What features does the OLD Cakewalk have that the free tier of Sonar doesn't have?

[Doug Steinschneider]

On 6/23/2025 at 1:48 PM, Bapu said:

The free version?

Yes, until now I've been sticking with Cakewalk by Bandlab. I'm now using the free tier Cakewalk Sonar. 

[Starship Krupa]

The most lamented feature that was left out of Sonar is the ability for the user to set custom colors for such things as beat and measure grid lines.

The next most is the full Theme Editor, but I understand why they deprecated that. The underpinnings of new Sonar's UI are just so different.

[sjoens]

Regardless of how a GUI is made,  it can be designed with customization in mind if the company chooses to do so.

The original X series Skylight interface was not, but it was somewhat adaptable.  The new one probably less so.  Is what it is.

[Jonathan Sasor]

18 hours ago, Pathfinder said:

OK installed it. For my work this makes no difference at all-I don't use CW plugins anymore. But I am guessing this move also means we will be forced to subscribe or move on when this "EVALUATION" is over and bye bye CbyBL!

Says Evaluation which would imply it will be going bye bye real soon. No?

Evaluation is the free tier, that does not expire.

[Misha]

7 minutes ago, Jonathan Sasor said:

Evaluation is the free tier, that does not expire.

but from Wukie's post from my other thread/question that he decided to lock... It will  still deactivate from time to time.  If for example Band Lab decides to change "something" in the software, I doubt you will have a choice of sticking to a prior version, or ability to backup/preserve particular build. Likely it's a non-issue for many, but to me it is.

Unless I am wrong...  Maybe team can clarify.

[Jonathan Sasor]

31 minutes ago, Misha said:

but from Wukie's post from my other thread/question that he decided to lock... It will  still deactivate from time to time.  If for example Band Lab decides to change "something" in the software, I doubt you will have a choice of sticking to a prior version, or ability to backup/preserve particular build. Likely it's a non-issue for many, but to me it is.

Unless I am wrong...  Maybe team can clarify.

It refreshes the license periodically in the same way that CbB does now. 

[Wookiee]

You can't even have the common decency to spell my name right and then just to show your total ignorance you miss quote me. But we all know how you like to misslead providing misinformation, or just stir the brown sticky stuff because you have nothing better to do. Your thread got shut down because of these facts.

I did not say it would deactivate. As with CbB every 30 days activation has to be refreshed. If you are using it on a near daily basis this refreshment is transparent and happens automatically. If by chance you don't use it for more than 30 days then you will need to manually reactivate, from the help menu.

This is done to give Bandlab an idea of how many users are using the Product. Historically even S-Plat used to phone home regularly and would require reactivation if unused for 30 days.

With regard to Bandlab changing something in the software, it is their product, they can do what they like, especially when it is being given away for free. This is another example of you stirring the brown sticky stuff with your misinformation.  I don't know whether you have noticed but 99.9% producers change their product on a regular basis without discussing it with you. Think about that.

One final thought ***********,, no software is owned. You purchase a End User Licence Agreement. EULA, perhaps you should read it, it grants you the right to use the software for as long as the owners say you can. Yes for as long they deem you can, it actually says they can revoke your right at any time.

[John Vere]

Don’t be afraid it’s only a free Daw it won’t bite you. The best way to find out is to just install it yourself and quit worrying about it. 

The “Free Sonar “ video now has over 600 views. 

@Wookiee I can’t remember if Splat phoned home? I think they charged us like $400 For a year of free updates and when the year was up you paid more. If you chose not to pay you simply got no more updates. S1 has that same option. Then they offered a “Lifetime free updates “ just before Gibson walked away from us. 
That lifetime update deal seems to still stuck in many users heads. They will be the same ones complaining about the end of  Cakewalk. 
 

With Splat I do remember you had to use CCC like I just did last month. For that you need the server and you password. At least the final version doesn’t ever need re activation as I have always had it installed on all my music computers since 2016. 

I appreciated that Bandlab has kept the legacy products available to us they really have no financial incentive to do that. 
 

If I was keeping score about the release of Free Sonar I’d say well over 1,000 very happy people are now using it and growing every day. 
 

This is exactly what this wonderful Daw needs. Growth! 
 

[Wookiee]

If, @John Vere , if you did not use it for a certain period S-Plat and it cousins would phone home. Truth, most software that has a software manager, Arturia, Toontrack, Cherry Audio, The Native Instruments collective, phone home, reasonably regularly. Some without a manger like, Moog, Gforce also do, how do you think you get those, " There is an Update, or new version" alerts that popup, withou getting an email? 

As for keeping count, which I don't, at the last count, Bandlab has over 100,000,000 registered users. Now I am not naive in thinking they are 1. All active, 2. All Cakewalk Sonar or Next users, but I suspect there are more than 10,000 happy Cakewalk users.

Personally I have been a Cakewalk user since 1992, when it could not record Audio and was just a MIDI sequencer. It took over from my Amiga, which used Dr. T's and Bars and Pipes to sequence MIDI,  that I recoded on to my Tascam.

I have been using their products for the last 33 years. Like many I got bitten by Gibson in the lifetime update "deal". It is apparent though that, unlike some, I have read and groked the press releases and announcements, since the Gibson debacle.

(Groked - it means to fully understand something or someone. Robert A. Heinlein introduced the word in his Book Stranger in a Stange land. It is a Martian expression where they literally eat their dead so they could fully understand them.)

[sjoens]

27 minutes ago, Wookiee said:

. . . where they literally eat their dead so they could fully understand them.

Now I understand everything that's been going on here.

Time to slip away q u i e t l y before I'm groked!

[KSband]

Since the free Sonar doesn't give you the pro channel plugins anyone have suggestions for replacements? I always use the console, tape and tube channels.

[Jacques Boileau]

2 hours ago, KSband said:

Since the free Sonar doesn't give you the pro channel plugins anyone have suggestions for replacements? I always use the console, tape and tube channels.

The ProChannel plugins are included in the free tier, but not all of them. I don't know which ones are omitted though. But Console and tape are there.

[T Boog]

I'm finishing up a couple important songs on CbB at moment so I'm hesitant to download the free Sonar just yet on the slight chance it would cause me a problem. 

Does anyone know if the free Sonar has audio stretching like CbB does?  I see that the paid version of Sonar has "Elastique Pro Stretch Mode". I'm guessing that is a seperate thing...  as in a more advanced version of time stretching? 

[T Boog]

2 hours ago, KSband said:

Since the free Sonar doesn't give you the pro channel plugins anyone have suggestions for replacements? I always use the console, tape and tube channels.

This video shows him downloading the free Sonar. Towards the end he shows the pro channel with console emulator and tube emulator and Jacques said the tape emulator is included so it looks like ur all covered KS. 

 

[T Boog]

3 hours ago, KSband said:

Since the free Sonar doesn't give you the pro channel plugins anyone have suggestions for replacements? I always use the console, tape and tube channels.

KS, I just found this video. Towards the end of the video(9:50) he shows all the pro channel modules included with the free version...

 

[John Vere]

Why don’t you just go ahead and download it and try it for yourself?  

[T Boog]

13 minutes ago, John Vere said:

Why don’t you just go ahead and download it and try it for yourself?  

John, is there any chance of losing some stock plugins from CbB by downloading free Sonar? In a diff post someone mentioned a couple missing plugins from CbB after they download the free Sonar.

At moment I 'm editing a project using TH-3 and SI Strings, I dont think either of them is included with free Sonar. 

[Kamikaze]

Are the PC4K S-Type, the PC76 U-type and Tube Saturation part of the paid version, or have they gone?