Sonar now has a free tier again....

[telecharge]

This ought to clear it up. Noel is/was the lead developer and has been with the various permutations of Cakewalk for decades. Meng is the fellow who bought the Cakewalk IP.

Yes you can - thank Meng, it's not too good to be true indeed. Today, the core application itself is free to use with no track or effects limits whatsoever. Some new features, plugins and BandLab membership exclusives are behind the membership paywall.

We do appreciate it however if you support future development by paying for a licence There are some great deals coming so keep your eyes out.

Click through and read if you need more context.
https://discuss.cakewalk.com/topic/8528 ... ent=598253

[Resonant- Serpent]

The limitation on the free version is:

Limited to one Arranger Track
No Plugin Oversampling
No Track Manager
No Jump-To-Track
No Elastique Pro Stretch Mode
No POWR Dithering

Also, the new integrated sample system is browse and preview only.

Full release post is here:

https://discuss.cakewalk.com/topic/8529 ... se-202506/

[lfm]

We do appreciate it however if you support future development by paying for a licence There are some great deals coming so keep your eyes out.

So how do you pay for a license, it's just membership $150 annually, or?
- and that involves a lot of overhead that is Bandlab

2 years ago they started this "coming soon" thing, then what happend it is through Bandlab membership, so they dropped idea of Cakewalk being a company of it's own.

Isn't Cakewalk able to support themselves, this Meng fellow of Bandlab could have shares that pays off every year or something.
- Sonar is a killer daw

The idea is not consistent and thought through enough to even consider.

Free version and constant "phone home" in short intervals is nothing I consider either.
- reading the Cakewalk thread people have issues with unexpected malfunctions as well
- more bugs to expect what is supposed to be stripped or not

And worst I believe there are not bulkheads where these installs does not affect my Sonar Artist.
- uninstalling Cakewalk by Bandlab I had to clear plugin scan completely or alot of nagscreens of missing ProChannel stuff etc.

[gullfo]

dunno - works perfectly fine, easy to install. free Bandlab account + free Sonar. 30 days periodic reactivation (~2 seconds). not sure why you would uninstall CbB, i have both + old CW products all running without issue. W11 with virtually no optimizations except added more RAM and SDD external drives.

[telecharge]

30 days periodic reactivation (~2 seconds)

Not counting the 15 it takes to get in.

not sure why you would uninstall CbB, i have both + old CW products all running without issue.

Particularly since CbB has features that have now been nerfed by the new Cakewalk Sonar.

[Stephan326]

I get a splash screen then Sonar dies.. fooey

[JerGoertz]

I get a splash screen then Sonar dies.. fooey

Ah, memories...

[telecharge]

I get a splash screen then Sonar dies.. fooey

Have you tried signing into BandLab first? https://www.bandlab.com/login

EDIT: I happened across this on the Cakewalk forum - https://discuss.cakewalk.com/topic/8096 ... r-release/

[Teksonik]

I'm confused and tired from a long day. Don't have the energy to chase all over different forums for an answer. If it's free then why this:

Sonar.png

Will it just need to be re-authorised on that date by signing in again or ? (I am logged in now)

I would have gladly paid to keep the old CWbBL alive but I assume now it will stop working at some point?

I'm not a fan of the new flat GUI although I suppose I could get used to it in time. I hate to get too attached to the new "free" version in case they change course again and there is no way in hell I'm subscribing.

Oh well I'll spend more time with it tomorrow, perhaps I'll have a more favorable opinion of it then. Don't really need another DAW but I have some very old guitar projects that I might be able to salvage with this version.

[telecharge]

I haven't seen anything official about the "license evaluation", but the speculation is that it will need to be renewed every 30 days. It should auto-renew if you're signed-in, and you'll want to stay signed-in when using Sonar because that's how the licensing works.

Everything I have read suggests you'll want to keep any old Cakewalk software installed. In fact, Cakewalk by BandLab (CbB) has features not available with the new, free Sonar.

As far as the GUI, I've seen similar comments saying they prefer the CbB interface. Not sure if you have access to the Theme Editor, but maybe you can do something there?

I definitely feel you on not getting too attached in case they change course.

[78deluxe]

I haven't seen anything official about the "license evaluation", but the speculation is that it will need to be renewed every 30 days. It should auto-renew if you're signed-in, and you'll want to stay signed-in when using Sonar because that's how the licensing works.

Everything I have read suggests you'll want to keep any old Cakewalk software installed. In fact, Cakewalk by BandLab (CbB) has features not available with the new, free Sonar.

As far as the GUI, I've seen similar comments saying they prefer the CbB interface. Not sure if you have access to the Theme Editor, but maybe you can do something there?

I definitely feel you on not getting too attached in case they change course.

It is a nice gesture that they have what looks like a full featured free version

The theme editor does not work for the new Sonar UI. I personally think my own theme in CbB looks much better and is easier to use than the Sonar interface.

I like the flat look but the colors in all versions of the themes they offer are a little less than ideal. Someone coming in from scratch (or never created their own theme customized to their preferences - should be quite happy).

It would be nice if the Sonar could read what you have from your account (i.e. old Lifetime owners) could unlock a few of the extra features. But I'm thankful it isn't a super stripped down unusable version.

[Teksonik]

Everything I have read suggests you'll want to keep any old Cakewalk software installed.

Ok thanks for the info. I see there is an installer for the old CWbBL or a "Cakewalk Setup.exe" which I assume will install the old version and not the new Sonar. I have it installed on my old studio computer which I want to do hardware upgrades to so I'll lose the old CWbBL.

Oh well I haven't used the old version since they announced it was being replaced but I do have a bunch of old guitar projects I'd like to salvage.

I don't want to get dependent on the new Sonar because what happens if not enough people sign up for the subscription service and they are forced to eliminate the free version at some point?

I was a paying customer of CW starting at Sonar 5 all the way to Sonar X2 but I'm not going to rent software especially a DAW because you'll be locked in forever.

Anyway I appreciate their generosity but I don't think I'll get too involved with Sonar....

[clintmartin]

This is a pretty big deal.
I need to upgrade my PC very soon and after 13 years with Cakewalk I am considering going to Mac. I don’t like subscriptions but that’s mainly because if I don’t keep paying (even if I decide it’s not worth the cost) My projects won’t open.
Now if it only reverts back to the free version, I have to consider staying with PC.
Things to think about.

[Examigan]

Only one Arranger track in the free version? So does it combine all the tracks you might have into that one Arranger track?

[lfm]

Only one Arranger track in the free version? So does it combine all the tracks you might have into that one Arranger track?

I see the implementation of arranger track as a playlist of regions in timeline, not particular tracks.
- It's been the same in Cubase, StudioOne and Cakewalk/Sonar

So yes, I assume you can have any number of tracks going as that version allows.