Just A Theory - Microsoft and Gibson

Spot on .. Been exactly my thought recently .. jokingly thinking MS SONAR 365 .Perpetual Sub based like Office 365 with Home, Business and Premium editions, each a higher per month price. 

So our options could be:

- MS SONAR 365 Home
- MS SONAR 365 Business
- MS SONAR 365 Business Premium
 
And by suddenly, catastrophically removing Cakewalk off the scene, being the largest WINDOWS ONLY DAW .. it ploughs a clear field ahead competition wise, in one fell swoop
 
 

35mm
Yes, a lot of people have been suggesting MS buy it and how great that would be. I'm not sure it would be so great. Sonar had personality and character. I wonder if they may have also bought the name 'Microsoft Cakewalk'.

Again .. similar thoughts on that. MS buys it, it will become, well, bland, functional, something for the masses to try out who really have no huge interest in music making, just another piece of "creative software" for the masses like MS Powerpoint - Everyone is now a pro presentation maker .. type cr*p.
 
Or worse still .. become integrated into Windows 10 via a future MS Windows Update, the MS SONAR Home version anyway .. FREE. You then pay more monthly for the Business & premium editions
 
On plus side though ... no more or way less Windows BUGS, closely integrated :D
 
I mentioned here before that I saw this happen back in 2008. Im also big into 3D graphics, since early 90s I used / bought CALIGARI TRUESPACE. In 2008 it got whipped from under us. Bought out by Microsoft with a view to being part of new virtual world products. It eventually sank without a trace somewhere in Redmond. 

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2008/02/microsoft-acquires-caligari/
 
TS also had a very close relationship with its customer base. Thats why this feels like deja vous to me here!
 
 
 
 

Well as I've said elsewhere, projecting, it *seems* like it would be a no-brainer fit for MS - Home Studio is the perfect, drop-in freebie Garage Band killer (err, competitor). Artist/Professional/Platinum - well, it may not make any sense to maintain two versions (and in terms of features the difference has been shrinking as most new features for the past while have been cross-version), so combine those into one solid Logic competitor (likely dropping most of the third-party content), and MS gets a big dose of creative cred with very little dev work, a codebase that's already tightly integrated into their audio world and, ideally, a great development team they already know and work with. 
 
But who knows if it looks like that from where they stand? 
 
edit... of course, they would grandfather the existing Lifetime members (and anyone with an owned license for Platinum) into an initial license for the paid version... 
 
edit 2... in related news, pigs can reportedly fly now!

I really hope this is true. But they cant wait to long to release it. And I would gladly pay monthly as i do with office to have this.

kitekrazy1
If they hire the same people responsible for Sonar it would work.   Otherwise there is no shortage of DAWs on this planet.  Sonar had one of the friendliest authorizations and EULA.  I have it on every machine in the house. If that changes I don't need it.  Once one gets past the fanboyism Sonar is not in the same league as most subscription apps and that is also outside the DAW world.

I bought S1 now and i have tried to make the same project as i had in Cakewalk Sonar now. And i have to say. S1 doesn't sound as good as Sonar. I dont know why, but Cakewalk sound better in my ears. Its like S1 is in mp3 format compared to Sonar.

I think the question is, could Microsoft come up with something that competes with Logic and Garage Band.  No MS has no interest in competing with Steinberg/Avid, but they are interested in Musicians using their Surface line of products.
 
At this point, buying the code without buying the developers is a lost cause.  MS does seem to be trying to develop something though. We'll see what it is.

Nobody else will buy a PC only product.   Microsoft is the only hope.

cparmerlee

denverdrummer
MS does seem to be trying to develop something though. We'll see what it is.

If they do anything, it will be something very, very low end.  Simplistic and superficial, targeted at children and gamers.  The bar is quite high for a new DAW.  Microsoft doesn't get into any market that deeply.
 
But I do think they are desperate to show off their wheel thingie.  They are probably disappointed that SONAR is not going to be a showcase for that, but they aren't going to spend tens of millions of dollars to prop up SONAR tech and staff just to make a marketing point about the wheel.

Given how late MS Dial compatibility was added, I would bet that it was done well after the powers that be knew CW was already on Gibson's chopping block.  If you buy into that theory, one could deduce that Dial compatibility was added in order to set Cakewalk up for a sale to Microsoft.  Why else would MS Dial compatibility be added during the death gasp of Cakewalk?
 
Bill.

