John Vere

It has to be pilot error or something about your projects is very different than normal. I can open any of mine even in Sonar 8.5. You get a warning about some things being different and there’s no pro channel but if it crashes you use safe mode. Opening a CbB project in Splat or even Home Studio works with out safe mode being needed. I was messing with all this a few weeks ago out of curiosity. Not sure why you wasting you time doing this anyway. As said CbB is expected to work for a while yet, might even be a long while. A few of us are campaigning to have a paid for license for the latest version just as an option. That would solve a lot of issues and stop the complaining. And Sonar will soon be marketed with different price points that will make it affordable for everyone.

He was dissing Cakewalk last spring after the announcement and started luring people to Studio One. I thought of him as a trader after that. But after all, being a you tuber is a business for guys like Mike.

I’m not sure where this thinking comes from but my personal view is we were screwed by Gibson who took our money and abandoned us. End of story? It could have been, but an absolutely amazing, unexpected thing happened. Bandlab bought the code from Gibson. Then 2 more things that didn’t have to happen but did were also announced. They kept the original staff and they rebranded the code with a recycled name and made it free. In a way both the Name and the staff made former Sonar people happy but it also creates this problem that somehow a few people think the staff were the same people who took their money and left the building. They were not. And keeping the name adds more confusion for some people. In my opinion they are repeating this mistake by recycling the Sonar name. This will be massively confusing on the internet search engine. Anyhow I see no reason why they should be obligated to cut a deal. As just because you gave your money to a company that screwed you and oddly is still in business doing fine they had zero to do with that. You got 7 years of your moneys worth for free! If Gibson had kept going you might have had lifetime updates but I bet by now they would have wormed their way out of that deal . And who knows how much Sonar would have advanced. We are all in good shape and once they sort out the graphics all will be better than it ever was.

I just thought of a perfect solution. Produce a FREE version of Cakewalk with adds that pop up every 5 minutes just like 90% of the free Apps and delivery services do. "Don't like these adds?, click here to purchase a licence to remove them" They might even make MORE money selling the adds than selling the basic version of Sonar which I predict a price of around $50 ( note: ONLY A PREDICTION not a fact)

I have CbB on 5 computers. 3 of them were updated the day the last version was put out, The other 2 are off line. I don’t see any warning on any of mine. But that doesn’t mean much. Im expecting a nag on the off line ones that still have September versions soon. All I know is we are told we must keep updated to the most recent version and to activate it you normally just click on the toast message which should open your Bandlab log in window. I’ve had times that the Log in screen didn’t appear for a while and I had to wait a few minutes then it worked. There’s also this new Cakewalk Product Manager but I haven’t figured out what it does just yet. I think it’s still a work in progress like just about everything else seems to be.

The step sequencer creates a groove clip. Only one, that’s the whole idea. You’ll see it has that angle upper right corner that signifies a groove clip. Grab left mouse and drag. Best to zoom way out so it goes faster. Then another option is I’m pretty sure there’s a bunch of midi loops that came free that shows up in the browser. All those are always groove clips. Same with you can drag midi patterns fro SI drums. Of course I have a video about all that

Because I often have the same issue for these things it’s super quick to just use the step sequencer. That will easily create any drum machine type beat and then it is automatically a groove clip. I drag it out and then I bounce it to clip so it then can be edited. And don’t forget you can also use the metronome and change it to any sound. If you need it as part of the export you insert an Aux track and record the metronome that way. But a midi track is easy to use.

If you have been here long enough you would know the the op has good reasons to stay with 8.5 as she uses an app that speaks when you hold the mouse over stuff and it apparently only works with 8.5. Anyway, Annabelle I’m thinking you should see if you can just stay with the older VST2 version. I use old systems for my live shows ( W7) and I mostly just stay with the apps of the same vintage.

I totally agree. I was thinking yesterday that generally most of us Sonar/ Cakewalk users tend to stay away from the whole Bandlab culture. The original app was much despised as our way to install Cakewalk. So you see how clever these folks are. I think they are very top notch marketing experts at work. Not only have they created a huge user base with the free software. Now with this Backstage pass they will draw those of us who have basically ignored that whole part of the company in. As I’ve been saying Bandlab is now a full featured Music Business including not only software but music management and distribution. A one stop shop. I also heard they make gear but haven’t checked that out yet.

Exactly and why it should have cost around $500 all along. That’s what the average price of a full featured DAW has always been This was a simple marketing ploy they used and I think worked brilliantly. I have no clue what the actual numbers are but since Cakewalk was made free my guess is the user base grew from thousands to multi millions. So to simplify the math. 2017 - 1 user 2024- 100 users So even half of that is a huge increase in users. And then we will see another increase as Sonar hopefully gains respect from the DAW community in general. Believe it or not a lot of people avoid free software.

