Jump to content

Is Cakewalk gaining users/popularity with Bandlab?


Recommended Posts

8 minutes ago, Zo said:

Yep in fact there s cons and pros , a big pro is project exchange between same daw  users ...

I can see that there would be benefits to sticking with the same DAW, and a finite set of bundled plugins for stability, as well as collaboration and project exchange.

But for an individual working on it all, and maybe using more than one DAW, having the same set of cross DAW plugins would have benefits.

So I am thinking of a situation where you may prefer one DAW for creative songwriting and sound design, and another DAW for arranging, mixing, and maybe even mastering. This would be a situation where the artist gets more inspiration from the creative songwriting workflow in one DAW environment, but prefers a different technical workflow for mixing when he puts on the engineer's hat later to polish the song.

It would be nice to have the same plugins that you used to dial in your sounds make the trip across, especially if they are a key part of your inspired sounds!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When there's a locked plug-in I really want to use, I use the closest plug-in in the program I'm using. Before mixing, I export a premix and the file I want to process in the other DAW, render it, and bring it back into the main DAW.

Sure, that's less convenient than having cross-program plug-ins, but it's better than not using plug-ins at all. :)

 

Edited by Craig Anderton
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 4/13/2019 at 8:26 AM, Kurre said:

Is there someone that use Gearslutz and Bedroomproducersblog or other where they have a subforum for daws?

What we are looking for are newbies. If CbB would gain users it should be noticeable by newbies asking questions about CbB in those places.

  I see the same thing on Image-Line and Reason Talk forums.  Threads like these are nothing new under the sun.  Some DAWs just work better for different genres.  I've seen all sorts of strange ideas to get more users.  An odd one was to make Reason as a VST.  Then there are the FL users who think one day Image Line is going to go belly up over lifetime updates.  Some people just feel the need to have insecurity issues over the DAW they use.

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think what it comes down to is... If Cakewalk wasn't gaining users, wasn't popular.. we all would have been evicted months ago.

I think Ming, Noel and Co. have a plan laid out. IMO, its probably going as planned and we should worry less about how popular the DAW is and worry more about our own recordings/productions. I know I am xD

  • Like 2
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, SomeGuy said:

I think most people here know the types of people I'm referring to.

Yes, which is why I referred to the Commodore Amiga. Back in the dial-up BBS days, the Amiga and Linux had similarly moonie-ish followings.

How this manifested in online discussions would be that if anyone mentioned any application of computers, say word processing or databases, or CAD, the BBS' resident Amiga or Linux moonie would be certain to chime in to claim that such-and-such program, which was the only application at the time that was written for that task on their platform and was , of course, only available on that platform, was considered by all, far and wide, to be far superior to any similar software that was available for the Macintosh or DOS/Windows.

You know, "I'm trying to decide whether to go with WordPerfect or Microsoft Word for the Mac my parents just bought me to take to UC Berkeley. Anyone used either of them?"

"Well, I know that PencilPoint PaperPress for AmigaDOS is the best word processing program there is!"

This had the result of everyone else on the BBS swearing that we would never, ever touch a Commodore computer as long as we lived, not even if it were running life support at the emergency room at a hospital and we needed its help to survive.

No doubt the moment that Reaper got the ability to display a staff view, no matter how rudimentary it may have been, there were Reaper advocates who would tell you that anyone who wanted to do serious work with a staff view should try REAPER.

It put me off from trying the program for months longer than I would have otherwise.

I just have a thing about moonieware, and Reaper is, unfortunately, moonieware.

23 hours ago, Craig Anderton said:

Nothing has as stable an audio engine....as Ableton Live.

Whoa, not even Mixcraft? When I came to Cakewalk from having used Mixcraft for years, it was jarring to find out that in Cakewalkville, the "audio engine" was this separate thing that starts and stops and that you sort of treat like a lawnmower engine. "Oops, she stalled out again, lemme give 'er a pull."

Things have gotten better in that department since I just went ahead and got a $30 SSD for my audio data, but still, whoo boy.

3 hours ago, SomeGuy said:

I have a Late 2013 iMac that I bought shortly after it came out.

Perhaps the average "lower end of beginner music maker" in your neighborhood has a bit more cash to play with than the ones in mine. As I said, my friend just bought a used Dell for $50. No beginner music maker I have ever met has been able to scrape the cash for a brand new or even recent Macintosh on their own just to do music with, no matter what a great deal it was in the long run.

If we posit a scenario where someone gets the DAW bug up their ass, chances are these days they will have a computer. Chances are it will be a Windowbox, in which case they can d/l CbB, but if it's not, they can have GarageBand for free instead. I was talking about if they don't have a computer. What budget do we give them?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think that a dumbed down version of Cakewalk would be most appealing to true first time beginner music makers that have never used a DAW, and have no actual understanding of what audio or MIDI tracks are.

DAWs are complicated and can be intimidating for beginners, and I am not suggesting to cripple Cakewalk in any way.

