I'm done with Cakewalk.

[User 905133]

2 hours ago, AxlBrutality said:

And this is the other reason why I'm leaving Cakewalk and it's forums.  The default is always to blame to user or their hardware first and foremost; it's been that way since the height of Sonar's known instability issues.

Just my opinion: "The forum" is a collection of individuals.  Not all forum members agree on the same things as other forum members. Some individuals come into the forum and automatically assume the frustrations they experience are "caused by" the software (and therefore they "blame" the software).  Some individuals come to the forum with the assumption that they did something "wrong" or lack something from their personal knowledge bases.

In diagnosing issues and trying to help others solve problems, it is often best to rule out certain things.  Some people who reply are more terse than others.

If you were to do a content analysis of replies to requests for help making better use of the software, my guess is that you probably would find diversity in the responses. 

As for me, I usually start from the assumption that I either don't know enough, I missed something, or I did something wrong.  

We are all different. 

Edited March 9, 2022 by User 905133
grammatical corrections

[bitflipper]

I've been troubleshooting software and hardware for a very long time. I've learned to play the percentages. I usually assume initially that it was my mistake. Even knowing that's not always true,  the percentages remain in my favor.

[John Nelson]

In my experience, rogue plugins and/or poorly written audio interface drivers are the most likely crash culprits ... YMMV.

Edited March 9, 2022 by John Nelson

[RobertWS]

Back ups are your best friend.

[Craig Anderton]

Normally I couldn't really add anything to this kind of thread, but it does provide an excuse to say something that might be helpful in general.

My experience with software is the better the computer, the less likely the chances of any software crashing. I use several DAWs in my work, and they're about the same in terms of reliability. Overall, I would consider them all very reliable. There are the occasional hiccups, but they're almost always from pushing a program too hard. I can't complain about that any more than I could complain about my car engine overheating because I always run it at 4,500 RPM. 

Overall I've been very happy with Cakewalk's stability since it became BandLabified. However, I do keep the program, the OS, and all drivers updated religiously, and image my drive periodically just in case an update introduces a problem.  Computer maintenance is as much of a fact of life these days as cleaning and demagnetizing heads, and then adjusting bias, was with tape recording. 

[Glenn Stanton]

7 minutes ago, Craig Anderton said:

...

I can't complain about that any more than I could complain about my car engine overheating because I always run it at 4,500 RPM. 

i thought your Jag could hit 12K RPM before it begins to act up... ?

[Craig Anderton]

5 hours ago, Glenn Stanton said:

i thought your Jag could hit 12K RPM before it begins to act up... ?

My 2000 VW Beetle (the second of only two cars I've owned in my life) would probably explode at 12K RPM

[marcL]

21 hours ago, Craig Anderton said:

My experience with software is the better the computer, the less likely the chances of any software crashing. I use several DAWs in my work, and they're about the same in terms of reliability. Overall, I would consider them all very reliable. There are the occasional hiccups, but they're almost always from pushing a program too hard. I can't complain about that any more than I could complain about my car engine overheating because I always run it at 4,500 RPM.

This is a very excellent ascertainment!

Though you can see it from another angle: There is software and software, there are developers that always require a Ferrari to run it and there are others that let you run their software even on an old ford Anglia!

I had almost no crashes or even freezes with Sonar and CbB. But I noticed that there are things that need more power compared to other DAWs (e.g. the one that I don't name, 'cos I know that you don't like it and just make ridiculous comments about ?). For example if I did long (loop) recordings I recognized that CbB suddenly begins to have drop-outs. With the other DAWs that I own it did not happen on the same PC! But I could fix this issue mostly by only using a SSD as target for the project.

Another thing are projects with scores of clips/takes, it takes much more power if you are using CbB. Though I avoid doing to much in one single project, i.e. I am used to have a couple of projects for each song (1 for each major task). This clearly reduces issues.

Still I do use CbB as my 2nd DAW, because I prefer the design of some things. Also I have most insight and experience (probably not as much as some of you) with CbB compared to other DAWs.

[Johnbee58]

I've been using personal computers since 1995. I've used every operating system since Windows 3.1, laptops and desktops and many different "makes & models".  I've come to the conclusion that computers are a lot like people.  They all have their own personalities and quirks.  I was using a dedicated music PC running Windows 8 for 7 years.  I replaced it last year because I was starting to have BSOD issues on an increasing rate.  I thought it was just like an old car-getting old and worn out so I bought a new PC for music production.  This one is a bit more powerful and runs Windows 10.  I thought this would solve all my problems but the new one came with its own set of problems & quirks.  No BSODs but other problems just the same.  That's the way computers are and unless you really know how to get "under the hood" and tweak them (which I can't) sometimes issues are unavoidable.

Cakewalk updates on a somewhat frequent level,  as do all DAWs, free or not.

My advise to the OP is the same as many others here have offered.  (Whichever DAW you use) Hit the "Save" command (or Control+S) frequently (and don't depend on "Auto Save"}.  You won't waste 4 hours of vocal takes and you'll be a happier person.

