What are the options for 30+ year users?

[Tim Godfrey]

I've been using Cakewalk since it was a DOS program from Twelve Tone Systems. 

I purchased the "lifetime updates" for Sonar before Cakewalk went under. 

Now it appears that I am losing the right to keep using CWB in its current form.  I'm fine with offering "extras" for a price, but taking away what has been paid for by many of is is totally unacceptable. 

I am not interested in subscription software. Period.  I'll pay for upgrade when they make sense, but I expect to be able to use software I purchase for as long as I wish.

If there is no option for perpetual license for the new Sonar, I suppose I'll have to uninstall CWB and go back to my original Sonar Platinum. That has all the features I need. 

Are there any other options? 

 

[Glenn Stanton]

check the numerous other threads but basically you bought DAW software from Gibson. Gibson terminated the product line. Bandlab purchased a bunch of the rights for the software. Bandlab then released a free version, and now under the Cakewalk moniker, two new products Sonar and Next. 

i purchased the lifetime updates from Gibson as well. yes, you can use Gibson Sonar Platinum for as long as your OS will support it. 

fwiw -- after using CbB for 5 years, i opted to drop 2 Starbucks coffees per month to fund a premium version of Sonar and Next.

There is a free version of Sonar and Next via a free Bandlab membership. There is also a Bandlab paid membership (annual fee) which provides you access to the "premium" versions of Sonar and Next (and bunch of other stuff which may or may not be interesting to you).

 

[Byron Dickens]

1 hour ago, Tim Godfrey said:

I've been using Cakewalk since it was a DOS program from Twelve Tone Systems. 

I purchased the "lifetime updates" for Sonar before Cakewalk went under. 

Now it appears that I am losing the right to keep using CWB in its current form.  I'm fine with offering "extras" for a price, but taking away what has been paid for by many of is is totally unacceptable. 

I am not interested in subscription software. Period.  I'll pay for upgrade when they make sense, but I expect to be able to use software I purchase for as long as I wish.

If there is no option for perpetual license for the new Sonar, I suppose I'll have to uninstall CWB and go back to my original Sonar Platinum. That has all the features I need. 

Are there any other options? 

 

There's only about 852,693 threads on this. 

[Bass Guitar]

You can still use the Software you paid . It’s called Sonar Platinum. 
Cakewalk is based on Platinum but it is a totally different company than Gibson the people that sold you Platinum. It was given away free for a while as bait and switch. So to answer your question you do have 3 options. 

1. Pay rent on Sonar full version 

2. Use the Free version 

3. Use Sonar Platinum ( my favourite option) 

[57Gregy]

55 minutes ago, Bass Guitar said:

bait and switch

I object to your language, John. This term implies a shady business practice, and I don't think that's the case here.
Anyone who thought it would remain free forever was deluding themself.

[Bass Guitar]

It wasn’t me who made this up. Get out there on the internet and see what all the people who once were here are saying. 
This forum has become heavily censored so if this is your only information about Bandlab you need to think outside the box. 
I love Sonar and Im super happy that Platinum is actually way better than I remember it being. 
Hopefully over time things will change and this bad faze will be behind us and we can laugh about it and say “ do you remember back when?” 

[Tony Hornback]

I've been a user and fanboy for 27yrs. Not anymore. Bandlab works fine...Sonar is a mess. I paid for the subscription and feel betrayed. I'm not a beta tester I'm a customer. I'm moving to another DAW. I will hang out since I paid for it,just to see if this mess ever gets sorted out.

[Bristol_Jonesey]

4 hours ago, Tony Hornback said:

I've been a user and fanboy for 27yrs. Not anymore. Bandlab works fine...Sonar is a mess. I paid for the subscription and feel betrayed. I'm not a beta tester I'm a customer. I'm moving to another DAW. I will hang out since I paid for it,just to see if this mess ever gets sorted out.

What mess? Sort what out?

Why do you feel betrayed?

 

Great first post by the way. I'm sure you'll get all the help you need with that attitude 😃

[57Gregy]

13 hours ago, Tony Hornback said:

I've been a user and fanboy for 27yrs. Not anymore. Bandlab works fine...Sonar is a mess. I paid for the subscription and feel betrayed. I'm not a beta tester I'm a customer. I'm moving to another DAW. I will hang out since I paid for it,just to see if this mess ever gets sorted out.

I've found that Cakewalk Sonar behaves exactly like CbB. It may look different, but so does Gina Lollabrigida.

