Why/What got you started using Cakewalk (before it was free)?

[Kevin Walsh]

I honestly don't remember. It was  with Sonar 7, I remember that much.

?

[Canopus]

When I decided to try out MIDI, I went to a local instrument repair shop to buy a MIDI card in order to connect my 386SX computer to a Yamaha SY22 that I’d bought a month earlier. When I was there, I took the opportunity to ask the owner if he had some appropriate program to go along with it. He said he had, and took a cyan coloured box down from a shelf. So I went back home with a MusicQuest PC MIDI Card, some MIDI cables and Cakewalk 4.0 for DOS in my hands.
 
This was September 3, 1991. I’ve still got the receipt, that’s how I know.

[mdiemer]

I walked into a music store in Portland, ME in the late 90's and a guy sold me Cakewalk Home Studio.

[michaelhanson]

I was at NAMM and saw a demo of Cakewalk, I believe it was Cakewalk 2.   I brought a demo disk home with me.

[Michael Vogel]

I started on an Amiga 2000 with Bars & Pipes as my sequencer, but work forced me to move to PC. I started with Cakewalk 7 then 8. I only dabbled with computer based music at that stage so that was enough till I found Sonar 3 Pro. Since then I’ve bought every upgrade through to Sonars demise and now on CbB since it’s release. 

[Kalle Rantaaho]

A disc with Cakewalk Apprentice came with a Sound Blaster something around 1991.   

[bayoubill]

I started back in May 2003 with Guitar Pro. That's when I joined the forums the first time.  As I got better at it and realized thanks to Strammy's suggestion I could do more with Sonar. Unfortunately right after I upgraded to Sonar I was diagnosed with cancer and my playing days ended Oct 03' till July 09.  I've slowly gotten back to playing ever since

Edited June 17, 2019 by bayoubill
My Dad once said Son, I don't want to hurt you but you're still on my list!

[jesse g]

Quote

Why/What got you started using Cakewalk (before it was free)

Downloading Sonar 2.0  XL for free from KAZAA  way back in the day over dial up and then creating my own serial number to get the update for 2.2XL from  Cakewalk.  Once I used it, I was hooked from then on, and have been buying all updates and the newer versions.

Just being honest you all. ?

Edited June 19, 2019 by jesse g

[BassDaddy]

I had a Roland VS-2480 and Roland bought Cakewalk. I thought they would have some interaction or something  similar but it never really happened. I bought SONAR 7 at Guitar Center on  a Presidents Day sale. It might have been more that everytime I search for  how to do something I would get sent to the Cakewalk Forum.  It was the most helpful place on the internet back then.

[kakku]

Only reason i started with cakewalk was that a copy of cakewalk express came with purchase of yamaha's sw60xg. It was easy to use

[Bapu]

Before using Cakewalk products I was using Voyetra Sequence Plus Gold synced to a Tascam 80-8 1/2" tape machine.

I purchased Pro Audio 4 but my computer was not up to the task.  After moving to Alesis ADAT Blackfaces (3 of them) I was less enthused about ITB even though I kept upgrading through the first version of SONAR, I skipped version 2 but kept upgrading from 3 on. At SONAR 6 I started to get serious about ITB recording by having an adequate computer and interface and have stuck with it ever since.

I was a Lifetime Platinum member and I'm not one to complain or be bitter about the change of events that led to CbB. It is what it is.

TBH I'm more of a Studio One Pro V4.5 user now but still use CbB to exchange a "tracking" project along with .wav files with my collaborators where I'm the song initiator (eve though I tracked in Studio One) and with collaborators who send me projects in CbB.

I also use Reaper for one collaborator (he's a Mac user).

I have Harrison Mixbus 32-C that I use a mixing desk, not a DAW.

 

 

Edited June 23, 2019 by Bapu

[craigb]

4 hours ago, Bapu said:

Before posting on Cakewalk forums I used to reply occasionally on a couple of bulletin boards.

I wanted to run a posting bot, but my computer was not up to the task.  After moving to the Cakewalk forums (3 of them) I was less enthused about the submission interfaces even though I kept upgrading through the all Coffee Talk forum iterations.  On the last Cakewalk forum I started to get serious about post count by having an adequate presence and groupie following and have stuck with it ever since.

I was a Multi-Platinum member and I'm not one to complain or be bitter about losing my almost 90,000 post count. It is what it is.

TBH I'm more of a Beyond My DAW poster now but still use Bandlab's Coffee House to exchange a "tracking" project along with .wav files with my collaborators where I'm the song initiator (even though I usually NagBap them through multiple channels) and with collaborators who send me projects in the new Coffee House.

It was nice of Bandlab to then let me keep my old post count (not that it matters).

I have also kept my post count on Beyond My DAW because, hey, it's MY forum, ya?

~ Bapu (bless my heart!)

 

Fyxed.  ?

