Many Plug-in companies isn't adding Cakewalk by Bandlabs into their compatible lists... :(

[El Diablo]

Hi,

It's like more and more companies that make plug-ins do not want to include Cakewalk by Bandlabs into their lists of compatible DAWs.

Melody Sauce - https://www.evabeat.com/

Scaler 2 - https://www.pluginboutique.com/products/6439

iZotope -https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/3-Studio-Tools/51-Audio-Restoration-/9560-RX-Elements-v10-

to name a few...

So what gives?

[Madness]

Mr. D, some will list and some will just say compatible with most major DAWS. Might just be because Cakewalk by Bandlabs is now free. Didn't check evabeat but over at pluginboutique  just check the plug-in formats to see what DAWS the  plugin will work with, VST3 works just fine with Cakewalk, I have numerous plugs-in from them with no problems. Hope this helps! 

Rick

[reginaldStjohn]

In the history of Cakewalk, pre-gibson to post-gibson, Cakewalk has never been a top DAW for plugin developers to test for compatibility.  I guess there are just too many DAWs and companies have to pick the ones they want to test against.  

All the plugins I have wanted to use have just worked so I have not worried about it.

[Byron Dickens]

Wouldn't this be something to address with the plug-in developers?

[Promidi]

Care factor zero. 

All it means is they have not tested those plugins with CbB.  Does not mean they will not work.

 Most have not been tested in CbB and yet they still work extremely well in it.

[Simon Wilkinson]

Gotta say in the 20+ years I've been using Sonar/CbB I can't remember one single plugin I've tried that hasn't worked specifically in it.

If not explicitly naming Cakewalk implies it isn't a serious/professional DAW I'd also have to say in that same timeframe I've been earning my main income from it. 

Don't worry about it.

[Alan Tubbs]

Most people buy their music as mp3s these days.  Doesn’t mean that is the best format or better than CDs (or two inch tape).

cakewalk is the odd child, the major DAW that is windows only.  Many music makers are Mac centric.  Why test your vst in a limited market and rewrite code for what are mostly non professionals on Windows?
 

and I cannot think of any vst I’ve bought that didn’t work exclusively on cakewalk. 

[bitflipper]

It's not surprising that smaller plugin vendors don't have the resources to test every version of every DAW out there. Note that when they do include one, they specify the exact version they support. Cubase 10? Sorry, we don't support it, even though the idea that any VST might be incompatible with any Steinberg product is silly.

Looking at iZotope's list for RX, I see a lot of DAWs that aren't included. Samplitude, Tracktion, Bitwig, Audacity, Ardour, Mixcraft, ACID Pro, Digital Performer, MuLab, GarageBand and many others. Too many for any company to properly test on a frequent basis. Also note that they never make any mention of hardware console compatibility.

The list, I think, is just there to reassure novice buyers who might not understand that the whole idea of a standard interface is to assure universal compatibility.

[Starship Krupa]

On 10/29/2022 at 6:12 PM, El Diablo said:

So what gives?

"So what" indeed.

There is a practical, easy explanation, though. SONAR was the product of a whole division of Gibson, Cakewalk, Inc. Cakewalk is the product of a handful of developers who work for BandLab.

Cakewalk, Inc. had multiple marketing employees whose job description included maintaining friendly relationships with the marketing people at other software (and hardware) companies. Part of their job would have been to keep an eye on iZotope and others to make sure those companies had everything they needed to make sure that SONAR stayed on their compatibility list. This could include things like free NFR copies of SONAR for testing, cross promotions, bundling, etc.

There's nobody to do that now. It's entirely up to the marketing (and engineering) people at those companies to decide which DAW's to list as explicitly compatible. As mentioned elsewhere, there are only so many hosts that it's economically feasible for them to be able to test thoroughly enough to put on their compatibility list.

Not to worry; in the past 5 years of BandLab's ownership, getting on compatibility lists is actually on the way up. BandLab make it easy to test with Cakewalk; it's free. Also, the Cakewalk developers have a healthy interest in working with plug-in manufacturers to ensure compatibility.

[Craig Anderton]

If I were a plug-in developer, I'd recognize that since Cakewalk is free, it frees up more money for plug-ins. I'd pitch to the Cakewalk users as much as I could!

[mettelus]

Another perspective to consider, which has been alluded to above, is this: if a plugin has been scripted properly, any DAW supporting that format should be able to use it (where they tested it is sort of moot).

I can recall countless times that Noel has gotten involved with plugin issues. He will also reach out to developers directly to resolve them. That "feature" of CbB (the bakers and their participation here) is highly underrated.

[Starship Krupa]

On 11/11/2022 at 10:53 AM, mettelus said:

....if a plugin has been scripted properly, any DAW supporting that format should be able to use it (where they tested it is sort of moot).

That's a big "if," and a very conditional "should." These assume that the plug-in spec is perfect, which it's not.

There are 3 pieces at work: the plug-in, the host, and then the standard that lets them communicate. One of the problems with the VST spec from the start is that it's at the mercy of what Steinberg think is important. Error handling, memory management, thread scheduling, inter-plug-in communication, code sharing, I don't believe any of them is covered by the VST specs so far. This leaves it up to the individual plug-in developers to come up with their own ways of handling it.

The looseness and gaps in the VST spec mean that plug-in and a host can each be "compliant" but still not work well together. In my experience, the Cakewalk developers and most plug-in developers are cool about coming up with solutions to interoperability issues.