Ælleden Posted February 13, 2022 Share Posted February 13, 2022 Hello, I'm a complete newbie in the music production, I started 2 weeks ago with Cakewalk because it was free. I just want your honest opinion about it compared to the other DAWs you tried. If i'm being honest i'm actually really mad and tilted about this software. I work in the Visual Effects industry, which is full of very complex and advanced software with scripting, code, nodal stuff etc. so I'm no stranger to pieces of software that are hard to master and yet Cakewalk, which should be a simple music making software, is extremelly unreliable and not intuitive at all in my opinion. Plenty of features actually don't work as intented, audio bugs, Cakewalk splitting your work into pieces that you have to merge back together but it doesn't work 2 times out of 3. multiple crashes etc. Is it the same with other DAWs? I was mega hyped when the thought of making some of my own tracks came up and now I'm mega tilted and on the verge of ditching everything. What's your take on that. I'm probably gonna receive a very biased opinion since a non-cakewalk user wouldn't read the Cakewalk forum lol but please don't flame me. Thank you Ælleden 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Byron Dickens Posted February 13, 2022 Share Posted February 13, 2022 (edited) Maybe you need to RTFM. Music making software like this isn't simple. But then, I'm biased.... Edited February 13, 2022 by bdickens 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Vere Posted February 13, 2022 Share Posted February 13, 2022 (edited) So Ok. You fired up Cakewalk without first watching tutorials or reading the documentation and it doesn’t work like YOU think it should work. Every DAW is about the same as far as learning curve goes. Cakewalk is a top quality DAW used buy many of us for a long , long time. We used to gladly pay the $500 for it only a few years ago. Don’t let the price tag fool you. You are more than welcome to go pay $500 for Pro Tools the so called industry standard and report back to us about how easy it was to use ? Go to the tutorials sub forum and start watching and feel free to ask more questions if something isn’t working properly for you. Edited February 13, 2022 by John Vere 4 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ælleden Posted February 13, 2022 Author Share Posted February 13, 2022 I actually watched countless tutorials once I decided I would go for Cakewalk. By countless I mean about 30, which is quite a lot for only 2 weeks. And considering that i use complex software all day, I'm quite surprised to have to look for so many basic features such as merging stuff, displaying several stuff together etc or just navigating in the software with keyboard. This should be default for so many things idk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Byron Dickens Posted February 13, 2022 Share Posted February 13, 2022 Since you "use complex software all day," you should be right at home. This is complex software. You should also know by now that software does what you tell it to, not what you want it to Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ælleden Posted February 13, 2022 Author Share Posted February 13, 2022 It's precisely the point, IT DOESN'T do what I ask, it's bugged af, quick example of the latest issue I ran in. I write some midi stuff, for some unknown reasons Cakewalk decides to split it in several clips WITHOUT ME ASKING. Then I try to merge them back using the only method that exists. It doesnt work, I look on forums, no mention of this, I look on tutorial, only mention is the method I found before, which doesn't work, so NO, it doesn't do what I ask it to do Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Byron Dickens Posted February 13, 2022 Share Posted February 13, 2022 Maybe you're just too smart for it. I was just a dumb mechanic for the better part of 30 years and I don't have any problems performing brain-dead simple, basic functions. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ælleden Posted February 13, 2022 Author Share Posted February 13, 2022 It's not the point anyways, I was asking if other DAWs are like that aswell, or if the fact they are not free they are maybe more polished, more user friendly, more optimized, less crashes and bugs etc. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ælleden Posted February 13, 2022 Author Share Posted February 13, 2022 (edited) Oh come on please, don't act like we're children, I'm not smart i'm trying to understand Edited February 13, 2022 by Ælleden Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Byron Dickens Posted February 13, 2022 Share Posted February 13, 2022 So do you have an actual question about something or did you just come here to act like a troll? 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
user 905133 Posted February 13, 2022 Share Posted February 13, 2022 (edited) 11 hours ago, Ælleden said: I write some midi stuff, for some unknown reasons Cakewalk decides to split it in several clips WITHOUT ME ASKING. Then I try to merge them back using the only method that exists. It doesnt work, I look on forums, no mention of this, I look on tutorial, only mention is the method I found before, which doesn't work, so NO, it doesn't do what I ask it to do It is unclear what you mean by "write some midi stuff." There are many different workflows that constitute writing midi stuff. Perhaps if you enumerate the steps you took that caused unwanted splits, other well-seasoned users can make suggestions that might work better for you. I could be wrong but your original posts seems to be saying, "I'm frustrated with Cakewalk so I'm coming into the community forum and asking Cakewalk users for their 'honest opinion about it compared to other DAWs . . . . ' when I really want to vent and verbally bash Cakewalk." 