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I just got the new Cakewalk Sonar update and, WOW!


RexRed

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23 minutes ago, Tay Zonday said:

I suspect there are other curmudgeons like myself using "Cakewalk By Bandlab" who will gladly pay for "Cakewalk Sonar" but are confused about the upgrade path. It would make a BIG difference if "Cakewalk Sonar" auto-installed from the Windows Bandlab assistant when one became a paying member. That would intuitively mirror the experience of "Cakewalk By Bandlab."

I originally tried opening "Cakewalk By Bandlab" projects in "Cakewalk Next" and I don't think that product is designed to inherit desktop project workflows quite yet. I then realized that "Cakewalk Sonar" was the intended upgrade path for 42-year-olds like me accustomed to Desktop workflow.

It's GREAT to make something in the Windows app store ecosystem that bridges with mobile app product design (I assume that's what Cakewalk NEXT aspires to be). But it strikes me as not being as ready to open projects with fifty tracks, 200 rack VSTs and 40 gigabytes in the project audio folder as "Cakewalk Sonar." 😉 

You have moved mountains repeatedly to keep the best DAW in human history thriving. It's great to see you replying!

Thanks for your interest and for signing up to use Sonar. I think you will be pleased with the improvements we’ve made to make it run much better even with moderate hardware. We’re aware of some of the confusion and looking into better ways to highlight the migration path for Sonar and Next to existing Cakewalk users, better trial offers etc, so stay tuned.

Oh and BTW we have long discontinued the use of BandLab assistant to distribute Cakewalk software. The new product portal is Cakewalk Product Center which can be downloaded here.
Product Center does allow you to download Sonar and Next directly from one central portal.

Cakewalk Next is not intended to be the kitchen sink workstation that Sonar is today. Its primarily designed to be something that is most conducive to the music creation and ideation workflow, rather than production. However thats not to say that the product won’t keep evolving more in other areas. It already has some features that exceed the capabilities of Sonar. Its advanced Synth rack is one example where it can stack multiple synths within a single instrument track. Track groups too allow seamlessly mixing groups of tracks without the need to set up bussing. Also while Next may be new, it was built from the ground up to support all the multiprocessing smarts that Cakewalk is known for, and better. I don’t see any reason why it shouldn’t support large projects. The next userbase typically run with lots of plugins from what we see. Take a look at some of the demo projects in Next which may be fairly representative. Windows store is also something we have considered a while back.

RE project migration, you can’t open CbB projects in Next but there is a brand new Cakewalk Interchange Format specifically designed to do this, which allows you to open Sonar projects in Next and vice versa. Of course Sonar opens any project from CbB or any prior version of Cakewalk.
 

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4 hours ago, Noel Borthwick said:

Oh and BTW we have long discontinued the use of BandLab assistant to distribute Cakewalk software. The new product portal is Cakewalk Product Center which can be downloaded here.
Product Center does allow you to download Sonar and Next directly from one central portal.

Given the confusion by users that don't have that yet, perhaps you could consider creating a simple update to the BA (that it would notify users exists, assuming it is built to update itself, etc) that causes it to tell users to use the CPC instead?

Having seen some of the threads here on this forum about such things, it might save your support people some time, and almost certainly save users frustration.  ;)

 

Keep in mind that I'm not a target user for such things, just a recently-visiting outside-bystander looking at a handful of recent threads/posts, so I don't have anything like the depth of experience y'all do with this. 

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On 10/6/2024 at 11:16 AM, Noel Borthwick said:

RE project migration, you can’t open CbB projects in Next but there is a brand new Cakewalk Interchange Format specifically designed to do this, which allows you to open Sonar projects in Next and vice versa. Of course Sonar opens any project from CbB or any prior version of Cakewalk.

Hi Noel,

I am considering paying for Cakewalk Next for use on a Mac.  I have some projects done in SONAR 4 that I would like to bring into Cakewalk Next.   What are the steps that I would need to use the Cakewalk Interchange Format to bring the project from SONAR 4 into Next?

Would I need to open the project in new Sonar on Windows and export from that into Cakewalk Interchange Format?   And then load that file into Next on Mac?

