New Cakewalk Next and Sonar

[Saffran]

Maybe there's friction betwen Bandlab online DAW crew and Cakewalk Next desktop DAW crew?
Bandlab want to keep it free and Cakewalk want to charge money for it.

[jens]

That's certainly absolutely impossible.

[l33t4e]

They completely did a 180 with their graphics! Before it looked more defined and detailed and had that cool 3D vintage look. Now it looks worse than Ableton and I think Ableton is flat and ugly AF! They brought up vector and high resolution graphics as the excuse, but that's bullshit. Reaper is a good example of having the same look but vector and hi-res.

[TS-12]

I wish Cakewalk Sonar was Mac-Compatible

[jamcat]

It really looks like they're taking their design cues from Studio One these days.

[CoolGuitarGear]

I emailed Bandlab about the upcoming Sonar; I was wondering if those of us who bought a lifetime license back when Gibson owned it would get the new Sonar free or at a discount. They weren't sure as of the response a few weeks ago. I guess we'll see.

I'm with you on that one! Something should be done for those who spent the money, only for it to be free within a year.

[Jim Roseberry]

I purchased a lifetime license for Sonar Platinum (while the IP was owned by Gibson).
When BandLab purchased the IP, all legal agreements (under Gibson) were null/void.
This is why some bundled 3rd-party plugins were no longer bundled with Cakewalk By BandLab.
Unfortunately, that also means the lifetime license (created under Gibson) was null/void.

Noel has mentioned that the current "Backstage Pass" subscription ($15/month or $150/year) is the single charge for both Cakewalk Sonar and Next.

If you're looking long-term, it's best for the user-base that Cakewalk Sonar is monetized in some fashion... as it'll be taken more seriously by the industry.
ie: 3rd-party plugins will be tested for compatibility (instead of "not officially supported").

I've talked to Noel... and a great deal of time/energy went into the new graphic changes.
It's not just the look... but about refresh/performance... and how that works with higher-resolution displays.
I'm not a fan of "flat" style GUIs (somewhat popularized by Abelton Live)... but I'm also not crazy about Reaper's UI.
I like Reaper, just not a fan of the GUI (or spending hour-upon-hour trying to customize it).
Comparing Cakewalk By BandLabs GUI to Cakewalk Sonar, though I'm not crazy about the flat UI, the later is more sharp/crisp... and more smooth/responsive.

Obviously, fundamental graphic changes aren't the most exciting of new features.
It's the equivalent of new tires for an automobile.
Start with a refreshed rock-solid foundation... then build upon that.
Moving forward, that's a sound long-term solution (albeit not immediately exciting).

I don't have a lot of interest in Next.
Not concerned with Mac compatibility. Have a Mac Studio... but it's more for support/testing.
Custom PCs do the heavy lifting here (my whole career is based around that).
Not interested in "simpler/lighter"; I'd rather have the full-featured DAW.

The DAW market is crowded/competitive.
Recently, features have been more evolutionary (vs revolutionary).
Of course there are exceptions; the ability to split a stereo mix into Stems is extraordinary.

It'll be interesting to see where Cakewalk Sonar (and the market as a whole) goes.

[lfm]

Seems that devs are sensitive to trends going, flat toolbars or not etc.

Enclose some old Finale Guitar I have that allowed plenty choice different styles, and bottom is currrent look, which is very plain without character to me.

Other examples are dark themes or light themes, even Windows have fallen for that.

Windows 11 is the worst looking Windows ever IMO. Workflow seriously affected since you don't see which tabs are active and similar.

[Jim Roseberry]

In the Finale example, I do prefer the flat GUI.
At least for me... it feels less distracting to the eye (quicker recognition).
Almost like the best company logos. One split-second look... and you immediately know the company.

When offered, rarely do I change Themes.
I don't have a lot of spare time to be creative. What little I do have, I don't want to spend tweaking a GUI.

Win11 doesn't bother me... but there are more facets to rein-in (Privacy settings, Copilot, etc).
Each time MS changes Windows version, it's almost like they feel compelled to change the name or location of a few things.
Also, don't understand why MS felt it necessary to require TPM 2.0 and 8th Gen CPUs.
Though there's a new thread scheduler (specific for CPUs with Performance and Efficient cores), there's little to no appreciable performance difference vs. Win10.

Myself/clients moved to Win11 when MS broke the ability to disable CPU Core Parking (later builds of Win10 - only affected 12th/13th Gen CPUs).
I'm pretty sure that's since been fixed... but it was the compelling reason I'd been waiting for.

[jinotsuh]

Well, the latest update for Cakewalk Sonar seems to have put the cat among the pigeons, Sonar 2024.08 seems to be a fairly significant update with major increases in performance, stability, useability, just seems to be a good thing all round. It is getting glowing reactions/comments from users, a read through the release notes show why.

Release Notes
https://cakewalk-web-assets-for-desktop ... ntId=sonar

Sonar 2024.08 Forum Feedback Thread
https://discuss.cakewalk.com/topic/8075 ... -feedback/

Sonar 2024.08 Overview Thread
https://discuss.cakewalk.com/topic/8075 ... -overview/

I'm going to take my 3 day trial and see what it's all about, and if it tickles me like it is those folk I think it might cure my allergy to subscriptions, at least until if and when they release a Perpetual License option, which at this time looks unlikely but you never know. Check it out.

[Edit] Well afterf a lot of procrastination I finally got around to getting the Bandlab Membership thing along with the 3 FREE days before the Monthly Subscription Fees kicked in. I installed both manager things, one for installing Platinum and all the addons so they would show up in Sonar, and one for Sonar and Next.

After installing all that I fired up Sonar, it looked ok, but man it was a dog to use, the workflow was just hideously slow and annoying. Just simple things like adding plugs was just a slow process compared to Studio One, everything just felt slow and awkward in comparison to Studio One. As for the much talked about stability and performance increases, well I didn't see them in my short time. It crashed once and had trouble with Amplitube 5, it was just slow as loading Amp 5 and some other plugs. I didn't do any scientific testing or anything, but just going by the CPU readout and the loading I was putting on it, it didn't seem to be much of an increase and I'm afraid even the much maligned for CPU usage Studio One would smoke it. Which is what I found with a somewhat more scientific test was back in 2015 when I jumped from SONAR and REAPER to Studio One 3.

Anyway after all that installing and positive thinking before hand it all pretty much crashed in a heap. I cancelled the Bandlab Membership before they took any payments, and about 3 hours after the installation I began to uninstall everything, more wasted time. It really was a clunky, slow, un user friendly workflow in comparison to Studio One, it was a horrid time. One thing I have gotten out of it, I will stop keeping an eye on its development, and never again jump through those laughable steps of installing prior versions just so you can use vst and vsti's that you had purchased, I mean what a joke, installing something your not going to use just so you can . . . ah, it's pathetic. I will never again install a Cakewalk product, they are now completely gone for me, and about time, as I breathe a sigh of relief [/Edit]

[chk071]

Win11 doesn't bother me... but there are more facets to rein-in (Privacy settings, Copilot, etc).
Each time MS changes Windows version, it's almost like they feel compelled to change the name or location of a few things.
Also, don't understand why MS felt it necessary to require TPM 2.0 and 8th Gen CPUs.
Though there's a new thread scheduler (specific for CPUs with Performance and Efficient cores), there's little to no appreciable performance difference vs. Win10.

On paper, for security reasons (there's some security stuff in Windows 11 which requires TPM 2.0 and some CPU extensions only available in Intel 8th gen or newer). But, some people say that it's to boost OEM sales. I tend to believe the latter.

I just hope that this isn't becoming the norm. I don't want some Apple-esque "Buy a new computer every 5 years, money bag" attitude from Microsoft.