Cakewalk Sonar Platinum is now free!

[BMoore]

Bandlab assistant?!
lol yeah right

[chk071]

That was what i thought, when i was about to download Cakewalk. No thanks.

[Zombie Queen]

An average teenager of today has an attention span of no more than a time it takes to read a tweet. Not sure Sonar Platinum is a suitable tool for them to start making music.

Good point. But any DAW would be a bad start. Yet I have the answer for the new generation... cowbell!

Is it really that bad ? any experiences with latest releases ?

Not that bad. It's been pretty solid for me. Though there are bugs which seem to prevail for ages, like occasional crashing when drag'n'drop midi clips into it. It's been there in Sonar 5, it's there the exact same way now. It seems like the core code hasn't been touched for a long time, the updates seem mostly UI, extra stuff, more bloat for quite a while.
Still, it's very capable DAW, perfectly usable, being free it's a bargain of the decade IMO (although it's not really free, rather kind of online-membership-ware). Haven't touched the Bandlab release, but I assume it's basically the same thing.

[gabgue]

Every day more (almost) suites (graphics, audio, programming, etc) use download assistants, in this case work fine, Sonar and Instruments installers (.exe) are downloaded and can be moved to other folder, i prefer direct downloads but this time Bandlab Assistant is working perfectly.

[flugel45]

Bandlab assistant?!
lol yeah right

Not sure what your point is. Cakewalk had "Command Center" before that. In fact, most of the bigger plugin companies like Waves, NI, Toontrack, IK Multimedia, and XLN Audio all use product manager programs these days.

Are you boycotting those companies too, or did I misunderstand you?

[Russell Grand]

Hey guys!

I'm a long time Sonar user, and I thought I might tell you my thoughts about the DAW, hoping it might help someone determine if they should give Cakewalk by BandLab a try. I mainly produce electronic dance music, but I've been doing other genres as well.

Here's what I like about Sonar Platinum:

- The ripple edit feature makes moving large song sections around really fast, easy and reliable. (THIS feature was a game changer for me! But the wait for this feature was really too long...)
- Melodyne ARA integration is really convenient
- Well integrated step sequencer (any midi clip can be edited using the SS instead of the piano-roll view)
- Good piano roll with support for multiple tracks (and the awesome controller editor box, wisely stolen from Cubase )
- Efficient plugin load balancing on multi-core systems
- It's very easy and stable to use old 32 bit plugins
- Mature overall settings (adjustable keyboard shortcuts, color themes, etc)
- Good SysEx-handling, great for those of us with hardware synths
- Built-in plugin upsampling settings (separate settings for playback & rendering)
- GUI has good multi-monitor support with most panes/windows detachable and movable (good for me as I'm using old school low-res monitors, but I've heard the high DPI stuff is missing though)
- Extremely quick to support new Windows versions (old Cakewalk took a lot of pride in working closely with Microsoft)

For those of you dismissing Sonar as a professional tool or its features, I want to give you some historical perspective. AFAIK, Sonar was the first/extremely early 64 bit DAW on Windows, and has had some major features many, many years ahead of other big DAW:s, such as:

- a 64-bit mixing engine (Cubase last year)
- clip gain (Pro Tools five years ago: this really amazed me when it was announced for PT10... )
- clip effects (Pro Tools two years ago)
- customizable keyboard shortcuts (Live 10 STILL doesn't have it! )
- proper automation curves (Cubase last year)
- and... and...

But obviously nothing is perfect. Here's stuff I miss in Sonar:

- A chord track like in Cubase
- An arranger track like in Cubase
- A simple well integrated sampler like in Live & Cubase 9.5
- A built-in chord analyzer like in Logic (Sonar has one as a MIDI plugin, but it's not as convenient as in Logic)
- A slightly more robust audio engine
- The GUI has too much stuff hidden in menus (a lot of stuff was moved into menus a couple of years ago, in an attempt to make it look cleaner. I think it just made the workflow worse, requiring more clicks for most actions. I hate clicking.)

I am very curious and pretty hopeful about this new BandLab era, but time will tell how it plays out. I'm keeping my fingers crossed BandLab has their business model all figured out...

Great post!

[Russell Grand]

So my take is that now that they have released it for free, over time they will start to simplify it and remove features to make it more like something like Magix Music Maker which is also given away for free now. You know, make it more edm kid friendly, so you can drag loops from the Bandlab assistant to quickly fix up a tune that you can put on Soundcloud or Beatport..

Even your own example contraindicates for your conclusion; Magix still keep the full-blown editions of all their 'light' packages under development, including Samplitude and Sequoia. Apple still develop Logic despite Garageband. Reason continues despite Figure. etc etc. And just about every single major DAW has a lightweight version.

I can see the products converging in look and feel and intercompatibility, but the notion that the major package will be dumbed down just because there's a simpler alternative from the same company just isnt borne out by the history in that marketplace.

+1

[JoseC.]

It seems like the core code hasn't been touched for a long time, the updates seem mostly UI, extra stuff, more bloat for quite a while.