35mm
Yes, a lot of people have been suggesting MS buy it and how great that would be. I'm not sure it would be so great. Sonar had personality and character. I wonder if they may have also bought the name 'Microsoft Cakewalk'.

Hmm.... MicroCake?! MSCake?! Mmmmm-Cake?!
 
Then again, if the crew does get dispersed among the remaining DAW entities, it will be interesting to see how that affects the future offerings of each one.

denverdrummer
I think the idea is making a "garage band" type product for Windows,

Or a PowerTracks (from PG Music) level product.  No way Microsoft would step up to a studio-grade product.  Their interest is all hobby / amateur grade stuff.  They don't ever do "deep dive" products.  Their products are as superficial as they think they can get away with, in order to have something for the largest audience.  They leave the sophisticated products for other vendors who can follow a more specialized business model.
 
I'd be delighted to be wrong about this, but I don't think it is in the cards.

35mm
(Microsoft employment ad) If you want to be a part of the future of music creation in multiple dimensions ...

It is interesting.  Clearly something is afoot.  But still I would expect anything Microsoft does will be on the lightweight side.  it always is, the only exception I can think of being SQL Server (which is an Enterprise product.) The consumer stuff is always lightweight, but accessible by the masses.  The "multiple dimensions" comment is the most interesting to me, as they are probably thinking along the lines of a distributed system where "the DAW" is not a single thing, but is instead a combination of elements that can be on different platforms.  I would not be a likely user of Momentum, but I think there is a great deal of merit to that direction.
 
Let's take a step back.  Today's DAWs, in almost every case, are software representations of the most complex recording studios ever constructed, using the paradigm of big consoles and racks for outboard gear.  But relatively few people are really producing "studio quality" albums for commercial distribution.  Most of the DAW usage and most of the DAW users could do with a greatly simplified environment.  And simple doesn't necessarily mean less capable.  We have a whole lot of clutter that comes from painstakingly trying to simulate the hardware studio environment with all its levers, buttons and patch cords.
 
I believe there are other ways to approach this space that could produce better, faster results for the majority of users, and make the "audio workstation" accessible to millions of new users, including just about every singer-songwriter, and most music students.  Microsoft is not known for shattering old paradigms.  On the contrary, just about everything they have done amounts to modernizing or miniaturizing very old paradigms.  Powerpoint is an electronic way of putting together a slide carousel that sales people have used for over 50 years.  Word is a cheaper version of the dedicated word processing systems and typesetting programs that came before.  And so on.
 
Along the way, Microsoft adds refinements and productivity boosts, but mostly is comfortable with the old paradigm.  We do see them being a bit more imaginative with the Surface Dial, so who knows.  They have an elaborate (although probably far from best in class) drawing system with the Surface Studio. Maybe they are thinking about doing something very similar for audio, at least for the UI of the "next generation DAW."
 
I certainly welcome any new ideas Microsoft can bring forward, but I just don't see a strong intersection with SONAR.  If Microsoft were going that direction, they would have acquired SONAR before starting to hire their team.

As I recall, P5 was a one-man, one year project.  It is entirely possible for Gibson to "kill" SONAR but let the Baker(s) go w/o any non-competitive agreement.  And maybe some take "some consideration" from MS in return.  I wouldn't bet on it, tho.
 
Most likely Gibson killed SONAR because they need a tax write-off.  Of course, when they go into bankruptcy next year ( $100s of M due next June and their stock gets a junk rating), a judge can order them to sell any intellectual property for $1, if that is the best that can be got for it.  Unless they are using it in some of their Philip's consumer products ;-)
 
But to quote Rumsfeld, "you can't know what you don't know," and we don't really.

cparmerlee

35mm
(Microsoft employment ad) If you want to be a part of the future of music creation in multiple dimensions ...

Let's take a step back.  Today's DAWs, in almost every case, are software representations of the most complex recording studios ever constructed, using the paradigm of big consoles and racks for outboard gear.  But relatively few people are really producing "studio quality" albums for commercial distribution.  Most of the DAW usage and most of the DAW users could do with a greatly simplified environment.

This is rubbish. I used to work in commercial recording studios, and today's DAWs are not representations of them at all. Any crossover you see comes from the fact that you are recording audio with it and the necessities therein. Virtually every "studio quality" album for commercial distribution is recorded on a DAW these days. You need the advanced features you are talking about stripping out if you are doing any serious work. And... there are plenty of greatly simplified DAWs for the home users already, such as Sonar Home Studio etc.