Thanks!

Edited by urock
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1 hour ago, urock said:

Hi Noel,

I am considering paying for Cakewalk Next for use on a Mac.  I have some projects done in SONAR 4 that I would like to bring into Cakewalk Next.   What are the steps that I would need to use the Cakewalk Interchange Format to bring the project from SONAR 4 into Next?

Would I need to open the project in new Sonar on Windows and export from that into Cakewalk Interchange Format?   And then load that file into Next on Mac?

Thanks!

That's correct. Bandlab membership gets you both Sonar and Next so you can open your project in Sonar, export to cxf and then open in Next.

Please read through the docs so you can verify what's supported via cxf.  Most data will migrate, but features specific to Sonar won't go across so you may have to bounce a few things if so.

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On 10/4/2024 at 11:43 PM, Bristol_Jonesey said:

When you first said "32 bit", I took it to mean you were running the 32 bit version of Sonar, not that you were recording at 32 bit.

That bit (pun not intended) wasn't made clear at all.

The product currently known as Sonar (mixed case) doesn't have a 32-bit version. Rex is gushing about the very latest release of Sonar (mixed case).

It's the latest incarnation of Cakewalk (a product of Twelve Tone Systems Inc.)>SONAR (a product of Cakewalk Inc.)>Cakewalk (a product of BandLab Inc.)>Sonar (a product of the Cakewalk group of BandLab Technologies, a division of Caldecott Music Group).

Did I miss any names? I tried to stick with the main product rather than including Home Studio or whatever.

It is all a bit confusing (pun intended). It can make a person feel out of their depth (pun also intended).

Edited by Starship Krupa
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Posted (edited)
15 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

The product currently known as Sonar (mixed case) doesn't have a 32-bit version. Rex is gushing about the very latest release of Sonar (mixed case).

It's the latest incarnation of Cakewalk (a product of Twelve Tone Systems Inc.)>SONAR (a product of Cakewalk Inc.)>Cakewalk (a product of BandLab Inc.)>Sonar (a product of the Cakewalk group of BandLab Technologies, a division of Caldecott Music Group).

Did I miss any names? I tried to stick with the main product rather than including Home Studio or whatever.

It is all a bit confusing (pun intended). It can make a person feel out of their depth (pun also intended).

Me, being a user of Cakewalk since Cakewalk for MSDOS, I think I am entitled to "gush" when an update improves the performance to such a superlative degree as is the case. 😎  

Having nearly 400 published original songs created in Cakewalk, I have an "invested" interest in the well being of this DAW... 🎵

Edited by RexRed
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Posted (edited)

It might be time to have a "formal release" and dedicated website with all the splash and pomp the new Cakewalk Sonar DAW truly deserves. 😁

Edited by RexRed
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12 hours ago, RexRed said:

It might be time to have a "formal release" and dedicated website with all the splash and pomp the new Cakewalk Sonar DAW truly deserves. 😁

Weird that that has not been much fanfare, where are the magazine articles and media hype ?

It's alomst like Cakewalk Sonar has slipped out through the back door. 

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15 hours ago, RexRed said:

It might be time to have a "formal release" and dedicated website with all the splash and pomp the new Cakewalk Sonar DAW truly deserves. 😁

 

In fact, the Cakewalk Sonar is not even included in the KVR Audio Readers' Choice Awards 2024, only the CbB. It would really be nice if there was a formal presentation in the industry

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As much as I love Cakewalk/Sonar, it's hard not to feel like it could vanish again at any moment. Really hope that we start to see a broader marketing campaign and fingers crossed a perpetual license option. As it stands now it's hard (even for those is the know) to navigate the Bandlab site to find the current subscription information for the new Sonar and Next. 

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21 hours ago, RexRed said:

It might be time to have a "formal release" and dedicated website with all the splash and pomp the new Cakewalk Sonar DAW truly deserves. 😁

I created the Wikipedia page for Cakewalk by BandLab, but when the new name semi-reversion was announced, I threw in the towel.

I suspect the page for SONAR could stand to be updated at this point.

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