Cakewalk by Bandlab is free!!!! (rent to buy Studio One)

Why not offer Cakewalk by Bandlab for free on splice.com? It would be a great resource for generating new Cakewalk users!!!!

Since the forum is locked to new members, the OP is preaching to the choir if endorsing CbB. For a new DAW user, onboarding costs are definitely a consideration, and the "rent to own" is essentially zero-percent financing (it is actually 0.0806% APR over 24 months - $0.33/month extra or $7.81 total) which is far better than SONAR's was to get Platinum. For those who owned X2 or better (before CbB was released, which probably doesn't qualify), there was always a standing crossgrade to SO Pro for $100 off that became $200 off during the holiday season (which is where it sits now). To my knowledge, SONAR never offered such.
 
Also bear in mind that CbB does not come with a great deal of 3rd party goodies anymore, so owning SONAR previously tilts the scales a bit... a new DAW user isn't going to get them and "free" will mean a lot less to them as well.
 
*IF* (and that is a HUGE if) CbB does qualify for crossgrade, which I highly doubt, then CbB would be enticing to a new DAW user just to save $200 on SO Professional. For those that owned X2 Producer, X3 Producer, or SONAR Platinum, SO Professional is $199.95 now as a new SO user (can rent to own that from Sweetwater for $216).

RexRed
Why not offer Cakewalk by Bandlab for free on splice.com? It would be a great resource for generating new Cakewalk users!!!!

If Cakewalk's free, where's the slice for Splice?

There are plenty of free vst and sample libraries on the web. This is likely where the strapped for cash would venture regardless. A lot of the stuff that came with Platinum wasn't the kind of thing many would have bought.Same can be said for Studio One. I think eventually some of the Cakewalk synths will make it back into CbB. If they charge extra for those it is likely less expensive than getting Studio One.Most DAW users like to choose what they want to add to their DAW and not mix indefinitely with only the tools that came with the DAW.
 
I never liked the rent to use model. Period. The day Cakewalk starts a monthly charge to use the software is the day I change DAWs. Makes far more sense for me to pay for upgrades and updates and own it at that point in time.  They still get their money either way so why not opt to let the customer buy the software and use it as long as they want? Or decide to upgrade when they want or need to? In a rent to own plan you never really finish paying for it. Loose a job, have a hardship and the bottom drops out.
 
I have Studio One 3. It's ok. I haven't used it in quite awhile. Would I pay to get version 4? Probably if the price is right. I don't necessarily need version 4. I would still do it if I liked what the product does.

RexRed
 
Question: Why would I want to "buy" Studio One when I can get Cakewalk by Bandlab for free?
 

 
Perhaps you could rephrase your question. Given that everyone knows CbB is free, why are many people who use both extensively still choosing to invest in S1? You know what they say about the proof of the pudding:)
 
Same goes for Abelton live, Reaper and any other DAW people choose to pay for. Some programs do certain things better than others and are worth the investment if they give you creative return, added stability or a myriad of other advantages. As long as you're happy with what you have all is good!
 
 

eve_ripper
…... S1 has a great "arranger" options...
I use S1 and using Cakewalk for different projects and purposes.

What he said

so what was the cakewalk "membership"??

I understand all of the pessimistic comments regarding Cakewalk. One year passed from the Gibson debacle and the SONAR community is still with a "in the air" feeling and to worry them even more Noel&Meng are disappeared lately and we don't know what happened with the November update.
All in all, I am optimistic and I think that the absence of this monthly update may mean that they are preparing something bigger.

a13xhp
I understand all of the pessimistic comments regarding Cakewalk. One year passed from the Gibson debacle and the SONAR community is still with a "in the air" feeling and to worry them even more Noel&Meng are disappeared lately and we don't know what happened with the November update.
All in all, I am optimistic and I think that the absence of this monthly update may mean that they are preparing something bigger.

noel commented just yesterday on a years old bug

Starise
FYI  updates might not necessarily be monthly. I think the last one went a little past 1 month. The monthly idea is probably something that's come from the Gibson days. IMO I believe the idea now is to release solid updates and usable features.
 

