Steev

Nope, no extra costs for Sonar with the normal exception of 3rd party plugins that's it, i.e. $150 per year subscription fee. Plus you get a lot more for the same price you would normally pay for SONAR Platinum upgrade in the ways of unlimited song project storage, Bandlab Studio which is an automatable 32 track mix editor with MANY FX plugins, fully customizable plugin chains, MIDI synths, pattern sequencer, a sampler, publishing services on Bandlab.com, Spotify.com, ReverbNation.com too, not too shabby mastering and what nots like 1000'S of free loops and samples if you are interested in that kind of stuff.. AND there's plenty of CONTESTS you can enter to win CASH and valuable PRIZES, get exposure, submit your BEST MUSIC get SIGNED to a RECORDING CONTRACT... Meet like-minded musicians throughout Planet Earth to share and COLLABORATE with. Not exactly the best synths in the Bandlab.com cloud mix editor, and latency can be a problem, depending on cellular signal strength, but the Sampler is FUN because I can all to EASILY record any sounds anywhere, ANYTIME with my iPhone and make & edit my own samples in one easy fell swoop with the Bandlab app installed on my iPhone using internal mics, as opposed to doing it the more complicated and harder 'import'/'export' way with Steinberg Cubasis with requires an IK iRig Pro and external mic and all that stuff. Also Bandlab.com automation doesn't support MCU (Mackie MIDI control) or HUI DAW controllers. But automation can be mapped in standard MIDI to knobs and faders on a MIDI Keyboard controller per mixing session. Bandlab does NOT store MIDI maps, nor will it record more than one track at a time. You can "Import" 32 audio/MIDI tracks from any DAW, and Bulk DUMP all tracks from Sonar at once I highly advise Bulk Dumping AUDIO from Sonar's BUSS/stem mixes ONLY as Bandlab is limited to 32 tracks and it's MIDI synths aren't all that great editing is abysmal to nonexistent. Only extra fees would be for "BOOSTING" which is essentially shelling out a few Pesos for Media BLITZING Song Promotion which pretty much buys you THOUSANDS of PLAYS @ very reasonable price points (whether your tune is worthy of it or not.) your song WILL GET A LOT OF ATTENTION! 😉

I don't know about Sonar being 'snappier' or 'faster' but I've noticed according to Cakewalk's 'Performance' meter it is easier on the CPU on both my AMD FX-8370 high performance workstation with 32 gigs RAM, Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 audio/MIDI interface set to 24bit/48 k/Hz. 4 ms effective recording latency/192 samples. Plugin "load balancing" turned on. Comparing CbB to Sonar on the same exact machine and same music projects between 50-60 tracks, Sonar uses around 20%-30% less resources, which is hardly noticeable because even though CbB uses 20%-30% MORE computer resources, the computer doesn't break a sweat because it still has pleanty of power to spare, so it has NO PROBLEMS running the projects smoothly and glitch free. 💪💪 Comparing CbB to Sonar running on my Intel i5 HP laptop 16 gigs RAM, Universal Audio Volt 476 set to 24/48 @ 12 ms effective recording latency, Plugin load balancing "ON" makes a VERY Noticeable DIFFERANCE! It won't or can't even get close to running 50-60 audio/MIDI tracks AT ALL. Never could, 😉 BUT, Sonar can run & record a 24 track project smoothly and glitch free running some fairly CPU hungry 3rd party FX plugins from Waves, Universal Audio, iZotope, etc. Just the way Cakewalk by Bandlab handles 16 track projects on the same exact computer & audio/MIDI config. Certainly, respectable to say the least. But having the ability to work with 8 more tracks is approx. a 30%+ PERFORMANCE BOOST. 👍👍 😂

Anyone else experiencing these problems? We all know what happened with a crash, but when Sonar locks up I completely lose control functionality with mouse, computer keyboard, Behringer X-Touch during recording and playback. I have to literally have to shut Sonar down with Windows Task manager and start the DAW all over again. It's autosaving so it more of an annoying 'buzzkill' than anything else and doesn't affect the projects which can be reloaded and opened exactly where I left off in my back up DAW's. #1 Cakewalk by Bandlab, #2 SONAR Platinum, both of which are ROCK SOLID. 💪👌 So I'm confident that, in due time, so will Sonar. I don't mind in the least going back and working on projects with CbB on my high horsepower computer/workstation which has little to no distinguishably significant or noticeable performance gains. Although I do notice and miss the active spectrum analyzer graphs running in ProChannel. But I DO NOTICE A HUGH DIFFERANCE in performance running the new Cakewalk Sonar on my older i5 (gen3) HP laptop with Universal Audio Volt 476 audio/MIDI interface! WOWZER! More tracks, and more 3rd party FX plugins running smoothy than ever before on the laptop when it was BRAND NEW! 🤯 NOW it can almost compete & maybe even win a fair fight or 2 iPad/Cubasis with the same Universal Audio Volt 476 audio/MIDI interface/ rig. (NEVER underestimate the power & stability of even the cheapest Apple iPad, just as you should never overestimate the power & stability of even a high-grade Intel powered laptop.) If my hexacore iPad was capable of running Sonar, I would have retired this 4-core laptop years ago. Move over my beloved, VERY IMPRESSIVE Apple iPad running Cubasis 3, there's a new sheriff in town for recording live gigs DIRECTLY into Sonar. It's still a good deal slower at waking up & getting on it's feet so to speak, but now saves me a lot of extra work & the time of exporting/importing, and having to COMPLETELY remix, select comparable FX and re automate Cakewalk projects on my BIG BOY workstation! 😍🙏 Other than that, I've come to expected bugs & glitches with ANY new upgrades over the years, and I have to say the new release of Cakewalk Sonar is a good deal more stable than many other new releases of new upgraded roll outs of DAW's in my experiences, and it's also been my experience that Cakewalk has always addressed these issues in a timely, much quicker fashion than any of its competitors. The fact that Cakewalk is one of the very few DAW's that supports backward project compatibility is just another saving graces that I've grown to REALLY appreciate!

