Michael Vogel

They’re tools that are part of the Sonar package that enhance your range of capabilities. You’re free to install or not; depends if you want/need them.

Your purchase of SONAR Platinum was from Gibson who owned Cakewalk at the time. When Gibson dropped SONAR, Bandlab purchased the IP (intellectual Property) and for the last 5 or more years have provide Cakewalk by Bandlab free. Late last year they moved to a subscription model of Sonar which is purchased by an annual membership to Bandlab. This also gives you access to their more ‘modern streamlined’ DAW, NEXT. There is also a Sonar free tier which as the name suggests is free to use. It has numerous restriction however versus the Sonar paid version. There is no entitlement based on your previous purchase of products from Gibson. Do a few searches on the forum and you’ll find tons of arguments on the topic of entitlement etc. Hope that helps.

What’s wrong with using a mobile phone. There are so many apps to help with recording, lyrics, notation, MIDI and virtual instruments, or audio you name it. Or upgrade to a tablet either Android or iOS. It’s not a complex problem to then get that data over to your DAW for more extensive editing. Look at an app called Loopy Pro.

Check that you have the latest Cakewalk Product Centre.

You could also try checking your CbB folders in case your Sonar project has been saved there.

See previous post re Dim pro Rapture, Zeta etc.

I don’t think Cakewalk ever owned the IP for Dimension, Rapture or Zeta. The name Reneè Cabalos springs to mind (but not certain) as the developer from whom Cakewalk licensed the software. That same principle covers some of the VSTs which are no longer included with Bandlab’s current offerings. You may own appropriate licenses to older versions which were included with Sonar during and before the Gibson era. If that’s the case you can access them all through Sonar’s old product download manager available with your old login via the legacy Cakewalk site at https://legacy.cakewalk.com/My-Account/Login?ReturnUrl=%2fMy-Account hope that helps someone. here is a list of plugins (spreadsheet) and which version of Sonar included them,Sonar Plugins Sonar 3 to Platinum.xlsx

Paid for my sub with PayPal. No problem.

I still have a POD XT Live. I think it’s the oldest bit of fully working kit I’ve got. Bought it new when they first came out. Must be 20 years old. It weighs a ton and I never used it live. These days it sits in my lounge room ready to plug my electric in when the mood strikes and I listen on headphones. It’s in immaculate condition and works perfect. heres a pic. I’ve only ever used it in the studio.

I recently watched a couple of YouTube vids about MIDI 2 and Windows audio updates. Well worth the couple of hours to get some legit info on 2 subjects that interested me greatly. Found purely by accident while looking for something else.

It’s easy to stay in the MIDI 2 loop by becoming a member of the MIDI association. It’s free

Here’s a list of all plugins from Sonar 3 to Platinum that I compiled years ago. Plugins

@Bob Snelgrove notice you mentioned Sonar 8. This forum is for Cakewalk Sonar (the subscription version) which is now owned by Bandlab. Sonar 8 must be about 15 years out of date. Followed by 8.5, X1, X2, X3 then Platinum. Followed by 5 years of development by Bandlab. the Free Cakewalk by Bandlab (still available) has been developed right up to recent months and has been superseded by Cakewalk Sonar by Bandlab.

Cakewalk Sonar Reference Guide

A quick search of the Cakewalk Sonar Reference Guide for Big Time shows 34 results. The one you want is to select View/Big Time from the menu bar. Best I can recollect is that it’s always been available from the View menu. As previously mentioned you can set it to always display by selecting appropriate options in Workspaces.