[GIM Productions]

On 9/1/2025 at 5:18 AM, Tony Hornback said:

I've been a user and fanboy for 27yrs. Not anymore. Bandlab works fine...Sonar is a mess. I paid for the subscription and feel betrayed. I'm not a beta tester I'm a customer. I'm moving to another DAW. I will hang out since I paid for it,just to see if this mess ever gets sorted out.

There should also be the option to purchase the software like the best professional DAW companies are doing.
Working professionals should own their tools and not be dependent on the decisions of others.
Bandlab's strategic decision, instead, is aimed at hobbyists and content creators, and it's a legitimate decision, but it's not right for me.

I too, regretfully, switched to another DAW.

Only a few years ago, I considered Sonar the best DAW on the pro market, and I was proud to be a beta tester for Boston.

I will immediately purchase the new Sonar when and if the full license is available.

[Bass Guitar]

The bottom line is that each individual uses their Daw in an infinite number of ways. 
 

A casual non professional user has the patience to be interrupted and re sign in ad fuss with a membership. 
 

As just mentioned above by @GIM Productions a person who is using the Daw professionally does not have the time or patience to deal with interruptions. 
 

Being a professional means you always have your equipment in top condition and ready to go on a moment’s notice. 

Another part is having backup equipment available and even if that hasn’t been fired up in 2 months or even a year, it still is ready to go. That requires software that is perpetually fully licensed and never expires. 
 

So please don’t be angry and lock threads just because not everyone agrees with the handful of people who find this sad situation works fine for them. It’s obviously not working for everyone else. 

[Glenn Stanton]

if it were true (about professionals not tolerating interruptions), then protools would not be on the list of most professionals... lol.  spend about 30 min on the avid forum to understand (i am constantly reviewing what minor changes are being made in order to keep my PT install running, but sometimes, Avid even makes major changes in small updates which cannot be resolved until some months later when it's time for a new build).

as far as my experience with Sonar (since March), i've have had no interruption due to the software, licensing, or signing in. not to negate other people who have issues, but my first thing to check if something feels off - see what updates to the OS or other apps have occurred. i can reasonably say that 99.9% of the time some OS (or Edge), or another app either overwrote my runtimes or did some asinine change to improve "security" (or more often than not, some new monitoring tracking and/or related AI "feature" i didn't need).

also important to note, you never "own" the software, you "own a license to use the software". and in most cases of a "purchase", it feels like you own it, but in reality it can be revoked by the software company. the revocation can the "soft" like "we're no longer supporting that version, but you can buy the next version" (a popular DAW, that a number of previous CbB or Sonar owners fled to, and certain fruit logo OS company, use this tactic to keep the money rolling in about every 13-14 months).

or hard like "you must destroy all copies of the software in your possession as your license is no longer valid" (not often but when i do get notices like this i do delete everything, i mean who wants to get caught with their pants down and have some criminal charges filed and possibly spend 10 years in jail and $250K fine? right?).

or "subscription" like "you're renting the license to use the software for as long as you continue to pay monthly or annual fees, and in exchange you'll keep getting the the latest updates and versions of the products" (this latter one is similar to your internet access, tv / content channels, box, amazon prime, google storage, o365, etc etc).

Edited Wednesday at 08:19 PM by Glenn Stanton

[Bass Guitar]

Good points @Glenn Stanton. 
I’ve was never tempted to go with Pro Tools due mostly that it must be the highest price Daw on the market. 

I’ve always liked the Free version which I need to collaborate with 2 other local studios. Ya but they have changed that now so you need to log in every day. At least Sonar free is only occasionally. 

Sonar was used in my studio since around 2004. 
I am sort of retired now but old clients still come around and so I find myself digging up projects produced on Platinum or even older versions. Thank goodness it’s still available and solid. 
 

Sadly those projects mostly crash the new Sonar. It was more about that than the membership that has me now using Platinum again. I ever prefer it over my other 3 Daw’s.  
Today I went to record a midi part in one of the other Daw’s which is owned by a company that makes Controllers. 
It would not recognize my Roland A49? 
I simply carried on in Platinum because the song was still in the midi stage of production. 

Edited yesterday at 01:02 AM by Bass Guitar

[kitekrazy1]

On 8/30/2025 at 5:14 PM, Bass Guitar said:

It wasn’t me who made this up. Get out there on the internet and see what all the people who once were here are saying. 
This forum has become heavily censored so if this is your only information about Bandlab you need to think outside the box. 
I love Sonar and Im super happy that Platinum is actually way better than I remember it being. 
Hopefully over time things will change and this bad faze will be behind us and we can laugh about it and say “ do you remember back when?” 

