Introducing Cakewalk Next and our new brand identity

[InstrEd]

Subscription route, don't see me going that route either.. Presonus Studio One would probably be my go to choice.

 

But I will definitely wait to see what model Cakewalk decides on and base my decision.  I have loved Sonar and will give  them a shot.

Edited June 6, 2023 by InstrEd
Added text

[Noel Borthwick]

3 hours ago, TerraSin said:

Any chance for a bundle deal? I work with both electronic music and traditional and I think I could use the tools from both for projects unless you're planning on putting the features from Next into Sonar as well, of course.

Pricing details are still being baked but it will most likely be a bundle.

[MarianoGF]

Will it be still available the Sonitus FX Bundle in the upcoming Sonar? Many of us love it, and use it daily.

Will it be back the availablity of L-Phase EQ, L-Phase Compressor and Adaptive Limiter?

Thanks::.

Edited June 6, 2023 by MarianoGF

[Misha]

Question for Noel.  Please.

Current version expires every few months. When final built is released, what happens in a few months? It gets deactivated and dies in de-activated state?

Can users purchase current version,  if they don't like new versions for any reason, so Bandlab doesn't de-activate Cakewalk by Bandlab  when it wants to?

----

What worries me the most, is that it seems intention is to forcefully take  away current version from folks " at some point" by simply de-activating it and never activating it again...   I have 2 decades of projects in Cake, and that would be a major disappointment.  A honest thing would be to give existing users permanent activation to current version  and then try to seduce them with new, better product(s)

I don't mind Cakewalk becoming a paid software. Obviously not subscription.  If  it will be  subscription only, I will among first to catch a train to another DAW  Hopefully that is not the case.

 

 

 

 

[MarianoGF]

It the upcoming "Cakewalk Next" comes to take the place that the old Cakewalk Project5 left empty?

Thanks::.

[Jesse Jost]

1 minute ago, Misha said:

A honest thing would be to give existing users permanent activation to current version  and then try to seduce them with new, better product(s)

That's effectively what's happening and I can assure you we have no interest pulling the rug out from CbB users. Please understand that we cannot comment on specifics at this time, as pricing details and options are not yet available. In the meantime, we appreciate your perseverance - stay tuned!

[Jesse Jost]

1 hour ago, Magic Russ said:

It would have been cool if Next was a revival of Project 5....

 

4 minutes ago, MarianoGF said:

It the upcoming "Cakewalk Next" comes to take the place that the old Cakewalk Project5 left empty?

As someone who worked very closely on Project 5... I can say that much of the philosophy that went into the design of Project 5 has guided the development of Next. 😉 

[Sander Verstraten]

2 minutes ago, Jesse Jost said:

 

As someone who worked very closely on Project 5... I can say that much of the philosophy that went into the design of Project 5 has guided the development of Next. 😉 

Will hardware clip launchers controllers be supported then? Like Launchpad and Push?

[René Smit]

Sonar Next also on Mac? Nice..

[GroverKen]

As someone who had a Lifetime Platinum subscription and all the instruments Cakewalk had to offer, I’m pleased to see new life being breathed by the bakers. Hopefully this won’t be another “Waves” fiasco and that the bean counters have got their sums right.

[Misha]

"I’m pleased to see new life being breathed by the bakers."

+1

My main concern is that whatever they do, they will let existing users keep current version, without "deactivating" it ever, even if buck stops now with development for last version.  Mainly  for backup purposes of existing projects.  That surely will give me initiative to upgrade to paid (non-subscription) version and I am certain quite a few users will understand what I am saying.  So those of us who have projects from 5-10-15-20+ years ago, have a peace of mind, knowing they will still be able to open their older projects 10 years from now and have them same way they left them.   I still have Sonar X1 (in original box)  Couple of years ago, for fun I tested it, opening projects from Cakewalk by Bandlab...  With some plugin hiccups they did  

---

Jesse, Thank you for your answer.  This was/is my concern since early days of Bandlab. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[David Baay]

Personally I'm happy to see Cakewalk get "monetized" again with Next and Sonar. For one thing it creates a revenue stream to sell to a future owner along with the intellectual property should the current owner ever decide to get out of the game for any reason . And while the "stigma" of using a free DAW instead of a "professional" one never bothered me, it will help to restore Cakewalk's reputation as a developer to be reckoned with by all the major players, including plugin and control surface vendors, which will be good for all of us.

The king is dead.  Long live the king.!

[John Vere]

And everyone poo pooed me about 2 years ago when I predicted this.  
 

I said I thought giving it away for a few years, build up a much bigger user base and then start charging for it was a smart business plan. The ultimate free Demo.

I wonder if the last release of Cakewalk by Bandlab will continue to be the most popular and continue to require re activation periodically.  

Sound like Sonar will not really be Sonar but a brand new DAW.  Not sure I need that myself.  

