jeejeestudio Posted December 30, 2023 Share Posted December 30, 2023 Hi, probably I missed a lot. I also cannot find a clear answer, but till when will the last Cakewalk version work? Will it stop when Next is there, or will it keep on running but no updates anymore? If there is an answer to this I would like to read it. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pwal³ Posted December 30, 2023 Share Posted December 30, 2023 No there is no clear answer right now 🤷♂️ 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Promidi Posted December 30, 2023 Share Posted December 30, 2023 I am going to go out on a limb here and speculate that Cakewalk by Bandlab 2023.09 Build 75 will stop working sometime between 6 months and 2 years after the release of Sonar (which itself is unknown). As to the definitive and precise date - I don’t think even the bakers themselves know that one yet. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bitman Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 I think it would be nice if they would just give us a patch to short circuit the need to reactivate. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeejeestudio Posted December 31, 2023 Author Share Posted December 31, 2023 Ok, thank you all, so actually no one knows. Hopefully it will be clear very soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo 88 Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 I wondering in anticipation if the big day is Jan. 1st 2024... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeejeestudio Posted December 31, 2023 Author Share Posted December 31, 2023 Could be Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orcmid Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 I'm betting (not much) that Cakewalk for Bandlab will not expire. It may not receive any further updates, but it will sit there nicely being room-mates with lagacy.SONAR and then Sonar.next. I don't think Cakewalk.next getting to a full-up stable release will impact that. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Byron Dickens Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 (edited) I can personally guarantee that it will work all the way up until it doesn't anymore. Edited January 1 by Byron Dickens 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noynekker Posted January 3 Share Posted January 3 I'm personally worried about the fact that the new branding announcement was 6 months ago . . . in DAW years that's a few millennium. . . . we've had 6 months more of free . . . just roll with it . . . the meter doesn't start clicking down until the new branding is actually in place, I'm thinkin' . . . 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeejeestudio Posted January 3 Author Share Posted January 3 Also a reason I'm now looking into a replacement daw, I'm looking at Waveform Pro or FL Studio. Both good priced and with lots of extensions. The latter is pay once and life time free updates. For Cakewalk Next or Sonar there is no price known yet, neither a update policy. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starship Krupa Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 On 12/30/2023 at 6:58 PM, bitman said: I think it would be nice if they would just give us a patch to short circuit the need to reactivate. If "they" don't, perhaps someone else will. Personally, I see little advantage for them to break Cakewalk by BandLab. The only possible upside is to coerce people into switching to the payware version. But people don't like to be coerced, and the ill will this would generate would likely cause a serious backlash. Ask Waves about the dangers of perceived coercion and resulting backlash. Better to have Cakewalk be the 6 year loss-leader that it was, and simply attract people to the new Sonar with look, feel, and feature improvements. I'm confident that for regular users of CbB that the new Sonar UI will be reason enough to invest in a license. I also doubt that they will be gouging for license fees, The existing userbase consists of a lot of frugal (and/or just plain broke) people, myself included, who were initially attracted to the program because it was free. I seem to remember talk of a tiered licensing of some sort. Perhaps there will be a stripper version of Sonar that only comes with the plug-ins that currently ship with CbB, and a premium package that will include some of the Cakewalk-branded plug-ins that once shipped with SONAR Platinum, such as the LP EQ's, full CA-2A, Session Drummer, Rapture, Dimension, etc. The promo picture shows the LP EQ's in use, so there's a possible clue. Re-skinned VST versions of the sonitus fx suite would be yummy as well. There's still Cakewalk IP that BandLab paid for that is (so far) going unused. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan Sasor Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 Cakewalk by BandLab is not going anywhere anytime soon. If anything changes on that front, there would be plenty of advance notice. We have no desire to pull the rug out from anybody. All of your projects from Cakewalk by BandLab and before will all continue to be fine in the new Sonar version as well. Also as has been said in a dozen other threads, the current plan for the new Sonar pricing should be very agreeable to most folks. Nothing is fully finalized, so we can't give out details, but the team is still very hard at work on all aspects of the new version and its delivery. On 12/30/2023 at 9:58 PM, bitman said: I think it would be nice if they would just give us a patch to short circuit the need to reactivate. This is unlikely as part of the user agreement for having free CbB is that it requires you to be connected to BandLab. All that's required of this is to have access to free software is the login. 10 hours ago, Starship Krupa said: If "they" don't, perhaps someone else will. That's called cracked/pirated software, aka intellectual property theft. 10 hours ago, Starship Krupa said: Re-skinned VST versions of the sonitus fx suite would be yummy as well. There's still Cakewalk IP that BandLab paid for that is (so far) going unused. There's some plans in the works for some of this, obviously I can't give any details at this time. 5 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starship Krupa Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 2 minutes ago, Jonathan Sasor said: That's called cracked/pirated software, aka intellectual property theft Indeed, and I wouldn't suggest that anyone use a program in that condition. It would be putting your system in the hands of an anonymous person who has put a great deal of effort into violating a licensing agreement and enabling others to also do it. Seems....fraught with potential for danger. I've personally cleaned up the results of a friend's son having rendered his laptop unusable due to his use of cracked music software. Since it was the same computer that he was supposed to use for school assignments and entertainment, he was hurtin' for certain. It took me hours to get a clean Malwarebytes test from the thing. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeejeestudio Posted January 4 Author Share Posted January 4 2 hours ago, Jonathan Sasor said: Cakewalk by BandLab is not going anywhere anytime soon. If anything changes on that front, there would be plenty of advance notice. We have no desire to pull the rug out from anybody. All of your projects from Cakewalk by BandLab and before will all continue to be fine in the new Sonar version as well. Also as has been said in a dozen other threads, the current plan for the new Sonar pricing should be very agreeable to most folks. Nothing is fully finalized, so we can't give out details, but the team is still very hard at work on all aspects of the new version and its delivery. This is unlikely as part of the user agreement for having free CbB is that it requires you to be connected to BandLab. All that's required of this is to have access to free software is the login. That's called cracked/pirated software, aka intellectual property theft. There's some plans in the works for some of this, obviously I can't give any details at this time. Thanks ver much for your reply. Much appreciated! Hopefully more details soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveC Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 On 1/4/2024 at 9:21 AM, Jonathan Sasor said: On 1/3/2024 at 10:29 PM, Starship Krupa said: Re-skinned VST versions of the sonitus fx suite would be yummy as well. There's still Cakewalk IP that BandLab paid for that is (so far) going unused. There's some plans in the works for some of this, obviously I can't give any details at this time. Interesting... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry Kelley Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 (edited) The excitement of a new Sonar version "later in the year" has drifted into being a bit tired of waiting. If I will be compelled to switch to a competitor due to price or a subscription model I would like to get the show on the road. I have been playing with two other DAWs and they would serve me fine if staying with Sonar isn't worth it. But I am a private user, not commercial. Me remaining "faithful" isn't going to help any company. But at the same time I don't want to miss a potentially awesome DAW update. And all of this while I stare at my stack of Cakewalk software starting at the DOS 1.04 version. So I sit here tapping my finger on the desk waiting. Edited January 5 by Terry Kelley 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pwal³ Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 On 1/4/2024 at 3:21 PM, Jonathan Sasor said: There's some plans in the works for some of this, obviously I can't give any details at this time. blimey! about time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starship Krupa Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 (edited) 1 hour ago, Terry Kelley said: The excitement of a new Sonar version "later in the year" has drifted into being a bit tired of waiting. If I will be compelled to switch to a competitor due to price or a subscription model I would like to get the show on the road. I have been playing with two other DAWs and they would serve me fine if staying with Sonar isn't worth it. But I am a private