Sounds like it could quite possibly be a system bottleneck in serial buss/system memory traffic jam to me? It's Windows set up and configured for high performance? If you are switching back & from DAW to DAW, would suggest rebooting your computer before trying Kontakt in Sonar, and see if that resolves the problem. Just because you shut down one DAW doesn't mean it doesn't leave stuff like samples and God know what else behind in your system RAM storage drive Cashe. ESPECIALLY if you are using an inexpensive- mid grade computer, then you most undoubtedly don't have premium grade matched sticks RAM. They would or could be running at 'close enough for rock-n-roll same speed and be recognized by the motherboard, but not necessarily same CAS configuration. And that could also not only cause a bottleneck, it could be causing a duel channel memory system to default to single channel mode making the bottleneck even worse, and you wouldn't even know it without bench testing it. Doesn't really matter how big, bad, & fast your 8 core or better CPU is if it's stuck in crosstown a traffic jam bottle next. So unless you paid at least $3k+ (US) for a high-performance computer/workstation specifically designed and configured for DCC, and NOT Gaming! Yea, I know quite a few of us like to play around with DAWs more than actually making music, but DAW's aren't actually games. They are more like TOOLBOXES then toys. I would seriously recommend looking into system memory RAM insuring you have high-performance "Matched Sticks" of Premium RAM installed, made by the same manufacturer and specifically approved and certified by the CPU and motherboards manufacturer, and at least 16 gigs of it. 32 gigs better, 64 gigs better yet, IF your motherboards support it. Aside and as well as upgrading from hard drives to SSD storage drives, system RAM upgrades are the most inexpensive, yet SERIOUS performance/stabilizing booster upgrades you can do short of upgrading your entire system. And as far as Cakewalk Sonar is concerned, I just ran my 1st DAW project without freezing tracks to see how far I could go without glitching or an audio engine dropout with my Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 gen 2. I was SHOCKED to reach 50 audio/MIDI TRACKS running 9 combinations of Cakewalk TTS-1, Dimension Pro, Session Drummer 3, XLN Audio Addictive Drums 2, 2 instances of Reason Rack "Fricktion" synths in the rack. 2 acoustic and 1 electric Guitars, Bass Guitar, and then I pressed the control key to duplicate the tracks & DRAGGED the AUDIO tracks into an empty MIDI tracks and as if by magic, Sonar opened Melodyne Editor and CONVERTED AUDIO tracks to MIDI tracks to be DOUBLED 2x to played as ReAmped double track'in in "StrumSessions", or Dimension Pro, or and number Reason Rack's 100's - 1000's of different guitar rigs & or ANY kind synths imaginable. The is NOTHING Native Instruments has or can do that PropellorHead can't, and Reason CAN DO many, MANY UNIMAGINAL things Kontakt never even thought of and DO IT EASY on the CPU & do it all...TROUBLE FREE, RUN in ANY & EVERY DAW! 👍👍😉💯 Vocals all on separate channels + aux tracks, all with Full array in ProChannel, N-Type assorted/selected per chan inserts. Waves, Universal Audio, Softtubes, Focusrite plugins in FX bins. 6 stem/grouped instruments buss mix plus UA Capital Chambers Reverb aux send, all treated with ProChannel PC4K comp, EQ, Concrete Limiter, Tube, N-Type to stereo Master Buss with Waves Magma Tubes and Ozone 10 in the bin. Sonar only consumed an average range of 30- 35% CPU with NO CORE ever peaking in the red AMD FX-8370 running steady @ 4.1 G/hz with occasional, Turbo Boost up to 4.9 G/hz. consuming an average 28% of 32 gigs. system memory = 10.4 GB. And WHAT did I record you mayhap be thunk'in? Well, just for snitz-n-giggles, I started to play a 'lil tune I couldn't have thought that I would NEVER EVER want to play again. And actually, HAVEN'T for over 30+ YEARS. But upon request from a very cranky old man who is very sick with cancer and actually used the "Please" word on me for the 1st time in at least 20 YEARS.... I thru up my hands, shook my head "Yea, AhHuh, Ok, so I gave it my best shot and SPANKED Cakewalk with "Stairway to Heaven" of course. And Cakewalk just seemed to stare back with a 'lil jiggle wiggly dance of it's CPU meters, it seemed to be say'in in soft taunting tones..... "Is that all you got 'ol Man?" 😍 And after I let it settle and rest a few days.. I'll spark it up, put my "mixing cap" on, most likely give it a wee tweak here and there with fresh ear, let it rest another day before putt'in on my "Mastering Cap" & upload it to Bandlab. I don't really want to knock ALL the flaws out of it because... 🤔 Well 'over production' is, or should be considered a sin, and in the words and infinite wisdoms of the great "Ray Davies" of the great wave of "British Invader Bands of the 60's" called "The Kinks"... "If ya take all the FLAWS out of Rock Music, then it's NOT ROCK MUSIC ANYMORE!🙏🏼

