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

[HOOK]

Paid for gigs?  You must live in a simulation.

[Lord Tim]

I got nearly 120 Exposures once at at gig  

[David Baay]

16 hours ago, JohnnyV said:

Actually that old saying is questionable.

The grass is always greener over the skeptic tank.

[bitflipper]

2 hours ago, Bass Guitar said:

Oh but I forgot, musicians are in a time warp..

1983 Gig = $100

2023 Gig = $100 

You can add 1973 to that table. The difference is that in 1973 I bought my first house out of gig earnings. Today it buys a tank of gas.

btw, last week my band went into a studio to record a going-away gift for our departing guitarist. The software in use there was Sonar 6. I am now mixing it in the current Sonar beta. I have worked on several projects that were started in CbB and seamlessly transferred to Sonar.  No one should have any qualms about losing projects going forward.

[John Vere]

Well I used to get about the same for a weekend in a 4 piece band in pubs back then. Then I went solo and more or less got what the whole band got. Bars didn’t seem to care  how many people as long as you made noise that sold more beer. 
Only thing that has changed is instead of 4 sets I only play 2. But same money. 

I’ve  made enough money this summer to build a new PC. Windows 11 here I come! It will be very cool to go right to Sonar 2023 on that shiny new machine. 
 

[Wagner Cappia]

I understand the need to pay for the product. I've been using cakewalk since it was just cakewalk. The point is that it competes with paid services, which is also not a problem in itself, but it largely opens up space for comparisons and decision-making. The protools studio costs 30 dollars per month, if the sonar costs more than that, considering it is the protools (which also has its problems), it could be an option because of its market strength, not because it is better or worse. I always had the impression that Cakewalk was supported by other Bandlab products, hence the free version. Wait...

[John Vere]

Bandlab bought Cakewalk because they saw a opportunity as a business. A music business.  
It came with a small dedicated user base that was at the time PO’d.  Many had already jumped ship and purchased other DAWS. Seems Studio one was were most of those people went. 

So think about what they had bought and where  it stood in the DAW community. Not very good at all. Generally it had a reputation as a buggy DAW that couldn’t be trusted for pro studios. 

I think the plan they developed was brilliant from a marketing and business standpoint. Definitely thinking out side the box. 
How to both overcome the bad rep and build up a larger user base. 
Simple. Make it free and hire the dedicated staff and set them loose to  make it as bulletproof as possible.  
They most certainly met or exceeded those goals.  

And they even won back a lot of people who jumped ship. How many threads have I seen started with- “ I tried Studio one but I prefer Cakewalk’s workflow “. 

Ok on to phase II. 

We should all be proud to have been part of this process that will result in most of us getting what we wanted. A solid DAW that can now stand head to head with the rest and will be a lot more popular in the DAW community. 

Good work Bandlab and Cakewalk team. You deserve a pat on the back. 
 

Edited September 11, 2023 by JohnnyV

[57Gregy]

On 9/9/2023 at 10:25 AM, Lord Tim said:

I got nearly 120 Exposures once at at gig  

Did you get arrested? 😄

[Lord Tim]

1 minute ago, 57Gregy said:

Did you get arrested? 😄

It was cold out, and the cops said it was fine for such a small thing. 🙂

... wait 😐

[Craig Anderton]

2 hours ago, JohnnyV said:

Good work Bandlab and Cakewalk team. You deserve a pat on the back. 

I agree 100%. It's a true success story in a world where bean counters usually strip what they can from an acquisition, then throw it in the trash. Hopefully other companies will learn something from BandLab's example.

You mentioned Studio One...for what it's worth, the Studio One contingent at PreSonus was pretty freaked out when it appeared Cakewalk was headed to extinction. They appreciated that Sonar was its own thing, distinct from Studio One, and respected the effort and programming that went into the software. And they also really sympathized with the user base, because they're musicians and could only imagine what it would be like to have the rug pulled out from under you (hence the serious discount for Cakewalk users who were looking for an alternative at the time).

The music industry is very different from a lot of other industries, where something like MIDI - a global cooperative effort among fierce competitors - could never happen. I think there's more "competition" among the users of the DAWs than the manufacturers, who are more likely than not to be hanging out at NAMM after hours. I'd be willing to bet that most companies wish Sonar well - as long as it's not well enough to put them out of business 

[John Vere]

Ya @Craig Anderton  I seem to remember a few other company's including Studio one offered us a generous discount to switch over. I also remember the kindness of companies like Overloud would gave us Unlock keys to their  plug ins. 

[InstrEd]

As I said about the pending new pricing model I shall not panic like last time and just see how it goes.   

[John Vere]

I decided to produce a video on this topic hoping it might reach more people who need to know what is happening. For the first time in over a year I posted it to Facebook, I'm curious to what they are saying as at this point they are obviously not in the loop like we are. 

