Misha

I wish they would come up with at least a compromise, for those of us who will not rent. For example: Rent Nu Sonar for a year - get a permanent unlock patch (no pull plug de-activation) for Cakewalk by Bandlab. I guess, it would be clear where this is heading after a full year cycle from the time of release. Patiently waiting....

Thanks all for comments & suggestions! I guess one of the issue that I am having difficulty with is that my vocals are muddy (by nature:) ) and they get tangled in with many other instruments. I will give it another vocal try and will try to address frequency space for each instrument and harder guitar panning. Thanks again!

Mark, in my 20+ year DAW journey I discovered that cores and RAM do play a role... but not as important as certain chip architecture. To put in a perspective. A few years ago I bought Thinkpad Xtreme (laptop) i7 9000 series processor, nvme 64 ram, 12 core (!) . It was a top of the line back then, but it struggled with intensive plugins. Something like multi plugin for example Izotope Neutron or Ozone would just have continuous dropouts, even at highest buffers, with internet disconnected and system running very slim. Number of cores played almost no role in my case. I tried balancing cores dedicating specific cores for Cakewalk use - no difference in performance. I spent so much time "optimizing" that machine, it's not funny. I gave up and got a different Thinkpad (Thinkbook). It's not top line and graphics are pretty standard, but seller had fantastic return policy so I decided to take a chance... For testing purposes of the new machine, I've made a project with several (!) instances of Ozone and other plugins with "lookaheads" and it run absolutely fine. It can handle 50+ tracks with about 30 medium & heavy weight plugins/synth without any issues. The only time I get a dropout now if I do something stupid. So, for consumer/prosumer machine it is awesome. The processor is 12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-12700H 2.30 GHz. The point I am trying to make, it's very individual and the Audio part, in my experience, depends greatly on chipset and I/O of a particular machine / motherboard.

Hi folks. This is the first time I am posting something here. A new tune I was working on past couple of weeks. Music is my hobby, not aiming for anything remotely professional. For me it always bit of a challenge, to compose, arrange, record etc., when you do it all by yourself switching from one process to another. I am sure some of you know the feeling. When I am finished with structure, my ears are too tired and I just don't hear it well enough to mix right... I've listened to some very well crafted tunes here, so I was wondering if a side listener can spot some obvious mistake(s) in the mix. I take critique very well. As one music friend said "I got a skin of a snow tire". Thank you in advance. Stand By My Side

Sounds similar to couple of songs from Sting & Shaggy collab a few years back. In any case fun tune. Glad to see EC doing stuff. Thanks for sharing.

"I have never touched High DPI scaling override" in Properties " That is why you likely never seen it before I've set it for another plugin long time ago because it was not displaying properly and never un-checked it, as this played nicely with all my other plugins, including KONTAKT 6, but not 7. It was driving me nuts and was not pleasant on eyes, so I've used Kontakt 6 when I could. I am glad Steve pointed me in the right direction.

David, true. However the culprit / solution is found. I was in touch with NI tech, I forwarded this finding. I wonder if flickering is present in Kontakt 8 with DPI override checked...

Wookiee, I am not "forgetting" anything. And I am glad that Cakewalk was running for the past 6 years. Also, I am glad you clarified that "dishonest" part was not aimed at me. However, Did I? I don't recall the "cheating" part. Not being fair to those who want a standard license or clear about near future is concerning, but not cheating. The fact is, no matter what competitor "wants" to sell, they are clear about their intentions upfront. I did not feel that their clip was dishonest. It's my genuine hope that Bandlab takes a similar approach if something is on horizon, even distant horizon, instead of locking threads.

msmcleod, Not quite sure. They seemed fairly clear of their intentions / offerings. If I remember correctly, Cakewalk had similar model. Pay for version, get the yearly updates free > keep last variant. Decide if you want to upgrade or not to the next. Seems very reasonable and honest.

Steve, I think you got it. So obvious. I am still puzzled how I overlooked that. I turned that on long time ago because of some issues displaying another plugin. Strange that flickering happens only with Cakewalk and Kontakt 7 combination for me. In any case, THANK YOU!

