Cakewalk

3 User reviews

jorg

• November 11, 2024 BR

ruined by corporate greed

the software was amazing but as always, company greed ruined it. I was forced to reinstall it after my windows crashed and now I've lost 90% of my projects due to them removing features such as TTS and then this subscription bs is just nonsense. I'll be switching to open source software and you all should do the same!

A Regular Guy

• August 9, 2024 US

Bandlab Has Moved to a Subscription Model and is the Farthest Thing From a Customer-Centric Company

Bandlab has moved to a subscription-only model, so if you ever decide not to renew your subscription you will never be able to access any of the songs / projects you made with Bandlab software (currently Sonar and Next). Longtime customers on their forum who politely asked if there is a possibility BandLab may offer perpetual licenses in the future -- as most DAW developers that offer subscriptions also offer a perpetual license option (Apple being a notable exception). Not only did the company refuse to answer, a completely obnoxious BandLab employee named Jonathan berated every customer who asked the question and let everyone know that he's sick and tired of people asking, lashing out again at customers for asking a question in a separate forum after he shut down the first thread. A short time later, BandLab created a new forum policy to censor its customers from asking more questions it didn't want to answer including -- going as far as banning any mention of any BandLab competitor DAW on their forum and instituting a policy that anyone who mentions a competitor can be banned. I asked about the policy, if it included merely comparing features from a competitor's DAW and suggested that BandLab would do well to allow that and my account was quickly suspended, as was another long time Cakewalk Forum member. It blew my mind -- and I'm someone who's led digital, including social media at a major brands. It's pretty much unheard of for a brand to engage in those kinds of practices in the age of social media. Really surprising, in the worst kind of way. My opinion is that BandLab's software is decent, certainly not the best in its category. When you can buy a superior DAW like Studio Pro One with a perpetual license or on a subscription and the software will still work even if you end/cancel your subscription, BandLab's practice of subscription-only and if you end your subscription you can no longer access your project files / songs becomes a dealbreaker. In short, BandLab holds your projects hostage until you pay their fee. Add to that, BandLab's forum -- Cakewalk Forum -- used to be a very customer-friendly, open place until recently when they switched to their version of a subscription-only model and now they have no tolerance for questions, no tolerance for civil criticism or suggestions, and have moved to a customer-hostile censorship oriented style on their forum that really stands out as the worst practices I've ever seen for even a small brand. Comparing BandLab's DAW to a competitor or asking a basic question about product licensing are forbidden. I can't support a company that treats their customers that engages in such customer-hostile practices. BandLab has strayed far from the very friendly and generous company it once was to now behaving more like a North Korean police state. It's disappointing, and I don't look forward to converting my files from BandLab's DAW to -- in my case -- Studio Pro One. But I was recently contacted my another Cakewalk Forum member that a developer is hard at work on a tool that converts Cakewalk by Bandlab and Sonar files over to the Studio Pro One format. It's still in beta, but I am hoping it works well. At first, it appeared the company, (which bought Cakewalk's software) owned by a billionaire trust fund kid, might really care about customers. That was quickly proven to be far from reality. I suppose that's not a giant shock. Consequently, I'd strongly recommend to anyone considering BandLab / Cakewalk / Sonar / Next, doesn't merely walk away from BandLab, but runs. There are much better options from companies that treat their customers with respect.

Charlie R

• October 7, 2017 US

Cakewalk's Sonar Platinum

I decided to review Cakewalk's Sonar Platinum after years of continued use. The product does exactly what it should. At times you might see the occasional oddity but that cant always be narrowed down to the software itself. There is simply too many things going on when using digital audio software. The reason I give it a 5 is because of its value as a whole. It is extremely flexible, well thought out and simply does what it should. The product is updated on a monthly basis. This is a great way fix small oddity's within days. Especially the way the product release updates in phases. Typically 2 phases a month (Early release/Finished release). This makes "Living with a certain bug for a year until the next update comes out" a thing of the past. If I have any personal gripe, its tech support. The community forums are amazing. You can literally ask a question and have 4 reply's within minutes. but that's no substitute for tech support. No one likes waiting for a reply from tech support. Cakewalk Sonar Platinum seems to be the best DAW in its price range for me. I have been using it for a long time now and not because im too lazy to learn something else, because I do use other DAW's. I use Cakewalk Sonar Platinum because it does what it should and it does what it should very easily.