is cakewalk a good daw?

[fese]

I’m wondering how that bandlab company is financing further development of the product if they give it away for free. Developing and maintaining a DAW ain’t exactly cheap, and I guess they also had to pay a little bit to Gibson. Where is the revenue?

They sell stuff as well.

I just looked at the website of https://bandlabtechnologies.com/, which seems to be some kind of holding that has acquired several brands in the recent years, from music magazines and websites (NME, guitar.com) to distributors and guitar companies (like heritage guitars). Seems like there is someone with money behind it...

[JoseC.]

I'll be far too busy to return with doing other things than posting on forums.

Considering our respective time in this site and number of posts, I find it funny that you say that. Have a good one.

[FapFilter]

I only have an ancient version from 2008, so can't say if they improved on it, but at least back then the automation process wasn't as nicely and smooth as it is now in Reaper for instance (sorry, don't know any more modern DAWs first hand) and Reaper is much more stable.
For free, it's awesome.
Oh and it's controls are fully customizable, from mouse behaviour to keyboard shortcuts.

2008, man, really? Imagine someone comparing a modern DAW with Reaper 2.

8.5, the version i'm referring to, has been the best version according to not too few users, who still updated.
I only followed the development for a couple of years, but the “improvements“ i mostly saw, were more additional plugins added instead of improving it's core functionality. Of course it also got a “vintage mixer“ and you could also alter the screen setup more to your likings, but i saw nothing that was really that important to me.
Also, more and more people seemed to think that none of the later versions were as stable as 8.5
Though maybe that trend changed in it's final years it was still known as Sonar

And i also don't think that even 8.5 is outdated at all by it's feature set. I think even that old version has everything you need. The automation process is not the smoothest though, but i also never saw someone mentioning that this was imorovrd.
This is generally the case though: most DAWs, that have been around for a while, are more than capable of basically doing everything you'd need.

[fmr]

I just looked at the website of https://bandlabtechnologies.com/, which seems to be some kind of holding that has acquired several brands in the recent years, from music magazines and websites (NME, guitar.com) to distributors and guitar companies (like heritage guitars). Seems like there is someone with money behind it...

So? Where is the problem?

[fmr]

8.5, the version i'm referring to, has been the best version according to not too few users, who still updated.
I only followed the development for a couple of years, but the “improvements“ i mostly saw, were more additional plugins added instead imoroving on it's core functionality. Of course it also got a “vintage mixer“ and you could also alter the screen setup more to your likings, but i saw nothing that was really that important to me.
Also, more and more people seemed to think that none of the later versions were as stable as 8.5
Though maybe that trend changed in it's final years it was still known as Sonar

And i also don't think that even 8.5 is outdated at all by it's feature set. I think even that old version has everything you need. The automation process is not the smoothest though, but i also never saw someone mentioning that this was improved

You better refrain talking about what you don't know...

[Erisian]

I just looked at the website of https://bandlabtechnologies.com/, which seems to be some kind of holding that has acquired several brands in the recent years, from music magazines and websites (NME, guitar.com) to distributors and guitar companies (like heritage guitars). Seems like there is someone with money behind it...

So? Where is the problem?

He's not saying there is a problem.

[FapFilter]

You better refrain talking about what you don't know...

enlighten me then

[fmr]

You better refrain talking about what you don't know...

enlighten me then

Why don't you download it and see for yourself? It's not like you have to pay for it, or something.

It may not be the best and most feature packed DAW, but for the price, I think it's amazing. And it is certainly stable (at least over here). Much more than other DAWs I had to pay for.

[FapFilter]

I'm not interested, i have a DAW that works for me.
But i probably would if i didn't decide to make the switch when it was announced that Sonar is no more and something like the Bandlab revival wasn't on the horizon.

i also never said that i know all this first hand, but i was still following the forums for a few years (not that frequently from 2015 on or so though)

And i'm also not sure what your problem actually is: i said that even my very old version from 2008 is very good. I'd expect that newer versions are even better. There just was nothing that made an upgrade mandatory for me.
And the statements regarding it's stability are also just from their user forums, there seemed to be many people who were unhappy regarding declining stability in the following years. Maybe this wasn't/isn't an issue though anymore after several versions that came after 8.5.
In the first few years though, this was mentioned a lot

[instred]

I’m wondering how that bandlab company is financing further development of the product if they give it away for free. Developing and maintaining a DAW ain’t exactly cheap, and I guess they also had to pay a little bit to Gibson. Where is the revenue?

They sell stuff as well.

I just looked at the website of https://bandlabtechnologies.com/, which seems to be some kind of holding that has acquired several brands in the recent years, from music magazines and websites (NME, guitar.com) to distributors and guitar companies (like heritage guitars). Seems like there is someone with money behind it...

Yep Meng has money and is taking a different approach to development.
Several forum members got hired and are now developers. They really are making a top-notch DAW

[Spencer Maddox]

As long as cakewalk is free its the best Free DAW on the market and it's not even freaking close imo.
It's rare a program that used to cost Hundreds of Dollars is just dropped on the Public for free, WHILE Receiving Valuable updates.

[Steve Bolivar]

I just looked at the website of https://bandlabtechnologies.com/, which seems to be some kind of holding that has acquired several brands in the recent years, from music magazines and websites (NME, guitar.com) to distributors and guitar companies (like heritage guitars). Seems like there is someone with money behind it...

This tells the whole story. The owner is just a very rich music superfan. Just another part of their portfolio. Maybe they will do with Cakewalk what Gibson couldn't or wouldn't. If you're making and selling musical instruments, why not leverage some synergy between these things and sell something that records and publishes it. Gibson never tied Cakewalk to the rest of their products or endorsers.

Edit: I forgot to put in the link that tells the whole story.
https://musicindustryblog.wordpress.com ... ing-stone/

[JoseC.]

I just looked at the website of https://bandlabtechnologies.com/, which seems to be some kind of holding that has acquired several brands in the recent years, from music magazines and websites (NME, guitar.com) to distributors and guitar companies (like heritage guitars). Seems like there is someone with money behind it...

This tells the whole story. The owner is just a very rich music superfan. Just another part of their portfolio. Maybe they will do with Cakewalk what Gibson couldn't or wouldn't. If you're making and selling musical instruments, why not leverage some synergy between these things and sell something that records and publishes it. Gibson never tied Cakewalk to the rest of their products or endorsers.

The bad times for Cakewalk started with Roland. When the founder first sold a part of then company, and then left altogether, it soon became clear that nobody in Roland, a hardware company, really cared about the product. When the total overhaul that was the change of interface with Sonar X1, and all the problems, bugs and instability that it brought along, which made a lot of users look for alternatives,things got worse because Roland seemed to push for getting their investment back by any means instead of making a solid product.

Actually it was Gibson that put it in a good track again, and stability got much better with X3 and then Platinum, but then it was that company that got in trouble with its huge debt.

If anything, Bandlab is showing that Cakewalk could be made into a great DAW again just by letting the developers work. The current team is showing that they are really commited and the results are being noticed by all who care to check.

[dellboy]

it imploded in upon itself for me

Sounds dangerous, I hope no one got hurt !

[JoseC.]

it imploded in upon itself for me

Sounds dangerous, I hope no one got hurt !

DAW implosion is a very dangerous event for sure. Your computer may collapse into a small black hole that sucks all your studio equipment. Even your cat.