UPDATE Sept 15-  I pulled the video due to the comments getting out of hand. My mistake for posting to Facebook. Two of the Cakewalk user group pages removed it right away because I think the Admin disagreed. Show's you why Facebook is a dumb place to actually get information from because it will be biased. .  Seems a few people felt my claim that Cakewalk was due to be discontinued was "False information" That's odd because if it was, the Staff, who have seen this thread, would have most certainly questioned it's title.

The misinformation is all over the place with the worst one being many are saying CbB will be unlocked and you can use it forever. Sorry folks. seems this is not going to happen. Why would they do that, they are a business not a charity. 

Edited September 15, 2023 by JohnnyV
Removed dead video link

[Will.]

6 hours ago, Craig Anderton said:

The Studio One contingent at PreSonus was pretty freaked out when it appeared Cakewalk was headed to extinction.

I know why. Because they wouldnt have had another forum to spy on for new ideas and features to steal. 🥴🤣🤣🤣

[User 905133]

2 hours ago, JohnnyV said:

For the first time in over a year I posted it to Facebook . . . .

Just to let you know (and I am not sure if it's just me) but as of 3-4 days ago FB groups that used to have content available to the public (i.e., people without a FB account) are no longer accessible without a FB account.

Update:It's fixed!!  Something happened between several hours ago and a few minutes ago: FB now let's non-account holders view public content!!!  🙂 

Edited September 12, 2023 by User 905133
update

[Jean-Philippe ROGER]

On 9/7/2023 at 11:58 PM, Milton Sica said:

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.

In your opinion, since all software contains bugs, it should be free?
Funny reasoning, go explain that to SAP, Microsoft etc...

[Starship Krupa]

On 9/8/2023 at 1:40 AM, Larioso said:

Three years ago running CbB started to remind me to reactivate.

- nothing happend it continued to remind me

- I was at Bandlab app and pressed some button, but no confirmation or new expire date or anything

- I posted here on forum, and it just fell down the pages, not help at all to fix it

Did you contact official support? This forum is for peer support, no guarantee anyone is going to have an answer for you. That's what official support is for.

The devs don't read and respond to every message, customer support is not their job. As far as support, their job is probably to answer email requests, period.

[Starship Krupa]

On 9/8/2023 at 10:46 AM, Bristol_Jonesey said:

You WILL need to update it at some point because the existing servers which CbB use to refresh your activation will no longer be online.

There's been no official statement to the effect that this is scheduled or foreseen. BandLab have kept the registration server for SONAR, which isn't even their product, alive for over 5 years since the demise of Cakewalk, Inc. And there's no end to that in sight either.

Anything is possible, but based on the wisdom and good citizenship BandLab have displayed in the past 5 years, with zero, zip, nada, no unethical moves ever in regard to Cakewalk and/or the legacy SONAR userbase, I suspect that anyone who's using CbB now and wants to keep using it and not upgrade to Sonar will be able to do so for a reasonable time period, by which I mean "a matter of years." This is all speculation on my part. Past performance is no indication of future blah blah....

If by "at some point" you mean when/if BandLab divests the product line or goes under, well, anything's possible. As with any software, as well as food, water, and transportation, have a contingency plan.

And as I've mentioned before, if for some reason you get caught out, you can always unplug your DAW from the Internet and set its clock back to a time when CbB was registered. 😄

[Mark Morgon-Shaw]

I think the CbB team have been absoloutely brilliant over the past 5yrs.

How anyone can begrudge them transitioning to a paid model after giving us half a decade of pro level software and support FOR FREE goodness only knows.  

I see the Platinum Lifetime crowd still complaining over on Facebook, as if Bandlab who owe them nothing either legally or morally haven't already done enough already for the user base. Maybe Bandlab can give them a token concession against new Sonar to finally put the matter to rest. 

I've checked my spreadsheet and since April 2018 I've written and produced over 450 tracks with CbB many of which have aired in various TV shows around the world and continue to do so. That wouldn't be possible if CbB wasn't a high quality stable DAW with professional level features and it's testament to the Dev Team that a slew of fantastically useful features have been added during that 5yrs that are in daily use.  Off the top of my head...

Arranger Tracks ( This has gotten me out of trouble more times than I care to mention ) 

Articulation Maps 

New Export Module ( This has been a game changer for creating deliverables ) 

Track Folders 

Ripple Editing

ARA 2

That's without accounting for all the bug fixes and small enhancements along the way.

So thanks to the CbB team for the last 5yrs, I will be first in line to purchase the new Sonar. I think the last one I bought was Sonar8.5 as an amateur producer before finally calling time on that version and transitioning to CbB as I was starting to get my tracks used professionally. 

I sincerely hope most will follow and the new products are a great success, I would dearly like  my DAW to once again grace the pages of Sound on Sound and be talked about by hardware manufacturers as a popular DAW their products need to be tested with and made compatible.   

Edited September 12, 2023 by Mark Morgon-Shaw

[Conteloto]

Big error from bandlab, CbB is a great free software, but there are several app out there that can do the same work and they will be free. Half a hour and you have them to start working.

 

I understand there is no more updates, but what I read is that you can continue using the last version...