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Where is the new Cakewalk Sonar?


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"chance favors the prepared mind" - for the past 10 or so years i've been archiving - projects, track WAV, MIDI, lots of documentation, etc etc so if i had to revive an older project and the software wasn't available i'd still be able to reconstruct in something else. if you're unsure of "when" the current product will go belly up, i'd just suggest "prepping" by getting your projects archived properly in case we're nuked...

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17 minutes ago, Lynn Wilson said:

Go to the top of this page and click on Other Links-Cakewalk|Home and then the Sonar tab.  At the bottom of that page is the link to download.  You can tell that Sonar is now active and available.  It may not have all the answers you're looking for, but it has more information than you've provided ;)

All due respect, this announcement should be on a dedicated announcement page in BOLD LETTERS since we've been waiting and wondering a full year. 

It's now quite obvious that the BIG LAUNCH was for the Bandlab Membership (which happened weeks ago),  and that the two Sonar apps are just the latest goodies included in that membership.

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There was a post on this forum I read this morning from a Bandlab person when they first announced the new "Sonar" DAW.    It say's that Cakewalk would be no longer a part of Bandlab but a separated part of the company, the new DAW "Sonar" (and Next) seems to be not actually anything directly to do with Bandlab anymore and is infact called "Cakewalk Sonar"

It would seem this new business relationship between Cakewalk and Bandlab now involves the Cakewalk brand, licencing the DAW to Bandlab ?

 

Things may have obviously changed since this announcement.

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5 minutes ago, pwal³ said:

is no longer a company, bl bought the ip not the company, unless they're relaunching a company and not just the software? do you have a link?

It seems to have been relaunched somehow ? as it's own entity ?

disclaimer: I not exactly sure of the internal workings of these corporations 

 

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23 minutes ago, pwal³ said:

are these in your bunker with the canned beans and water bottles?

Let's face it, when the balloon finally goes up, we're going to need a bunch of half-finished jams to build a new world on.

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BandLab Technologies (the company) is owned by Caldecott Music Group.   There are currently three companies under its umbrella:  BandLab Technologies, NME Networks, and Vista Musical Instruments. 

Each of these companies has several brands.

BandLab Technologies has four brands:  BandLab, Cakewalk, Reverb Nation, and Air Bit.  They aren't separate companies, only brands within BandLab Technologies.

See the Portofolio section here:  https://caldecottmusic.com/

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Personally (at this time), I care less who owns what.

What I do care about if I can still do music the way I did in the past decade without subscriptions and without learning another DAW?  At least for the next 3-4 years.

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Just now, pwal³ said:

thx mark, can you get someone from bandlab to answer the pricing questions? or even just have an "official" presence here

I think you're crediting me with far more influence than I actually have!

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9 minutes ago, msmcleod said:

I think you're crediting me with far more influence than I actually have!

Thanks for the clarifications on the company!

With all due respect to you we would like to hear or have information on the future of Sonar, also from Noel Borthwick with whom we spent 20 fantastic years, at least for me, in which he was a point of reference, also on the forum, for Sonar users.

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28 minutes ago, msmcleod said:

I think you're crediting me with far more influence than I actually have!

But you likely have the ability to contact people who are in charge of withholding clarity,  so they are aware that many "dedicated core of long-term Sonar users" (Bandlab (c)) are not happy with lack of communication.

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Posted (edited)

I expected a big announcement and a dedicated webpage showcasing the new Sonar and instead it slipped under the radar. But that may be exactly what was needed.

A lot of users have stood with guns loaded ready to strike at any new announcement and nothing at all would have pleased them.

And then you get users come on from other DAWS ready to stir the pot.

The old Cakewalk is still free so people really have nothing to complain about.

As for the aesthetics of the new Sonar GUI every time I see it a part of me is fearful because my eyes need to readjust to the new look.

But look is not everything, "feel" is another thing altogether.

And how does the new GUI feel! Absolutely great!

It is lightweight and supremely responsive! ...and that is what musicians want, something that does not feel squishy and slow to respond. It is right there and has no bloated graphics latency. I LIKE THIS A LOT. 

