Cakewalk charging for MP3 encoder activation - what a rip!

Mp3 encoders are ubiquitous. Some are even free and work with Sonar.

ORIGINAL: webseed

It's unbelievable that Cakewalk continues to charge customers for an MP3 encoder even after that customer pays $400+ for a piece of software (Sonar 8 producer edition, in this case).

It's not the $19. I'd gladly pay an extra $19 for Sonar if it just included the MP3 encoder. It's the TIME wasted dealing with Cakewalk's lousy shopping cart system, lousy software delivery system, multiple layers of passwords, save files, running the encoder and then finding out it doesn't even work on x64 systems anyway!

Cakewalk, get a clue! MP3 should just be part of the package. What are you gonna do next, charge us for the RECORD button? Charge us for exporting WAV files? Charge us for every virtual effect?

Ridiculous. MP3 is part of music production today. Just put it in the software from the get-go. Don't make your customers jump through all these hoops, wasting their time trying to activate your silly MP3 encoder.

Cakewalk apparently continues to remain absolutely clueless about how to treat customers with dignity. We're all just little squirrels running around the Cakewalk Cages, folks. Tomorrow we'll have to jump through yet more hoops and waste yet more time to perform some basic software function.

- Mike

Your sister is kinda cute. Please pass the bagels, my lord.

I wonder if mine works, I don't think I ever used it.

One of the first things I did was to set one up. Are you suggesting I may have missed out on some hoop jumping?

Depends on the encoder used... i.e if they license a Fraunhofer encoder (which is the industry standard) then there will be a license fee for the user to pay in order to encode to mp3. However some applications will base there encoder on the an open source encoder such as FFMPEG or LAME - these encoders are free to use and in most cases more than acceptable. However they are not always truly *FREE*

FFMPEG...

"FFmpeg's legal status varies by country. Some included codecs, such as Sorenson 3, are claimed by patent holders. Such claims may be enforceable in countries like the United States which have implemented software patents, but are considered unenforceable or void in countries that have not implemented software patents. Furthermore, many of these codecs are only released under terms that forbid reverse engineering, even for purposes of interoperability. However, these terms of use are forbidden in certain countries. For example, some European Union nations have not implemented software patents and/or have laws expressly allowing reverse engineering for purposes of interoperability.[12] In any case, many Linux distributions do not include FFmpeg to avoid legal complications."

LAME...

Like all MP3 encoders, LAME implements some technology covered by patents owned by the Fraunhofer Society and other entities.[1] The developers of LAME do not license themselves the technology described by these patents. Distributing compiled binaries of LAME, its libraries, or programs which are derivative works of LAME in countries which recognize those patents, may be considered infringing on the relevant patents.

"The LAME developers state that since their code is only released in source code form, it should only be considered as a description of an MP3 encoder, and thus does not infringe any patent by itself when released as source code only. At the same time, they advise obtaining a patent license for any relevant technologies that LAME may implement before including a compiled version of the encoder into a product.[2] Some software is released using this strategy; companies use the LAME library, but obtain patent licenses."

Ahhh the joys of product licensing. In the end a small fee to use a high quality license encoder ain't so bad ;-)

Chris

http://www.rarewares.org/mp3-lame-bundle.php

Grab the bundle with the .exe binary - learn the command lines and boom simple free codec.

You can also grab an ACM version here....

http://www.rarewares.org/mp3-lame-dshow-acm.php

An ACM version allows you to use the mp3 in other applications when rendering/saving files - keep in mind that some applications may not work - i.e I had no problems using this ACM in Virtual Dub for video files, however could not use it from Vegas.

Chris

This is the best walk through that I've seen yet to get MP3 working with Sonar:

http://www.thirdtake.com/2007/11/15/sonar-mp3-encoding-with-lame

Personally I think it's so easy to setup MP3 that I'm glad that I don't have to spend an extra 20bucks on Sonar to have something I can do myself, for free, in moments.

Cheers
Child

Agreed, but I wouldn't want to pay it over and over for every upgrade. Sonar 8 may be the first for you but for me 8 upgrades x $19 is more than I want to spend for the same MP3 encoder.

You only have to pay for it once and then it works for all versions of Sonar.

It has been beaten to death but the above post about using Lame with Sonar should be a sticky here so new users can know. Fwiw, I'm NOT a new user and it still bugs me...

I do appreciate the fact that WaveLab has the Lame encoder embedded. Though I wouldn't go the whole "absolutely clueless about how to treat customers with dignity" route, I've always thought that not embedding the encoder for the price of admission to professional DAW software a bit cheesy.

ORIGINAL: soundchaser59

ORIGINAL: daveny5

he doesnt know its an old topic -- hes new -- chill

I apologize. Its just that this topic has been beaten to death.

Beaten to death from your perspective........not from mine.

Not attacking you, daveny, but.......

I am constantly amazed at the unbridled intolerance that is constantly and gratuitously tossed out on the red carpet by experienced music makers IN ALL FORUMS ONLINE, ON ALL TOPICS, not just here....... Harmony Central is particularly offensive in this way......

Thats why I blocked him

These threads come and go and there started by users who just dont know what they dont know. Instead of thinking you got riped, you should maybe investigate this more and youll relaize its due to licensing and youll relize that you can get over 20 MP3 encoders for free. Im mean..WTF

LOL....... I never had a c64. My first comp was an Amiga 500 which in true FBB fashion I had to pull to pieces to see how it worked. Then got an A1200 and even put a HD in it. 2.5" 20MB - hi-tech or what?

Dabbled in C for a while (for fun !! ) and then I was devastated when the Amiga technology got buried in the big Windoze conspiracy and been stuck with an inefficient OS ever since, although XP was a big improvement, shame it took MS so long to get to where Commodore were before squandering it. I even fired the old Amiga up a few years ago and it still amazed me how swift it was given the spec 20MB Hard drive 68030 chip and a whopping 16MB of memory.

*Eyes mist up recalling fond memories*.......

May could try this as well

http://cwenc.sourceforge.net/

I sprung for the Cake encoder a long time ago and am glad I did. It was simple to install and just works - which is the way I like things to be.

I find these forums very interesting and informative. I myself bought the mp3 encoder for cakewalk back in 2005 when I bought cakewalk. I was not aware that there were free mp3 encoders back then either. But if I am not mistaken, mp3 is for compressing the file to send it over the net faster, but it certainly decreases the quality of the file, is this true?
I hope this can be answered without getting my head bitten off....but just in case, "AARRGGHH!!" lol