13 hours ago, Ælleden said: I'm probably gonna receive a very biased opinion since a non-cakewalk user wouldn't read the Cakewalk forum lol but please don't flame me. Just a thought, if you want to try to get suggestions for the unwanted splitting midi clips issue, its not too late to try a less combative approach. I have seen users go from having "Well, if you are coming here to trade insults, we'll oblige you" mind set to helpfully offering serious suggestions. Edited February 13, 2022 by User 905133 (2) grammatical corrections [ask -> asking; " -> ' ]; (1) deleted an errant word 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeGBradford Posted February 13, 2022 Share Posted February 13, 2022 4 hours ago, Ælleden said: It's not the point anyways, I was asking if other DAWs are like that aswell, or if the fact they are not free they are maybe more polished, more user friendly, more optimized, less crashes and bugs etc. No 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azslow3 Posted February 13, 2022 Share Posted February 13, 2022 6 hours ago, Ælleden said: ... I work in the Visual Effects industry, which is full of very complex and advanced software with scripting, code, nodal stuff etc. so I'm no stranger to pieces of software that are hard to master and yet Cakewalk, which should be a simple music making software, is extremelly unreliable and not intuitive at all in my opinion. Plenty of features actually don't work as intented, audio bugs, Cakewalk splitting your work into pieces that you have to merge back together but it doesn't work 2 times out of 3. multiple crashes etc. Is it the same with other DAWs? I was mega hyped when the thought of making some of my own tracks came up and now I'm mega tilted and on the verge of ditching everything. ... I'm probably gonna receive a very biased opinion since a non-cakewalk user wouldn't read the Cakewalk forum lol but please don't flame me. Assume you are serious... Music production software is not "simple". The framework is oriented toward the intuition and intention of musicians and studio engineers. Also it is oriented toward "conventional" way to produce music, so record from external sources (audio and MIDI) and then edit the result. Independent from the DAW, you will need to learn it first. Especially if you want understand why the behavior of something does not match your expectation. Cakewalk is one of convenient to use and simple to understand DAWs. But you can try other DAWs. If you want "guided start", try Tracktion. You will get wizard for what you have to do and the view is "left to right, top to bottom" style. For not "record on type" approach, try Ableton Live. And in case you want scripts and "hard to crash" thing, try REAPER. But there is no "I am the best and the only" DAW. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeGBradford Posted February 13, 2022 Share Posted February 13, 2022 Your issues are nothing to do with Cakewalk being free. It is a fully featured, constantly improving software programme previously retailing at around £400 which has excellent developer support including in this forum. People here will be only too pleased to help with any issues you have - just provide more detail. I've never experienced the problems you outline in years of using Sonar Home Studio and now CbB and I learned everything from scratch 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Baay Posted February 13, 2022 Share Posted February 13, 2022 3 hours ago, Ælleden said: I write some midi stuff, for some unknown reasons Cakewalk decides to split it in several clips WITHOUT ME ASKING. Assuming you mean drawing MIDI notes in the PRV, if a new note starts more than a measure later than the end of the previous one, Cakewalk will start a new clip by default. It's not a bug; it's just how it works. My guess is it's a holdover from the early days when all MIDI notes were grouped by measures, and that was the finest resolution at which you could edit. In any case, you can just select the entire track and Bounce to Clips to combine them. Or you can slip-edit the end boundary of the clip out in the Track View in advance to encompass notes that will be further out. Or you can enter notes the old-fashioned way - in real time with a MIDI controller - and each take will be a contiguous clip, not matter how long you pause between notes. I started with Cakewalk for DOS 2.0 in 1988, so yes, I'm biased. I have spent some time getting to know Studio One, and dabbled a bit in Reaper. Both took several days to get even slightly comfortable with and I had to check the documentation constantly to get the most basic things done. This is the nature of DAWs. They are way too complex to be 'intuitive'. And they all have bugs, and features that are more or less 'polished' than the equivalent feature in some other DAW. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
towi0music Posted February 13, 2022 Share Posted February 13, 2022 (edited) I use cakewalk for a long time. Former Sonar user. I use other daws Studio one and reaper mainly at the moment, because I miss some features in cakewalk that are important for me. I basically tried all, and I mean really all daws there are. And I can tell you, there are not much more bugs nore is cakewalk more complicated than one of the payed or free competitor daws. Infact the workflow is very convinient for beginners. But I have to admit the GUI can look overwhelming especially for complete new beginners. If you get the basics of cakewalk, you can try every other "mixer style based daw" (like Studio one, cubase, reaper, pro tools, digital perfomer, Logic) because the workflow is very similar. You will be surprised how stable and user friendly and logically structured cakewalk actually is in the world of DAWs. Edited February 13, 2022 by towi0music 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dana Elston Posted February 13, 2022 Share Posted February 13, 2022 12 hours ago, Ælleden said: Hello, I'm a complete newbie in the music production, I