chris.r

Plugin Alliance comes first to mind, especially great when on sale! I always thought Slate plugins are the direct competitor to T-Racks but they were always dongle'd so I avoided them until today, not sure it's still the case but for me too late. So I can't say if they are lighter or not since I don't have any.

I've bought into sonible because I didn't want to go the izotope route. Now what...

To me it looks more like a process in time with regard to changes they've undertaken to authorization managers of their software. Exactly my point there. With time, they have moved over from the old type of authorization manager that handled both, the online and offline authorizations, to the newer Product Manager that seems to work just online, sucks I know. Also that's why all the questions in the first about which exactly app you're trying to authorize because with all that mess now it seems relevant, otherwise it won't work if you try the wrong way. There's this paradigm shift now onto everything online and subscription and perhaps we users don't do much enough to express our objection, or maybe there is already enough acceptance in the amount of customers taking the offer. Well, to me the T-Racks suite is great, if not a bit too CPU intensive, and I'm too long with these products now that I'm just used to all be bizarries. I think if you're new user then you might need to weight for yourself the pros and cons of having a good sounding and quite versatile suite of effects that will come with a convoluted way of installing tied to it. The download alone is over 2GB (edit: as you pointed out promptly). Guess the new IK Product Manager had been introduced to simplify the authorization process, at the same time bringing a harm to users like us that would want an offline method, you can't please everyone??. Yeah in my case they've eventually (wish some push ) been helpful with some sales or account issues but never got to resolve a bug I reported. I've seen other users saying their bug fixes were done so there's that.

Scratch that.

Any idea if they will be bringing back more licenses? I was stupid to wait until today only to see it gone ???

I'm not getting any more deals emails from jrr shop. Did they stop sending them, maybe slowing down rate or it's just me?

Or scratchpad... for doing drafts. I know SO has this but didn't look closely, possibly some other DAWs have it too.

16. Updated MIDI editing.

Melodyne is another example.

Personally I don't see anything funny about still running Windows 7. Windows 10 is nothing but a headache coming back on a regular basis, at least for me. Windows 7 and previous versions were more like 'set and forget', that gave me peace of mind for years where I wasn't distracted with all the buzz about new forced updates braking compatibility or functionality of software, subscriptions or nagging screens to create accounts, updates to the DAWs or plugins for fixing what the windows update broke apart from new features, next windows update going in the background during Cakewalk session... eventually Windows 7 will have to die due to being left unsupported anymore by all the software that is under pressure to move on, same will probably happen to CbB. It was good while it lasted

What is the authorization method, Kenny? For instance, I like what Mixbus does - you just put a text file, containing the registry code, somewhere on the disk - and voila! Cubase OTOH requires re-authorizing once a year, that's bad... still twice better than Cakewalk ?

Isn't that why an unlocked / one-time only activation version of Home Studio was made available (so that people would continue to have access to their projects)? Not necessarily. There were a few features introduced at different points of time where it could make it impossible to open newly created projects in previous versions of Cakewalk or Sonar, aux tracks being one of them. Now I started wondering if projects that include some of the other new features, thinking about Articulations or Arranger here, could possibly render my recent projects unusable in Sonar Platinum or even earlier versions of CbB. In fact you just made me go try open all my projects, that matter to me, in Sonar Platinum and see how it goes probably will have to create a few quick projects for this test as well. Another step to futureproof own works would be render to audio but it takes much space and I'm on a tight space here. Alternatively migrate projects to another DAW but while I believe I'm still capable in learning something new I can't be sure I don't already overestimate myself ? so I'll wait and see what will come, then decide.

In my opinion best approach would be to keep Cakewalk Sonar in it's base form (as CbB is now) free and supported for those who aren't making money from doing music or are on tight budget, and then start adding new features and content in higher tiers for those who want to pay for it. Best of both worlds.

corrected for you

I hear that is a big reason for a group of oldtimers now being more active, ready to pay whatever money is needed just for keeping things like in the old days, now that would make sense. Wondering what part of the overall userbase would that be. I see a lot of the newer users, since the free Cakewalk, are already confused whether they should stay or jump onto something else, free or cheap. And that's even before any details regarding the price are given. As for me I know I won't have steady income.

By all means get your information from an out-of-date google cache. This is almost certainly archaic pages from the olden times. The image in the preview and the other text refer to Sonar Platinum. Wow, those were the times. I paid slightly above $100 for lifetime updates on biggest discount and was watching every penny closely on both sides before spending. Decided to go for it mainly to get things like Addictive Drums 2, Pianoteq or Melodyne, in addition to the full Sonar version, but also because I realized that I wasn't in position to shell out a hundred or more $$ every year for keeping the DAW current.

Well suited for lo-fi music FWIW.

pretty sure there is no intent to remove the time limit, I've been told way too many reasons why they need to keep it, of which none makes a real sense to me so I read it as they want to keep it for some reasons they won't talk about and we'll have to accept it that way, end of discussion, and I've been crossed with stuff about this for at least 5 years now, there was no mention about removing it except Noel vaguely declaring earlier that it would get unlocked as a last resort should there happen a definite end of cakewalk development, and he just repeated this today I mean I would much appreciate a change in the approach but really not expecting it, why would they let us for example use CbB in the form it is now (will be after the last upcoming update) if there's much chance it will work for several more years, when there will be a paid software you could be kindly 'forced' to buy? sorry for pessimistic note but I live long enough to understand the intentions and incentives of companies, even the most ethical amongst them... time will tell, I'd love to be proven wrong!

Thanks, pretty sure many are grateful for the servers being kept live, including me. Still for me (pretty sure for many others too but let me speak for myself), calling a buying scheme "rent to own" then keeping the software on a 6-months period of re-authorization leash is quite disconcerting for the "owner". A potential license unlock assurance helps just a little, wouldn't want to buy a car under such agreement

My single question would be, can you still drive your car or keep using your appliance in case the maker decide to close? (not wishing you any of it)

It's the same thread I read from ?

Thanks. I was just sitting like that and wondering should I start making some music or update some software... thankfully there's that

Are there any new features worth special mention in the latest Mixbus? I stopped following the changes somewhere between version 4 to 6 but Mixbus does offer good sale on upgrades so I could always think of going back assuming it's growing nicely as a DAW and getting that polish a Cakewalk user would be looking for.

Where did you hear that? I would feel much better seeing that's true, unfortunately I don't see them removing the activation time-out. All I read is they will render it (CbB) unsupported, and nothing from the new development since the start of this years is going to be added in the upcoming final update.

This model is fair if "updates" means "new features", but what about bug corrections? if someone paid for a software with lifetime use, at least bug corrections should be available for free with no time limits. I'm afraid there will be no such thing as "permanently unlocked" and "you own it" nor even lifetime use the way we would like to see it. The 6 months authorization period is embedded in Cakewalk's code since at least Sonar Platinum if not earlier. They'll still hold the plug and ultimately they will decide anytime if they want to pull it out or not, we're depending on their grace and I don't even expect it to change in a slight way, period. Ever since CbB has started with this sort of lock scheme I had the feelings something is going in the background, even in a post I compared the 6-months authorization to a (free) subscription when I got bashed in the head by many, only now it occurred to me that after 5 years of some sort of an intermission period they now can go back to the previous scheme of business. To me it seems clear now that was probably the hidden plan since beginning. A free software with 6-months authorization, oh come on! How many times you can step into the same river? Once in my life I decided to make an exception and took a risk when buying into lifetime updates, LOL! And I even wasn't aware of the 6-months lock scheme at that moment. We know, it's just a wording. Example: I bought a keyboard and I can still use it even after the company has gone, I can use it until it's broken. With the licensing, what we would expect is to hold the right to use a paid software anytime (even after end of a company), not just 'rent' the right to use it until the company changes rules. Hold rights to use, not own the software, we get that. For now with Cakewalk it's: renew your right to use it every 6-months, it's not "permanently", "owned" not even lifetime in it's original meaning (life of the company), in fact it's: util we pull the plug out. To me it's like false marketing, it's more like 'rent' and I never want to pay for that. I would want my software, that I hold rights to use indefinitely after I've bought it, to be able to install and run even after the company is gone provided all factors such as hardware and OS are intact. We're not getting it at all since some earlier versions of Cakewalk, think it's X2 or X1, we're only 'renting' it so long they allow us (have you experienced it going demo mode? I had, when there was some server error). Thankfully they keep it live so far. The software may get "broken" by OS updates or change in hardware, or incompatibility with new plugins. Here's where we need the updates, that is fixes (apart from new features), free or paid depending on the company's chosen scheme. Lifetime updates should then grant you at least free updates (fixes) for the rest of life of the company. As simple as that.