CbB First Impressions

I did two installations to see the difference between installing alongside previous Cakewalk install and a computer with no cakewalk products.  Observations:
 
1) Install was smoother on Windows 10 than Windows 7 for me.
2) Both Were equally stable.
3) Pleasantly surprised the pro channel modules were included along with quadcurve. Newbies to Cakewalk may take a bit to get used to Pro channel but quality (especially for a free product) is amazing.
4) Sonitus pluin suite is long in the tooth but still quality plugins . The stock plugins of many brands (soundforge comes to mind) are just as old or older. 
5) Included Instruments are weakest point in my opinion.  Hard to really complain about a free product, but if one were too, that would be the one. Might have been nice to have a good all around synth like zeta+ included tho.
 
Overall, this certainly takes the crown for value, even with the lack of bloat.  In fact, I think the lack of bloat is a plus.  I like the Nomad plugins along with others, but all things considered , I would rather have a smaller base of included plugins than overpay for a glut of plugins.  I would be very unlikely to buy the Nomad plugins if they were not included , unless I got them on some no-brainer sale.  Installing on cakewalk free computer was a a good reminder that I have a bunch of third party plugins already .
 
Fort my students that are financially challenged I had been recommending either reaper or Harrison (for those doing audio only ), but this is definietly the bang for buck king now.

hmmm I got t compressors in my clean install.  i will double check that there was not an old version of cakewalk on computer that had pro channel compressors  still lurking.
 

It's good to hear installs with SPLAT on the system and without. Thanks for doing it and sharing.

IIRC, the PC76 is added by default on tracks which prevents the PC4K from showing up on the menu. It is not possible to add the bundled PC76 and PC4K compressors on the same track. It is also not possible to have multiple instances of them on the same track. These plug-ins go back to the original PC design which had one slot for each effect type. The original PC worked a lot like the PX-64 and VX64 plug-ins. The modular PC introduced with X1 Producer Expanded did away with dedicated slots. All of the add-in modules support the modular PC and may have multiple instances on the same track.

The suggestion doesn't upset me, but why go backwards and not forward. Why rework old plug ins and not develop new ones? Wouldn't they have to do that for free? That seems like a waist of Development Talent, to go backwards. If they were to charge for that rework, who would buy them, I know I wouldn't.

The Plug In/ FX market is pretty competitive right now. Weekly top notch Waves plugs go on sale for $29.

I can see both sides of the Sonitus comments, and another thing is that there are a lot of totally new users who will get a "first impression" from appearance only. A revamp of a GUI is not actually that complex, and aesthetics alone go a long way to a first time user/buyer.
 
Melda's plugins have that same initial "bleh" look about them. It took me a long time to get passed that and actually dissect them; and for some folks that first impression is the only one they will ever grant to something. So from the aspect of new users being impressed (and actually using) the Sonitus Suite, a GUI would benefit things going forward.
 
If people do not use your product, they are not going to buy add-ons to it anyway.

These are the default modules I see in the Pro Channel
 
This is on a brand new laptop that has never had any previous version of Sonar installed:
 

Deleted 

OK problem solved as per scooks insight. It's a laptop and of course the screen is small. I had poked around the edges looking for hidden views and finally managed to see what was hidden and there they are. Sorry about waisting time. 
I guess this is a defualt where it adds them automaticly to the track. 
 
Thanks once again Steve,, and for finding those, Also on this laptop those folders were hidden. Arg! 
 

glad that got resolved.  

Because the Breverb2 PC module is bundled with CbB.

scook
Because the Breverb2 PC module is bundled with CbB.

Oh, I thought it belongs to the "third party" section... glad to see it here.
 
I'm on 32bit laptop, couldn't install CakeLab yet.

Cactus Music
Yes my list looks just like Jonesey's now. :) 
I use the PC 76 a LOT and was disappointed , not that it matters because I have Splat. 

Good news Johnny!

I'm very happy with Cakewalk by BandLab. I'll be recommending it from here on out.
 
Truth be told, I was coming from the Professional version of the previous app, which had been uninstalled on this PC, so after installing Cakewalk by BandLab, I was happy to see some pro channel modules which I hadn't had access to before. 
After a clean install of Windows 10 with the Spring update soon, I'll reinstall Cakewalk by BandLab AND my modest collection of plugins. I'll then be looking for the purchasable upgrade to Z3TA+ 2 and Rapture Pro if and when they are offered. I can't think of a better way to support Cakewalk by BandLab going forward. I probably haven't digged deep enough, so what's the situation with Dimension Pro?  

Grant:  
Maybe you could update your post up top. Lesser experienced people like myself see a post from a very experienced poster life yourself and then think that less is offered by Cakewalk. It's good to finally find out, if we bother to wade through threads, and see that the opposite is true. Thanks for the update down here, though.
 
 
I'll see what I can do as I agree but this is the internet :) 
 
Don't you have an older version of Sonar? Dim Pro is a great little VST I have the Accoustic Full Bass on about 60 backing tracks so I certainly need it.