started 2 weeks ago with Cakewalk because it was free. I just want your honest opinion about it compared to the other DAWs you tried. If i'm being honest i'm actually really mad and tilted about this software. I work in the Visual Effects industry, which is full of very complex and advanced software with scripting, code, nodal stuff etc. so I'm no stranger to pieces of software that are hard to master and yet Cakewalk, which should be a simple music making software, is extremelly unreliable and not intuitive at all in my opinion. Plenty of features actually don't work as intented, audio bugs, Cakewalk splitting your work into pieces that you have to merge back together but it doesn't work 2 times out of 3. multiple crashes etc. Is it the same with other DAWs? I was mega hyped when the thought of making some of my own tracks came up and now I'm mega tilted and on the verge of ditching everything. What's your take on that. I'm probably gonna receive a very biased opinion since a non-cakewalk user wouldn't read the Cakewalk forum lol but please don't flame me. Thank you Ælleden Wow - you seem to set yourself up for any possible language that may offend you so I'm not sure you'll believe anything you read about Cakewalk but I will try. I have been using Cakewalk since the time of it being a midi only platform back in the 90's. The transformation to Cakewalk By Bandlab has been amazing and I love it. I've read about other DAWs and realize two things. 1. All DAWs have flaws (wow I like that, lol). 2. They all record digital audio the same way. What you do with it is totally up to you. And btw, what kind of expectation do you have from a completely free DAW that has so much to offer? Yes all DAWs are different. I've recorded 15 tracks of audio simultaneously for 30 minutes with no issues. I use third party plugins as well as the included plugins and instruments. Basically your computer determines the complexity level of Cakewalk or any other DAW for that matter. Be sure to set up your settings correctly to ensure the best possible performance before judging it. This makes all the difference in the world. I hope this is some help to you and your experience with Cakewalk. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xoo Posted February 13, 2022 Share Posted February 13, 2022 I do think there's an element of personal "click-ness": does the software work in the way you think it should. For example, back when I got into computer based music (mid-90s), I tried Logic, Cubase and Cakewalk out. I simply couldn't work out how to get anything done in Logic, and the way that Cubase worked in some ways really grated (eg. Left click for incrementing a value, right click to decrement- this may well have changed in later versions of course!). I didn't need to look at a manual or the help file for Cakewalk so went - and stuck - with it. But other people I knew at the time found the reverse... Horses for courses. And, of course, Cakewalk is way more functional and rich now (as is Cubase) so I wouldn't necessarily expect anyone to find either one of them intuitive out of the box, just one might be a bit more so than the other to an individual... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Vere Posted February 13, 2022 Share Posted February 13, 2022 (edited) 11 hours ago, Ælleden said: actually watched countless tutorials once I decided I would go for Cakewalk. By countless I mean about 30, I’m curious. Did you happen to watch my series? If the tutorials I made didn’t answer your questions then I would like to know so I can improve on them. Seriously. My Channel is in my signature but they are all listed in the tutorials sub forum near the top. Edited February 13, 2022 by John Vere 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teegarden Posted February 13, 2022 Share Posted February 13, 2022 13 hours ago, Ælleden said: Hello, I'm a complete newbie in the music production, I started 2 weeks ago with Cakewalk because it was free. I just want your honest opinion about it compared to the other DAWs you tried. If i'm being honest i'm actually really mad and tilted about this software. I work in the Visual Effects industry, which is full of very complex and advanced software with scripting, code, nodal stuff etc. so I'm no stranger to pieces of software that are hard to master and yet Cakewalk, which should be a simple music making software, is extremelly unreliable and not intuitive at all in my opinion. Plenty of features actually don't work as intented, audio bugs, Cakewalk splitting your work into pieces that you have to merge back together but it doesn't work 2 times out of 3. multiple crashes etc. Is it the same with other DAWs? I was mega hyped when the thought of making some of my own tracks came up and now I'm mega tilted and on the verge of ditching everything. What's your take on that. Instead of asking the obvious (yes, depending on what you do and your system configuration, other DAWs can have the same if not more problems. CbB is actually very stable since the last few years the development has strongly focussed on ironing out bugs instead of introducing new potential bug introducing new features), and assuming that you did watch the right, essential tutorials in order to be able to start well, ... why don't you provide your hardware and software specs and describe what you're trying to do and point out your exact problems? There are plentiful of very skilled users on the forum that are more than welcome to help you out when you encounter a specific problem! Just for the record: CbB is a fully featured professional DAW that finds its right place among the top DAWs with a support team that actually listens to feedback and quickly implements bug fixes and improvements whenever possible. I have not seen this kind of interaction with any of the other DAWs. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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