The look is a bit worrying but the feel makes up for everything the look is lacking.

The feel gives me peace of mind that the GUI will not always be a thing that gets in the way of absolute responsiveness.

Us musicians, I believe, value responsiveness above all else. Everything is about timing and precision to us. A light-weight GUI is exactly that. 

It reminds me of gamers. I am a huge Starcraft fan, I follow the gamer tournaments and know all the high level players.

I was surprised to learn that many of the high level players turn the graphics down to very low settings. Because in the hardest game on the planet to learn and play, responsiveness of the GUI is everything.

The exact same thing goes for a DAW, responsiveness is everything. Cakewalk has this now.

I am sure skins will become available for the people who want fancy schmancy. But the pros who work hours and hours in Cakewalk Sonar will prefer the bare bones, most responsive experience possible.

 

Edited by RexRed
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As an outsider looking in, I think you should be a bit more optimistic / supportive of how things are moving forward, The Cakewalk brand as it was, was practically lost as far as I can see, it was dragged back out of the ashes and is now reborn, and has become a "Brand" again.

You dyed in the wool oldtimers should be pleased.

Show some support and get a subscription.

 

Do it for Cakewalk. Do it for Sonar.

Long Live Cakewalk, Hurrah.

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Here's my quick guess.

I think BandLab are running the new Sonar as subscription (& somewhat low-key) only for the time being while they squash as many bugs as possible & get the new UI working nicely.
After that they'll have an up to date & very solid product that they can do a big announcement for. Including I'd imagine a one time purchase option for us non-subscription folks.
Imagine how powerful it'd be from a marketing perspective if all the media got to review a thoroughly solid & modern feeling Sonar after the big announcement, I think it'd do really well!
If I wanted to retake some market share, that's what I would do it anyway.

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6 hours ago, Mr No Name said:

Show some support and get a subscription.

 

"You dyed in the wool oldtimers should be pleased." -classic 

 

You can rent a tuxedo, that's understandable, but I would not rent a pair of underwear.  Show of support will come when they release normal licenses in a timely manner, after a year of secrecy.... I have zero interest in pay-per-view Sonar.  If you do, go for it  - dressed in tight spandex legging young timer.

Edited by Misha
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6 hours ago, Misha said:

 

"You dyed in the wool oldtimers should be pleased." -classic 

 

You can rent a tuxedo, that's understandable, but I would not rent a pair of underwear.  Show of support will come when they release normal licenses in a timely manner, after a year of secrecy.... I have zero interest in pay-per-view Sonar.  If you do, go for it  - dressed in tight spandex legging young timer.

Tbh, If you look at the bandlab site and the other brands associated that are mentioned above, they all run on a subscription model, seems to be the preferred way for that particular company?

but who knows,

I do agree if you are using a product you should be able to own it outright.

 

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19 hours ago, RexRed said:

But the pros who work hours and hours in Cakewalk Sonar will prefer the bare bones, most responsive experience possible.

I am a pro who has been using Cakewalk for hours and hours for 20 years and I have never had problems loading the processor or problems with visual fatigue and I don't think that suddenly the main need of bandlab is to make a super light but ugly DAW, considering the extraordinary power of the processors and the speed of the RAM that exists today.....just out of curiosity I tried a newly released DAW with wonderful graphics and I didn't find any problems of any kind...let's also consider that in my opinion Sonar was graphically the most beautiful daw pro on the market, for me...

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On 6/10/2024 at 11:54 AM, Glenn Stanton said:

"chance favors the prepared mind" - for the past 10 or so years i've been archiving - projects, track WAV, MIDI, lots of documentation, etc etc so if i had to revive an older project and the software wasn't available i'd still be able to reconstruct in something else. if you're unsure of "when" the current product will go belly up, i'd just suggest "prepping" by getting your projects archived properly in case we're nuked...

It's also advisable to keep your 70 pound Windows 95 server running, so that older versions will continue to work on the hardware.  ?

 

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