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Bandlab internet necessity question


desertbluesman

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I am still using Cakes 8.5.3 because after that Cakewalk needed an internet connection to work. I am wondering if Bandlab's version needs an internet connection after the download? if not I will download it on my new DAW and then take the DAW off of the net. Otherwise I will stick with 8.5.3.

 

Thanks for your replies if any are forthcoming

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BandLab Assistant uses an internet connection to download/activate/reactivate new Cakewalk by BandLab installs and updates.

Reactivation happens any time CbB is updated.

The is no requirement to update but reactivation must happen at least every 6 months.

An internet connection is not necessary to run CbB.

 

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12 hours ago, desertbluesman said:

I am wondering if Bandlab's version needs an internet connection after the download?

It depends on what is meant by "needs," but if, in your way of thinking, Cakewalk SONAR "needed" an Internet connection, then so does Cakewalk by BandLab and I would pass on it if I were you.

As previously noted, to install and operate CbB, you must connect to the internet to:

1. register with BandLab with a valid email account

2. Download the BandLab Assistant program, which includes functions for downloading, installing, and validating the newest Cakewalk. This process should take about 5-10 minutes

3. At some point before 6 months passes, connect the computer with Cakewalk on it to the internet, run BandLab Assistant and let it re-validate your copy of Cakewalk. This process should take less than a minute. Then, before another 6 months passes, do this again.

That's it.

If you wait more than a few months to do step 3, BandLab Assistant will probably ask you to let it update both itself and Cakewalk, and you may choose to do so or not.

Cakewalk does not need to check with any licensing server in order to run. Its license is validated via BandLab Assistant contacting BandLab's servers when you install it, and then whenever you run BandLab Assistant with the computer connected to the net. If not connected to the net, it doesn't care. Once validated, it will run for 6 months without needing to be validated, at which point, at startup it will warn you that you will soon need to validate it or it will switch into an "unregistered" mode where you can't save projects. It will not do this in the middle of a project. You will have plenty of time to plug your computer into the network for its 60 seconds of "phone home."

The license is a free subscription, like Tape Op. We get to use Cakewalk for free, all we have to do is let BandLab Assistant say "howdy" to the BandLab server every 6 months, just like we have to fill out that form every 12 months to keep Tape Op coming.

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I set up CbB on a second laptop a year ago and took it  to my band partners place so he could add his parts to our recordings. He has real bad internet and the Laptop is off line 100%. CbB is still working and he for some reason has never gotten the "demo" mode" pop up. Go figure. My DAw was in storage for 6 months while we moved and the minute I fired it up I got Demo mode.. but then it was on line too. SO might be if you totally stay off line you can use it forever. 

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  • 4 months later...

On Bandlab's Cakewalk download page please clearly indicate that this DAW is free to  utilize (& access the users private work)  only under the condition that at least biannual online reactivation occurs . . .or all the composers personal work on Cakewalk will not be accessible by the owner of those compositions without online Bandlab reactivation at least every 6 months. Plus, inform us on the Bandlab Cakewalk download web page that Windows 7 will not update Cakewalk via Bandlabs manager.

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