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Sonar no longer "Coming Soon"


Larry Shelby

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Posted (edited)

I thought it was all ready to go - especially with the backstage nonsense up and running. Still - only a year since the announcement of great things. Maybe we will see it in time for Christmas!

Edited by GroverKen
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I see from the website that Sonar is still available exclusively via the Backstage Pass. Having been a user since the mid 90’s and witnessing the Gibson lifetime debacle (yes, I was caught out), I thought they would have learned by now. Yes it’s been great having free usage since BandLab took over but I have no use for anything other than Sonar. If the way forward is via the “all or nothing” route then I will have to rethink how I operate with my DAW software.

As I use my DAW exclusively for backing tracks and soundscapes, I don’t need any of the other stuff offered with the BandLab Membership subscription. I’m also worried that part way through any project (I’ve just started a batch of 30 songs), they could pull the plug on the free version. I know everyone says that they wouldn’t do that in the short term but it happened before with my lifetime Sonar purchase and I vowed not to let that happen again.

Never having used anything other than Cakewalk over the past 30 years I know it would be a wrench and a huge learning curve but maybe I should start looking elsewhere now to prepare for what might be coming.

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Refusing any kind of subs and having these nasty nag screen to re-activate CbB now after just a few weeks (very annoying if you're offline), I decided today to uninstall Cakewalk! I am very sad! ?

After the Gibson debacle and this now they have exhausted my confidence! Will be using Reaper and Platinum (as long as possible, else I still have Sonar X3 that has offline authorisation)! My fault, I should have bet on another horse long ago!

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Posted (edited)
12 hours ago, Byron Dickens said:

Bovine Excrement. BandLab never sold you anything.

Yeah, last time I explained something taught in HS business class,  a different forum member took his already misplaced venom towards Bandlab and turned it on me.  But I'll try again. 

Bandlab purchased some of the intellectual property assets of the dissolved Cakewalk business, that's all. They didn't take over the business.  It was no longer operational when Gibson sold off its asssets.  As a very simple analogy, it's like an auto mechanic goes out of business and sells off his tools. The mechanic who purchases his tools doesn't inherent his agreements, contracts, and debt obligations. 

I realize that for those without a business background that this can be pretty confusing. I think the fact that Bandlab is using the same product names makes it all the more confusing for these folks. They mistakenly think it's the same as a company buying another company,  which could entail assuming their obligations,  but Bandlab only bought the assets of Cakewalk after the company was dissolved.

Edited by PavlovsCat
To make it more concise.
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Posted (edited)
41 minutes ago, PavlovsCat said:

Yeah, I was personally and viciously attacked on the forum by a different forum member for pointing out the same and I did it much more gently and politely and it still wasnt enough for the guy to behave himself.

Bandlab purchased some of the intellectual property assets of the dissolved Cakewalk business, that's all. They didn't take over the business.  It was no longer operational.  As a very simple analogy, it's like an auto mechanic goes out of business and sells off his tools. The mechanic who purchases his tools doesn't inherent his agreements, contracts, and debt obligations. 

I think for some people who aren't knowledgeable on how business works and possibly  aren't  strong on intellectually curiosity,  it's difficult for them to grasp.  I think the fact that Bandlab is using the same product names makes it all the more confusing for these folks. They mistakenly think it's the same as a company buying another company,  which could entail assuming their obligations,  but Bandlab only bought the assets of Cakewalk after the company was dissolved.

Yes, you're right. I forgot about that it's not the same company who sold the lifetime license of the same name product. My bad.

Edited by Yan Filiatrault
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1 hour ago, PavlovsCat said:

Yeah, I was personally and viciously attacked on the forum by a different forum member for pointing out the same and I did it much more gently and politely and it still wasnt enough for the guy to behave himself.

Bandlab purchased some of the intellectual property assets of the dissolved Cakewalk business, that's all. They didn't take over the business.  It was no longer operational.  As a very simple analogy, it's like an auto mechanic goes out of business and sells off his tools. The mechanic who purchases his tools doesn't inherent his agreements, contracts, and debt obligations. 

I think for some people who aren't knowledgeable on how business works and possibly  aren't  strong on intellectually curiosity,  it's difficult for them to grasp.  I think the fact that Bandlab is using the same product names makes it all the more confusing for these folks. They mistakenly think it's the same as a company buying another company,  which could entail assuming their obligations,  but Bandlab only bought the assets of Cakewalk after the company was dissolved.

I think a lot of us know how business works and are disappointed they didn't take on the liability of the company when purchased and took the easy way out now they decided a for profit strategy after indicating it wasn't a money play when they took over and they were committed to a "free model".   For some of us the lifetime was very short lived before the announcement they were ceasing operations.  

