It's official: CbB will not continue for long.

[John Vere]

I thought I should share this as many will miss this gem of info from Noel that was just posted in another thread. 

3 hours ago, Noel Borthwick said:

To be clear, there will be no more feature updates or bug fixes to the CbB codebase. 
The only reason it's being kept active for now is to provide users time to transition to the upcoming (paid) Sonar product. 
If you do intend to use Cakewalk please consider moving to Sonar (when its available obviously). We also plan on having a public beta release for it soon once the user interface is complete, so you can make up your mind. There is no change from the workflow of Cbb so the transition should be effortless.

If you have requests or bug reports continue to post them but they will only be fixed in the new Sonar release.

3 hours ago, Noel Borthwick said:

The price would be very affordable so there is really no need for panic. (less than what anyone paid for SONAR platinum)
We expect that most people who actively use CbB today should have no reason not to upgrade to a paid and fully supported product.

 

[T Boog]

14 minutes ago, JohnnyV said:

I thought I should share this as many will miss this gem of info from Noel that was just posted in another thread.

Hey John, I actually had a problem with the recent update and I had to reinstall the previous version. Do u think this previous version will remain active for a while or will I have to update? Thanks

[Will.]

5 hours ago, T Boog said:

Hey John, I actually had a problem with the recent update and I had to reinstall the previous version. Do u think this previous version will remain active for a while or will I have to update? Thanks

You only have 6months available to use it with that activation. All previous versions are no longer being maintained. The latest version is kind of just taking a joy ride running on their new servers as mentioned. 

Sad news for the CbB product. 

Edited September 8, 2023 by Will.

[Byron Dickens]

9 minutes ago, T Boog said:

Hey John, I actually had a problem with the recent update and I had to reinstall the previous version. Do u think this previous version will remain active for a while or will I have to update? Thanks

You know this "recent update" is a beta, right?

[T Boog]

4 minutes ago, Will. said:

You only havr 6months to use it. All previous version are no longer being maintained. The latest version is kind of just taking a joy ride running on their new servers as mentioned. 

Sad news for the CbB product. 

Forgive me Will, I just wanna make sure I follow u completely. The version I have is 28.11.0.21.exe. Are u saying I'm good with this version for the next 6 months?

[T Boog]

5 minutes ago, Byron Dickens said:

You know this "recent update" is a beta, right?

Hi Byron. I'm still pretty green can u please explain what beta entails? 

Mainly, I just need to know if I can stick with my current version 28.11.0.21 for the next 6 months. Is that correct?

[Noel Borthwick]

I think you are reading too much into it. There is no timeline to phase it out currently so it will be around awhile. No need to be concerned, users will be given plenty of time to make up their minds whether the new Sonar is for them. 6 months is just the standard reactivation period that has been in place since the start. 

That said, for anyone using CbB regularly it seems like it would be a no brainer to upgrade to a product that will be supported and receive updates, instead of using an older unsupported version.  Hopefully the new features and the cool new UI will be exciting to most users.

The reactivation requirement is for multiple reasons - Cbb/Sonar/Next are all connected apps that integrate with the BandLab ecosystem. There are often backend changes, that require cached state to be refreshed to work properly, not very different from the reason digital certificates and cookies expire. Additionally, these changes require us to change the application to continue to work properly, which is why we occasionally need to do updates that in turn refresh activation. The other reason is to ensure that for support purposes we have users running on the latest versions.

 

[Noel Borthwick]

14 minutes ago, T Boog said:

Hi Byron. I'm still pretty green can u please explain what beta entails? 

Mainly, I just need to know if I can stick with my current version 28.11.0.21 for the next 6 months. Is that correct?

The current version is not a beta, its an early access version. Its fully tested but we wanted end users to verify it before we release it shortly.
There is no guarantee for how long the older version 28.11.0.21 will be remain active once we release the final version, since as explained older versions rely on deprecated functionality.

[T Boog]

3 minutes ago, Noel Borthwick said:

The current version is not a beta, its an early access version. Its fully tested but we wanted end users to verify it before we release it shortly.
There is no guarantee for how long the older version 28.11.0.21 will be remain active once we release the final version, since as explained older versions rely on deprecated functionality.

Thanks Noel. Btw, will the TTS-1 still be part of the new Sonar?

[Milton Sica]

13 minutes ago, Noel Borthwick said:

The current version is not a beta, its an early access version. Its fully tested but we wanted end users to verify it before we release it shortly.
There is no guarantee for how long the older version 28.11.0.21 will be remain active once we release the final version, since as explained older versions rely on deprecated functionality.

Because I think it's a huge mistake in the company's strategy to go for a free-pay movement and an application that, we know, has numerous bugs. The question is quite simple and direct: who will pay for a tire that, at any moment, will present a puncture ????

The least one would expect is that the application delivers everything it promises without errors.

While it was presented as FREE, we users noticed some bugs, but I don't know of any that pay any dollar to receive errors.

[Noel Borthwick]

8 minutes ago, T Boog said:

Thanks Noel. Btw, will the TTS-1 still be part of the new Sonar?

