Steve Moddelmog

Yipes - I'm going to have to do that for all my Arturia VSTs - something like 40 synths.

Well, I am an idiot. I unchecked the DPI box on the VST2 instead of the VST3. All is good. Thanks.

Yes, the VST3. Version 1.4.6

Nope, they are all stubbornly the exact same tiny size with or without the box checked.

OK, that worked.

Stranger still - I unchecked the box for AAS Tassman 4.1 and it fixed the scaling for it. But it doesn't work for any Native Instruments synths. I've tried Reaktor, Massive X, etc.

3840 x 2160, 250%

The setting "stuck" the last time I unchecked it, but it (FM8) is still tiny in Sonar/

1. I disabled "Plugin DPI Awareness' for FM8, rescanned everything, and it was still tiny. I tried closing and re-opening Sonar and the "Plugin DPI Awareness" bon for FM8 was checked again. 2. Yes, in Mercury Classic I'm referring to the shading of the sharps. I'm using Tungsten Classic and it's much worse since both all the grid is very dar. 3. I cannot put the cursor anywhere in the performance module that brings up the real-time information.

Very frustrating that while the .cwp file clearly must have the name of the plugin (otherwise you'd have to manually load the desired plugin every time you re-opened a project), that information is not store in plain text. I have many, many old files from the days of dxi that I'd like to resuscitate and work on where the plugin now has a modern VST (Native Instruments plugins, for example), but I didn't do track notes back then and I'd never be able to figure out what plugin to load. If that information could be extracted from the file, I could replace, say, the dxi of FM8 with the most recent VST and then load the preset I originally used. Ditto for old versions of VSTs (say Absynth 4) with newer versions (Absynth 5) and load the preset whose name I found poking into the .cwp file. Yet the developers must know how to get that information - would really be great to see a tool created to do so. THAT would entice me to buy a subscription to the new Sonar.

I did the three-day trial of Sonar and learned the following: 1. A lot of my non-scalable VSTs are now so tiny in nuSonar that I can't use them. For example, Native Instruments synths except for Kontakt. 2. Due to eyesight issues, I need a theme where PRV has white keys / black keys and a white grid with dark gridlines. I could accomplish this with Theme Editor in CBB, but as of now there doesn't seem to be a theme editor for nuSonar. 3. Small thing but I've found it very helpful in CBB lately: in CBB, if you hover over the bar graph in the Performance Module, you get real time info on Audio Processing, Engine Load, and number of Late Buffers. This feature is missing in nuSonar. The only real advantage I found in nuSonar was the crispness of the text and graphics. Has anyone found anything else that is a super useful improvement?

Nothing free expected, but the payment model is not what is wanted. I have yet to see a user on these forums or in any CW social media groups say they were hoping for a subscription model.

SPLAT would be ok. A few CBB features I would miss, but nothing earth-shattering. If the ability to activate with Command Center ceased to exist, I have X3. I've used it a bit, and I do think that would be a step backwards and possibly a reason to look for a new DAW. But it would be usable in a pinch, and the advantage is it would open the hundreds of Cakewalk projects I have.

Thanks. I'm remembering this now...

Just installed SPLAT - "just in case." Why is everything greyed out in Plugin Manager, and where are my plugins? Yes, I've got the right paths identified, but SPLAT won't scan and plugin lists are empty.

I have thought the same thing - no more expensive to pay the fee every month than it was to upgrade once a year. But if you decided not to upgrade, you still had a usable product. Maybe improvements to these products happen so frequently (continually) these days that there really is no point where the developer can say, well, this is now a big leap forward so now it's time for you to pay an upgrade fee if you want these new features. So after the first year, from a cost standpoint it's kind of like saying you're paying an upgrade fee monthly - except if you decide to stop getting the upgrades, you lose the program altogether.

Weirdly, when I now click on the links for Bandlab Membership (from "how to get Sonar"), I don't see Sonar mentioned anywhere there or in the page on Backstage Pass. Am I somehow missing it? I could have sworn it used to explicitly mention access to Sonar.

Maybe. But I just found my Sonar XL (2?) CD and the copyright date on it is 2001 - 23 years ago. So it would have been running under XP. I'm pretty sure I have installed from that in Windows 10 with no issues, don't think I've tried with Windows 11.

Well, X3 is activated with a serial number and as near as I can tell does not require servers anywhere to activate. And since they recently updated the old Command Center, it seems like the intent is to continue to allow people to activate SPLAT and other software they bought from the old entities.

And it also seems clear now they aren't going to throw a bone to those of us who paid for perpetual licenses during the prior ownership (I bought every single version of "old" Sonar, so I have paid a fair amount). They certainly aren't obligated to, but I would have done it if I were in their place (meaning a modest discount).

One more thing... if they ARE planning to offer a one-time purchase option, why don't they simply say so? They are the ones that put the question on their website. They fact that they don't simply answer their own question "We plan to offer a one-time purchase option in the (near) future" makes me think they aren't planning to do so.

I'm just saying I've read those words on other companies' websites in the past, and "at this time" has proven in the long run to mean "no." As I said, grammatically it would suggest reason for hope.

There's been a change in language on the website that leads me to believe they won't offer a perpetual license. Previously, they referred to "early access" to Sonar being available through Backstage Pass membership. That language has been replaced by This: "Cakewalk Sonar is currently available through BandLab Membership [no reference to early access]. If you have a BandLab account, you can purchase BandLab Membership here, or learn more about it in the BandLab Membership FAQ." The question "Will Cakewalk Sonar be offered via one-time purchase or perpetual license?" is now answered by this: "At this time, Cakewalk Next and Cakewalk Sonar are available exclusively through BandLab Membership." While that doesn't grammatically mean there won't be other purchase options in the future, my experience with the phrase "At this time" on companies' website almost always means " we aren't planning on it." So I am considering my options: (1) continue to use CBB until it no longer activates, then switch back to SPLAT which should always work (I also have X3 if the SPLAT authorization disappears), (2) look into other DAWs that offer perpetual licenses (Studio One?), or (3) purchase the Membership and see if I can get over my extreme aversion to that model. Under Option (3), I'd like to be assured that my files saved in the new Sonar can always be opened by the original Sonar, understanding that using certain new features could create some issues when opening the files in old Sonar.

I assume you mean shortcuts for the "nudge" function. They are on the numeric keypad.

So true. Not on the subject of making music, but years ago Gillette or Schick or some razor-maker attached the term "Pro-shave" to one of their products. I remember thinking, wow, I'm pretty good at shaving - maybe I could go pro.