There has always been problems and issues with new version releases, particularly with 3rd party software catching up. ProTools is the WORSE in my experience for these issues to be resolved in a timely fashion. Not so much with Cakewalk, I found it to settle in and smooth out quite quicky, as the bakers and problem solvers not only pay attention, but they also actively participate in the users forums. And as far as 3rd party vendors are concerned, the only ones I've used and had experience with in the about list are Native Instruments who I have ALWAY had issues and problems with, and iZotope which I have had little to no problems with, until NI bought them out and dropped support for releasing Ozone 10 as a standalone mastering suite and only released it as a VST plugin and moved it OUT of iZotope's existing "Windows Program Files" folder which contains ALL my existing iZotope apps, and stuck into yet another newly created file location ALL BY ITSELF.😒 And Sound Forge Pro couldn't find it,. I use SF-P as my preferred Mastering software for DECADES and I use it in a different room 'environment' specifically tuned for "mastering" on an entirely different computer then I do using SONAR to record in acoustically tuned to record in. As an old school audio/MIDI engineer who started recording in the late 60's to TAPE, I have never even recommended to anyone to master their own music, if at all possible, get someone else experienced in mastering to do it. But that could be expensive, & apps like Sound Forge and Ozone changed all that, as each one by themselves made it quite doable and acceptable. But together running Ozone in Sound Forge Pro as a VST made it VERY EASY and FAST. Contacting and communicating with NI Support is somewhere between SLOW & TEDIOUS at best, to NON EXISTANT! I believe they expect you to give up trying, but I don't give up, and so in about a week or 2 I managed to squeeze the secrets of Windows Registry edits and new location in "Program Files" out of them with a stern warning that if I do registry editing, they can't be held responsible & could void my privileges and right to further support. blah, blah, blah,,, to which I replied; "FINE BY ME, your support SUCKS, so get somebody who knows what they are doing to send me the CORRECT steps, procedures, and info I need to do it myself or GIVE ME MY MONEY BACK, as I am more than happy with Ozone 9 as I am just as happy to NEVER give you another dime EVER AGAIN. And as it turned out, I'm not in the least happy or impressed with Ozone 10's new AI assisted auto mastering technology. And the differences, if in fact there are any, are no improvements over previous versions of Ozone's machine learning based auto mastering "Mastering Assistant". Which really is quite good, most certainly close enough for Rock-n-Roll, but I'm thinking not really better than Bandlab's FREE Mastering Algorithms. 🤣 But anywoo, I'm an 'ol schooler and I would NEVER EVER recommend running a mastering suite in ANY DAW strapped into Buss FX bin, for many and too numerous reasons to get into here, and I'm not going to get into it with any "Move Over Old Dawg, the New Young Dawg Is MOV'IN IN." Psychobabble here. I get more then my fill of trying to ignore that on Bandlab.com. 🥴 The #1 reason being is NEVER TRY TO MASTER MUSIC IN THE ROOM IT WAS RECORDED IN. My point is, NI you done SCREWED the NEWBIES POOCH AGAIN!

I'm an active member of Bandlab.com and have MUCH FUN jamming and collaborating with others from all around the world. And so I already did buy the yearly annual "Bandlab Membership" lease deal around last Thanksgiving. Believe me, you get a LOT more value & publishing services than just Cakewalk Sonar DAW. I never thought I'd live to see the days when technology could even make this possible. But I didn't really by Membership for twice the tracks, more plugins, more mastering presets, and free publishing services to other Spotify, ReverbNation to name a few bonuses, all of these are very cool and saves a LOT of extra work & time. I bought Bandlab Membership to give something back for keeping my favorite DAW alive, all the support they've been giving us FOR FREE. I don't have an overblown sense of self entitlement or self-worth as so many others do, I was feeling a bit guilty about being treated this NICE taking all they give without bring anything to the table. But I work out my music projects on my computer with a DAW and upload tracks, stems, and buss groups to Bandlab Studio for mix editing, as it's NOT really a DAW. It's an "editor" it doesn't run my 'can't live without 3rd party plugins and doesn't even have a buss section, and the fact that you can only record one track at a time is a deal breaker for me. And as good as Bandlab's mastering is concerned, it's certainly no Ozone. But Bandlab Studio does an AMAZING job, and does things DAWs can't do. It's as CROSS PLATFORM as you can get, It can run on and you can collaborate with anyone has an idea, an Android or iPhone, a Windows or Mac computer and record ANYWHERE there is INTERNET SERVICE! And that being said, I gladly joined and paid for Bandlab BEFORE Sonar was even released, so being able to download it for no extra money was "Just another one of the MANY PERKS", that I didn't even recognize as lease/ subscription deal. And being it is about the same as I had always paid for Updates in the old days, so that's not in the least a real problem for me. BUT.. even with CbB, the Sonar license DOES TIME OUT and reverts to "Demo Mode" every few weeks to a month and usually just automatically reports to the mothership & renews itself, so if you are not paying attention and have Toast Notifications turned off you won't even notice or know it's happening. USUALLY, but NOT ALWAYS automatically registers. That won't be a problem for me until December 2025 when Microsoft drops support for Win 10 Pro. And then it will become a 'condition' of dealing with offline activation. But I've lived thru worse.. ✌

