Re-authorisation

[Matthew Carr]

I understand the need for Sonar to have to call home and be re-authorised periodically. I'm totally fine with that.

However:

In CbB you got a warning along the lines of 'X days until activation runs out'.

I've now changed over to Sonar (free edition for now), and when we went to our rehearsal space (which doesn't have wifi, or cell signal) the PC often kept at the space complained about needing auth.  Which meant I wasn't able to save our recordings. Cue band members being unhappy with me... 😒

We've been rehearsing more than once a week as we have a big (for us, lol) gig coming up.. but there was no warning about the activation being about to run out.

Would really appreciate if this warning was brought back in some form.. via a toast or on opening screen, it doesn't matter as long as I can see somewhere how long is left before re auth will be needed.

On a more technical note, I think the process of dialling home could be much improved.

At present, if Sonar is not activated, it periodically tries to call home. If there's no network connection, this process takes a while (20 seconds maybe) before it fails. During this time, whatever audio is playing will continue, but the UI completely freezes (inc. transport) and often the window will change to show app is not responding.

As I say, I understand the need to call home but it seems this could be more elegant

1. Change the call home code to work on a different thread to the UI (so UI doesn't freeze), or

2. Only check when the app is started or closed, rather than every X minutes of operation/

 

 

[Bass Guitar]

Are you using the Playlist or just recording? 
 

Ya that’s something that the developers never really considered. There are a lot of real musicians that have used Cakewalk for live performances. Mostly using the playlist because that’s a feature that is not available in other Daw’s. 

This change made many now look for alternatives that can be used without expiring in the middle of a gig or recording session.
Bottom line is using any software that you don’t own is risky in a professional setting. 

Just an idea but I love my Zoom L8 for recording and our 3 piece bands live gigs. 
Lots of bands are using the L12  or L20. Push of a button to record just like in the good old days.
 

Transfer the tracks from the SD card to any Daw. It also records the stereo mains at the same time so instant board mix. 

It’s also a first class ASIO audio interface so you can stream your backing tracks from your laptop and you have total control of the mix using real channel strips. And it never phones home! 

[Matthew Carr]

2 hours ago, Bass Guitar said:

Are you using the Playlist or just recording? 
 

Ya that’s something that the developers never really considered. There are a lot of real musicians that have used Cakewalk for live performances. Mostly using the playlist because that’s a feature that is not available in other Daw’s. 

This change made many now look for alternatives that can be used without expiring in the middle of a gig or recording session.
Bottom line is using any software that you don’t own is risky in a professional setting. 

Just an idea but I love my Zoom L8 for recording and our 3 piece bands live gigs. 
Lots of bands are using the L12  or L20. Push of a button to record just like in the good old days.
 

Transfer the tracks from the SD card to any Daw. It also records the stereo mains at the same time so instant board mix. 

It’s also a first class ASIO audio interface so you can stream your backing tracks from your laptop and you have total control of the mix using real channel strips. And it never phones home! 

Yes, dedicated hardware is always nice, but we have a pretty integrated solution - DAW supplies backing track, click track, midi for control of  outboard gear / other software, and DMX lighting.

Doing this on hardware would be hard to set up.

I don't mind the phone home thing - It just needs to be more transparent so we can tell how long is left to avoid being caught out.

Although, I just read this which kind of implies even if you pay for membership, the bakers can bork Sonar until your download/ install a newer version  - that is definitely not cool, and certainly a worry for my use case.

 

[mettelus]

There is no more embarrassing black eye than the one you give to yourself. And this after all the harping to sell Sonar regarding "shouldn't your work be important enough to pay for?" The free tier wasn't even on the radar then.

[Bass Guitar]

6 hours ago, Matthew Carr said:

Doing this on hardware would be hard to set up.

Ok I wasn’t sure how you were using Sonar. You only mentioned “Save our recordings”. 
 

I’ll repeat, Using software that you don’t own  ( have a perpetual license) is risky. Even Cakewalk was risky. Time to start looking for a Daw that is not at risk. 

My solution was to return to using Sonar Platinum. I own it and it is not at risk of not opening. 
You still didn’t say if you are using the Playlist. 
 

[Noel Borthwick]

There should be a notification prior to the expiration of the lease. However if Sonar is infrequently used you may not have seen the notification. Note that it will never go inactive mid session so you can't lose edits that way.

Also expired builds are a different thing from the normal activation lease. We expire builds that are very old or when there is a known problem that can cause customer data loss for example. 

I'll look into the UI sluggishness when it's offline. That shouldn't be happening. Possibly what's happening is that it's trying to do an internet check and that's timing out and blocking the UI.

[Matthew Carr]

On 9/27/2025 at 7:27 AM, Noel Borthwick said:

I'll look into the UI sluggishness when it's offline. That shouldn't be happening. Possibly what's happening is that it's trying to do an internet check and that's timing out and blocking the UI.

Thanks Noel,

That certainly seems to be what is happening - can be replicated (at my end) by waiting till Sonar is Offline, then using Sonar without any internet connection.

Can you confirm how many days notice there should be before activation is required please?  Surprised I missed a notification, but it's possible

Ediy for additianl info;

1) The UI also freezes when I try and access the Help menu

2) The computer has an ethernet connection to a router  (to support OSC messages to  a digital mixer), but no connection to the internet. 

Edited Monday at 06:42 AM by Matthew Carr
Asditional.info

[Matthew Carr]

On 9/27/2025 at 12:55 AM, Bass Guitar said:

You still didn’t say if you are using the Playlist. 
 

No, I don't use Sonar Playlist anymore - I moved to an external VST host / Playlist editor