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Is there any chance that Cakewalk Z3TA+ will be revived?


Name

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I recently learned that Cakewalk by BandLab will be discontinued and instead Cakewalk Next and Cakewalk Sonar will be released.

 

So I was wondering, will the Cakewalk Z3TA+, which was sold by Cakewalk before it was acquired by BandLab Technologies, be resurrected in Cakewalk Next or Cakewalk Sonar? Or is there a possibility that it will be sold as a standalone product?

 

I would appreciate your answer.

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Thank you for your answer. But no, I was wondering if the Z3TA+ series software could be resurrected with a release from BandLab? I'm talking about that.

 

I've been seeking it for some time but due to the dissolution of the former Cakewalk company in 2017 I'm currently unable to purchase it. It's in a discontinued state.

Edited by Name
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Reading between the lines in the announcements I think they are planning on re issuing effects and instruments that were once available with the paid versions of Cakewalk.
Which ones will be offered and if they are included, or for sale as add on’s, is a just wait and see. 
 

You can now see the logic and reason they didn’t include these free with CbB. More proof that there always was a plan to start charging for it at some point.  

Edited by JohnnyV
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1 hour ago, JohnnyV said:

Reading between the lines in the announcements I think they are planning on re issuing effects and instruments that were once available with the paid versions of Cakewalk.

If you are right, I hope they also have z3ta+ 1.5 or its fx processor functionality included with any successor to z3ta 2.0 they do.  

BTW, on my PC z3ta+ 1.5 also and z3ta+ 1.5 fx also work under Windows 10 Pro.  

I also hope they take a suggestion I made a few years ago and to acquire E-Mu's long-abandoned Emulator X3 and to update it to meet the needs of everyone including those who have been advocating for a built-in sampler.

1 hour ago, JohnnyV said:

You can now see the logic and reason they didn’t include these free with CbB. More proof that there always was a plan to start charging for it at some point.  

  Yeah.  I lot of us saw this potential.  There might even have been some user discussion about it.

Edited by User 905133
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Most users figured Bandlab would improve and release their for sale modules like the synths or fx.  They did, just 5 ye@rs later.  BL has already intimated they will “bundle” DAWs, one assumes with Sonar and NEXt together but also synths and effects.  I’m sure they are studying responses to their announcement and fine tuning pricing.

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I have no inside information to offer, but my educated guess is that there is a good chance Z3ta+ might make a comeback.

As you know, much of the bundled content included with classic Sonar was licensed from third parties (e.g. TruePianos). Most of those are gone for good. In some cases, the companies behind them don't even exist anymore (e.g. Kjaerhus).

However, some third-party products were purchased outright by Cakewalk (e.g. Sonitus Suite) and would therefore have been part of the intellectual property that BandLab purchased. Those plugins stand the best chance of revival. Z3ta+ falls into that category. 

Z3ta+ was developed by one René G. Ceballos under the name RGC:Audio. René also created the immensely popular Dimension Pro and Rapture. About the time Dim Pro appeared in Sonar, Cakewalk bought RGC:Audio and hired René. A couple years later, Rapture and then Z3ta+ came along.

Now, this is all from memory so I could be fuzzy on the sequence of events, but it would appear that Z3ta+ is owned by BandLab now, hence my optimisim.

 

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25 minutes ago, bitflipper said:

I have no inside information to offer, but my educated guess is that there is a good chance Z3ta+ might make a comeback.

As you know, much of the bundled content included with classic Sonar was licensed from third parties (e.g. TruePianos). Most of those are gone for good. In some cases, the companies behind them don't even exist anymore (e.g. Kjaerhus).

However, some third-party products were purchased outright by Cakewalk (e.g. Sonitus Suite) and would therefore have been part of the intellectual property that BandLab purchased. Those plugins stand the best chance of revival. Z3ta+ falls into that category. 

Z3ta+ was developed by one René G. Ceballos under the name RGC:Audio. René also created the immensely popular Dimension Pro and Rapture. About the time Dim Pro appeared in Sonar, Cakewalk bought RGC:Audio and hired René. A couple years later, Rapture and then Z3ta+ came along.