I've been field testing Sonar 2024.08 now for a couple of weeks now and I'm really, really LIKING IT! 👏👏👍👍 And I do believe I would LOVEto BUY an "upgrade" license and own it like I do SONAR Platinum, simply for the reasons of not having to log into my Bandlab account to reactivate it every few weeks or month. 😒 Especially since my Windows 10 Pro computer will lose Microsoft support around December 2025 doesn't mean I'm going to stop using it, it means I'm going to stop tethering it to the Internet. And yea, I know all about offline activation, and that's just more of a PITA. I also know how to build or obtain KeyGens, but that kinda does go against the grains of my sense of 'copyright' ethics, because it gets too close to the borders of cheating & STEALING and I'm not a thief, nor do I like people cheating or stealing from me. And my FAVORITE thing about the new Sonar is the active spectrum analyzer being added to the ProChannel EQ. That's something I ALWAYS wished for, because it makes it really easy to visualize the EQ curves between channels, especially when ear fatigue starts to occur. When 2 channels in the same voicing spectrum run at the same EQ curves things tend to get muddy in the mix and just a slight barely audible adjustment shift can make things so much cleaner and clearer in the stereo mix buss. Coming late to the table I missed the issues of crashing on startup. However, I did have a few crashes which upon a bit of investigation and research were caused mostly by 3rd party VST Audio FX plugins but seemed to be resolved with "Load Ballancing". I haven't really noticed any increase performance other than the Reason Rack Plugin loading up and adding 16 MIDI & 16 stereo audio tracks into a Cakewalk project BLAZINGLY FAST! 🤯 For those who don't know the Reason Rack Plugin will run ANYTHING & EVERYTHING in the Propellerhead Reason DAW as a VST 3 plugin in any DAW that 'hosts' VST plugins and synths. Both SONAR Platinum & CbB would take a few seconds to add 16 Reason Rack tracks. Typically I only want to use ONE Reason synth AT A TIME, so make sure the "Only add the 1st MIDI & audio output is selected." in the Cakewalk dialog box while adding a new synth, and CbB remembered I always selected that for Reason Rack plugin. 1st time I open it in the new Sonar, Sonar didn't know that. But I'm running a very powerful finely tuned custom built computer/workstation that leans towards the side of being overpowered for a music machine DAW, and slightly over middle of the road grade of the Professional NLE "Video Editing". Plus I ALWAYS freeze tracks when done working with them. It's an old school practice, not as much for saving power to keep latency low, as it is for 'safety' reasons to avoid making the mistake of making adjustments and tweaks to track 58 when I meant to adjust or tweak track 59. i.e. SCREW UP the WRONG TRACK. And that can happen to the best of us. And things can get REALLY BAD when Somone else who doesn't know what they're doing and or never used a Behringer X Touch DAW controller sits down in the mixing seat and starts pushing buttons, twisting knobs, or whatever whilst mesmerized by watching the motorized faders dance around whilst I'm in the bathroom draining my bladder. 😵 I mean come ON, even the best of us do that from time to time, after a couple of beer or watnot. 🥴 Maybe we'll accidently hit the "Undo" button by accident instead of the "Save" button, they are right next to each other after all. Freezing tracks safeguards us from these problem/conditions as well as a host of others. And on my very high-powered computer it only SECONDS to freeze a track and 1/2 a second to unfreeze it, so it's really stupid not to as an extra layer(s) of precaution. I also had issues with adding DXi synths into the Synth Rack chain under VSTi synths, particularly when adding the Cakewalk TTS-1 with VSTi's already in the synth rack running would cause an immediate crash. However, in a new project, if I start off using the TTS-1 as the 1st synth I use it all works out great. I also understand the TTS-1 was 1st introduced, I believe with SONAR 4 Producer which of course is ancient as far as synth/instruments are concerned, so really, I find it quite a bit amazing that it still works at all. It never really got the credit or attention it deserved. Being it was bundled for free and being a DXi it's GUI is a rather simple, plain, and kinda UGLY looking Windows Dialog Box. But you can't judge a book by it's cover because LOOKS ARE DECIEVING. especially in the case of the TTS-1, Look under the hood, and you will find about a DOZEN versions of Roland SoundCanvas synth engine releases, which could be configured for 2(stereo), 4, or 8 channel outs and that's MANY more WIRELESS audio outputs than my beloved physical Roland Fantom X 61 hardware even synth had. I wouldn't be surprised to find that I'm the last person on the planet to still even use or even know it exists. And I do remember reading about TTS-1 not being bundled with the new Cakewalk Sonar by request by Roland. I don't blame them, they don't own or not affiliated with Cakewalk anymore and would much prefer "selling you" their new synth's with their new updated "SuperNatural" synth engine.🤣 But none of these are problematic for me. I can just add the TTS-1 to the Cakewalk Project first in line, I don't have to use it 1st, or at all just in case I might want to later on. Well I hope this info was useful to many 'users'. However, I don't think a lot of it would be useful to Cakewalk Staff and bakers who have little to no control over how 3rd party plugins react, But I gotta give the bakers KUDOS & HUGH PROPS UP! 👍👍 I can't remember EVER experiencing a NEW Upgrade/update version release that ran as smoothly as Cakewalk Sonar does for me. Especially with all the radical changes to the sound engine and handling of FX plugins!

