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BandLab Technologies reveals new brand vision for Cakewalk

Larry Shelby

By Larry Shelby
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GTsongwriter

GTsongwriter

Posted
Posted

The really bad thing is, my Roland Edirol PCR-300 midi keyboard was created just for Cakewalk Sonar Producer.  There's a button on it that pulls up a midi controller menu straight from Sonar Producer!

I actually had to Jerry rig windows 10 to force accept the driver in order to get it working in Windows 10!

So, yeah.. I'll always keep Sonar Producer 8.5.3 running, no matter what other DAW I choose.  I can't afford to get new equipment as I'm not a PRO in this industry.  Having access to the midi controller is important to me.

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Monomox
Monomox

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Bapu
Bapu

So Cakewalk which became SONAR which became CbB which soon will become Cakewalk's SONAR (again)? Groundhog Day Deja Vu all over again.?

User 905133
User 905133

I paid for Cakewalk for MS DOS, Cakewalk for Windows and then for Sonar, etc.  If the quality is there and the price is within my budget, I would not mind paying again.  To be honest, I will be happy

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jgarland

jgarland

Posted
Posted

Well, lets see, I've owned every version of Cakewalk from Pro Audio 9 to Sonar Lifetime. I purchased every upgrade in between.

For the Last 5 years I have had the use a first rate DAW, which I am very familiar with and does everything I need, for absolutely no cost. Using Sonars previous upgrade pricing as a basis I figure CbB has saved me anywhere from 500 to 700 bucks. I know that is not a ton of cash, but I do appreciate it.

Unless they do something really stupid with pricing, I'm in.  

 

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Magic Russ

Magic Russ

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, bitflipper said:

Yeh, you just missed it. There have been many pleas, not for new plugins, but for the return of old favorites. Some that come to mind from recent posts (as recent as last month) are CA2A, Dimension Pro, Adaptive Limiter, Z3ta and LP-64. Most of us old-timers still have them, but the user base has expanded greatly since the demise of classic Sonar.

Some of the old bundled plugins were licensed from third parties (e.g. PerfectSpace, Pantheon, Breverb). Couldn't sustain that with a free DAW. Some of the old favorites were made by now-defunct companies (e.g. VC-64), so they're out. However, Cakewalk actually owned the code for some of them, or they were developed in-house. Those are the ones most likely to return, now that Cakewalk's hiring. Cakewalk, I believe, outright owns the Sonitus suite (having bought Ultrafunc, its developer). It'd be nice to see those great plugins spiffed up with bigger UIs and a few bugs ironed out.

Oddly, no one has asked for Guitar Rig LE. (C'mon, it wasn't that bad!)

A legitimate argument can be made that nobody really needs those, given the cornucopia of free and cheap plugins out in the world today. But they were a good value for someone just getting started.

CA-2 is still pretty good, as were the Linear Phase plugins and Adaptive Limiter.  The original Z3TA+ was pretty groundbreaking.   Triangle II has an ob9 patch that I prefer to a number of current Oberheim emulations.  I'd love to see them make a few tweaks to Pentagon to make it a little more stable and take standard wav files.

Rapture is still a fairly powerful synth, and while Dimension doesn't have the power of Kontakt, it has a pretty solid library.  While I will be the first to say they made some really dumb missteps with Rapture Pro (especially releasing a 32 bit version when a not insignificant portion of the content would not load in memory),  if you take it as a version of Sound Center instead of the next iteration of Rapture,  it actually is a mostly worthwhile product.

And obviously nobody has asked for Guitar Rig LE because the version of TH3 is much better.

I have fond memories of these because I had a tighter budget when starting and plugins were much more expensive in the early days.  If I had to spend a month with only plugins included with versions of Cakewalk I purchased I could do alright.

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dubdisciple

dubdisciple

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Posted
6 hours ago, kitekrazy said:

When I upgraded to Ggiastudio 4, a month later Tascam decided to drop it.  I called them Thescam. Garritan bought the code and went nowhere.

When Sony became Magix to me it's annual vaporware. 

I miss sonic foundry. Sony did ok, but sonic foundry had that small developer pride and hunger.

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aidan o driscoll

aidan o driscoll

Posted
Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, dubdisciple said:

I miss sonic foundry. Sony did ok, but sonic foundry had that small developer pride and hunger.