As for the analogy, well they also kept on the mechanics that made the software, so it sure felt like a change of ownership of the business.   And not just someone buying the car.

 

Hopefully they are taking the time to add in some AI feature integration so it all heads towards the logical conclusion where we no longer make or mix the music.  ?The delay is confusing given how long this has been in the works.  I do think they have a tough sell given mostly a UI overhaul which isn't themeable 

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3 hours ago, GroverKen said:

 

Never having used anything other than Cakewalk over the past 30 years I know it would be a wrench and a huge learning curve but maybe I should start looking elsewhere now to prepare for what might be coming.

mmhmm-sassy.gif.df61d08dbf01c0a9def772de2b85c670.gif

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Posted (edited)
11 hours ago, Brian Walton said:

I think a lot of us know how business works and are disappointed they didn't take on the liability of the company when purchased and took the easy way out now they decided a for profit strategy after indicating it wasn't a money play when they took over and they were committed to a "free model".   For some of us the lifetime was very short lived before the announcement they were ceasing operations.  

As for the analogy, well they also kept on the mechanics that made the software, so it sure felt like a change of ownership of the business.   And not just someone buying the car.

 

Hopefully they are taking the time to add in some AI feature integration so it all heads towards the logical conclusion where we no longer make or mix the music.  ?The delay is confusing given how long this has been in the works.  I do think they have a tough sell given mostly a UI overhaul which isn't themeable 

It's critical to understand that while you see the trademarks, the software and website -- and that can certainly be confusing -- Bandlab never bought the company called Cakewalk which was owned by Gibson. Bandlab only purchased some of the assets -- the intellectual property -- that Gibson sold to them after Gibson dissolved Cakewalk. 

Bandlab believed those assets had value in the market, which was clearly publicly communicated. No companies that purchase assets in that manner take on the former company's debts and contracts, all of that was handled by Gibson and not part of the sale. Find examples of corporations that took on the financial obligations and contracts of a company where they merely purchased its assets after it was dissolved -- I can't think of a single one.  Again, Cakewalk,no longer existed when Bandlab bought those assets from Gibson. Gibson merely sold off as much of the remains of Cakewalk -- in this case, intellectual property such as trademarks, the code for Cakewalk software, the website domain, copyrighted images, etc.  IF Bandlab was acquiring the operational company Cakewalk then they would assume its debts and obligations. That's what I think is confusing people who aren't knowledgable on business. It's not the same as purchasing an operating business and assuming their debts and obligations. 

It definitely would have been easier for most people to understand if Bandlab completely reskinned and modified the former Cakewalk products and didn't use Cakewalk trademarks and the Cakewalk.com domain, but Bandlab saw value in Cakewalk products, its brands/trademarks, it's copyrighted images, etc.  I wish people that blaming Bandlab for what happened with a completely different company owned and dissolved by Gibson is not Bandlab's legal or moral responsibility -- Bandlab has absolutely zero ethical responsibility or obligation to consumers who bought a too good to be true offer from Cakewalk, a company they didn't own or buy. The anger is completely misdirected.  Hey, I bought Project 5 from the Cakewalk (the actual company) and I believe I even bought some training materials on the software (a book and video training) shortly before they shut the product down. All of my money,  time, and energy spent on Project 5 was wasted; it was a dead end. Am I demanding restitution? No.  The company that sold it to me -- Cakewalk -- was having financial difficulty and made a decision to cut the product shortly after I purchased it. You could call it bad luck on my part, and I was certainly not happy about it. But stuff like that happens. That's how business / capitalism works. Sometimes products fail or get pulled from the market, sometimes companies we own products from go out of business and it isn't what we hoped for. But whenever anyone buys a "lifetime license" they're buying it for the lifetime of that company, not the buyer's own lifetime, and it doesn't transfer if the company is dissolved and another company buys their assets. It likely wouldn't even be valid if another company purchased the operational Cakewalk, as those kind of offers usually don't allow for that. 

On a related note, software companies doing lifetime deals are usually not companies in great financial condition. It's a practice usually done when a company is having difficulty having regular sales to generate sufficient revenue and is unable to raise funds from investors or banks, so it keeps them operational. In other words, when a company offers a lifetime deal -- which is not a sustainable business model for nearly any software company, especially for a flagship product -- it is often seen, correctly, as a red flag that the company may not be in very good financial condition. Small upstart software companies that have trouble getting funding will use this model, but the percentage of them that go bankrupt within a few years after that is pretty high. 

Edited by PavlovsCat
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