Jesse has been working on coordinating the set up of a new forum and a lot of progress has been made. There are lots of details on the back end so its not as simple as flipping a switch unfortunately. It is due to happen pretty soon though.

Noel good to hear. I hope the new forum is as active as this one is.
 
Remember to take time off and enjoy the Christmas Season. I hope it is okay to say Christmas on the forum :)
 

Well...I’m here too. First time checking the forum out in about a year. Glad to still see it’s here. I’ve use 12Tones since 1995 and still have the floppy disks. I’ve been using Pro Tools HD and Studio One 4 but Sonar still stands out. I’ve since moved to a Mac system mostly but still use windows if a client sends a Sonar project. Love ❤️ Sonar platinum 😎 Merry Christmas Everyone

Skyline_UK 
I also find it odd that this forum was locked some time ago: where do all the new users go to for forum activity?  I assume there must be lots of new users since the product became free.

It would be fun and useful to have some young blood in the forum. There's gotta be at least some new users who want a full-featured DAW to do serious recording. But the SONAR documentation is only good if you know what you're looking for and you are already conversant with the terminology -- so you'd know what to search for. New users need old users to talk them through the occasionally painful early learning steps, and with this forum locked (and the search function in its 20th year of not working) finding the info you need is quite difficult. I'm grateful they're doing it, but it's a bit of a head-scratcher at this point why Bandlab is even letting us chatter among ourselves on their dime.
 

Skyline_UK
I don't yet see how a non-revenue producing product fits in with the BandLab portfolio.

At some point they're going to have to charge for something, and that's when the excrement will hit the ventilation system. "Non revenue-producing" stuff doesn't fit in with any corporate portfolio.

There is a very good group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/sonarusergroup/
 

InstrEd
Remember to take time off and enjoy the Christmas Season. I hope it is okay to say Christmas on the forum :)

Despite what some people would have you believe, I, who have live in lefty-liberal la-la-land Northern California have been saying "Merry Christmas" to strangers for 35 years and have never gotten anything but good vibes in return. Everyone knows it's just shorthand for "whatever holiday you celebrate around the Winter Solstice."
 
So I wish all a Merry Christmas season. For the religious, a spiritual holiday.
 
For those who don't have a lot of social contacts around, I hope they are productive and that the forums they frequent stay reasonably active.
 
Obligatory recording content: wouldn't you love to write a song that becomes a holiday standard? That's the way to retirement riches. Not to mention a way to become a part of people's lives.

Thank you all for the welcome back, and the great answers in one day that far exceeded my expectations (not of you folks, but of BandLab).  Yes, I found myself feeling very out of place looking at anything BandLab, just as Larry said.  He's no doubt right about the reverse situation so it will be interesting when new users join.
 
Oh, and I didn't know about a Facebook group.  Thanks.

Larry Jones

Skyline_UK
I don't yet see how a non-revenue producing product fits in with the BandLab portfolio.

At some point they're going to have to charge for something, and that's when the excrement will hit the ventilation system. "Non revenue-producing" stuff doesn't fit in with any corporate portfolio.

If "non revenue-producing" stuff doesn't fit in with any corporate portfolio, do you think Google are going to start charging for Chrome, MediaHuman are going to start charging for AudioConverter and VideoConverter, Sun are going to start charging for Java, and Microsoft are going to start charging for Skype?
 
BandLab have two lines of excellent guitars, tube amps, they sell instrument cases, stompboxes, and audio interfaces, all in addition to their musical collaboration social media website.
 
Have you considered that licensing Cakewalk for free produces or will produce revenue in a more indirect way than the traditional direct pay license?
 
For instance, Tostitos pays millions of dollars to put on a college football game every year. This actually costs them money. Many, many more times the amount of money than BandLab paid for the whole Cakewalk kit and kaboodle and enough to pay all the expenses for years. Yet they believe that in the long run, it will make more money than it costs by increasing brand awareness and making people want to buy and eat their tasty corn chips and salsa dip, and also perhaps invest in their stock. In this way, spending all these millions on this football game most certainly fits in with their corporate portfolio.
 
When I visit Costco or Trader Joe's, there is an employee, making just as much money as any other floor employee, salary, benefits, etc., who prepares and hands out free samples of the food that the store sells. Again, negative revenue in the short run, but expected positive revenue in the long run.
 
Ever gotten free t-shirts at an event? Swag at a trade show? Free picks?
 
I never even heard of BandLab until they started giving away Cakewalk. Now I have a song up on their site, am in a virtual band with a neighbor of mine, and I've told half a dozen musician friends about Cakewalk by BandLab. Brand awareness!
 
Not to worry!

Euthymia
If "non revenue-producing" stuff doesn't fit in with any corporate portfolio, do you think Google are going to start charging for Chrome, MediaHuman are going to start charging for AudioConverter and VideoConverter, Sun are going to start charging for Java, and Microsoft are going to start charging for Skype?
 

Sorry. Didn't mean to ruffle your feathers. I have no idea if the Bandlab company is making money. I know Cakewalk couldn't seem to make a go of it, and they were charging for SONAR. I note that the guitar part of Gibson was making money, and the Cakewalk part was not. So Cakewalk was shut down. I'm heavily invested in CbB, and I hope for the best with Bandlab, but I'm not seeing the synergy, your experience notwithstanding. Nothing personal, just business.

Larry Jones

Euthymia
If "non revenue-producing" stuff doesn't fit in with any corporate portfolio, do you think Google are going to start charging for Chrome, MediaHuman are going to start charging for AudioConverter and VideoConverter, Sun are going to start charging for Java, and Microsoft are going to start charging for Skype?
 

Sorry. Didn't mean to ruffle your feathers. I have no idea if the Bandlab company is making money. I know Cakewalk couldn't seem to make a go of it, and they were charging for SONAR. I note that the guitar part of Gibson was making money, and the Cakewalk part was not. So Cakewalk was shut down. I'm heavily invested in CbB, and I hope for the best with Bandlab, but I'm not seeing the synergy, your experience notwithstanding. Nothing personal, just business.

I totally agree Larry. I love CbB and am extremely grateful to Meng and his team and wish them all good luck for the future.
Before retirement I was CFO of various companies over the years and always remember the words of a new (and very successful) CEO in one of those who said "The quickest way to increase profits is stop activities that lose money." If there is no direct profit, prospect of future profit, or significant synergy then the activity is not required on voyage.  (There are other reasons for acquisitions such as owning a prestige brand that shines warmth on the portfolio, or blocking a competitor, or acquiring key staff skills, of which the latter could apply here).  I've always assumed the medium/long term plan for CbB (which I seem to recall was part of the plan under Gibson) was to charge for major additions, accessory plugins, etc. I also thought that the CW acquisition was intended to help BandLab users make better quality sharing/cooperation tracks and that BandLab itself would be monetised at some point with on-screen ads or similar.