That could be true. But I sincerely doubt that somebody told him to accuse OP of dishonesty at the same time. That was very childish and I believe people with power to lock threads should act more maturely. On the subject. I am confident that DAW that most of us enjoy will come up with licensing that is suitable for majority of users. I decided not to jump a ship for another 6 months or so, giving a full year for BL to come up with something reasonable besides subs. I feel there is a lesson to be learned from competitor as far as how it should be presented to public.

Wookiee, I find it strange that you posted argumental message, locking up thread without me being able to respond. Especially accusing me of dishonesty. That was not very polite to put it gently. In any case, replying to your statement about me/my post. They might want to sell an elephant, which is none of my concern. I speculate the mentioning of Perpetual licenses a dozen or so times, were done to counter rumors that have been circulating that the "other" DAW might take a path of another DAW that most of us prefer. Perhaps I am wrong, but it seemed to me that it was done to assure customer base - that they should not worry about switch and bait tactics. Adding clarity into their marketing equation. I can't blame them for it. And that is my honest view.

I don't want to mention a name of a well known DAW that will release their version 7 next month. But what came as a surprise, in their short, non technical pre-release video they mentioned "Perpetual licenses" about a dozen times. I wonder why? Maybe it's very important to their flock...

Hi Folks. I believe I tried asking this question before. A combination of Kontakt 7 and Cakewalk is not working well for me. Kontakt's VST window seem to flicker. Goes blurry, than sharp every few seconds. Even if project is stopped. A Standalone K7 works fine. VST works fine in Reaper. No other plugins (VST's or VSTi's) have this issue in Cakewalk. I even tried Nu Sonar. Works fine there, but for known reasons, I will not be renting it. Kontakt 6 doesn't have this problem in Cake. I've tried opening NI ticket back in February. No solution from them and it seems it is very uncommon. I wonder if anybody experienced this and found solution? With Kontakt 8 around the corner, I am only wondering if this issue will remain. Thank you.

New Sonar: Vector, more features, developed aggressively. Near identical workflow as with legacy (and Bandlab's Cakewalk). Legacy (the one Gibson used to own): non-vector. Bugs since 2017 that will not be addressed anytime. You get what you get. Having said that. As of now.... As soon as you stop paying monthly for Bandlab's Sonar = no more Sonar for you. If you are OK with subscription model, keep in mind that price and terms might change (or worse) and you will have zero leverage. Either accept new terms & pay, or = no more Sonar. Bandlab's version of Cakewalk is powerful and available free....for now. There is no official word of any kind how long it will be available for. It is tethered to Bandlabs servers and asks for re-activation from time to time. If they decide that it's time to discontinue it, they can easily do that, as again, there is no official word of longevity or what will the end game look like. I hope I answered some of your concerns.

+1 Ashwin of BL gracefully offered to advocate for us users who refuse to rent software. You are welcome to use the form (link) he provided in that post.

"But I finally got a link from NI Support to the latest version of Sunburst Deluxe that worked with Kontakt 6" That was the only "fix" they could "offer". The links I got, seemed to be disc images of latest Kontakt 6 instruments., so you kind of overwriting whatever N. Access had done. Same K6>K7 troubles went for several other Session guitarist and pianos (Noire was one of them) I am not happy about Kontakt7 for two reasons. First is the backward compatibility issues as described above and second one is UI flickering. NI tech are "aware" of this issue that a number of people experience. Reported many moons ago, still not fixed. Anyway, here is an official link with all installers that will work with K6: https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/21349/previous-versions-of-recently-updated-kontakt-libraries-compatibility-with-k6-older-libraries#latest

Good videos above I am just a hobbyist, but some years ago I got couple of tips from a gentleman who I admire as a mixing engineer. I understand, that likely I would get some stones thrown at me, but... what worked for me is a light use of common FX, such as mentioned above (reverb, compression, etc) as individual (per track) and common FX (on a master bus) simultaneously to blend in vocals and other instruments to sit better in the mix. Here is a very basic, non scientific example. If lets say "just" for vocals FX mix dial somewhere is set at ~12-13% to gets desired ambience, I would use only about 8% on actual vocal track and about 5% on master bus, which includes vocal track so it blends better. Same idea with compression. You have to experiment. You can save the presets as templates or FX chains, but don't settle as you will find better ways as you go. It's a never ending learning process

mettelus, Thanks! Since I have all the hardware, and most software I use allow for 2 machines, seems my plan should work for complete bread & butter archive / backup. Who knows, maybe in not distant future BL will realize how they mistreated their most loyal fans & will start selling normal licenses and this project would become a nice happy paperweight, like my X1 box set.