[kc23]

Well...

I was among the ones that payed for the lifetime upgrades, not just to support the software but also to not be tied up in the awfulness of a subscription model. The arguments trying to justify not honoring this are not valid in my opinion. Yes, gibson was another company, but the developer team was the same (a.k.a. "the bakers"), and they did benefit from the "fruits of my labor" when I bought it. In my view (being using cakewalk for more than 25 years), to honor that in some way would be, in the least, a sign of acknowledgement to that user base, which most likely has been the most faithful and supportive through all this.

Also, I´m sure this news mean that, at least in CbB, we won´t see some things have been requested since more than 15 years ago, like fixing the external insert plugin and negative delay in milliseconds for midi tracks. Which makes me even more doubtful as to if I´ll keep supporting and using cakewalk (so far, I´m no longer mixing in it, and already starting migration of midi composing to maybe Cubase). Let it sink: fifteen years of users requesting these fixes (yes, fixes because functionality was not complete and broke correct usage of other assets), and at the most the answer received was "it´s not high in our priority list". So, to me that says a lot. Just to get perspective, when the negative delay was requested for Reaper in a forum, it took them a couple of months to implement it and roll it out in an update.

And for the people thinking about migrating, there is a "plugin" for Reaper (developed independently) that allows opening .wrk files. It translates almost everything in a session, even replacing some of the prochannel modules with Reapers´s stock processors. Google it, it´s not hard to find.

For me, this most likely will accelerate my migration process and end for good my run with cakewalk. Which, to be honest, is kind of sad thinking of what this software could have been.

[Noel Borthwick]

10 minutes ago, JohnnyV said:

Sound like Sonar will not really be Sonar but a brand new DAW.  Not sure I need that myself.  

Sonar is built from the identical codebase of CbB so no change there. What's new at least to start with is some new features and a massive revamp of the UI to make it DPI aware so it can run on higher resolution monitors without pixelation. Note that this doesn't change the UX in anyway other than new vector-based graphics and a crisper look. It will be supported and added to in the future unlike CbB which will not get all the latest developments that have gone in since the start of this year.

[Noel Borthwick]

50 minutes ago, Misha said:

"I’m pleased to see new life being breathed by the bakers."

+1

My main concern is that whatever they do, they will let existing users keep current version, without "deactivating" it ever, even if buck stops now with development for last version.  Mainly  for backup purposes of existing projects.  That surely will give me initiative to upgrade to paid (non-subscription) version and I am certain quite a few users will understand what I am saying.  So those of us who have projects from 5-10-15-20+ years ago, have a peace of mind, knowing they will still be able to open their older projects 10 years from now and have them same way they left them.   I still have Sonar X1 (in original box)  Couple of years ago, for fun I tested it, opening projects from Cakewalk by Bandlab...  With some plugin hiccups they did  

---

Jesse, Thank you for your answer.  This was/is my concern since early days of Bandlab. 

We're still hashing out the details of pricing/payment models. What bothers you most about subscription? It's essentially a pay as you go lease model and is beneficial for those who can't justify putting down a lumpsum of cash at one time...
For those afraid of the software deactivating, there are models that allow you to purchase an annual (non-expiring) license. This is what we did in the SONAR days. An annual license is no different from buying the software outright.
 

[ancjava]

Will the final version of CbB remain avalible to install and to use forever just without new updates? The UI revamping worries me... I love the current CbB interface.  Maybe I consider buying the new Sonar but only if there will be one time paid lifetime license option.

Edited June 6, 2023 by ancjava

[Sal Sorice]

Noel Borthwick,

Command Center is offline. I wanted to download a lot of the things I paid for in the past. Are we out of luck?

[Noel Borthwick]

@Sal Sorice this is not intentional. It's likely due to some domain changes with the new website. I'll notify the back end team.
Can you access your products from your account page on the legacy website?

EDIT: It turns out that Command Center is relying on the old cakewalk website which is actually now legacy.cakewalk.com. Unfortunately the only way to restore it to working is to update the command center app itself since the URL's are built into the code. That might take awhile to do since that hasn't been changed in many years. In the interim please use the account management at https://legacy.cakewalk.com/My-Account to update your old software if you need to get to it.

[Bruno de Souza Lino]

2 hours ago, Noel Borthwick said:

Pricing details are still being baked but it will most likely be a bundle.

Let's hope this is not another way of saying "we're sort of seeing how well a subscription plan is received so we can move accordingly and see how long we'll have to delay it before it happens."

My predictions so far:

Sonar - Regular run of the mill Cakewalk that's known with maybe a few extra things from SPlat thrown in. Maybe free. Probably priced for the extra features.
Next - Subscription based with all the stuff from SPlat. Or priced with the good old marketing strategy of diverting your attention away from that so you think you're actually saving money with the subscription.