I have to say I honestly really despised SONAR X1 when it was first released back in 2011 boasting it's new "Skylight" GUI. It was so radically different from Pro Audio 8.5 that it was like starting from scratch to learn how to use my favorite and most familiar DAW that I was so FURIOUS that I was inclined to protest and actually thought rather deep thought about asking for my upgrade money back. But I didn't, and simply kept using Pro Audio 8.5 as my main whip and gradually and painfully would spark up SONAR X1 every once in a while, to try get used to and learn how to use it as time allowed. And as typical with installing any new DAW's, it proved to be a bit unstable running on Win. 2K Pro. As did SONAR x2 which I was becoming a bit more familiar with over time, but having bit the bullet and finally upgraded my OS from Win 2K - Win XP running on an aging Intel P4 machine, I really couldn't be certain if my stability issues came from SONAR x2, Win XP, or my aging hardware. So by the time SONAR x3 Producer was released, I completed a new computer build based on AMD'S Phenom CPU and got a SHOCKINLY JAW DROPPING, EARTH MOVING boost of computer speed and horsepower. 🤯 And I went from despising SONAR to kinda liking it because it clearly handled recording audio better, but not nearly as much as Pro Audio 8.5, which contrary to it's name, was great at MIDI SEQUENCING, wasn't exactly very good at handling the tasks of recording audio. But it synced well with my G4 Power Mac running Pro Tools and NO DAW'S running on Windows computers could compete with that. And then SONAR x4 Producer came to age, and THAT was the GAME CHANGER that literally changed EVERYTHING! And that's when I started ignoring my Mac/ProTools rig, not completely though, but by that time, Apple SHOT THEMSELVES in the FOOT transitioning from OS-9 to OS-X with their introduction of brand new, built from the ground up CORE AUDIO sound drivers clashed & burned both ProTools & my MOTU 8 PCI audio interface to the ground. It set ProTools back about a year to recover, but as far as the MOTU was concerned, it was a rather pricy paperweight as far as Apple concerned because MOTU couldn't or wouldn't update the audio drivers for CORE AUDIO, but their Windows ASIO DRIVERS ROCKED SONAR x4 Producer to BLISS! And that turned my G4 Power Mac into an unsightly very expensive paperweight that was NEVER booted up again, and SONAR winner of ALL KINDS of AWARDS that led up to MIPA AWARDS was LARGELY and continuously arguably considered the WORLD'S BEST DAW! 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆. And sooo... Although Cakewalk continued to stay and remain ahead of DAW innovation, nothing really earth shattering happened in the world of DAW's until a stable x64 version of Windows 7 was born. But that wasn't REALLY a big deal for SONAR, because SONAR's x64 Double Precision Sound Engine ran perfectly fine, stable, and natively on a, x32 bit OS, as in Window 2K and UP! So nothing really earth shattering or mind blowing happened to SONAR until BANDLAB bought it, took over, rebranded it, and started GIVING IT AWAY FOR FREE! 🤯 And not only did Bandlab keep up maintaining excellent support and higher level(s) of innovation, but they have also actually made considerable improvements to not only the ease of workflow, but to the POWER & STABILITY of SONAR's x64 Double Precision Sound Engine as well. And for the relative price we used to pay for SONAR upgrades, is the same as it costs for Bandlab Membership.. The new & improved Cakewalk Sonar lives again. And it SOUNDS GREAT, Looks better and MORE POWERFUL... It Feels GOOD

Patience DAW Hoppa...?I was considering Studio One back when Gibson closed the doors on SONAR. I tried it, it was okay, not as innovative as SONAR, but kinda okay none the less. What I really didn't like that stopped me in my tracks was the sound engine was tiny and harsh compared to SONAR because it fatigued my ears after about an hour recording with my tried, true and trusty SONY 7506's Studio Monitor head cans. It wasn't the head cans because they sounded the same working with SONAR, Reason, & Pro Tools, never mind the 'learning curve' of trying to navigate around a new DAW that takes precious and frustrating time away from recording and actually 'focusing' on making music, and NO DAW can rival the power, stability, and innovation of Cakewalk at any price point. So be patient DAW Hoppa... I've always found it to be true that the absolute BEST DAW OUT THERE for you, is the DAW you are most familiar with. No wine shall be served before its time.. Be a tad less petulant and a wee bit more careful of what you wish for, because you will have the honor & privilege of paying for what you now receive for free SOON ENOUGH! ?

It's perfectly OK to import .mp4 files into CbB. Infact CbB has a video player that supports multiple formats of video. You can't edit the video, but you can edit and add tracks to the audio. .mp4 is not just for video anymore and is commonly used for higher quality audio stream file compression & multi-channel audio such as surround sound mixes and such,will work & play without any video channel. In fact, I believe Bandlab.com streams all music in the .mp4 format as does many other music streaming websites, and of course YOUtube uses .mp4 whether it contains any video or not. I believe you have a corrupted or audio file that is not compatible to CbB's project audio settings? Does the .mp3 or .mp4 play in your media player? Remove/delete the .mp3 or .mp4 from the project, save, close, & reboot CbB project and see if that corrects the problem. If it does Go to Edit > Preferences > File - Audio Data. Under File Bit Depths, check to make sure Import Bit Depth field matches the bit dept and speed of the project. Unless you've previously changed it, it should be set to CbB's default settings of 16 bit 44.100 k/HZ Check to make sure the "Original" option to import the files at their current bit depth is DESELECTED and OFF. Your .mp3 or .mp4 sound file will be up sampled to match your project setting before importing it back into CbB.

