Cakewalk free version being phased out

[Examigan]

https://www.kvraudio.com/news/bandlab-t ... walk-57991

Q:Will Cakewalk by BandLab be discontinued?

A:Yes, eventually. We will continue providing community support and maintenance for Cakewalk by BandLab until Cakewalk Sonar becomes publicly available. At some point after the release of Sonar, Cakewalk by BandLab will no longer be supported. Note that existing Cakewalk by BandLab users will be able to continue using the software after the release of Cakewalk Sonar. In the meantime, Cakewalk by BandLab continues to be available.

Q: Will Next and Sonar be free like Cakewalk by BandLab?

A: Next and Sonar will be offered at price points designed to meet the needs of different customers. More information will be provided as we approach the launch date for these new products.

[chk071]

You know what? I consider this a good thing. A solid funding often makes for a professional product. I found the pace of development for Cakewalk by Bandlab a little slow, but, they surely did a good job over the last few years.

I heard they will vastly revamp the GUI for the new Cakewalk "Sonar".

What they also need to do is to update the included fx. They're not long in the tooth, they're antique.

And... I just read that they will actually release two separate softwares: Sonar and "Next". Hmm.. seems a bit ambitious to me, but, hey.

Here is the respective thread with the announcement in the CbB forums, by the way: https://discuss.cakewalk.com/index.php? ... /#comments

[The Noodlist]

Will old Sonar licences hold any credit?
Different company, Gibson.

[Examigan]

I was wondering the same thing. I just installed v8.5 recently and it still works.

Sonar.jpg

[D-Fusion]

I will pass If they use Online Activation or demand regular Re-Activation based on their past failures.

Bought their lifetime License for Platinum and a few months later the shop got closed and instead of giving us a permanent License for what we bought to be used offline they kept their Online servers open which made me nervous since i never knew how long that would last.

So i jumped over to Cubase at that time but kept the last version that used serial key just incase they decided to shut it down.

[GaryG]

Strange world when you see something is made for 'creators' and think "yep, that's the dumbed down version"

[chk071]

Will old Sonar licences hold any credit?
Different company, Gibson.

Yeah, that's what they said in the thread I linked above as well. But, I don't think those were actual Cakewalk employees, so, I guess you'll have to wait and see.

Sounds like Bandlab was pretty generous in the past though, so, there might be something possible.

[chk071]

Strange world when you see something is made for 'creators' and think "yep, that's the dumbed down version"

That was my first thought when I read it. "Something very simple and dumbed down."

[vurt]

plus theyll want a user base who will be more likely to jump in, what better than "yeah, free/discount for previous owners"?

[Teksonik]

We should have seen this coming as free doesn't always mean forever. The original fear was they would hook everyone in and then go subscription for CW by Bandlab but they never did so kudos to them for that.

As a paying customer for Sonar all the way to X3 I have mixed feelings. I think with the new Sonar generating income there is going to be an incentive to keep up development and support so that's a good thing. But the cost to jump back on the Sonar train is going to be a factor especially considering CWBL is not one of my main DAWs.

I'll keep an eye out for the new Sonar and if the features I want are there and the price is right I may consider a purchase. I seriously doubt any licenses from the Cakewalk, Gibson, whatever, era are going to be honored for upgrade deals but we'll see. Bandlab has been pretty good to us so far and for that are certainly owed gratitude.

[chk071]

If I had to guess, then I would think they will price it "competitively". 300 to 400 € range.

[Teksonik]

That's quite a jump from free to $400 so I wonder how users would react. It would have to be a pretty significant update over the current CWBL for me to purchase at that price but we'll see how it goes.

Looks like "Next" is a GarageBand version and Sonar the flagship. You can request to beta test Next now.

[lfm]

That's quite a jump from free to $400 so I wonder how users would react. It would have to be a pretty significant update over the current CWBL for me to purchase at that price but we'll see how it goes.

If they have upgrade options from old Sonar licenses it's a different story. Full license $400 or so is legit from what Sonar is.

But hard to know who are in charge these days, but Cakewalk always been generous on that. I bought Sonar 4 2005 and referred to Cakewalk Pro 3.0 in late 80's and they let me in on a good discount, half or something. But told them the full story and had pics of old manual of course and that I also sent in a little papper slip at that time to register, no internet then.

Seems that Bandlab wanted the knowhow of Sonar devs to build this Next thingy still having connection to Bandlab from what I could see. If this is completely different like Project 5 or something.

I will jump in on this new Sonar unless they made licensing with iLok or something.

[Teksonik]

If they have upgrade options from old Sonar licenses it's a different story.

Of course it will be a different story if they give discounts to long time paying customers. They may and then again they may not. We'll have to wait and see how that plays out.

Full license $400 or so is legit from what Sonar is.

If you've never heard of Sonar or never had the free version of Cakewalk by Bandlab then yes a full DAW at $400 is not unheard of. However keep in mind that many people have been happily using the free version for several years now so to ask them to suddenly pony up $400 to keep using it is probably not going to sit well.

Now Bandlab has the task of making the new Sonar $400 better than the free version and that's not going to be an easy task. A new UI certainly won't cut it alone. But we don't know if it's going to be that high priced or not and it's all speculation at this point.

I will jump in on this new Sonar unless they made licensing with iLok or something.

That's quite a leap of faith without knowing what features the new Sonar will have and at what price point.

I will certainly keep an eye on this story but since Cakewalk is not one of my most used DAWs ( since I've had to quit playing guitar) I'm likely not going to pay much to upgrade unless like I say there is a significant increase in the value of the product. The reason it's not one of my most used DAWs for my synthesizer based stuff is down to the core functionality and there's a good chance that's not going to see a significant change.

But like I said we'll simply have to wait until more facts come to light and then make our decisions based on those.

[chk071]

If they have upgrade options from old Sonar licenses it's a different story.

Of course it will be a different story if they give discounts to long time paying customers. They may and then again they may not. We'll have to wait and see how that plays out.

The problem is that it's merely the developers which are left from the Sonar days. Cakewalk itself has been passed (after being their own company) from Roland to Gibson to Bandlab. So, who will be taking financial "responsibility" for people who owned Sonar?

If anything, they'll hand out discounts on a base of goodwill. Which I could imagine, because, Bandlab has been generous in the past. But, if they will do it or not is of course uncertain.

Will be interesting to see how the software develops in the future. Nothing wrong with more competition on the market.