Maybe a special basic lens and demo template would be all that is needed to dumb it down for beginners, along with some effective getting started videos that cover a few bundled  demo projects step by step, in detail.  Like with a game mode metaphor, with a choice of difficulty: Easy, Medium, or Hard.

I realize that Cakewalk can  acquire new users with any amount of experience, but probably the largest pool available is with beginner users. But if they download Cakewalk (which in all its glory is actually an enhanced version of Sonar Producer) and are not supported out of the box, they may just give up and look elsewhere for something to start their music maker journey with.

So bottom line, education and learning resources are probably the #1 priority for acquiring and retaining new Cakewalk users. Nothing wrong with Cakewalk, but a lot of the power is under the hood, and the good stuff is hidden away, until you stick around long enough to uncover it!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

41 minutes ago, abacab said:

So bottom line, education and learning resources are probably the #1 priority for acquiring and retaining new Cakewalk users.

And with this statement IMHO they really do need to update the staff view.   Educational market is huge. Giving Cakewalk DAW  for free is great but if it doesn't have a decent STAFF/notation I don't think educational market will stick with it. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

I just have a thing about moonieware, and Reaper is, unfortunately, moonieware.

 

What do you mean by Moonieware? I have not heard that term before.

 

10 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

 

 

Edited by mdiemer
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, mdiemer said:

What do you mean by Moonieware? I have not heard that term before.

It's not a term in common use. We made it up on NIRVANAnet, a dialup BBS network, 30 years ago, to describe software or hardware that was, um....distinguished by having a rabid following. It's a snotty term, created by people in their 20's.

Here's a characteristic of Moonieware: when one tries to discuss such a product with one of its advocates, and try to get information about its strong suits and shortcomings, according to them the strong suits are everything, and the shortcomings are either none, or that the stupid idiots who run the company can't market the product properly, or that some other manufacturer(s) have a deathgrip on the marketplace.

They mean well, they're trying to help spread the word about their favorite whatever, help it survive, but people eventually wind up wishing they would just STFU, and it often creates unrealistically high expectations when someone does try the product and it turns out to just be a normal product with flaws like any other, often with glaring drawbacks that the users are overcompensating for.

Reaper isn't really like that anymore, as far as I know, but about 10 years ago, ugh.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've never heard the term either but I get it. I take it to mean a product that has a hyper-abundance of unreasonably overenthusiastic advocates that people find off-putting. I would put Studio One in that category.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Kev said:

I've never heard the term either but I get it. I take it to mean a product that has a hyper-abundance of unreasonably overenthusiastic advocates that people find off-putting. I would put Studio One in that category.

I think this has become more and more of a thing since Adobe moved to Creative Cloud, and more software packages have moved to the subscription business model.

A few "Alternatives" have a similar [very vocal and combative subset of their] following that trolls YouTube and forums with these types of comments:  Reaper, Studio One, DaVinci Resolve, and VEGAS Pro are the most notable of the bunch.

I don't typically see Cakewalk users do this.  I do tend to recommend it in YouTube comments where I see fit, though...  But I tend to just give my recommendation and ignore the feverish comments I may get in response to it.  Those people aren't interested in discussion and will only attempt to gaslight and bamboozle you, anyways 😛 

Cakewalk being Windows-only is a bit of a competitive disadvantage as there are macOS users who cannot take advantage of it...  But it is designed very well to take great advantage of the platform on which it runs (similar to Logic Pro X on macOS), which is something I appreciate and think is a bit underestimated.  Many cross platform creative applications bias to macOS, IME (with the exception of Adobe, which tends to run better on Windows, but $$$).

If only they can add AAF support to Cakewalk by BandLab 😞 Collaborating with people who don't use Cakewalk is hard without it.  OMF is not enough , in 2019, as increasing amounts of software are not supporting it (or have such bad support that it mind as well not exist).  Exporting Stems (for video projects, etc.) is fine, but I need to be able to import AAFs from those other applications.

I see they have delivered an up to date Reference Guide, and it looks really good (though it could use a Table of Contents).  Thanks to BL for delivering on that request.

Edited by SomeGuy
Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 hours ago, abacab said:

think that a dumbed down version of Cakewalk would be most appealing to true first time beginner music makers that have never used a DAW, and have no actual understanding of what audio or MIDI tracks are.

DAWs are complicated and can be intimidating for beginners, and I am not suggesting to cripple Cakewalk in any way.

Maybe a special basic lens and demo template would be all that is needed to dumb it down for beginners, along with some effective getting started videos that cover a few bundled  demo projects step by step, in detail.  Like with a game mode metaphor, with a choice of difficulty: Easy, Medium, or Hard.

Really like this idea A-Cab.

Personally myself, I love all the bells and whistles but a bare bones DAW might bring in users who are looking to do basic things. After so many hours, you could move to another level.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 hours ago, abacab said:

Maybe a special basic lens and demo template would be all that is needed to dumb it down for beginners, along with some effective getting started videos that cover a few bundled  demo projects step by step, in detail.  Like with a game mode metaphor, with a choice of difficulty: Easy, Medium, or Hard.