Cakewalk is STILL ahead of everyone else! Way, way, WAY ahead of everything else and have managed to stay there since SONAR was released. I know, I was there, and when SONAR 4 Producer was released, I pretty much shut down my Mac ProTools rig because I could FINALLY do everything I wanted to do in one DAW on one computer running Windows 2k. Up until then I used Cakewalk for MIDI composing/editing and ACID Pro for loop composing ProTools for audio recording and synced both computers together with MIDI MTC protocol to interface Windows to Apple to send MIDI/ACID loop sequences to the Mac & record them to audio tracks in ProTools where I started doing the FUN part. Lay'in down the JAMS with vocals and guitar tracks. ? SONAR 4 not only supported the BEST most advanced MIDI editing/sequencing I had ever tried, it supported ACID™ Loop technology, I no longer needed to use ProTools or ACID Pro, but I still had to use Sonic Foundry's Sound Forge Pro to "make" my own ACID Loops. And when I got enough of them together to fill a CD's worth of "Loop Packs", as an ACIDplanet.com ProZone member, Sony would release my Loop Packs & give me 49% of the take. But those days are over. And while I found ACID Loop™ technology was a rock the world game changer, simply by giving users the ability to treat and manipulate audio clips as if they were MIDI sequences, or as Cakewalk called them "Groove Clips", what really impressed me the most about ACID software was it ability to faithfully and reliably record audio tracks from beginning to end without locking up or dropping out on my Windows 98SE mid grade Compaq laptop. I could only record one track at a time, but Cakewalk Pro Audio couldn't do that on my much bigger more powerful full tower custom built workstation. But, as it turned out years later, that wasn't Cakewalk's fault, It was Intel's Pentium chips could cut the mustard, but AMD Athlon's could & their Phenom CPU could ROCK IT LIKE A HURRICANE. A fact I learned almost by accident, as an early computer builder, when I decided to try out AMD configs for my next build, simply because they cost only 1/2 as much to build as would Intel configs. and clearly had more brute horsepower & muscle than any Windows or Apple computer I had experienced to date. And just like Cakewalk, I have found AMD still does today, as my aging AMD FX8370 STILL clearly manages to compete and hold it's own with today's Intel i9's. The only disadvantage, if ya even want to call it that, is the AMD FX series CPU's aren't supported with Win 11. But that doesn't bother me yet, because I don't really like Win 11, and I LOVE Win 10 so I'm good to at least another year, and maybe for a while longer. However, I'm getting ahead of the point, looking at it from the brighter side of 2018, right around the same time my FX series CPU became downgraded by AMD Rysen tech, the plug got pulled at ACIDplanet.com, Bandlab appropriated Cakewalk from Gibson and graciously "pointed me to this new and improved Forum and invited me to check out & join Bandlab.com. If I wanted to, there was no pressure to, they would still let me use CbB for FREE, and I was still free to continue to check out Presonus Studio ONE to replace a no longer supported SPLAT. However, there was no need to. Bandlab continued to provide EXCELLANT support for CbB, and I can't help but feel, truly & honestly feel that Bandlab has taken Bandlab.com REALLY stepped up the game of publishing & sharing to a universe that FAR EXCEEDS any universe that ACIDplanet.com ever could or would orbit in. And not only does Bandlab let me keep 100% of profits from anything I may sell, Bandlab offers free Album authoring from .mp3 to .wav, Mastering, and downloads can be distributed directly from Bandlab. And Bandlab Studio/Mix Editor is MIND BLOWING, SHOCKINGLY POWERFUL! ??? Not only did I not expect to live long enough to see the day that this could even happen, I find it quite stunning that it is in fact even possible. In fact, I am so grateful for Bandlab's continued support and innovations, I began to feel guilty for freely accepting it for so long I gladly joined and signed up paid membership just to give something back in return, and ended up getting EVEN MORE GOODIES AND SERVICES making my workflow & life SO MUCH EASIER for a REDICULOUSLY LOW PRICE! I would like to point out that I found Studio ONE to be alright, as in good and or OK, it. I wouldn't consider it lovable although it is a very reasonably priced DAW,... BUT it is nowhere near as stable, advanced, OR as reasonably priced as CbB. S-ONE also kinda innovative, but not as forward thinking as it 'can' do anything that SONAR ' can't' already do, just does it differently. What I didn't like about it at all is it's lack of support for Mackie MCU protochol, it only supported HUI, which knocks out the Master Buss Fader and renders it useless on my Behringer X-Touch DAW controller. ? S-ONE'S sound engine is rather harsh and tinny for monitoring with & thru both of my Focusrite & Universal Audio interfaces compared to SONAR/CbB's Double Precision x64 sound engine. Please understand that I am referring to actively "monitoring" with headcans during recording sessions, not a mixdown of the finished Mixing Session which I would use near field monitors, I personally found S-ONE offensive in a way that I can't quite put my finger on and as such causes early ear fatigue. Even at low volumes with closed back headcans like the very popular Sony 7506's & Sennheiser 280 Pro's which are DESIGNED for long periods of studio recording and tracking at any volume.. Will a Presonus audio interface rectify this annoying condition? I don't know, but I doubt it and I WON'T be stepping down or away from my Focusrite & Universal Audio interfaces to find out.. ? They maybe gett'in on in years, but they DANG SHER ain't BROKEN. SONAR/CbB's Double Precision x64 sound engine was the first & ONLY x64 sound engine on WINDOWS computers that runs in the host, providing x64 processing power to a DAW running on an x32 OS, and sounds JUST as RICH & as GOOD as the rock-solid #1 Industry Standard ProTools, and Sound Forge Pro, which, does scores more than just make ACID Loops, combined with Ozone is still my #1 Mastering suite of choice fo mastering everything from skinny 'lil .wma, .mp3, up to 7.2 surround sound mixes and EVERYTHING in between. Only other sound editor I've ever found that can compete with Sound Forge Pro is BIAS PEAK which requires a Mac to run on.

