Is there something wrong with Cakewalk?

[Trensharo]

It's fine, but the lack of a Sampler [Track] and drum sampler puts a lot of people off; especially since it can be hard to find plug-in alternatives that are cheap/free and also high quality. Stuff like Sitala, I just cannot be bothered.

However, if you're just tracking and mixing, it's great.

It can be used for everything, its just that other DAWs have sort of sprinted ahead of it. A lot of the areas that need improvement require a ton of work to revamp, so they aren't going back to shore these areas yet.

Drum Maps need an overhaul. The Step Sequencer is missing QoL features like Repeats. The Staff Editor has needed love for a decade. It doesn't have a Sample Editor.

Most of those features at least exist, which is more some other DAWs can say. They can just use some TLC.

There really isn't anything better in the < $100 price bracket, though. It's a miracle (or lack of exposure) that products like ACID Pro and Mixcraft can even exist with Cakewalk's price tag.

I do find the Studio Instruments Suite to be pretty bad and wouldn't even bother installing them. Drum Replacer can be useful, though. The stock plug-ins all have awful UIs, especially some of those DX plug-ins, which have stupendous tiny UI elements and text.

Music production market is rife with bandwagon syndrome. People are more political and cultish about software choice in this market than most others.

[JoseC.]

However, if you're just tracking and mixing, it's great.

Or if you already have enough third party stuff. I tend not to like being too dependent on proprietary plugins.

[Danilo Villanova]

There really isn't anything better in the < $100 price bracket, though.

I think Studio One 5 Artist is better at that price point. It also comes with some instruments, including samplers.

[Trensharo]

There really isn't anything better in the < $100 price bracket, though.

I think Studio One 5 Artist is better at that price point. It also comes with some instruments, including samplers.

I disagree. There are some features ripped out that Cakewalk includes, in addition to many of the better plug-ins being ripped out, as well (Ampire, Analog FX Collection, etc.). Pipeline XT isn't in there.

Most of the better DAW feature advantages Studio One has over Cakewalk are simply absent, and even that list is shrinking as Cakewalk seems to be developing features quite aggressively, these days:

• Chord Track & Harmonic Editing

• Channel Editor

• AAF Export (Cakewalk has OMF, at least)

• Extended FX Chains

• Multi-Instruments

• Import Song Data

• Listen Bus

• Mix Engine FX

• Mixer Scenes

• Note FX (Cakewalk has MIDI FX)

• Project Page

• Performance Views

• Scratch Pads

• Show Page

All missing...

I don't think PreSonus' sound content is worth much, and Artist doesn't come with much. You get better for free from Spitfire Audio and in cheapo plug-ins like Xpand!2.

Most people will aim to buy a package like Komplete or Absolute, anyways, and that obsoletes even the Studio One Professional content immediately upon installation.

I don't see a reason to spend anything on Studio One Artist, unless you're absolutely sure you're going to be upgrading to Pro in the foreseeable future - or you use both Windows and macOS (Cakewalk being Windows 10-only). Besides those two reasons, Cakewalk is a better package. You can get better synths for free (Vital, Surge, etc.) and better sampled content is free or uber cheap.

Again, Studio One Artist doesn't come with THAT much content, anyways. It's actually a fairly thin package.

We're comparing a $0 DAW with a better feature set to a $99 Artist SKU. Sorry, hard disagree.

Lack of a Sampler is an easy fix in Cakewalk. Or any DAW, really.

The only Sampler Studio One has is Sample One XT. Presence is basically a rompler, unless you add the $80 editor add-on. Almost no one will waste their money on that, for obvious reasons.

The synths (Mai Tai, Mojito) are largely ignorable.

[Trensharo]

However, if you're just tracking and mixing, it's great.

Or if you already have enough third party stuff. I tend not to like being too dependent on proprietary plugins.

I already have Absolute 4 and Komplete 13. I agree. I tend to avoid the DAW-locked first party Synths.
I only use them if they are usable from other hosts, like the Cubase synths. I've never used Mai Tai or Mojito for that reason. I tend to prefer to jump between two DAWs to keep myself proficient in more than one piece of software. I don't like lock in, self-imposed or otherwise.

I don't use Cakewalk, but I do recommend it. I think it is far more pleasant to work in than something like REAPER, and cheaper and better than anything comparable to it.

Honestly, you can get AIR instruments that are better than anything Studio One includes out of the box for less than half the cost of Studio One Artist. Not even sure why people are going to try to act like that's such great value given current market conditions (what you can get for far cheaper).