In the land of 3D Software MODO was like that with fantastic closeness tween then CEO Brad Peebler and the community but then they sold out to THE FOUNDRY .. never the same

Edited by aidan o driscoll
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Jim Roseberry

Jim Roseberry

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Posted

I think it's a good thing that Bandlab is finding a way to monetize Cakewalk/Sonar.

To be taken seriously by the industry as a whole, Cakewalk/Sonar needs perceived value.

To effectively re-enter the market and compete head-to-head with other top DAW applications, it can't be free.

That doesn't mean it needs to be overly expensive... or an inflexible subscription.

 

Seeing long-time Cakewalk staff returning under Bandlab's tenure is heartening.

For Cakewalk/Sonar to have a future, there needs to be a vision/plan.

It's good to see Bandlab showing the initiative.

 

For those cautious about the future, I totally get that.

Keep in mind that most of the major DAW applications have been sold to more broad-based companies.

  • Cubase (Yamaha)
  • Logic (Apple)
  • Samplitude (Magix)
  • Cakewalk (Roland/Gibson/Bandlab)

Presonus Studio One is owned by a more broad-based company.

 

IMO, Roland squandered an opportunity with Cakewalk/Sonar.

Hardware synths, effects, etc are a natural extension of a DAW.

 

Many brands/products have "gone away" under the umbrella of Gibson.   IMO, Gibson needs to focus on being a Heritage guitar maker.

Getting into fields where you have no expertise is risky.

Putting robotic tuners (which don't work well - inaccurate tuning) on a coveted heritage US made $3000+ guitar is perhaps not the best decision.

To ultimately get rid of those Les Pauls, they had to offer Grover Locking Tuners (so those who purchased could return the Les Paul to "normal").

 

With the right direction/funding/etc, Cakewalk/Sonar could compete with the best-of-the-best.

That's what I'd like to see.  Back to innovative features/developments.

FWIW, I think Cakewalk should focus on what they know best.  Virtual Instruments and Effects are a separate realm of knowledge/skill.

 

 

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bitflipper

bitflipper

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, aidan o driscoll said:

So NEXT appears to be an all new shiny ground up Cakewalk with possibly AI and it is cross platform for MAC. 

https://www.cakewalk.com/next

SONAR then appears to be "more traditional"? Following on from current CW? 

https://www.cakewalk.com/sonar

That's a pretty good summation. 

This is pure speculation, but I can imagine Next far exceeding Sonar in the size of its user base and the two products having a similar relationship as Cubase is to Nuendo. It will be a long while before Next has a comparable breadth and depth of features to Sonar, but over the next couple years it'll cover more and more of the same bases. By then it will have become a viable alternative to Sonar for the majority of music creators who have no interest in becoming audio engineers, at a lower price point and gentler learning curve for new users. 

 

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SUPAREELS

SUPAREELS

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Posted

 

I had the original Sonar 4 ,5 up to Plat ...I knew everything about it but complained to this very forum ( bloody years ago ) that absolutely no-one or DAW mags seemed to take it seriously. Whenever you read about up new coming plugs you were given several DAW examples but SONAR PLATINUM was never one of them.

I absolutely thought ( and still do ) Sonar plat was one of the best out there ... I loved the old forum ( when Babu was only 16  Just joshing ) and it was a family of song writers and composers of all levels .... No company comes close to the feeling this place gives you ... good or bad.

When it was sold I reluctantly moved on to a very expensive CB (now12pro) and it never and still doesn't have that feel about it ... kind of cold, although an amazing DAW for film, music composition and production, I still use my old Sonar plat or Bandlab  DAW as first write ...like an old friend waiting to help with your song ...

My point is that there was always gonna be a move to the PRO 'buy this DAW' market eventually, so as to gain respect with the big boys ...  I think pricing will be favorable, so lets see if those of us that paid a LOT in the day for our Plat version get a good result ... I'm gonna bail out before the flames burn my arXse

Tallyhooo oooo

 

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Grem

Grem

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Jim Roseberry said:

, Roland squandered an opportunity with Cakewalk/Sonar.

I always thought that too. When Roland acquired CW I thought it was the beginning of something great. Fantastic things were gonna happen! I mean this was Roland... one of the best electronic musical instrument makers in the world. CW was in good hands now. 

Well we all know how that turned out. 

The V line of CW "Consoles" was a great idea and product. I had the V-100 and loved it. Why they didn't take that idea and product to the next level is beyond me. 

Same with V-Vocal. Had they refined that idea would have been great. 

Squandered. 

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