Sonar now has a free tier again....

[jens]

They stopped the development of their own translation tool in the meantine by the way and instead went for DAWproject, so you should be able to open Cubasis projects in other DAWs (besides Cubendo) too.

[marce]

Appear that the 10 seconds nag screen is showed once a day. I change the date of my pc manually, and it is showed again. I went back to actual date, and it was not displayed.
Well... that´s better that a nag screen every time you open it.

[cvieira]

Still has the same bugs that the Bandlab version had.

Virtual instruments sometimes not working when assigned from a midi track, or working randomly from another tracks, a big mess.

the new staf view is awfull , why did they changed that ? the last version was perfect.

this is not a pro product with this kind of bugs, i wouldnt pay anything for this sh*t

[D112025]

I've been using cakewalk sonar since 2000 and I've finally (grudgingly) had to jump ship due to 'new' free version restrictions and to be honest, it just hadn't really changed much in at least 2 decades so a paid subscription didn't make much sense. I tried out cubase a few weeks ago for the first time and although at first it was hard to get my head around it, it became clear why that was - because Sonar is just very, very basic and DAW's have massively advanced in recent years. I don't think I'm going to look back and miss it tbh.

[lingyai]

i mention it because the last 3 updates i did with Next having an open project at the time i got the toaster popup did not prevent me from saving my project, and then updating. which is why i asked if you reached out to support. as far as the battle for perpetual vs subscription, it's not important here. but if you are finding the DAW unusable, maybe try a different one? honestly, it sounds like you're just repeating other people's complaints vs actually having a problem...

You seem to rule out that he has the same real problems other people have. If others report having them too, to me that makes his complaints more plausible, not less.

[gullfo]

You seem to rule out that he has the same real problems other people have. If others report having them too, to me that makes his complaints more plausible, not less.

perhaps, perhaps not. i'm pretty regularly on the Sonar forums and it's fairly easy to spot the problems which are user induced vs product issues... the dev team is pretty quick to respond to issues and also help people troubleshoot even via remote sessions if needed.

so i'm not discounting the idea there is some issue with his updates, but i've not seen them, and in the Sonar or Next forums, many problems are resolved by following simple steps like don't use your machine for other significant activities while performing updates, remember it can be a good idea to reboot after an update and rescan plugins etc. also check when there are issues - i find a lot of updates from MS for example overwrite runtimes which are supposed to be compatible and are not.

as a concrete example, one of my sons, who is a gamer, complains to me a lot about updates - then then again he is running all kinds of stream, discorse, background game processes, overclocking processes, etc while watching videos and/or surfing some web sites. so, can this lead to resource starvation on even a large system, yes, could it also lock some files that the update needs to access, yes, could could services also be creating file contention? sure.

[Starbright]

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.

I think a better way would have been: wanna upgrade?

[THE INTRANCER]

I remember in my Amiga days, I acquired lots of music software, most of it free and fully functional...and if it wasn't then I wouldn't use it. If you have never used a DAW before then Bandlab might be a way to get an idea of what it's like to do some basic stuff and get an idea if it's for you, but there are other options which may be more fun.

[MeanMrMustard]

I remember in my Amiga days, I acquired lots of music software, most of it free and fully functional...and if it wasn't then I wouldn't use it. If you have never used a DAW before then Bandlab might be a way to get an idea of what it's like to do some basic stuff and get an idea if it's for you, but there are other options which may be more fun.

Bars & Pipes

[telecharge]

Sonar got an update about a week ago because... AI

New Feature: Cakewalk Assist
Stop diving into menus. Cakewalk Assist is your new unified command palette, designed for speed and productivity. Assist instantly puts the entire DAW at your fingertips, accelerating feature discovery and eliminating workflow friction.

Core functionality

• Instant Command Execution: Type any command (e.g., "Insert Audio Track," "Group Tracks into Folder") and run it instantly, without touching the menu bar.
• Quick Navigation: Search and jump directly to any setting, preference screen, or view.
• Unified Discovery: Find application commands, settings, views, and help documentation simultaneously from one place.

How to use it

• Access it anytime by pressing: Ctrl + /
  • Note: This shortcut is reassignable in Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts
• Start typing something you want to do, e.g., a command: "Bounce" ...or access a view: "Matrix"
• A list of associated commands, settings, views and help topics will appear - select the one you want

You may discover new features or find your workflow has accelerated 10x. Assist's core capabilities are included in the Free Tier to ensure everyone gets a boost. We hope you use it often - let us know what works for you and what improvements you'd like to see!

https://cakewalk-web-assets-for-desktop ... n7mpWD4SP0

[Saffran]

There has been feature requests for AI assisted features like autoalign. But no one has suggested a search feature.
You all know the problem with searches. You have to know what to search for and know the name of it, else..
There are a good pdf manual.

[lfm]

Isn't this AI thingy watered down to mean just about nothing.
- one typed letter could be seen as one click with mouse
- so open a menu move down and execute a command are way fewer clicks than start typing a dozen letters
- as former programmer I am fluent in typing, but still think is does not help anything with this type command
- binding key shortcuts are already there and quicker

I like the palette of menu commands in my good old Sonar 2015 you can do that expand if hovering mouse.
- if it's like 9 or 12 buttons to click for anything
- allow multiple of those palettes intead to get organized
- one while recording, one while mixing and whatnot
- I may kick in open doors, since 10 years using my old license

These toolbar modules that expand as hovering over is really neat.
- allow free setup of any number of those that were commands
- done, user prepare most common flow of commands they need

To open up typing from anywhere you are, search tracks is a time saver.
- fix like Reaper, that folder tracks are there in mixer as well, to expand/collapse
- that would be very useful

I still feel Cakewalk has lost its ways....

[Saffran]

I still feel Cakewalk has lost its ways....

Same here.
I have this bad feeling that coders have left and the replacement isn't up to the task.

[jens]

Sonar got an update about a week ago because... AI

Because AI? What is that supposed to mean?

[jens]

I still feel Cakewalk has lost its ways....

Same here.
I have this bad feeling that coders have left and the replacement isn't up to the task.

Noel is still at the helm and has been since about forever - he's been with Cakewalk since before Sonar.