[Starise]

I had built my own PC. I had an Apple too at the time but didn't have big $$ for the top notch stuff for it. I think because I had built the PC I was more interested in expanding it for audio work. I had Sony Acid on the PC and was running an old copy of a Cakewalk program for an apple. Yes there was an early program that worked on Apple from Cakewalk. I was getting Keyboard Magazine and SOS and seen Cakewalk in it advertised,so I bought it. I began on Pro Audio 8 I think it was...

In the early days I did a lot more tinkering than actually making music. I was more enthralled by the way it all worked and it took me a long time to develop a way that I liked to work which has changed over the years. I think it's important to define what you want to do and develop a working strategy. In those early years I was overwhelmed. All midi was going into and put of hardware. I didn't have a lot of money to throw at it with a young family to raise so I plodded along learning some of it by trial and error on a minimal setup. Learning it didn't come naturally to me. Heck I'm still learning. Loops were not as big back then or loop based music. My developing years were in the 70's not the 60's. I was still on a bottle in the early 60's, so musically i was influenced a lot by 70's rock at the time. That's what I attempted to emulate on some level in my studio, but basically it was a lot of just playing around with the tech until I started to know a little bit about what I was doing. I made some music, was in a few small music groups that never went anywhere. Sometimes much of it seems like a big waste, but in hindsight I think it was slow progressive education on several fronts. My background is full of church oriented music, so I've continued to carry that over to the present. It all still looks like a very long squiggly line to get from point A to point B. After I bought Cakewalk I just kept using and upgrading it. I think I liked the software as much as I liked the people behind it and the users on the CW board.

At the time it was competitive with any other DAW out there. Still is.

Edited June 24, 2019 by Starise

[Christian Jones]

Right on everyone. 

Yeah, I pretty much learned Cakewalk through trial and error too right up until I found the old forum not that many years ago. There was that 3" thick manual, but I don't recall ever cracking it open. I mostly hung out in the piano roll w/ my Z1 and DM5 back then. When I finally got Cakewalk working good in '97/'98 I remember blowing my own hair back w/ the first song I made lol. My sounds were good as I sequencing a Korg Z1, but this song I made, I just couldn't get over it. I still have it and hearing it today, I could see where I was coming from ?. Lol man I miss those days. 

I know a lot of people are well versed in several daws, but to be honest I really want nothing to do with any other daw. Not because I'm married to Cakewalk. For me the daw was always a necessity. I don't really enjoy it. That's not what I mean. I dig working in Cakewalk and knowing it well enough to be able to do what I want to do and that's cool. But I'm really a performer and songwriter at heart and the whole daw thing was something I got into to be able to make music w/o relying on/paying someone to do this and that. I'm just set in my ways is all that is. If Cakewalk vanished and it was forever I'd probably go to S1 only because it seemed to look a bit like Cakewalk last time I saw it. 

[craigb]

Heh, that "other" Craig made a lot of money off me!  I would religiously buy his books with each upgrade.  I've always been an RTFM kind of guy.  ?

[SteveStrummerUK]

The start of my journey came about purely by accident.

Back in 2004, I was just about to lay out £200 on a digital 4-track hardware unit. Before actually parting with the cash, I popped into my local PC World to see if they sold software for producing drum tracks which I was hoping to use in the 4-track.

Thankfully, they didn't.

But what they did have on the shelf was this:

As it was selling for a fraction of the cost of the hardware unit (around £40) I thought I'd take a punt. And the rest, as they say, is history ☺️

To be honest, back then I was so lacking in knowledge about computers and software that I had no concept whatsoever of 'home studio' or DAW software and was amazed that it existed at all!

I subsequently followed on from GT2 to GT2Pro and GT3Pro, then moved on via Music Creator 24 to (the wonderful) Sonar Home Studio 6 and then (the quite dreadful) Home Studio 7. Eventually I started mingling with the big boys with SONAR 8 Studio followed by SONAR 8 Pro, and then continued to update the 'Pro' version annually up until now.

 

 

 

..

Edited June 24, 2019 by SteveStrummerUK

[SteveStrummerUK]

On 6/17/2019 at 5:07 PM, bayoubill said:

I started back in May 2003 with Guitar Pro. That's when I joined the forums the first time.  As I got better at it and realized thanks to Strammy's suggestion I could do more with Sonar. Unfortunately right after I upgraded to Sonar I was diagnosed with cancer and my playing days ended Oct 03' till July 09.  I've slowly gotten back to playing ever since

I remember it all like it was yesterday Bill.

[Slugbaby]

Back in 2003, I was looking to improving my home recordings and my digital 8-track wasn't cutting it. 

A quick Google-search brought up Cakewalk.  It seemed well suited for both MIDI and Audio, and HomeStudio2 was around $50 or so.  Well worth the risk, and I never looked back.

[craigb]

Back in 2003 I had just ended my consulting contract in Orange County California which allowed me to move up to the Pacific Northwest where I intended to find a large house and make a studio (and did!).  Since I wasn't working, I would spend weird hours checking out eBay auctions to snipe awesome gear for cheap. ?