With unfortunate BL's current position and unwillingness to provide clarity on perpetual licenses, I want to start preparing an offline backup system with all of my Cakewalk/Sonar projects. I am sorry if it was asked before, just want to make sure it is achievable the way I intend to do this. I have an older Thinkpad (420s, i7 Win 10). While these are dated laptops, they are built like tanks and parts for them are abundant... In any case, the idea is to install last pre- Bandlab's 2017 Sonar, activate it on this machine and put it away for the time being. Two questions please. 1) Once activated, will it require future re-activation using BL's server feedback on that laptop? 2)When this older (2017) Sonar "activates", does it use a Hard Drive ID or a System ID? Thank you.

Glenn, neat spoken word tune. Fun time signature. Listens well.

Glenn, thank you for your time! I specifically didn't want to mention BIAB approach for two reasons. Likely many people here are unaware of BIAB abilities and #2 is... I have used this method of extracting BIAB's MIDI notation and revoicing to winds myself. They have a decent library for some wind/brass stuff, but mostly are soloist, not rhythm based. If I had a single example to give from BIAB, it would be their Electro flutes (Super Midi track). Their Irish whistle Real tracks are phenomenal, but a bit too ethnic. EZK Organ... Thank you!! Will definitely look into it. So strange that in decades nobody took the liberty of creating a decent non-classical / non-cinematic commercial MIDI package(s) for winds. P.S. Yeah, I am a big fan of mr. Anderson, but things I am looking for are much simpler

mettelus, I kind of get what you are saying... But Piano->Flute conversion usually sounds very cheesy. Of course if there are MIDI packs made specifically for winds that could be used with EZ-keys, that would be another story and it would solve my request. However, I could not find any commercial/pro played flute&winds MIDI loop packs.

Hi Folks. For a long time I was searching for a phrase based plugin that could deliver something like EZ keys, but for woodwinds / flutes. I am not interested in audio loop packs that have fixed key or phrases that have little flexibility. The thing I am looking for has to re-harmonize phrasing based on midi chord track, similar to EZ-keys, U-jam, NI session guitars, Band in a Box or hardware arrangers. There are Bases, Piano, Guitars, Strings, but seems almost nothing as far as woodwinds. There only three wind "phrase based" plugins that I found that would do auto re-harmonization based on chord track: some items by Kirk Hunter, Action Woodwinds and Sonokinetic. While these three sound great, they are mainly for Classical / Cinematic music. I am looking for something usable for Pop, Rock, Pop jazz, and similar genres. My keyboard skills are very rudimental. I just can't record something that would sound decent enough. Mainly looking for phrases for rhythm parts, licks, accents. Nothing extraordinary, but so they are played as a musician of that instrument would. I have enough "sounds", and while I am aware of MIDI limitations+Winds, MIDI only plugin would work too. P.S. Those who know Band In a Box... Their Real Tracks are the best example what I am looking for, I have them all. While they have a good selection of brass, woodwinds and flutes have very little presence. Would appreciate any meaningful input. Thank you!

Jonathan, my case study is simple. There were several statements offering sprinkles of hope concerning licenses over the course of past 13 months made by Bakers and those who reply from support@bandlab.com - which leads, I believe to same "form" Ashwin provided. Even as close as two days ago. Even if you have no authority to disclose certain things, just for a minute put yourself in shoes of someone who have been with Cakewalk for many years, despite all turbulences. Those, who patiently waited for 13 months for some kind of a fair deal, or any kind of purchasing options besides renting software...and got nothing. As of now I view Cakewalk by BL as legacy product that will likely disabled at one point in the next 2 or so years, perhaps longer, but nowhere close to "decades" promised in original 2018 letter. And the new Sonar is only a rentable piece of software. Pretty much a dead end for somebody who wants a long term solution and/or certainty. But worse of all, there is no clear statement (after 13 months!) by BL if those who are still waiting, should wait longer or this is the only new future for Sonar that is here to stay. I don't think it's fair to keep many people suspended in air in such manner. I will be forever grateful to Cakewalk/Sonar, but subscription is not a path I will take, even if it's offered for free.