Well, the developers have been stating exactly the opposite along the years. Just read the version history and you'll find that a great deal of work has been said to be done in the "core code", and from my point of view, it shows. Sonar got much better during its monthly updates period.

[chk071]

Bandlab assistant?!
lol yeah right

Not sure what your point is. Cakewalk had "Command Center" before that. In fact, most of the bigger plugin companies like Waves, NI, Toontrack, IK Multimedia, and XLN Audio all use product manager programs these days.

Are you boycotting those companies too, or did I misunderstand you?

I'm not boycotting anyone for that reason, but, it adds to the reasons why i wouldn't install it, alongside with the plugins which come with it, which all have to be removed individually, when you uninstall Cakewalk, if it's the same as it was with Sonar X1. I can see how that doesn't pose an issue for other users, but, for just giving Cakewalk a try, it's definitely not worth it for me.

[dellboy]

but, for just giving Cakewalk a try, it's definitely not worth it for me.

Cool.

Now you've got that off your chest you deserve a beer.

[zzz00m]

This is an official list of all new features and fixes for Sonar since the X3 days.

Quite a staggering amount of effort went into improving the product.

That is almost 3 full years of steady improvements.

So if you are only familiar with old versions of the program, or dropped out after X3 when the membership thing started, you owe it to yourself to see what you can get for free now! Some 3rd party plugins not included, unless you already have a Platinum install on the same PC.

Speaking from experience, I was holding out after X3, but finally upgraded after nearly 2 years of updates. It took quite a while to get up to speed with all of the changes.

>>> SONAR Update History <<<

https://www.cakewalk.com/Products/SONAR/Whats-New#start

Latest Updates
Innovation delivered monthly

When you buy SONAR Artist, Professional, or Platinum you get one year of updates. Throughout the year you'll get regular fixes, customized SONAR content, and even brand new features. You choose how often to update your system, and each update you receive becomes part of the program you own, so you can keep it forever!

[fmr]

Bandlab assistant?!
lol yeah right

Not sure what your point is. Cakewalk had "Command Center" before that. In fact, most of the bigger plugin companies like Waves, NI, Toontrack, IK Multimedia, and XLN Audio all use product manager programs these days.

Are you boycotting those companies too, or did I misunderstand you?

I'm not boycotting anyone for that reason, but, it adds to the reasons why i wouldn't install it, alongside with the plugins which come with it, which all have to be removed individually, when you uninstall Cakewalk, if it's the same as it was with Sonar X1. I can see how that doesn't pose an issue for other users, but, for just giving Cakewalk a try, it's definitely not worth it for me.

So, judging from what you post, you never install trials or demos of anything, because all of them will most certainly install things that you don't want/need, and sometimes leave things behind (that's why I use a special uninstaller that cleans all those remainings).

So much trouble to check a major DAW that is being offered FOR FREE

[BMoore]

Bandlab assistant?!
lol yeah right

Not sure what your point is. Cakewalk had "Command Center" before that. In fact, most of the bigger plugin companies like Waves, NI, Toontrack, IK Multimedia, and XLN Audio all use product manager programs these days.

Are you boycotting those companies too, or did I misunderstand you?

Of all the unnecessary spying crap, I'm not going to install an "assistant" from a dogy company that gives away a DAW for free, and thinks cloud-based-everything is the way to go.

But hey, be my guest.
There's a sucker born every second.

[toonertik]

Bandlab assistant?!
lol yeah right

Not sure what your point is. Cakewalk had "Command Center" before that. In fact, most of the bigger plugin companies like Waves, NI, Toontrack, IK Multimedia, and XLN Audio all use product manager programs these days.

Are you boycotting those companies too, or did I misunderstand you?

Of all the unnecessary spying crap, I'm not going to install an "assistant" from a dogy company that gives away a DAW for free, and thinks cloud-based-everything is the way to go.

But hey, be my guest.
There's a sucker born every second.

So I guess you never use Google, Bing, youtube..
You neither run Apple's OS nor win10...
In fact, better close off your internet...
and for your information I have Sonar and this new Cakewalk ( un_installed the assistant)
but I am no sucker>> understand!!!!

[BMoore]

Bandlab assistant?!
lol yeah right

Not sure what your point is. Cakewalk had "Command Center" before that. In fact, most of the bigger plugin companies like Waves, NI, Toontrack, IK Multimedia, and XLN Audio all use product manager programs these days.

Are you boycotting those companies too, or did I misunderstand you?

I'm not boycotting anyone for that reason, but, it adds to the reasons why i wouldn't install it, alongside with the plugins which come with it, which all have to be removed individually, when you uninstall Cakewalk, if it's the same as it was with Sonar X1. I can see how that doesn't pose an issue for other users, but, for just giving Cakewalk a try, it's definitely not worth it for me.

So, judging from what you post, you never install trials or demos of anything, because all of them will most certainly install things that you don't want/need, and sometimes leave things behind (that's why I use a special uninstaller that cleans all those remainings).

So much trouble to check a major DAW that is being offered FOR FREE

Judging from what he posted, you didn't understand, or misunderstood deliberately, just to be able to argue something.