Bristol_Jonesey

2 minutes ago, Jonathan Simpson said:

Hello, I have a question. I hate subscriptions and will not sign up for those, but then you suggest a free tier, however, once I download the free tier option it says I can sign up for the membership or continue the evaluation. This makes it sound like the free tier is only temporary and eventually anyone who uses it will be forced into a paid subscription. So, are you guys ever going to offer a one time, free and clear purchase option or should I just stick with the old Cakewalk by bandlab to avoid being trapped into a paid subscription down the road?

1. You cannot simply continue with Cakewalk by Bandlab. New authorisations will cease exactly one month from today. After that as soon as your licence expires, so will CbB
2. Free Tier is permanent. You will NOT be forced (or blackmailed as one eloquent user suggested) into buying a subscription. 

53 minutes ago, loyal user said:

it's a tool, and ui info architecture should be function over form - who cares if it looks great from across the room? knowing immediately where to go on the ui is the number one priority shurely? 🤷‍♂️

But kday's complaint was that it was black. I demonstrated that it wasn't black.

Why do you have a problem with this?

All your old plugins will continue to work.

You might have to point to where they are in Plugin manager, 

As to whether it's worth paying more, only you can answer that.

There is a side by side comparison between Free & Paid on the website. This should help

2 hours ago, Gregory Press said:

Same issue here with latest version of Sequoia where all else functionals perfectly. BTW, are Cakewalk apps and plugins no longer updated or supported?

What makes you think they'd drop support?

10 hours ago, John Vere said:

By default everything on a channel strip is from top to bottom. Simple. 

John, this is a discussion re the order of Pro Channel vs Fx Bin

And as we all know, it's switchable 😊

8 hours ago, Leander said:

Thanks!

If you decide to use Offset Mode, do NOT forget to switch back to Envelope Mode when you've finished!

Not all the same colours

59 minutes ago, warrickhale said:

Noel, Many thanks for your for your response, I had just found out the information on THU. However although I have actually purchased the membership version of Sonar on Bandlab when I launch the program it says it is the 'evaluation version' and displays a 'Get Membership' button. When I press that button it says 'you are already a member'. So this is frustrating, I cannot access THU and I seem to just have the evaluation version.  Can you assist with this, I don't want to have to go back to an older Sonar. 

Send an email to support@cakewalk.com

On 6/26/2025 at 2:40 PM, pwalpwal said:

washed out difficult to read grey screen, shurely?

But is it black?

I'd be very wary of uninstalling older versions.

You don't know a) what dependencies you might break, or

b) what shared plugins might no longer be available.

You might get more joy if you'd set it up as split audio/midi, rather than an Instrument Track

2 hours ago, Bruce Gavin said:

I might be interested IF the Free Sonar edition makes full use of multi-core processors.

I'm 51 years in the computer business this year.
Rest assured there is a whole new crop of bugs in Free Sonar, just like EVERY other new piece of software.

The various Microsoft runtime libraries are constantly updated due to the endless bugs found in them.
The failure of Object Oriented code is a bug in the runtime is a bug for every user of that run time.

Those who write their apps to the latest and greatest runtimes are subject to the bugs in those latest and greatest runtimes.

What new bugs have you found so far?

40 minutes ago, saxon1066 said:

Hi, Bristol.  So backwards compatibility is possible?  To what extent?  I would expect a placeholder for Sonar-only plugins when opening in old Cakewalk a project saved in new Sonar.

I mean, obviously certain plugins might not work, and features available in a newer version would not be accessible in an older one, but the 2 .cwp' -s by their very nature - would be compatible with each other.

1 hour ago, linkbekka said:

Thanks. No, I haven`t read that Cakewalk will be discontinued. I hope not. I thought it is just updates will cease. 

I opened the .cwp file straight from a folder and it opened in Sonar. I see above how to stop that. What file format does Sonar use to distinguish between the two programs?

It doesn't.

Either version will open .cwp files.

Otherwise backwards compatibility would not be possible

The solution is, as mentioned, is to NOT open a project directly from a folder in Windows and launch whichever version of Cake/Sonar first and open it from there.

Is this any better?

44 minutes ago, Bandlab Unknown said:

I see with the free version you have to do an online activation every month.  Does anyone know if this is increased if you pay for it or does it need to activate just as often?

The only time I've had to activate Sonar is following an update.

I paid for the annual subscription.

1 hour ago, linkbekka said:

OK. So against my better judgement I decided to download the new Sonar.

First impression was OK. Looks similar. My MIDI keyboard had  not appeared and some plugins were missing. But what really annoyed me was the fact that when I closed it down and tried to open an existing Cakewalk file it opened in Sonar.

 

I want the programs to open independently of each other. I don`t want Sonar barging in and grabbing all my existing Cakewalk files.

 

If I decide to record with Sonar I will do so and save the file. If I want to work in Cakewalk I don`t want Sonar opening.

 

I also couldn`t find the mixing console when I had a very quick look. It use to be under `view`

 

Please point me in the direction for solutions to these niggles.  Many thanks.

Why not simply open up Cakewalk first and loading your desired project from there?

The old limitation used to be that you could install it on as many computers as you liked, but only one could be used at any one time.

This was never a problem for me due to having regular length arms.

Just now, mettelus said:

The term you are seeking in the OP is "Control Group."

We prefer the term Quick Groups

26 minutes ago, kday said:

I agree, I'm tired of the company doing all this versions messing with my recording history. I've paid for sonar. Then they stopped producing it a little later, then they offered a free version to fix bugs, and now they're offer a different lite version with missing features and a lower quality 2D screen interface, and a black color I hate and strain my eyes to see? That's like going backwards from a 3D colorful interface, and tons of legacy features. The only wy I'd personally upgrade back to Sonar again after paying once is is they offer a one time fee option. It's just not worth it to go from a full featured CBB 3D user interface and a bunch of legacy features to a slimed down 2D user interface with only a black screen that looks more like CAD program than a Recording Mixer Audio Workstation to me.  I love the look of the CBB and the New Sonar let alone the free version just don't give me that legacy DAW look or option. So I'll probably stay with CBB until a new Microsoft Windows makes it obsolete.  

Black screen? 

4 hours ago, 504 lover lover said:

it's called sonar platinum again?

No

Sonar Premium

Struck a nerve Will?

I wasn't actually referring to you, but carry on.

36 minutes ago, John Vere said:

Free software leads to sales

This is what a lot of people don't get. I won't name names, but we all know who they are.

35 minutes ago, 504 lover lover said:

not for sonar/cbb/whateveritscalledthisweek, only for bandlab,  sonar/cbb/whateveritscalledthisweek is just a component so doesn't get its own push

Sonar is not CbB. Why are you conflating the 2? 

Saying "whateveritscalledthisweek" is also a bit weird. The names have never changed since being announced.

1 hour ago, Annabelle said:

I wonder if version 4 is still available.

As an alternative, you do have V-Vocal with Sonar 8.5