My suggestion for improvement is to urgently change the software authentication system.
Many users (including myself) are having authentication problems and the software only works in demo mode.

Maybe the Browser search functionality could be taken a look at? I don't always understand why it doesn't find stuff that clearly can be seen as an item in the tree... I don't get the matching logic. Maybe it's just me?
 
    -Petemus
 
 
 
 

Concerning the Matrix. I would like the state of each cells stored on project save and restored on reopening. 
The reason for this is : If you add a few loops to use as backing track for jamming on top, and have set the Follow Transport option to ON ... it is annoying to each time you restart the project, you have to go and click on each cell to activate them for starting to play on transport ... with experimentation and checking out of different beats, and basslines ... it's hard to remember between each session without making notes ... which cells you where actually active ... there is a actual information loss on project save without there notes. 
 
Maybe I'm just not aware of how to do this, if so, feel free to enlighten me anyone. 
 
I also think that the matrix lens should open up with the leftmost 2 track lanes open by default ... with the track lane automatically selecting the matrix track that get's a loop inserted into it (optional, but on by default).

 

"Bandlab can't possibly make everyone happy. More importantly, we know that for every change ("improvement") Bandlab makes to this perfectly good DAW, 1000 people are going to love it, 1000 people are going to hate it, 5000 will be indifferent, but all 10000 will be stuck with it. So why not leave it the way it is?"  
 
I'm happy. I paid $500.00 for them all before Bandlab bought the company. I don't want any of them changed, discontinued, or blocked. I don't care if they're no longer supported or developed further. As long as the'yre on my hard drive, they'll continue to work.
 
I've been reading all the improvement suggestions. If you ask 10000 people for their opinion, you're gonna get 10000 different opinions. Major compliments to you Meng for posting the thread though. Had to be done, right? Now you know. 1000 people want to take you in 1000 different directions. My guess is you probably want to start making your new acquisition profitable and not get dragged into a product development quagmire.   So To help you, Meng, make a decision that benefits the majority without alienating the minority, (and start making some money to pay your employees)...  
It seems to me the requests fall into 3 main categories.  
50% are asking for a "new feature" CBB already has. In all probability, they already have the improvement they are asking for available within the DAW right now, or at least something reasonably close. Theyjust haven't discovered how to use it. CBB may currently be free, but it's a SUPER DEEP DAW. As you know, CBB is essentially Sonar Platinum, which was built on the legacy of X3 producer, which was built on X2, X1, Producer 8, etc. all the way back to Cakewalk Pro Audio series and even further back than that. Cakewalk's method of feature development and improvement was, is and should always to continue to be ADDING new features, not removing them. It has 30 years worth of features already in it that it will take months or even years for most of us to learn. I humbly suggest not fixing something that was never broken.
 
20% are asking Bandlab to emulate other DAWS they like, or may have recently switched to while Cakewalk was "dead" for four months. Cakewalk is not Studio One, Cubase, Logic, Reaper, Garageband, Bitwig, or ProTools. Cakewalk is Cakewalk. If they don't like the way it works, let them use something else. The more I learn its deep functions, hot keys and tricks, the more I realize what a catastrophe it will be to cater to the requests of that 20%.They can't just download CBB, use it for less than 1000 work hours and expect the rest of us to change our entire work flow to accommodate them.
 
That leaves the 10 %. The wise. We know Bandlab can't possibly make everyone happy. More importantly, we know that for every change ("improvement") Bandlab makes to this perfectly good DAW, 1000 people are going to love it, 1000 people are going to hate it, 5000 will be indifferent, but all 10000 will be stuck with it.   
 
Meng. Don't change anything yet. Keep it free. Think in terms of upgrades, not updates.  
 
