GreenLight

There are many of us here – musicians, producers and others – who use, depend on and love Sonar/Cakewalk. And the currently subscription-only licensing model is not in line with our needs, wants or preferences, whether we're professionals, semi-professionals or hobbyists. We would humbly ask for a "perpetual license" alternative to be added. (And adjusting these kind of business decisions is most certainly not unprecedented: in 2023 exactly this was done by industry giants Avid for the ProTools DAW and Waves for all their plugins in response to user feedback.) Sign this petition with "I ❤ Cakewalk" to show that you need another way - a non-subscription "perpetual" option - to be able to continue showing your love and support for this amazing product. Here's hoping for a more flexible future! I ❤ Cakewalk PS. I am not seeking to be the least confrontational or negative. On the contrary, by this post I just want to express my (decades!) long dedication for this software and to show that I need another way to do that than what is currently available.

Thanks for the confirmation. (The subscription small print/technical details are not super-detailed in the mini-FAQ at cakewalk.com...)

What happens to one's access to Sonar when the Bandlab subscription lapses? Will you get locked-out and that's it until one renews? Or will you get permanent access to the latest version but no new updates? Or something else completely? I haven't found any real comprehensive FAQ that explains all the technical ins and outs of the Bandlab subscription (with regards to the new Sonar DAW). Thanks for any info!

Whoa, just one day after I wrote the above, a new Sonar forum section was indeed created, see below... ?

I've been wondering the same thing. And either I've missed something, or the official communication here on the forums has been a bit sparse as well. And there's no new "Sonar" section under Cakewalk Products...? An example: I just accidentally saw in another unrelated thread that the Baker's also created a sampler called XSampler that's being bundled with the new Sonar? Whoddvethunk! ?

I understand, thanks for the clarification. And sorry for contributing to the silly amount of posts regarding the subject... A sticky thread about it could be something, eh?

Does that mean that validation requirement will be removed as well? Or just the visible reminder of the validation... ?

I haven't been following the latest developments, but just saw the announcement on Gearspace so I came here. Is this what we've been waiting for, for 18 months? A subscription-only model? What an enormous let-down. That isn't for me, I'm afraid. ? I've been with Cakewalk for more than 25 years and will be very sad to go. But as a techno producer, I've always been intrigued by Ableton Live, so that's where I'm going unless a perpetual license manifests itself. It's been a great ride! Thanks @Noel Borthwick and @msmcleod for all your attentive support all these years.

True! ? But at least the moderator's would have something to point to, when they delete all the superfluous threads.

No sticky thread for activation issues and questions yet? Please make one. It would save the world many bits and bites, and therefore be good for the environment. Please think of the squirrels! ?

Cool that you're a photography & design pro! ?? But even if the DAW is full-screen, it will be blurry if the GUI isn't vector-based and if you have Windows scaling set to something else than 100%. Ableton Live has a really cool GUI-scaling option, where you can seamlessly zoom in/out on the entire GUI. It is very convenient, so even if you DO run at 100% scaling, it's useful to be able to set the GUI to be exactly the size you prefer and it's all crisp! Msmcleod hinted that the new Sonar will have a similar setting. ??

I just wanted to add that you don't need a fancy "4K+ monitor" to benefit from a vector-based GUI. As soon as you have any resolution + view distance combo that makes you want to change the scaling from 100% in Windows, then you will benefit from a crisper look with a vector-based GUI. In fact, I would estimate that scaling has been one of the most commonly added (and requested) features in VST plugins in general for the past several years. And complaints are often heard where it doesn't exist, including for Cakewalk. Yours truly has certainly been guilty of that, at least once (when I bought my BenQ 2560x1440 (2K) monitor a couple of years ago)... ? By the way, are there any threads where we can follow the new Sonar development and/or beta versions?

Two thoughts: Maybe create a sticky thread about activation problems? They pop up in abundance now, which leads me to... It seems that the required activation frequency was shortened a lot in the latest/final version of Cakewalk by Bandlab. I've never had to activate this often previously. The only conclusion I can make of it is that the Bakers want to be able to encourage/drive/force the customers faster to the upcoming Sonar?

By the way, to follow discussions about the developments of the new Sonar, is this the best thread for that?

Thank you for this thread! I noticed the very same weird CPU load issues (with CPU load staying even after the project was closed!) and narrowed it down to the SSL Bus Compressor 2 and then searched and found this thread. I upgraded SSL Bus Compressor 2 from the problematic v1.2.3 (that was the latest when I bought the plugin in July 2023) to v1.5.5, where the CPU issue seems fixed! As a bonus, somewhere between those two versions a GUI zoom was implemented. ?? By the way, is there any version history or "What's new" available for the SSL plugins? Maybe in the SSL Download Manager? (I don't use that, currently.)