user, not commercial. Me remaining "faithful" isn't going to help any company. But at the same time I don't want to miss a potentially awesome DAW update. And all of this while I stare at my stack of Cakewalk software starting at the DOS 1.04 version. So I sit here tapping my finger on the desk waiting. I get the impatience. The people who make my favorite toy have announced there's a new version that will ship "sometime in the near future," but that was 6 months ago. As far as your personal needs go, I suspect that you could be happy with Cakewalk by BandLab in its current state for a long time. BandLab have announced no plans to turn off the validation server. They have also shown a history of not only leaving the Cakewalk, Inc. registration server and product repository turned on (for 6 years now), they even recently updated the front end program for it. Spending money to provide continued support for a defunct company's products, and they are products that are in direct competition with their own. From the start, it's been in BandLab's best interests for people to migrate/update from SONAR to CbB, yet they enable people to stick with SONAR for as long as they like. They've even kept the Steam validation going for people who bought it that way. I've even recently witnessed a Cakewalk developer patiently helping a SONAR 8.5 user on this forum. The idea that they would suddenly kick the cord out of their own Cakewalk's validation server....it would be out of character for them to do it. Yes, they say "at some point" Cakewalk by BandLab will no longer validate, but IIRC, they've also said that about the old Cakewalk, Inc. products. The ill will it would generate just wouldn't be worth it. At this point, BandLab are the company who saved SONAR. Now, after 6 years of letting everyone use SONAR's direct descendant for free, while they turned the dev staff loose on bug fixing like rabid wolves, they've announced a more extensively revamped DAW that will continue the "Sonar" branding and will be payware. This is all fine, they're heroes who are now going to be claiming a just reward. Why anyone would suspect that they would suddenly kick CbB users to the curb, with all the ill will that would generate, escapes me. The loss-leader concept is now firmly entrenched in the audio software market. MeldaProduction (wouldn't be an Erik post without a mention of MeldaProduction, would it?) was an early pioneer, with their MFreeFX Bundle. That package of freebies was (and still is) of incredibly value in my self-education as a mix engineer, and it so solidly hooked me on their products that I now have a lifetime license for everything they will ever produce. Many companies have followed suit, including iZotope and Kilohearts. There will be users who will wish to stay with CbB for whatever reason(s). Custom theming is one near to my heart that I will miss a great deal. Breaking things for people who took you up on the loss leader? I can't think of any audio software company who has done that. It would generate so much ill will. Why would any company deliberately do that? BandLab are smart cookies. The Cakewalk staff have been around the music software industry for a long time and know the score (no pun intended). Sonar is still a product of the same company, BandLab AFAIK didn't get bought up by a different conglomerate with a different agenda. Meng's vision of rescuing SONAR from oblivion is still driving it. Now, part of that vision is having it bring in direct revenue instead of just the brand recognition it's been supplying. Once Sonar ships, the plan is to no longer allow new users to adopt CbB. I suspect that this is partly to curtail the free version from cannibalizing sales of the new version. Fair enough, although I'd love it if the plan were to keep the legacy CbB around as a loss-leader. But they've given a huge advance warning that if you still want the freebie CbB, act NOW. Nothing sinister, ever, in 6 years. I just don't think it's going to start now. As for the licensing cost, I personally suspect that it will be a pleasant surprise. Sonar, as Jon alluded to, will probably get some of the Cakewalk IP plug-ins added back. But AFAIK, it's not going to ship with the huge bundle of 3rd-party goodies that Platinum did. Maybe I'm wrong, but there's been no indication of that. If that's the case, the starting point is SONAR Professional pricing. With the competition not exactly resting for the past half-dozen years, lots more action in the $100 range with Studio One Artist, Waveform, REAPER, and Mixcraft, I suspect something in that neighborhood. Maybe also some kind of subscription model in addition (some people prefer that for various reasons). Waves have taught us about the perils of trying to sell subscription-only to creative software users, so I wouldn't expect subscription-only. Edited January 5 by Starship Krupa 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Byron Dickens Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 How DARE you use logic and critical thinking! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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