Now, this is all from memory so I could be fuzzy on the sequence of events, but it would appear that Z3ta+ is owned by BandLab now, hence my optimisim.

 

I think Rene already had zeta going before Cakewalk came calling.  I always thought it was Zeta, then the + plus for Cakewalk’s version while Rene worked on the Dimension sampler for P5. Then the freestanding Dimension Pro, followed by Rapture.  Rapture pro contained the samples and programs for Dimension Pro and so superseded it.  I think that is the correct sequence.

id love a new Rapture Pro.  The original was good but had some flaws.  Still I used it as one of my main synths for 10+ years.

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Thanks for the memory jog. Now you've got me reminiscing about all the neat synths René brought to the table: Pentagon, Triangle, Square and the Soundfont player. Pentagon and Triangle were great for beginners trying to wrap their heads around subtractive synth programming, because they had all the essential features while still keeping it simple.

I just had a look at my plugin inventory, and to my surprise, I still have some of those installed! 

Synths.png.e401b732ff67fdca51eee524af3e6c54.png

Check it out...all those knobs! And text I'd need a magnifier to read...

Square.png.7e64fafb2f8e61b1cc3d865e0474f214.png

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Unless there's some serious revamping, I don't see much good from CbB re-issuing those instruments. Compared with the free and paid offerings in the market atm, both versions of z3t4 are sort of mediocre in terms of features and sound quality. That would be more into keeping with people that want to have access to those for nostalgia reasons.

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3 hours ago, Bruno de Souza Lino said:

Unless there's some serious revamping, I don't see much good from CbB re-issuing those instruments. Compared with the free and paid offerings in the market atm, both versions of z3t4 are sort of mediocre in terms of features and sound quality. That would be more into keeping with people that want to have access to those for nostalgia reasons.

Yeah I haven't thought about those intruments in years ,  some of them were decent as freebie / stock instruments but there's so much great new stuff been released in the years since that they aren't particularly cutting edge in todays market. I wouldn't want to pay anything extra for them, or would opt not to have them and pay less for the new Sonar. Maybe if they are to be brought back they should be part of some nostalgia type bundle for those that want them.  

Z3ta was probably the best of the bunch, I used it a fair bit back in the day but for me the excellent Dune II and subsequent Dune III  replaced it.    

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12 hours ago, bitflipper said:

Check it out...all those knobs! And text I'd need a magnifier to read...

I often use Microsoft ZoomIt for these plugins. Just pressing Ctrl+4 zooms the complete screen following the mouse pointer. have fun ?

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  • 4 months later...
On 6/16/2023 at 2:16 PM, Name said:

Thank you for your answer. But no, I was wondering if the Z3TA+ series software could be resurrected with a release from BandLab? I'm talking about that.

 

I've been seeking it for some time but due to the dissolution of the former Cakewalk company in 2017 I'm currently unable to purchase it. It's in a discontinued state.

Check it out on. Ebay 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/296003542785?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=BaKY-4sTRDS&sssrc=2051273&ssuid=BaKY-4sTRDS&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

 

this is a great copy its an installer from before the company was bought over !  

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This is why I am hoping that there will be a version of the new Sonar at a very reduced price for those of us who still have ALL of the plugs from all these years of using the original Pro Audio, Sonar X, Platinum, etc!

I have virtually everything Cakewalk since Pro Audio 9 and don't need all those bells and whistles that a newbie would need!

Maybe there will be some new content that will warrant me spending more money on Sonar but it was the fact that CbB was just barebones and my plugs still worked that drew me back to Sonar. Much less it being free!

Of course, I have moved on to modern whiz-bang plugs but I don't fancy having to pay again for plugs I already have.

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  • 3 weeks later...

If I lost DimPro I’d loose my acoustic bass player. Which only reminds me that I should freeze all those tracks. 
In the video I made for an original song I needed some footage so I did an air band of me playing various instruments in the studio. One was this big ol Dean fret less acoustic bass I use live. I got a comment from someone who thought the bass track sounded amazing and wanted to know the model and what processing I had used. I reluctantly admitted it was DimPro which of course very few have access too. 

Edited by John Vere
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