An idea: Why not use Bandlab assistant like Gibson used Command Center, but instead of monthly free updates and paid DAW subscription, reverse it. Let the current version remain free and sell new features as upgrades as you develop them quarterly. Don't force it on everyone to please the minority. If they want the DAW changed, make them pay for it.   For example, lets start with an easy one. There are 2000 people who want to keep working with Dimension Pro and Rapture. They want to use it with sound center soft synth and have suggested improving the piano roll or matrix view or whatever but are willing to pay because they'll get more sounds and a new piano roll and matrix view. Bandlab has decided there were enough requests; they've chosen to develop it as an ADD ON upgrade. It's a simple download. In Sepember of this year they can purchase it for $99.00 through bandlab assistant or command center and the other 8000 users wont be affected.   Now a harder one. 1000 people asked for Surround sound or video integration improvement and want a native control surface, but like their current cakewalk software just fine. In Jan 2018 they'll be able to purchase a new hardware from Bandlab in partnership with Roland that comes with a software upgrade enabling 5.1 surround export audio and some Bluedio 12 driver headphones for $999.  
Meng, please consider re-partnering with some hardware companies that supported Cakewalk before, like Roland, Behringer, and Nektar and reassure them you're not going to be constantly changing the architecture of the DAW so they regain confidence and invest time and capital to integrate CBB into their future product development. I have a design for a control surface I would love to share with you, but I can't redesign it for every change you make to the platform and neither can Roland, Behringer, or Nektar.   Study how Roland did it in the 2000s. Paid upgrades, not free monthly updates and forced subscriptions. That's how you, Meng, in my opinion, should go forward. Any future features should be sold for a reasonable cost to those who want them bad enough to pay for them...    But for the near future, save yourself the headache and leave the DAW alone for at least the rest of 2018.   Your biggest fan, Mickey Monster  
 
Cakewalk by Bandlab, Sonar Platinum, Kontakt player 5, Dimension Pro, Rapture Session, Addictive Drums 2, HP pavilion intel quad core 16 GB 3.2 Mhz touchscreen notebook, Windows 10 home edition, QWERTY keypad Fender Squire P bass, Gibson Epiphone  SG, Behringer UCA222, V-Amp 3, Sampson G-track USB condenser mic No interface, no control surface, no midi keyboard controllers, no monitors, no other DAW software, no regrets

i see that drum replacer is given as long as SI, but the cool sound i got from Z3ta+ - 6 osc is good.
I got vacuum with 4 and hybrid with 6 just for 1$ and zeta came to me with Sonar Pro, it's v1,5 and UI is pretty much outdated. Well if you also plan to make it free sometimes, then maybe you can update old version or at least patch it with HD interface for bigger resolution, plus it has problems with patch savings and crashes inside cakewalk. For example i'm disabling arp -> saving project, but next time it's with arp enabled again.
Why doing this?
Every daw got bundled instruments and now it's more like samplers, z3ta is a real synth - that is a must have.
 
As a cakewalk feature i'd suggest "interconnector" (interLink - iLink), so it can connect Z3ta to another artist with cakewalk, but if he has different DAW, then he can buy z3ta with iLink and using bandlab main site (maybe some time-license) user will be able to connect his pults, DAW or whatever hardware to Z3ta or cakewalk host. it will take some server powers to make it live, so it has to be paid, sorry or get cakewalk with p2p interconnector.

Well with this feature you can go live with many artists all together using just one host and exceptional WOW feature - rendering sound through cloud (pay per each Live hour) for a complex stage performance.
So this means you got to have astonishing server side and cakewalk client code.

I would like to see 32-bit DX\DXi plug-ins supported in CbB. Also support for 32-bit ReWire.

1,2,3,4) Arranger Track function just like Studio One Pro.
I never imagined how useful this would be until I started using it. Now it's become vital to how I work.

SAFE MODE-- Could we please have a list of plugins and a check mark for each one to select in a screen instead of them loading manually one at a time? :)
 
TY

I would like to see some work done on an integral score-writer.  Perhaps even porting in an existing one to work within Cakewalk.  That would work for me.  Though I do use existing programs, it would just be great to have it directly accessible through the DAW itself.

I'll recalculate three of my request in one, to be more clear:
 
A) Please, add the possibility to modify the selection just taking it by its extremes.
B) Also, add a display for "Selection Lenght" (in addition to the existing "Select from" and "Select Thru").

 
 
C) Synchronize their time formats with the "Current now time" format, so every time we change it, change them too.
D) It would be useful to move the existing "set loop points to selection" and "set punch points to selection" buttons to the side of this "Selection" displays.
E) Finally, the "Loop" and "Punch In/Out" displays won't be no more necessary, for it is enough with just the "Selec From", "Select Thru" and "Selection Lenght" displays, as it happens in most DAWs and video editors. Thus saving space in the control bar for expand other tools.