Yes of course. But there will be more.

[Milton Sica]

8 minutes ago, Noel Borthwick said:

Yes of course. But there will be more.

New SONAR ????
Older users, we are sure that this is not a NEW SONAR, but an application that has enjoyed all these years when it was sold as free and had the collaboration of the entire user community.
What comes around, and I'm testing the early access version, is an attempt to sell something said to be new, but "current" as we know it to be.

[Jonathan Sasor]

3 minutes ago, Milton Sica said:

New SONAR ????
Older users, we are sure that this is not a NEW SONAR, but an application that has enjoyed all these years when it was sold as free and had the collaboration of the entire user community.
What comes around, and I'm testing the early access version, is an attempt to sell something said to be new, but "current" as we know it to be.

SONAR went from SONAR 1-8 to SONAR X1-3 to SONAR Platinum, all being new versions of the application with new features. This is no different in that regard. There's a lot of additional work that is currently going into Sonar that is not currently in Cakewalk by BandLab which absolutely constitutes it as a new version of the app. 

[Jacques Boileau]

I think the price point will make a difference in how it is received. Since @Noel Borthwick stated that it will be 'very affordable', makes it reassuring. We all love a free DAW but a very affordable one will be good enough I am sure. We all (mostly all?) have a budget for plugins, and probably many we do not really use, why would it be such a pain to pay some fair amount for a DAW that we love working with? And let's be honest, all software have some level of bugs or functions not working has we would like, even those that come at hefty price. Software is always a work in progress.

[T Boog]

7 minutes ago, Milton Sica said:

New SONAR ????
Older users, we are sure that this is not a NEW SONAR, but an application that has enjoyed all these years when it was sold as free and had the collaboration of the entire user community.
What comes around, and I'm testing the early access version, is an attempt to sell something said to be new, but "current" as we know it to be.

My biggest issue with Cakewalk has been all the bugs and problems with third party vst's working right. I do understand that developers need to make money but I'm not willing to pay very much for the new Sonar. I'd go maybe $79 but more than that, I'd rather just buy a new DAW. Even if it has less features, as long it's more stable with less problems. With Cakewalk, I'm constantly having to chase down problems and find workarounds. It 's been exhausting.

[User 905133]

3 hours ago, T Boog said:

My biggest issue with Cakewalk has been all the bugs and problems with third party vst's working right. I do understand that developers need to make money but I'm not willing to pay very much for the new Sonar. I'd go maybe  XXXX but more than that, I'd rather just buy a new DAW. Even if it has less features, as long it's more stable with less problems. With Cakewalk, I'm constantly having to chase down problems and find workarounds. It 's been exhausting.

From everything I've read we will have more than enough time to make an informed decision. Setting a personal price point is admirable. I do that all the time based on my financial circumstances.

 

Edited September 8, 2023 by User 905133
fixed typo; edits

[Lord Tim]

3 hours ago, Milton Sica said:

The least one would expect is that the application delivers everything it promises without errors.

While it was presented as FREE, we users noticed some bugs, but I don't know of any that pay any dollar to receive errors.

There is NO software out there that does this. All software has bugs, and saying "if there's bugs then it should be free" is a good way to send a company broke. I don't think anyone could name a company with complex software like this that hasn't released updates to address problems.

Have a look through the change list since 2017 and the bug fix list is massive.  Just look at the Early Access release and the bugs fixed between 2022.11 and now - even that is substantial.

Ongoing work means ongoing staff that need to eat, right?

[T Boog]

2 minutes ago, User 905133 said:

JMO: Telling the whole world seems just plain wrong

I get that for the most part. I guess I am guilty of venting & thinking out loud but I def didn't mean it as a threat. In my defense, I was telling the truth. I 've watched my brother use Studio One with very little headache and he gets great tracks.  My friend had Mixcraft for years and he rarely fought with it.  I've been having the opposite experience. So yeah, if belly aching's a crime...  Lock me up 😉

[User 905133]

11 minutes ago, T Boog said:

I get that for the most part. I guess I am guilty of venting & thinking out loud but I def didn't mean it as a threat. In my defense, I was telling the truth. I 've watched my brother use Studio One with very little headache and he gets great tracks.  My friend had Mixcraft for years and he rarely fought with it.  I've been having the opposite experience. So yeah, if belly aching's a crime...  Lock me up 😉

JMO: Not a crime.  As for Mixcraft, JMO there is no comparison with SONAR/Cakewalk.  Personally, I have no problems with people choosing one DAW over another. If you read my posts, you should see that I have spoken out in favor of people making personal choices of DAWs based on their own personal needs.

But pre-emptive venting about the price before you even know what the price will be is wrong on so many levels.  IMO you should have waited until the price was announced and then complained, whined, ranted, threatened to stop using Cakewalk/SONAR/Sonar. That's the proper way to belly-ache around here.  😛 

Edited September 8, 2023 by User 905133
fixed typo

[T Boog]

2 minutes ago, User 905133 said:

That's the proper way to belly-ache around here

Fair enough. Then out of respect, I will try to sandbag my rage. 😖