@Duncan Stitt You can most certainly set up Cakewalk with playlist and then you will definitely have to purchase Sonar in the future. There’s lots of info spread all over this forum but I’ll just state the basic facts for you. Cakewalk uses a authorization system that Bandlab can deactivate any time they choose. They are going to keep it active only so people can transition to Sonar. The end date is unknown but will come. You need to have installed the very latest version to take advantage of the borrowed time. Sonar is now available as a early access version watch this video for info https://youtu.be/7CfkcisYtLI?si=h2iD8_teOHIV__uC It most certainly has the playlist and we are hoping in the future they upgrade it. The TTS-1 has become old and unstable and Roland asked Cakewalk to remove it so they did. There’s lots of alternatives to GM players. Watch this. https://youtu.be/kF3tEttGdIQ?si=fE2pYVduYk_EwoeA or better yet use better VST instruments watch this https://youtu.be/LI040J9apwU?si=ZlhSrJeLQ7QxFx5D

I did a bunch of research which really only scratched the surface of what is out there. I made a video explaining about the topic. https://youtu.be/kF3tEttGdIQ?si=fE2pYVduYk_EwoeA But just today I tried to open a project that I know for sure I had added the TTS-1 later in the game being after the steel drum patch. and it crashed the minute I hit playback. I now have Coyote player so I swapped for that and it stopped crashing. Note: I’m using CbB as I was having issues with Sonar midi editing. Anyhow Coyote even sounds better to me so it’s good riddance TTS-1 for me.

That’s because they are?I actually own a whole drum kit but it’s a lot of work making that happen. And in the end I get real drums that both sound bad and are played badly too! I just totally reworked this with a Mandolin as the focus. I decided it works better as a bluegrass song.

Why are people so dang worried about the cost? Please everyone, the day is coming soon when you will know the answer so why waist brain cells even thinking about it. Cakewalk is still free, Use it. If you want to try Sonar create a Bandlab Backstage pass and use it. The Backstage pass for Bandlab membership is just like all the other Music delivery sites. You pay monthly or annually they are all like that. I think I paid $30 for an annual Membership to Distrokid.

This is highly unlikely as well. Those few users who refuse to pay will not be a financial risk to the company. Nobody ever said Cakewalk would be free forever so if you used it, then it was your choice. There’s a few fee DAWs out there but they have very limited features. But that's an option for people with no money and a $2,000 gaming laptop ?. . The developers have said they will be offering inexpensive versions of Sonar in the future. Example I like to use -- Sonar Home Studio was only $50. I have it still installed and I could easily produce a high quality recording with it. Remember the staff that work at Cakewalk are not the owners, Bandlab is. And the Cakewalk staff need to make a living from this. Already lots of people have switched to other DAW’s. So what. It’s your money, go ahead and spend it. Doesn’t hurt to own other software if you can afford it. I have Cubase 7 and the upgrade alone is $400. Most of Cakewalk’s competitors cost well over $500. So please don’t complain or waist brain cells worrying about what it will cost. We will know soon.

Actually the price of the Backstage pass is on par with what other music delivery service charge. Take a look at what is available to you as other services. This is no different than DistroKid or CD baby. These delivery services are making big bucks on the backs of the millions of wannabe “creators”. ( notice I didn’t say musician). Seems every week a new one pops up. Even Sound Click just changed into one. Anyhow the backstage pass is worth more than just admitting you to Sonar.

Do you have Melodyne license?

What is actually very cool is you can flip between Cakewalk and Sonar seamlessly. or even have them both open. I’ve totally gotten over the theme issues by applying the colours to the track strips. I’ve gotten used to the icons etc. It’s just like anything else that changes. After a given amount of time it becomes normal. The only thing I can’t get used to is a dark PRV!!

Sorry I was unaware of this change with version 5. Most certainly worth upgrading. I guess all my computers have older versions of Sonar and Cakewalk so they probably install version 4. I now have Studio 5 but it is only authorized on my main DAW. The midi conversation definitely was working for me on all 5 of my other systems. Some are W7. But all have latest versions of CbB. I’ll have to fire them up and check. I probably need to update to this latest version anyways.

Audio to midi doesn’t require a Melodyne license. Never did. But the dialogue box to choose percussive or melodic doesn’t appear. you can still open Melodyne and change that. So it’s a good idea not to uninstall Melodyne even though you can’t use the editor.

@Jim Stamper I think your reply is the best one so far. And it points out that there is a lot too it right now as far as attempting activation without knowing the steps. Seems for most people it's very straight forward. And that Big Green Activation successful is the sign that we are now good until the pull the plug down the road. Yes you can remove the Bandlad Assistant. It serves no purpose unless you use the Bandlab app I think. Actually I never had to install it on this new computer.

Ya to bad you are taking this so personally, we are only trying to help. And nobody notices when people "leave" it's the internet. The mistake you made was not explaining clearly what happened in your OP, It took 2 pages to find out! And now I actually see what happened, my original reply would have been totally different. But then, no excuse as it is a two fold issue. First - you made the mistake of not saving as you worked, you would have known all was lost after only 5 -10 minutes. And the activation process is "user Beware" at this point in time. A lot just changed and we are all on borrowed time with CbB. You are not to blame because only regualars to this forum would be totally aware of all of this knowledge. The activation to in app happened last fall. As well as the announcement that you had to update to the latest version to stay activated. Not everyone is aware of this but as said, there's always perils to using free software. And using CbB it's a good idea to stay up to date right now as things are changing fast.

This seems hard too believe but if so you have my partial sympathy now. Are you saying the activation showed during a sessions and not at start up?

Because that is NEVER happening. Why not be realistic about it and offer to pay.

Sorry it sounds harsh, but really, the way it works is you open Cakewalk ( Sonar) and if it needs activating it gives you a huge red notification that is impossible to ignore. You implied that you lost work which then implies you ignored the warning even though it says "You will not be able to save your work" And once again sorry if this sounds harsh but we all make mistakes and we learn from them. Working on a project for more than 10 minutes with out saving has been proven to be dangerous by many. I have set up signal keystroke to save and I hit it as often as possible. Just write it of as a lesson well received. Nobody here is being purposefully mean to you.