You're preaching to the choir! I've been pushing for this with music software in general - levels like video games. Lenses create a more beginner-friendly environment, but they're still lenses to a complicated program. With 8.5, where you had all those customization options, I did an interface that was basically an ADAT with faders. No MIDI, no VIs, no waveform editing, no plug-ins except for a reverb send on each channel and a limiter on the output. The idea was that you could give something like that away for free, and hook people.

I don't know if it's possible from a software standpoint to create a modular DAW, but that would be ideal. For example after mastering the ADAT interface, you could then add the waveform editing module. Or the virtual instrument module.  But since no DAW does this, it's probably not possible. Even better would be a standardized module format, so you could use, for example, Cakewalk's virtual mixer module in Pro Tools, or Cubase's staff editor in Cakewalk.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't use graphic Design software as much as I use to and I can relate how I forget somethings with layers and it drives me nuts.
I think that is the same way for DAW programs too. You have to use the program regularly to maintain some level of proficiency.
Some programs you just have to bite the bullet and spend some time with them.  I do like the idea about Videos. I wish Cakewalk had this with simple Demo projects that get you started series.  

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

It's not a term in common use. We made it up on NIRVANAnet, a dialup BBS network, 30 years ago, to describe software or hardware that was, um....distinguished by having a rabid following. It's a snotty term, created by people in their 20's.

Here's a characteristic of Moonieware: when one tries to discuss such a product with one of its advocates, and try to get information about its strong suits and shortcomings, according to them the strong suits are everything, and the shortcomings are either none, or that the stupid idiots who run the company can't market the product properly, or that some other manufacturer(s) have a deathgrip on the marketplace.

They mean well, they're trying to help spread the word about their favorite whatever, help it survive, but people eventually wind up wishing they would just STFU, and it often creates unrealistically high expectations when someone does try the product and it turns out to just be a normal product with flaws like any other, often with glaring drawbacks that the users are overcompensating for.

Reaper isn't really like that anymore, as far as I know, but about 10 years ago, ugh.

Yeah, that's pretty much what I thought it meant. Thanks for the description. I will keep it in mind when evaluating software and their respective forums. As for Reaper, I used it for about a year, and I didn't get much of a sense that it was in that category. Sure, there were the usual fanboys. Reaper is of course very customizable, and you would constantly hear about that; but the other side is that it is not beginner-friendly. I think the tremendous enthusiasm for the fact that it's highly customizable is really a cover for that fact.

It tool me a LONG time to figure out midi routing, which is a breeze in Cakewalk. I did get to the point where my workflow was similar to Cakewalk, but there were always extra mouse clicks, extra steps. On the other hand, the end result was better, mainly because Reaper, along with other DAWS, automatically compensates for differences in latency between different vstis.  With Cakewalk, I have to adjust the timing for different instruments on the track inspector, so everything starts at more or less the same time. This is something I just learned from scook (may his name be blessed).  As you said, they all have their respective strengths and weaknesses. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, Kev said:

I take it to mean a product that has a hyper-abundance of unreasonably overenthusiastic advocates that people find off-putting. I would put Studio One in that category.

A few on the old CW forum used to get a bit like that too. I think those types are probably everywhere. 

I have S1 but never use it mostly because I don't like looking at it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Craig Anderton said:

Your historical trivia for today: "moonies" were devotees of Sun Myung Moon, and often very vocal in their support for same.

Yep, I was going to post some cultural factoids, until I realized that this ain't the coffee house! Probably some fun off-topic banter to be had with this subject!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 4/14/2019 at 9:07 AM, emwhy said:

 Those were all taught on Pro Tools. It surprised me how most of them even as 18 & 19 year olds did not like using the program. One big change that has happened in recent years is that a lot of the instructors now let the students use their DAW of choice for projects and work outside of class, In fact one teacher there openly encourages it. We are at a time where it's good to have all these tools at our disposal.

Nor Surprising At All.  A lot of people do not like even looking at Avid Media Composer or Pro Tools.  The UI/UX is old school and frankly, the applications are developed in a non-disruptive way.

When you are industry-standard, you sort of lose the ability to do things like massive UI Redesigns and fundamental changes to functionality without disrupting the market (FCPX's release is a good example of this).

That market position is both a boon and a bane to developers.  It guarantees their software will be widely used, but it also ties their hands and severely constricts the room they have to be innovative or "forward thinking" in many areas.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 4/14/2019 at 1:10 PM, Chuck E Baby said:

I think what it comes down to is... If Cakewalk wasn't gaining users, wasn't popular.. we all would have been evicted months ago.

I think Ming, Noel and Co. have a plan laid out. IMO, its probably going as planned and we should worry less about how popular the DAW is and worry more about our own recordings/productions. I know I am xD

It depends on the reason why they purchased it and what the plans for it are.  If the plans are for them to build up the BandLab ecosystem, then having Cakewalk can be a crucial component of that.  Sometimes, companies are playing the long game.  It isn't always about Year 1 user base increases...

That being said, they don't seem to be putting much work into BandLab.com, either.

So I'm just a tad bit confused, myself.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...