Thanks much @pwal, I am indeed having MUCH FUN! Just as some people have fun trying out new DAW's and various other types of software, I have fun jamming, making & producing music. As far as I'm concerned, a DAW is nothing more than a "box of tools" that helps me reach my goals of 'MAKING MUSIC", and if it ain't broken I see no reason to fix or replace it. Being I already pretty much KNOW what I can do & how far I can abuse my DAW before pushing it too hard it crashes & burns, I'll quickly get bored watching it happen over and over. ? Besides that all being counterproductive to innovation and to the very main reasons why I grown with and continue to love Cakewalk DAW, which I'm intimately familiar with, as opposed to being "fickly" intimate with too many, aimlessly jump'in and runn'in around with several DAW's just to see 'if' & 'what' they can do better or even do what CbB and what I already have can do that I want and need and want it to do. And I've narrowed that down to a very short list, and Cubase, Mix Craft, Studio ONE, Ableton, Logic Pro, Larry, Moe, & Curly have all been checked off the list. The one and only DAW left on the list that can compete with to replace CbB that I look forward to is the new future release of SONAR! ? And if we have some problems and glitches with it after release, which I'm fully aware can happen and even expect to, I can always revert back to my favorite tried, true, rock solid, trusty, STILL ALIVE & WELL 'backup' DAW, which is the last version release of SONAR Platinum 2018 so I'm not very worried. Being I don't abuse my tools, CbB has only given me critical problems ONCE. And that's only because, for any number of reasons an "Update" failed to complete installation. And when I rebooted my computer to complete installation, WINDOWS failed to boot, causing and forcing me into my "STEP AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER" Mode, which lasted a day. The next morning after I calmed down for a near miss emotional meltdown reaction, I booted Win 10 up in "Save Mode" went in my "Boot Records" Folder, selected and scheduled a systems rollback to one day before I updated CbB, and BAMB! In less than an hour later I was up & running like nothing ever happened.? And I decided to go into my; "Update? I don't NEED no STINK'in UPDATE!" MODE and stayed that way until Bandlab issued another newer update. I don't like to fall too far behind, but hey........ If it ain't broke, DON'T FIX IT!" And yes indeed there have been issues on the server side of Bandlab, but they are easily detectable because they come with a standard auto popup window/page stating, "Sorry we are having technical issues, please try again later." And the Bandlab Support team jumps to it and solves it issues in record time. But I can run & use Netgear's "Speed Test" software to measure bandwidth at my cable modem & have set my schedule for when my ISP throttles back on "peak hour" traffic bandwidth. VERY reliable 7-day averages, easy to forecast WHEN to do WHAT. Only subject to change with Holiday schedules, severe weather conditions, and maintenance of hardware/software updates and repair.

Recording in Cakewalk by Bandlab Mixing and Publishing in Bandlab Studio

Bandlab Studio 16 Audio/MIDI tracks + Mastering for the very affordable price of TOTALLY FREE, 32 tracks + Publishing + Distribution with paid membership. A Paid Membership Subscription is actually less expensive than a 30% off Cubase deal, and offers about, umm. maybe1000x more SUPPORT? ? Maybe more. It runs on the cloud and on ANY computer, smartphone or device that supports Google's Chrome Browser and or any browsers, like Microsoft Edge that supports Google "Chromium" technology. ?Now how COOL & Innovative is THAT?? Although I wouldn't consider Bandlab Studio a full-fledged DAW yet, simply because it doesn't have a Buss section "yet" and I experience unpredictable latency problems & timeouts while try to record directly into it at certain times of the day.. I can only conclude & assume of these latency problems are caused by my local ISP's annoying habit of throttling back speeds anywhere from an "advertised" 300 mb/s, actual high-speeds topping out @ 125-225 mb/s to a low-end side of 80-90 mb/s (speed tested/measured & calculated from my Netgear Nighthawk router) when local Internet traffic is high here in Binghamton, NY. However, depending on where you live, these conditions are subject to change. Below is a screen shot of the Blowing Kisses in the Wind collaboration I recently published with dear sweet young lady in Japan name "abel" who had little to no troubles recording tracks in real time directly from her iPhone. In fact, the only problems I have collaborating with abel is language translation barriers between Japanese and English. She is learning and perfecting here English language skills by singing songs most publish by American artists. She getting better and better learning English, but she's not there yet. I NO skills for learning foreign languages, and when I use Google Translate to copy and paste these track names written in Japanese I get thrown into a tailspin or get nowhere slowly. But that's OK, because MUSIC itself is a defining universal language. ? And I can still work on "Recording Sessions" in my No Brainer #1 Choice of DAW's CbB... Due to all the truly mind-blowing technological INNOVATIONS of Bandlab achieving successes I never thought I'd live long enough to experience.... BL Studio it is my #1 1st choice for collaborations & a unified field of "Mixing Sessions" On the lower 3rd of the screen is BL Studio's Fx Effects Chains Presets section with LG SELECTION OF DOZENS of PRESETS which can all be reconfigured, rearranged, swapped out, automated and customized, saved & shared with any and all Bandlab users for further continued use and customization with a VERY large ever expanding in number & quality, & getting bigger selection of automatable FX, processors, and utilities like Auto Pitch, TIME STRETCHING, a new Drum Machine, a new Sampler, gazillions of samples, loops, one shots, and MORE. Although the appearance of the GUI and FX names change, If you look at BL's Studio's lower 1/3 Fx Effects window as you would CbB's ProChannel, you will see and hear STRIKING similarities to ProChannel modules and Sontius FX bundle. Does a BL 1176 sound vaguely familiar to you whilst looking for a nice familiar compressor/leveling amp? Howz about a BL-2A? Need a good familiar amp farm selections of American/British/Botique guitar Amps & rigs of STOMP BOXES? Oh & BTW, if any of this stuff breaks and or glitches on ya, don't worry, be patient, just drop back in later after someone from BL fixes it. I have NEVER had a lasting problem with Bandlab Studio running on my Windows or Mac computers. The biggest problem I have ever had with BL where I had to intervene to fix was with my iPhone not getting a proper update. But all I had to do was trash my current installation and go to the Apple App Store & reinstall it from there. In about 5 seconds after logging back into my Bandlab account, EVERYTHING was still there exactly how I left off.

Thanks much, good looking out for our fellow BbB community members. ?? However, I myself am not looking for any ways to fix what is not broken or try anything new, as that actually takes away much needed time & energy from why I use DAW's and other related music/video content creation software. I actually stopped trying and comparing DAW's back when SONAR 4 was released. THAT was the definitive ULTIMATE game changer for DAW's running on Windows Computers. Winner of several seasons of MIPA Awards for workflow improvements, innovation and rock-solid stability! It freed me from being bound to the knee buckling pricy "Chains of ProTools" running on an aging Mac during Apple's crippling crossover from OS-9 to OS-X's introduction to core-audio drivers which turned my MOTU 8X8 into either a VERY PRICY pretty paperweight or use it running on a Windows PC. It was actually 1/2 the price to build a brand new Windows 2K Pro high end workstation then it was to upgrade ProTools & all my 3rd party FX plugins.. Which BTW, took about a year to catch up and stabilize to run smoothly on Core Audio drivers. Since then, Cakewalk has been my #1 choice in DAW's I still use, trust, and rely on today. Propellerhead Reason has always been my #2. But now due to modern technological advancements in ARA & VST 3, Reason the DAW can now run and be used as a VST 3 plugin called "Reason Rack" that can run in real-time as inside a host DAW with VERY LITTLE hit on computer resources and with mind-blowing extra LARGE HUGE IMPACT on your DAW's collection of instruments and utilities. In other words, now that anything and everything in Reason seamlessly & perfectly integrates into CbB, it BECOMES part of CbB as the "Synth Rack from Heaven, or Hell" depending on your personal preferences. So now Reason isn't my 2nd choice for back up DAW any more. Now, due to some major improvements, additions, & advancements in modern tech, and innovation, BANDLAB STUDIO, the world's FIRST & only 100% Cross Platform Music & Jam Factory is my #2 GO TO, #1 Mixing & Mastering Environment for collaboration, distribution, Mixing & Mastering HQ content for Internet streaming! ?? and making? with ANYONE?? ANYWHERE?ANY TIME ????? ? For example, I collaborated with a sweet young lady "abel" who is learning how to speak and improve her English by singing. She's Japanese and all her recording on her iPhone. The most difficult part about doing collaboration with each other is communicating with each other, but thanks to Bandlab and the help of "Google Translate we managed to publish a new revision of Paula Abdul's Blowing Kisses in the Wind But ProTools running on a Mac is still my #3, and the ONLY reasons I continued to use ProTools at all is strictly for professional reasons. #1 It's the Industry Standard, which means if you want to survive and make a living in the music industry you HAVE TO USE ProTools or agree to be recorded in ProTools whether you want to or not. #2, I have probably made more money over the years teaching and tutoring others how to use ProTools in order to help them pass their BerkleeMusic.com Audio/MIDI courses than I did recording my own music, all other bands and clients, selling albums and playing live gigs, all together... Why is ProTools so important? Because once you know and understand how to use PT there is NO DAW, FX, or process beyond your comprehension, all you will need to do to get up and running in any other DAW figure out the GUI, .i.e. where all the buttons, knobs, faders, and FX folder bins are. And you will also get a crystal-clear image, ANSWER, and understanding of the meaning of "What is the BEST DAW OUT THERE FOR YOU?". Just in case you're wondering, the answer is really quite simple. "The Best DAW you can find is the DAW you are most familiar with." There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with Sound Forge Pro 15, other than the fact it takes time to load scanning all my VST folders, once it's up and running it does the SAME JOB as v10 and just as good. Only useful improvement I noticed in v15 and really is the duel VU meters showing measurements of DB and LUFS at the same time.