 
PD: Earlier in this thread I proposed to synchronize the "Ruller" time format with the time "Track Pane Header" format, but I regret. It's more useful tu keep them independent of everything, to have more time format views on the same project.
 
Thanks Cakewalk for asking the users.

MarianoGF
 
E) Finally, the "Loop" and "Punch In/Out" displays won't be no more necessary, for it is enough with just the "Selec From", "Select Thru" and "Selection Lenght" displays, as it happens in most DAWs and video editors. Thus saving space in the control bar for expand other tools.
 

I disagree here. One of the very unique features of CW is it's ability to have different loop selection and punch-in record selection. When I was searching for a new DAW I found it really unbelievable that no other DAW had this feature. It is a feature and one of the reasons I was so thankful that CW was brought back to life. 
 
Example: You use the loop selection to start two measures before and after the solo section. Punch in Record starts right on and through the solo section. This allows you to play into the solo and through the solo. Great feature not found anywhere else!!

I have a new suggestion, not for Cakewalk the program,
but to help bring people over to the DAW.

A wikia site for how to use Cakewalk by Bandlab with gifs like MarianoGF makes.
Why this? Because most people are too lazy to read text or even watch long videos.

Also this makes learning Cakewalk international, so non-English speakers can easily learn it,
because everybody can watch a gif.

Imagine someone wanted to learn how to do a specific task in Cakewalk,
and there was a wikia site where you could type 'automation'.
And find a page with gifs of all the different ways of doing it.

A wiki site where everything is hyperlinked with gifs or videos would make Cakewalk go viral,
especially because it's free too. Apart from gifs being a universal language,
most people are A.D.D. so this would reach the largest possible audience.

Of course for more complicated processes you could explain it in a short video,
but most tasks in Cakewalk could be visually explained with a gif.

The only issue is whether you wanted to do it in-house or just let the users create it themselves.
If MarianoGF could tell us how he makes his gifs, various users could make their own
to demonstrate their favourite features in Cakewalk, then they just need a wikia site to upload them too.

What do you think?

Grem

MarianoGF
 
Example: you select a región and then apply the yellow flags for looping. Then select another región inside it and apply the red flags of punching. I don't think a lot of displays are needed to do that.
 

Oh, I see now. I thought you were suggesting CW becomes like the other DAW's and have only one selection choice.
 
What your suggesting would be nice. A 'one-stop-and-shop' selection area. I get that now!! : )

You have this already.
 
Right click the edge of the loop module. Select "resize loop module-small". Then do the same for the Punch module.

iRelevant
...Also support for 32-bit ReWire.

A ReWire bridge is available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybVnHX320jU
 
or http://www.tascamforums.com/threads/rewire-32-bit-reason-to-your-64-bit-daw-windows.4533/
 
I have used it to rewire good old 32 bit ReBirth into SONAR 64 bit and it worked fine.

Dear Devs, fixing the various " Take lines erratic behaviours bugs " that have plagued lots of Sonar users for a long time, should be considered as a priority task.
 
Those bugs send a quite unprofessionnal image to users and customers. Through times, I personaly saw many people switching to other DAWS because those erratic behaviours make us loose a lots of time during editing sessions !

- Applying crossfades manualy on clips is quite painful because of the various erratic positionning bugs.
You have to retry X times, zoom excessively and move things again numerous times to have your crossfades start and end exactly where you want...
(Because of that, editing clips enveloppes manualy is sometimes almost faster than using crossfades and way more reliable. (Although there are nodes editing bugs from time to time but well...))

- There are various copy / paste bugs that occur on the take lines. Those have been reported numerous time... From things getting pasted where you don't want to, comping mode randomly not working as expected, sound on sound mode neither...

Those are quite basic functions, you won't experience such editing bugs on Protools for examples nor on any other major DAWS.

Bandlab Sonar is a fresh start... To have us realy enjoy that new Sonar on a more professional level, i think it starts here : bugs correction on main editing functions for a stable and professionnal Sonar behavior.
 
Anyway, yhanks for your time and efforts.