CAKEWALK WILL BE DEACTIVATED IN 8/2025

[Milton Sica]

When opening Cakewalk Bandlab today, I and all users of the free version received this notification, which is, in fact, an almost contractual notification that "invites" us to migrate to the free version of SONAR.

 

With each passing year, I see the tool evolve with the times and setbacks of the community that chose it as their DAW. Technically, there are many developments.

However, with approaches like this, I end up confirming my perception that the company's technical team and business managers do not work together.

I think this approach is almost a self-mutilation of the company itself, because at one time it brings one speech, at another time it brings another speech.

The company itself is the one that causes damage to its own credibility.

I have already emphasized in other topics on this subject that the minimum, let's say, THE MINIMUM that the company should provide is that ALL, I said, ALL FUNCTIONALITIES contained in Cakewalk should be treated the same in SONAR FREE.

I sincerely hope that the Marketing, CRM, DATA and BUSINESS sectors have this minimum business vision.

[Jeremy Oakes]

17 minutes ago, Milton Sica said:

When opening Cakewalk Bandlab today, I and all users of the free version received this notification, which is, in fact, an almost contractual notification that "invites" us to migrate to the free version of SONAR.

 

With each passing year, I see the tool evolve with the times and setbacks of the community that chose it as their DAW. Technically, there are many developments.

However, with approaches like this, I end up confirming my perception that the company's technical team and business managers do not work together.

I think this approach is almost a self-mutilation of the company itself, because at one time it brings one speech, at another time it brings another speech.

The company itself is the one that causes damage to its own credibility.

I have already emphasized in other topics on this subject that the minimum, let's say, THE MINIMUM that the company should provide is that ALL, I said, ALL FUNCTIONALITIES contained in Cakewalk should be treated the same in SONAR FREE.

I sincerely hope that the Marketing, CRM, DATA and BUSINESS sectors have this minimum business vision.

What ‘s missing ?

J

[John Vere]

40 minutes ago, Jeremy Oakes said:

What ‘s missing ?

J

Not much and actually so far nothing I have ever used. It’s perfect. Free of useless bloat. 
You see the list of what is missing every time you open it and you have to stare at it for 15 seconds. 
Im actually surprised that they didn’t cripple it more. Most free versions of Daw’s are very bare bones. This is not. 
Thanks once again whoever decided to make this happen. 

[Milton Sica]

3 hours ago, Jeremy Oakes said:

What ‘s missing ?

J

It's quite simple to check, although I think they should make these considerations explicit and perhaps the developers could better respond.

In my case, I use the Dithering options that were available for free in the export, now there is only TRIANGULAR.

Cakewalk SONAR itself does not explain this in more detail.

[Milton Sica]

2 hours ago, John Vere said:

Not much and actually so far nothing I have ever used. It’s perfect. Free of useless bloat. 
You see the list of what is missing every time you open it and you have to stare at it for 15 seconds. 
Im actually surprised that they didn’t cripple it more. Most free versions of Daw’s are very bare bones. This is not. 
Thanks once again whoever decided to make this happen. 

We know that the free tool is very robust and many of the features are not even used by all users who will never need them.

So, it is clear that many of us use it and others do not.

For you, it seems that what is available in the free version of SONAR is satisfactory. So everything is fine. Wonderful.

However, for other users, like me, some of the features that have now become paid were used a lot in the free version.

In short: I want the same "toolbox" that existed in Cakewalk to be present and free in SONAR.

Other innovations and tools created by the capacity and improvement of technology that are paid, if they interest me later on and I want and can pay, I will add them to my toolbox.

I want to make it clear that I think there is a tremendous evolution and the discontinuation of Cakewalk is the right thing to do, but under the conditions I mentioned.

[John Vere]

If you’re worried about only Dithering then export your mixes at 24 or 32 bit. You don’t need dithering. All delivery platforms will accept high definition audio now.
But then Musicians should avoid delivery platforms because they will take advantage of you and you won’t see a dime. 