?John B

Edited March 11, 2022 by Johnbee58

[bitman]

It's just winter buddy. ?

 

 

Everything is freezing or frozen.

Get this man a burger.

[John Vere]

Funny how trolls get more reply’s than nice people who are asking for help. Just an observation. 

[OutrageProductions]

11 minutes ago, John Vere said:

Funny how trolls get more reply’s than nice people who are asking for help. Just an observation. 

That's the way the world works. He who yells the loudest gets the most attention. Even when they're wrong. ?

[usalabs]

On 3/8/2022 at 11:29 AM, AxlBrutality said:

I have stuck by Cakewalk for almost 15 years.  Through all the highs and lows, through all the changes...I've been their biggest champion and their most intense apologist.  I've spent hours and hours and hours with devs and customer service tracking down bugs and resolving issues.  I stuck by CW/Sonar through the worst of the instability issues in years past.  I've stuck by this program in spite of INFURIATING losses of work, and workflow stoppages, over the years due to random crashes, auto-save not actually working, and any variety of random problems over the years.

Today was the final straw.  I lost 4 HOURS worth of vocal recording at once due to a freeze that came out of the blue.  No recent changes, no new plugins, everything is updated, nothing running in the background, etc. I simply clicked on my timeline as I have a million times before and the program froze, necessitating a force-close and the loss of ALL my work in spite of auto-save being enabled.  This isn't the first time such a thing has happened, but it came at a VERY bad time and was the final straw.

NO ONE I know who uses Cubase, PT, S1, etc. has these kinds of issues as routinely as I have with Cakewalk, nor have I in my time with other programs on this machine (which, by the way, is more than powerful enough to handle anything I throw at it).

Could I go down the days, weeks, even months-long rabbit hole with CBB trying to track down the cause of this one?  Sure.  But I've been there before...multiple times.  I'm not doing it again.  I've given enough of my life to the devs tracking down issues over the years.  I have better things to do with my time than spending hours not getting paid just to track down yet another issue that caused me hours of work loss in the first place.

This kind of stuff, right here, is why Cakewalk has never been able to compete commercially with its peers....and never will.

So long, CBB....you screwed me over for the last time.  My sanity is worth more than wasting it contributing to your desperate attempts to stay relevant in this industry.

I too dumped CbB, for the same reason, if CbB is open for longer than an hour or so, it crashes for no reason at all, which doesn't happen with Sonar X3, also, CbB's 64 bit rendering engine crashes too, even if I have autosave set to every 5 changes, when any crash happens, the autosave is there but CbB as the same with Sonar, which hasn't changed since Cakewalk was known as Pro Audio 8, does not retrieve the autosave file but you have to re-load it, and the autosave file name is what's being used instead of the real file name that was given when creating the project.

I have used Cakewalk products since it was called Cakewalk Pro Audio 8, and I have kept it updated until Gibson took it over, then when Bandlab took it over, and called it CbB Sonar Platinum, (completely different to Sonar X3 PE), I couldn't get any more updates, and as such I just kept using Sonar X3 PE, and I've never had problems with it at all, then came CbB, I gave it the benefit of the doubt , and tried it, and as sson as I installed it and opened it I started having problem after problem after problem, so, thinking it could be because Bandlab just took it over and was having teething problems, CbB was updated 8 times since I installed it, and I still have problem after problem after problem, so I dumped it and now use X3 PE, and will always use X3 PE.

[Craig Anderton]

34 minutes ago, John Vere said:

Funny how trolls get more reply’s than nice people who are asking for help. Just an observation. 

Maybe because the nice people asking for help get help from nice people, and go back to making music

[Byron Dickens]

42 minutes ago, usalabs said:

if CbB is open for longer than an hour or so, it crashes for no reason at all,

I must be doing something wrong because I've had it open for about three weeks with zero crashes.

[Jacques Boileau]

2 hours ago, John Vere said:

Funny how trolls get more reply’s than nice people who are asking for help. Just an observation. 

And funny how we keep on replying and give advice to the OP that is loooong gone! ?

[Will.]

38 minutes ago, Jacques Boileau said:

And funny how we keep on replying and give advice to the OP that is loooong gone! ?

They always come back. 

[John Vere]

OH OH, now there's 2 trolls under the bridge. I think I'll go a different way. Best I don't talk to the trolls, that's how they get you... 

Edited March 11, 2022 by John Vere

[Byron Dickens]

3 hours ago, bdickens said:

I must be doing something wrong because I've had it open for about three weeks with zero crashes.

Of course, I save often and don't do stupid shit like putting Ozone on every track....

[User 905133]

I tend to get issues like some of these due to Microsoft's so-called energy management.  Even if I fine tune all my system settings  ("Windows, don't ***** with the settings I intentionally chose!!!"), there will be an update that undoes my preferences because . . . . [well, just because "they" can]. 

Edited March 13, 2022 by User 905133
to add a " that was missing; to fix a typo