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TIll when will last Cakewalk work?


jeejeestudio

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2 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

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.

Boy, you read a lot more into what I wrote than anyone could imagine. LOL. ;) Well, except for our resident Eeyore!

Edited by Terry Kelley
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7 hours ago, Terry Kelley said:

Boy, you read a lot more into what I wrote than anyone could imagine. LOL. ;) Well, except for our resident Eeyore!

The entire post wasn't meant to rebut or even reply just to your post. I just took it as a starting point to sum up my thoughts on the subject. Apologies if it seemed otherwise.

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So we have our official answer to how long cbc?  As long as it takes, I guess.  Users need to take cakewalk at its word that it ain’t coming for your DAW  - yet.  And you’ll get warning so you can find another free DAW.

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I remember that statement to about when Sonar is released new downloads of CbB would not be available.    I don't worry anymore. I'm very thankful what Bandlab did to keep Cakewalk operational and will decide when Sonar is released if it fits my needs. If not priced within my budget  so be it.

 

Peace

and

Happy New Year!

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1 minute ago, Glenn Stanton said:

Butt memory isn't funny, many people have said i have my brains in my as* and so i take it seriously. 🤪

Och!  I hope you don't have diarrhea as you might poop out your brains 😨

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3 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

I remember reading it as part of the statements about the upcoming changes. But memory is a funny thing.

I looked around all over here and I could not find that statement.  I do understand that 2023.09 was the last planned update of Cakewalk by BandLab.   But I could find nothing about downloads going unavailable.  There was a short time when it was a bit difficult to find them, but they are still available.  I don't think Cakewalk.next is a replacement and I have no idea where Sonar.next is on the horizon.

I also don't understand comments about time limits on CwB.  Mine is activated and there's no indication that a re-activation is required at any time in the future.  The `Help | About Cakewalk...` just provides a "CBCO-1.00-..." serial and says "Activated by Cakewalk."   I did sign in to BandLab as part of first-run.  (I still have my original Cakewalk account, but I don't think that has anything to do with this.)

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2 hours ago, orcmid said:

I also don't understand comments about time limits on CwB.  Mine is activated and there's no indication that a re-activation is required at any time in the future. 

Validation of Cakewalk is and has always been good for 6 months from the last validation.

 

2 hours ago, orcmid said:

I looked around all over here and I could not find that statement.

It was part of the initial announcement thread, if memory serves. It cause a huge splash amongst the community of people who create CbB tutorials, because it will eventually make their tutorials less relevant.

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On 1/7/2024 at 7:25 PM, Starship Krupa said:

Validation of Cakewalk is and has always been good for 6 months from the last validation.

 

It was part of the initial announcement thread, if memory serves. It cause a huge splash amongst the community of people who create CbB tutorials, because it will eventually make their tutorials less relevant.

One of the FAQs on the Cakewalk Sonar webpage states

Quote

We will continue providing community support and maintenance for Cakewalk by BandLab until Cakewalk Sonar becomes publicly available. At some point after the release of Sonar, Cakewalk by BandLab will no longer be supported. Note that existing Cakewalk by BandLab users will be able to continue using the software after the release of Cakewalk Sonar.

 

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