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I think that a dumbed down version of Cakewalk would be most appealing to true first time beginner music makers that have never used a DAW, and have no actual understanding of what audio or MIDI tracks are. DAWs are complicated and can be intimidating for beginners, and I am not suggesting to cripple Cakewalk in any way. Maybe a special basic lens and demo template would be all that is needed to dumb it down for beginners, along with some effective getting started videos that cover a few bundled demo projects step by step, in detail. Like with a game mode metaphor, with a choice of difficulty: Easy, Medium, or Hard. I realize that Cakewalk can acquire new users with any amount of experience, but probably the largest pool available is with beginner users. But if they download Cakewalk (which in all its glory is actually an enhanced version of Sonar Producer) and are not supported out of the box, they may just give up and look elsewhere for something to start their music maker journey with. So bottom line, education and learning resources are probably the #1 priority for acquiring and retaining new Cakewalk users. Nothing wrong with Cakewalk, but a lot of the power is under the hood, and the good stuff is hidden away, until you stick around long enough to uncover it!

Thanks! I bumped my DropoutMsec up to 2000, and that seems to have taken care of the dropout on loading!

I can see that there would be benefits to sticking with the same DAW, and a finite set of bundled plugins for stability, as well as collaboration and project exchange. But for an individual working on it all, and maybe using more than one DAW, having the same set of cross DAW plugins would have benefits. So I am thinking of a situation where you may prefer one DAW for creative songwriting and sound design, and another DAW for arranging, mixing, and maybe even mastering. This would be a situation where the artist gets more inspiration from the creative songwriting workflow in one DAW environment, but prefers a different technical workflow for mixing when he puts on the engineer's hat later to polish the song. It would be nice to have the same plugins that you used to dial in your sounds make the trip across, especially if they are a key part of your inspired sounds!

This! ^^^ I don't find this to be a very big issue with Sonar/Cakewalk, because most of the plugins except for DXi and Pro Channel will work elsewhere. But in a program like Studio One Pro, which has some excellent bundled plugins, they are all locked to the DAW. I assume that by locking a user and their workflow into the host plugins creates a "sticky" factor, making it less tempting for them to cross over to another competitor. So I prefer ala carte plugins that can travel anywhere. I wish DAW vendors would always release VST versions of their bundled plugins, even if it is an optional paid upgrade.

I have experienced no crashes since updating. to 4.0.4. But I often get the Cakewalk audio engine dropout as soon as a sound has finished loading into a part. Just restarting the audio engine seems to make it good to go though. Adjusting my audio buffers seemed to make no difference here. I tried everything from 256-1024. No problem like this with another DAW I tested, so maybe Cakewalk is just a bit over-protective here. And ST4 now uses much less memory per instance, so it is no longer a big deal with RAM to load several plugin instances into the DAW. But I do still notice some performance issues if I load up multiple parts in a single instance of ST4.

I had not heard that before. I suppose it is possible, but I can neither confirm (or deny). Might be worth a look! I have had Dimension Pro since it was bundled with Sonar 8 Producer (through Splat), and Rapture since it was bundled with Sonar X2 Producer (through Splat). They are great sounding, mostly underrated synths! The free expansion packs are definitely not to be missed. They really highlight the sound design potential of this pair. I prefer using the Session to browse presets, and only opening the native plugin if I want to edit the sound. Rapture Pro was an effort to combine the best of these two legacy synths. Never got on board with Rapture Pro before the shutdown, but I would probably support that if it ever becomes available again!

Rapture Session also makes a great all-in-one browser for all of your Dimension Pro and Rapture classic sounds if you have them installed already. It imports those libraries at install time if it finds them.

That's just what you get when you host your file on this site. It is limited to a small resolution. To post a full resolution image, you need to link it to a 3rd party hosting service such as Imgur.

KVR Poll: Which DAW Would You Choose On A Level Playing Field? https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=520515

Once you have inserted a MIDI or Instrument track, go to menu "Views > Piano Roll View.

Just FYI, the XLN Audio Online Installer lets you set the sound data path in the "Advanced" options.

Blackhole is definitely worth $25. It has been great with everything I have tried so far. Recommended for string instruments. Great with acoustic or electric guitars, but I have found it especially cool with electric pianos. Or turn an acoustic piano into a pad! Gets that spacey vibe that is hard to describe. Not too bad with tonewheel organs either!

I only brought Reaper up because I saw ironic humor in an earlier post that perhaps implied that Reaper might be easier to learn than Cakewalk. But I am sure there are many folks happily using either one!

That CPU is a bit dated by today's standards, at 1.4GHz. http://www.cpu-upgrade.com/CPUs/AMD/E1-Series/E1-2500.html But if you can run Windows 10 you should be able to work with it, as long as you can keep the track and plugin count low. Audio files are actually less demanding on the CPU than MIDI, if you are relying on virtual instruments to generate the sounds. But you can "freeze" the instrument tracks, which generates audio files from the MIDI, to reduce demand on your CPU. You can unfreeze them to make changes, and then refreeze them. That will allow you to work with more tracks on a slower CPU.

+1 for this ^^^ Make suggestions, but please don't make demands of a free gift!!!

One word: LatencyMon ^^^ https://www.resplendence.com/latencymon

I keep Reaper around, but the only use for me so far is for testing VST plugins that I may have a problem with elsewhere. The best feature of Reaper, IMHO, is the single track type and flexible routing. Once you figure the routing out, that is a valuable tool. No separate MIDI tracks, audio tracks, synth tracks, etc. to deal with. Most other DAWs force you to select a track type to work with, and then there are explicit things you either can or cannot do with a certain track type. But the rest of the workflow in Reaper is a PITA for me. I have found that all DAWs I have tried have certain apparent illogical idiosyncrasies and gotchas to be learned. As with any other, start with the manual and some videos. I have been using Cakewalk longer than any others, so it is the easiest for me to use. It's not the only one I have, just the most comfortable to grab and go with. I have been "glancing" at other DAWs for years, and even invested in a couple of them during the great "Gibson shutdown". And Cakewalk does have a step sequencer!

Give Sweetwater a call and speak to a sales engineer there regarding your needs and issues. See what they recommend for you, as they surely know more about pro audio than Dell does.

Yes, definitely Reaper. Because it's so logical and intuitive!

Here is a list of internal cards available at Sweetwater Sound (1 page; $$$-$$$$): https://www.sweetwater.com/c703--PCI_Audio_Interfaces vs. USB interfaces available at Sweetwater Sound (5 pages; $$-$$$): https://www.sweetwater.com/c695--USB_Audio_Interfaces

Sound Blaster Z is a gaming sound card. Not engineered for pro audio production. And it's not that budget friendly either. Since you are looking at that SB card, I would assume that you only need 1 line in? For about the same money, you could get a Focusrite Scarlett Solo USB, and for a little bit more you could get a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 USB.

Well I was merely offering a suggestion for an alternative, in case it ends up being a dead-end regarding accessing the legacy account. Not a perfect solution, but it's better than nothing! At least it would get a Cakewalk DAW up and running again for free! As scook said, an account was required to register Sonar 8. Cakewalk support is trying to assist the user, but without that original email to reference the account, success may be in doubt.

I think it was mentioned that it was playing MIDI data in Cakewalk, rather than playing a MIDI controller.