SirWillyDS12 Thanks

I immediately downloaded Microsoft Interrupt Affinity, started the software in administrator mode and selected, as you suggested, CPU 8 and CPU 9 for the RTX 4060 graphics card. I played the song until it ended and restarted it and after about 30 seconds the freeze occurred again.
I noticed that when the freeze is about to happen, just before, the Sonar CPU performance starts to make waves on the various cores as if it were looking for other available cores. Could this be a clue?

@Ben Staton Do you have any other ideas?

 

@Amberwolf Hi, thanks.

The drivers I downloaded and used are Nvidia WHQL. 

The problem, if it really was the Nvidia driver, how can I find the right version as you say that makes me work among the many versions available?

Make sure you do NOT install the nVidia audio driver when installing the nVidia video drivers.
 

When using the nVidia installer use the advanced options and do a complete un-install/re-install. You can then choose which options to install. Do NOT choose the HDMI audio driver.

if said driver shows up in Sonar/CbB go into device manager and disable it. Re-boot.

J

6 hours ago, Hill62 said:

I’m having the same issue, with all browsers. The MFA is the issue. I’m an IT professional and I’ve done substantial troubleshooting on my PC to try to get this resolved. I got the same error on my phone logging into the forums, somehow it still logged me in but I got the page not found.

I’ll try contacting support again.

Adding pain to the issue is the only MFA option is email. An app or phone option would potentially help alleviate this. It would certainly be more convenient at the least. 
Hopefully enough have this page not found issue to get more help towards resolution.

 

 

You have to either use the app to login, or off line use Cakewalk Product Centre.

So, close all browsers, then fire up CbB or Sonar, which ever, and once open go to the Help menu. If it says you’re not logged in, then do so from the Help menu option.

if it says you have the option to log out, do so. Close the app, then re-open it and use Help/Login etc. 

It should work. If not, then its an e-mail to support.

J

2 hours ago, Patrick Duflot said:

Hi everybody

Same thing here.. Unable to activate (in fact, reactivate) CbB. 

I've used this product this morning (from 09:00 to 13:00 French time), and at 17:00, when i've tried to relaunch CbB, the message attached appear... Gosh

I've already tried everything (logged off, logged in, offline activation), nothing is working.

A few minutes ago, i tried to reconnect and obtained this welcome message, (2nd image attached), but again, my product is not activated.

So, please , could you help me ?

Or maybe is there a problem with activation server, Bandlab side ?

 

Best regards

Patrick

my version : CbB 2024.12 build 125 Win10

Download and install the latest version, not last years’ model. Then you will be able to authorise.

J

6 hours ago, Ebner Chrispim said:

Does anyone know why when I ask to reset my password I am not getting a email?

If you’re doing that on the legacy Cakewalk site because you want to activate Splat, 8.5 or a previous version, then you won’t. Only Support can do that with the necessary proof. Have you tried reaching out to them here ?
 

As you’re posting here in the Sonar part of this new site I’m assuming you’re mixing Sonars up. The new Cakewalk Sonar has, apart from some legacy code,  nothing to do with the previous versions, is sub based and needs you to be part of Bandlab.

If you were referring to Cakewalk by Bandlab or Cakewalk Sonar, simply login to the Bandlab website, go to your account and change your password there or apply for a password reset from them. Then you’ll get a mail ! And can use the new creds to login to the two apps cited.

Suggestion : If you don’t have a Bandlab account then create one so you can download and install the most recent version of CbB (which is free and much much better than the legacy versions mentioned above). However you will not have any legacy vst’s that came with those versions you may want to get back.

J