I have hopes after they test the waters they offer a non sub option.  Acronis tried this but now they also offer non sub.  Most sub prices on anything I rarely agree with and they do go up.   I find it annoying people justify a price comparing it to food items on just about everything. Most of those are "luxury" items and I can do without.  I can also do without certain DAWs since I seem to collect those like plugins.  I stopped using Sonar heavily after 4 but still bought licenses because of their licensing.   If that happens again I will buy the newest Sonar.

 

 

[Abrunet]

I've been with Cakewalk since 2002. The DAW's been perfect for who I am and how I work. I was skeptical when it went from Roland to Gibson and again, when it went from Gibson to BandLab. Each time, after a bit of a rocky transition, it ended up being fine. Over those years, I've bought several versions of the DAW (Music creator, Sonar 8.0 & 8.5, Producer X1, X2  X3, and Platinum). I've also bought several plug-in apps from XLN Audio, Meladyne, Native Instruments, Overloud, IK Multimedia, etc. Money I never regreted spending, as I've been largely satisfied with the products within the Cakewalk environment. As you might have figured out : I also bought the Platinum perpetual licence seven plus years ago. And now here I am. I just bought a new computer, and after several tries, using different stategies, I can only use Platinum in an absolutely brutal useless demo mode. I therefore installed the free BandLab version, but it doesn't recognize my Platinum extras anymore. Plus, neither that version nor the now useless demo Platinum load up any of my past music projects. Not even projects from a week ago! I'm absolutely pissed! Right now, I definitely don't care to pay for a membership just to be able to use what I've already bought...without knowing if it will even make a difference, as some of the extras I paid for might not even work anyway! I'm sadly and bitterly considering other Daws. I'm still hoping this is just another rocky transition, but I have my doubts. I'm not impressed.

[Glenn Stanton]

@Abrunet -- did you install platinum with the Cakewalk Command Center? (https://legacy.cakewalk.com/Command-Center) and did you use your license and activation codes? i installed SPLAT on my machine last year (W11 Home on HP laptop) without issues and all the goodies that came with it (plus purchased ones as well) are running fine in my Sonar and Next (and even the Komplete Control DAW for some reason - most of them work as well).

i think the key is to use the CCC to install it versus individual download (the multi-part zip nonsense).

Edited 22 hours ago by Glenn Stanton

[Bass Guitar]

@Abrunet

Exactly what @Glenn Stanton just said. I tried installing Platinum using just the installer but it was in demo mode.  This is because there is no way to authorize it. More or less what will happen with Cakewalk after it runs out. You can install it. But it will be in demo mode. 

You have to Use the Command centre to authorize  most of the products from 2017. 
Make sure to use version 1.1.8.1 as the old version won’t work. 

Platinum has been working perfectly fine for me for 2 months now. 

And don’t forget that you have to run as administrator to authorize some of the legacy plugins like Dim Pro. 
 

As far as opening any projects new or old I have actually never had any issues ever up until recently with the new version. This is one reason I had to revert to Platinum. In the 2 months since I started using Splat it has never crashed. But sadly the new Sonar won’t open most of my Cakewalk files.

Sonar has always been backwards compatible since day one. 

 

Edited 5 hours ago by Bass Guitar

[David Baay]

20 hours ago, Abrunet said:

therefore installed the free BandLab version, but it doesn't recognize my Platinum extras anymore. Plus, neither that version nor the now useless demo Platinum load up any of my past music projects. Not even projects from a week ago!

What are the symptoms of not loading in Sonar Free Tier? This is abaoslutely not typical. Many here have projects and even WRK files going back decades that open without any issue.

You should open a dedicated thread to troubleshoot your issues.

[David Baay]

18 hours ago, Bass Guitar said:

But sadly the new Sonar won’t open most of my Cakewalk files.

I think your issues are likely all or mostly related to using a project template that had empty Prochannels originating from the hack/bug in SONAR 8.5 as we have discussed before. Your incessant re-posting that you can't open old projects in Sonar is getting tiresome and is misleading new users that this is a common problem. Please get it figured out or let it go.

I'm here to help if you want to share some more non-working projects to troubleshoot.

[Glenn Stanton]

@Bass Guitar try opening in "safe mode" by holding down the shift key when opening the file via the file open dialog. you will be asked if you want to load all, yes (meaning that one), or no (not that one), or no to all (none)

initally select no to all. then repeat, one at a time, the process until you have eliminated the plugin causing the issue.

example: