Sonar now has a free tier again....

[telecharge]

RE: the squandering of good will -- how so?

Nowadays, Sonar is usually only mentioned as a free DAW option...with caveats.

The rest of your post is further evidence. I never signed up for discuss.cakewalk.com -- I find it generally unwelcoming and the moderation is Orwellian.

[Saffran]

Yeah, the forum..
Lots of people have left. A big group left one or two years ago when free speach where banned.
Havrans description is very good.
There's also the sarcastic one. 50 % of his replies is sarcastic.
The comedian makes humoristic replys to serious questions.

[papatomany]

And what was the advantage of Sonar over other DAWS?

For me, there are two primary reasons. It starts with the basic thing: I've been using Cakewalk software for 20+ years and have found a workflow that works for me. When I first started, the affordable DAWs (that I knew of) were a version of Cakewalk and a version of Cubase and Fruity Loops. I played with the demos for a bit and just liked the methodology of Cakewalk best. Been essentially happy with them ever since.

When they shut down, prior to being revived by Bandlab, I picked up Studio One and Reaper. Even though I got the hang of both with regards to workflow, it seemed like more work to do the simplest things.

The clincher now, though, is that, of the three, only Sonar properly records MPE through my older model Seaboard Rise. Bending notes with Glide inevitably turns into a warbling off-key mess in both Studio One and Reaper, while playing back just as recorded in Sonar.

On a lesser note, Sonar is the only one of the three that natively lets me use multiple inputs on a single track, so the only one that lets me use the Touche SE in combination with a normal midi keyboard.

Obviously these issues won't affect most people.

[D-Fusion]

And what was the advantage of Sonar over other DAWS?

For me, there are two primary reasons. It starts with the basic thing: I've been using Cakewalk software for 20+ years and have found a workflow that works for me. When I first started, the affordable DAWs (that I knew of) were a version of Cakewalk and a version of Cubase and Fruity Loops. I played with the demos for a bit and just liked the methodology of Cakewalk best. Been essentially happy with them ever since.

When they shut down, prior to being revived by Bandlab, I picked up Studio One and Reaper. Even though I got the hang of both with regards to workflow, it seemed like more work to do the simplest things.

The clincher now, though, is that, of the three, only Sonar properly records MPE through my older model Seaboard Rise. Bending notes with Glide inevitably turns into a warbling off-key mess in both Studio One and Reaper, while playing back just as recorded in Sonar.

On a lesser note, Sonar is the only one of the three that natively lets me use multiple inputs on a single track, so the only one that lets me use the Touche SE in combination with a normal midi keyboard.

Obviously these issues won't affect most people.

What i liked about Sonar was it's cool step recording options and the Arpeggiator.

[marce]

I installed the Sonar Free thing today. But the nag ribbon below the title bar with "Get Membership" all time, occuping that precious pixels in my display, is too much to me. When i click on workspace edition, a "get membership" popup... argh! The cakewalk bandlab edition was not annoying.
This little, irritant, things, make i desire to not use it. I understand they made it for promotion, but to stole permanently the space on your screen is too much.

[marce]

What will happen with Cakewalk bB? Could it be used forever or will be it locked?

[gullfo]

my understanding, and you can find out more on the official forum, is Aug 1st CbB will be deactivated, and after a month when it's needs to be re-activated, it will not... so effectively locked.

the free Sonar and free Next are not simply promotional, they're the supported replacement for CbB which has little or no updates in 6 or more months. of course, i expect that the Cakewalk folks would like people to pay the annual subscription for the full versions. but like many free software products, it's reasonable to expect them to "consume precious pixels" on the product encouraging people to buy in.

i'm fortunate to have 1920x1200 monitor so i have some space to spare and can ignore the toaster messages.

[marce]

Thanks your answer. I have three monitors with enough space, but that ribbon just under the menu, where usually you need to clik for most things... is like the small thorn on your little finger. No matter how little, it disturb you a lot.

[b4serenity]

I installed the free sonar and everything seems to work.
Correct me if I'm wrong but I guess we lose the mobile phone app that I used to start song ideas on and then later use the desktop DAW to work on them. That's what hooked me from the beginning. Are there other DAWs with corresponding cell phone apps?

[lfm]

Are there other DAWs with corresponding cell phone apps?

You can always connect usb to computer from phone and drag-n-drop files from that recorder you use in phone.
- don't limit your choice of daw over that

Most probably you can use bluetooth for file transfer as well, just seen options are there for bluetooth, never tried myself.
- so no cable needed in that case

I would guess there are file transfer apps for phone for that purpose as well.

[b4serenity]

Thanks for your reply. Yes, that's what I did before using bandlab, but it was nice to use the same program for both. I could have one track contain say guitar chords of a song. And another track might have me talking along to the other track saying... right here the drums would come in sounding like such and such band and then at this part string accompaniment starts with high staccato violins etc. etc. I might also have lyrics written within the same program. Then, go to the desktop later and have access to all that all through the same program.

Does any other DAW have that type of integration?

[kperry]

I installed the free sonar and everything seems to work.
Correct me if I'm wrong but I guess we lose the mobile phone app that I used to start song ideas on and then later use the desktop DAW to work on them. That's what hooked me from the beginning. Are there other DAWs with corresponding cell phone apps?

You still have that.

[b4serenity]

I hope you're correct and I assume you are. I had it in my head that all the changes would affect the cell phone app as well. They are different products but since they were so integrated in how I use them I guess I thought of them as one entity!!

It still seems like more DAWs would implement this dual strategy between cell phone and desktop integration. But, I'm not really aware of any, which is why I asked.

[jens]

Are there other DAWs with corresponding cell phone apps?

Cubasis is pretty much a full fledged DAW at this point.

[b4serenity]

Good suggestion on Cubasis! I never looked into that one