Just read a long article about how little money real middle class musicians are making now. We are taking about very hard working touring artists. 100,000 songs are uploaded to these delivery sites daily.
Thanks Bandlab for providing us with the tools to do this for free and overwhelming the streaming services with absolute garbage. 

Real serious musicians are having to now avoid streaming and attempt other options to make living. Example producing vinyl and selling albums at small venues and shows.
One artist has been making a bit of money by offering to produce an original song exclusively for anyone willing to pay them for the song. 
 

 

[Steve Boyd]

I seem to remember downloading the "final" version in preparation for the inevitable Adobe-esque "you will own nothing" model, and being told that it would always work, just without support. I have never needed support, not once. What I need is for my DAW to work. Now they're going to kill it? I have my workspace set the way I want it. I have my Native Instruments, Izotope and Waves plugin settings, etc. This blows.

[John Vere]

Why did you ever believe that a free software was forever. You need to be grateful for the years you got for free. And it is now again free. What do people want? The ultimate Daw and free forever? Get real! 
 

But it was another prediction of mine. They will discontinue Cakewalk and the “entitled people “ will be mad. 

Edited 10 hours ago by John Vere

[Jeremy Oakes]

4 hours ago, Steve Boyd said:

I seem to remember downloading the "final" version in preparation for the inevitable Adobe-esque "you will own nothing" model, and being told that it would always work, just without support. I have never needed support, not once. What I need is for my DAW to work. Now they're going to kill it? I have my workspace set the way I want it. I have my Native Instruments, Izotope and Waves plugin settings, etc. This blows.

You can carry over your workspaces and there is no rreason why your plugs etc won't work.

BTW, they never said it will continue to work, simply that it woulod be discontinued at some point.

[Jeremy Oakes]

7 hours ago, Milton Sica said:

It's quite simple to check, although I think they should make these considerations explicit and perhaps the developers could better respond.

In my case, I use the Dithering options that were available for free in the export, now there is only TRIANGULAR.

Cakewalk SONAR itself does not explain this in more detail.

There is a list in one of the Bakers' posts that shows the differrence between the free and sub Sonar. Anything with a Crown next to it is sub only. Thats clea, no ?

Is it THAT essential to use Triangular Dithering ???

J

[Jeremy Oakes]

10 hours ago, John Vere said:

Not much and actually so far nothing I have ever used. It’s perfect. Free of useless bloat. 
You see the list of what is missing every time you open it and you have to stare at it for 15 seconds. 
Im actually surprised that they didn’t cripple it more. Most free versions of Daw’s are very bare bones. This is not. 
Thanks once again whoever decided to make this happen. 

John, you've hit the nail smack on the head, but unfortunately, some people will not see this as so.

J

[Misha]

5 hours ago, John Vere said:

What do people want? The ultimate Daw and free forever? Get real! 
 

John, I don't want "free",  I want "safe"- which will not be turned off remotely.

While I like Cakewalk very much, it seems internets have different opinion about the ultimate part.

According to a 2024 survey of over 5,000 DAW users, Cakewalk is used by 1.30% of music producers—down from 1.66% in 2023. (chatgpt). Interesting how these numbers will change in a few months, and what exactly causing this melt? My guess, it mainly has to do with politics/marketing.

 

[Milton Sica]

More news today......

 

[Helios.G]

16 hours ago, Jeremy Oakes said:

What ‘s missing ?

J

For me, like I said in my previous post, the inability to easily modify the color scheme is a huge problem.  I have eyesight issues, and the monochromatic color scheme they've gone for might work for a lot of people, but I get migraines after staring at it for too long.  In CBB that was easily fixed with a custom theme.  Personally, I'm not asking for full on custom themes, but it shouldn't be too hard to allow people to change the look of waveforms in settings to what they prefer vs having to do it manually per track.  I work sometimes on projects with really high track counts.  Doing that one by one would be a pain.