[ferez21]

There really isn't anything better in the < $100 price bracket, though.

I think Studio One 5 Artist is better at that price point. It also comes with some instruments, including samplers.

Also Acoustica Mixcraft 9, often overlooked unfortunately

[jonljacobi]

I've used Cakewalk occasionally since well back in the day before it became Sonar. I might've stayed but Sonar became extremely unstable at one point and remained that way for a couple of years. It's very stable now, and under development, but the workflow is enough different from others that it takes a bit of relearning. Also, I'm entrenched in my current DAW. Finally, the interface doesn't scale which is important to me these days.

Beyond that, it's extremely capable and I still download it occasionally to see what's up. There's a lot of stuff interface-wise that I'd like to see in other DAWs. I'm not entirely comfortable, however, with the Bandlab aspect. I don't really like software that communicates without my consent, though that's nearly impossible to avoid these days. I'm a bit more reticent in this case. I'll leave it at that.

[ferez21]

One thing to consider though is that even though at the moment it's doing well in regards to updates, being a freeware, I don't see that business model going on for too long, and eventually development will either stop, or Cakewalk will given to a new owner again. Bandlab's business model doesn't seem sustainable to me in the long run. Just my thoughts.

[Erisian]

One thing to consider though is that even though at the moment it's doing well in regards to updates, being a freeware, I don't see that business model going on for too long, and eventually development will either stop, or Cakewalk will given to a new owner again. Bandlab's business model doesn't seem sustainable to me in the long run. Just my thoughts.

We'll see.

[chk071]

Actually, the Bandlab takeover seemed like godsend. I saw Cakewalk deader than dead back then.

Who knows what will happen in the future.

[kritikon]

I used it for a few months last year when I got back into music after a longish break. I found it had everything I needed to make music, but it was clunky.
The automation was all over the place (some automation lanes just seemed to mysteriously disappear, some played but went invisible, some even changed what they were automating every time I came back to a project...quite bizarre).
The midi editing was tedious - lots of clicks on the mouse to do anything - the midi editing cursor was...let's say...amateur.
The UI was cluttered - it tried to fit way too much into one screen IMO.

Having said that I had used Cubase for decades before I went away from music and came back, so I had very ingrained habits. I suspect if you were new to it and Cakewalk was all you knew then it would be good enough and easy enough to make music with happily, and a little more intuitive.

Oh yeah...one more thing that bugged me no end - the help. And I certainly needed a manual because I found it so unintuitive. Supposedly it had online manuals/help. Yeah, right...
It was pot luck when I clicked on help where it took me. Occasionally it did actually take me to a manual, but mostly it seemed to just randomly surf the net via Google - probably not even Google, because their search engine is better. Many times I tried to find out how to use the midi editor better and it took me to shopping sites, science editorials, bizarre search pages that weren't related in any way to what I was doing.

Hopefully most of this has improved..it needed to. BUT - it's free. Pretty amazing youcan get a full DAW for free. You certainly can make music with it. After a few months I got sick of it and bought a new Cubase though - already it's way quicker and easier even though it's got shitloads more complicated stuff in it. And midi cursors do what they're supposed to do.

[flugel45]

... Oh yeah...one more thing that bugged me no end - the help. And I certainly needed a manual because I found it so unintuitive. Supposedly it had online manuals/help. Yeah, right...
It was pot luck when I clicked on help where it took me...

Not sure where/when you were looking, but there's been a PDF manual available since Apr 2019 (From the front page of their forum).

https://discuss.cakewalk.com/index.php? ... -may-2021/

[hallwayraptor]

The workflow is clunky and the UI looks like Protools from 2010. Not sure why you'd use it when Reaper is available to use with no restrictions indefinitely and then only $60 to pay for it after that.

[mgw38]

The workflow is clunky and the UI looks like Protools from 2010. Not sure why you'd use it when Reaper is available to use with no restrictions indefinitely and then only $60 to pay for it after that.

If you are sitting in the Reaper house you should not throw UI stones.

[hallwayraptor]

The workflow is clunky and the UI looks like Protools from 2010. Not sure why you'd use it when Reaper is available to use with no restrictions indefinitely and then only $60 to pay for it after that.

If you are sitting in the Reaper house you should not throw UI stones.

I don't use Reaper, but if I had to use a free one Reaper does a lot more for the same price. Also you can customize the interface to look pretty much however you want. There's a massive community of people dedicated to making customizations. They even have a section of their site dedicated to it.