AFAIK, BandLab still plans for monthly releases but dates do slip. It could be due to other demands for time (such as AES last month) or unexpected problems with the release. It is true without a monthly payment plan like the one used for SONAR, there is one less reason to strictly adhere to a release per month.

a13xhp
I understand all of the pessimistic comments regarding Cakewalk. One year passed from the Gibson debacle and the SONAR community is still with a "in the air" feeling and to worry them even more Noel&Meng are disappeared lately and we don't know what happened with the November update.
All in all, I am optimistic and I think that the absence of this monthly update may mean that they are preparing something bigger.

 I don't use Cakewalk that much anymore but had licenses from Sonar 2 to present.  When that news came out it hit us hard.  As competitive as the DAW world is most developers hate when something like this happens. There were some sympathetic vibes from other developers offering bargains on their DAW. 
 
 I doubt there is anything close to the free Cakewalk other than Reaper with it's nag screen.  If someone has a band and wants to record this would be the DAW.  The popular DAWs appeal to the EDM crowd.
 
 If I become totally broke I'm "stuck" with FL and Cakewalk.

Dave76
If Bandlab's auth servers go away, then you can't use their free Cakewalk anymore and you are going to have to learn how to use some other DAW and recreate all your projects from memory. 

To be fair, that's true of any DAW. That's why I don't consider a project as finished until all tracks have been rendered as WAV files that can load into anything. I still have some rendered tracks from Ensoniq PARIS sitting around in case I ever need to remix those projects.
 

I must confess.... I took Splice up on the offer. I felt like Cakewalk was somehow in my rear view mirror for a bit until I got heavily into a song in Studio One.
 
It recorded really nicely. It took me about an hour and I had tracks laid in Studio One.
 
I loved the way the program found my audio interface (after I initially selected it) and it even selected my input one in mono automatically.
 
It also automatically set up echo so I could hear my input. 
 
From that point on the program was a real headache...
 
The envelopes are each in a separate track. This was horrible and I was constantly disoriented as to which track I as working with.
 
Unlike Cakewalk, where I can right click on a track and select envelopes from an easy to navigate dropdown the envelopes were a mess in Studio One.
 
My Cakewalk Breverb did not work in Studio One and Studio One's reverb sounded noisy as does the reverb in Izotope.
 
Prochannel was gone and I cannot work without that.
 
The layout of Studio One's Console view is confusing and I am not sure if Studio One even has a matrix view I could not get that far and tutorials are scarce.
 
I could not get a single side chain to work in Studio One and could not find a tutorial that explained it.
 
I exported my tracks as stems from Studio One (which worked nicely) and loaded them up in Cakewalk and within a couple hours had a song finished in Cakewalk that I could not mix and master in Studio One. The vocals nestled right into the music which I could not accomplish in days in Studio One.
 
Setting up Midi Instruments was a convoluted process in Studio One that I still could not figure out how to get envelopes to work right in. 
 
To be fair I have been using Cakewalk since DOS and I only had a few days working with Studio One. 
 
But, I had to cancel my subscription to Studio One and I am back with Cakewalk by Bandlab.
 
I did like recording in Studio One (a lot) but when it came to mixing and mastering I found that process near to impossible. It is not worth it to use Studio One for recording only to move the tracks to Cakewalk for mixing and mastering so I will simply use Cakewalk for the entire process.
 
And.. I had Studio One lock up on me about 15 times... It was not well suited for use with Nectar 2 and kept crashing. And when studio One crashes I have to restart the PC to get it to shut down unlike Cakewalk which will shut down by simply unplugging and replugging in my audio interface a couple times.
 
Cakewalk crashes too but it releases itself from Windows for the most part without a restart of my machine.
 
I am often rendering videos in the background and a restart is not possible.
 
I may one day revisit Studio One but for now I am back to what works and works exceptionally well!
 
What took me days in Studio One, to no avail for my mix to come into focus, I was able to accomplish within hours in Cakewalk.
 
I thought Studio One would be the DAW to end all DAWS and it is not. I am not here to insult this product, I am just being frank. Cakewalk has been slighted by the industry for years but us Cakewalk users know it is the very best DAW that, consequently, no money is needed to buy...
 
Cakewalk was the best when it was a paid product and it still is the best as a free product...
 
People from other DAWS can toss around their words like, "industry standard" but it does not make it so.

Just to be clear, Cubase 10 looks to be the new DAW to end all DAWs!