I had the idea to go back and look at my first posts here.
I was really the odd man out, because unlike anyone else participating, I never had a license for Sonar (well, I actually did, way back in the early 2000's at the first version that was called "Sonar"). I only had a Gibscake account because I registered for the free copy of CA-2A when they were giving it away. I'm into free stuff. So I was a stone newbie with modern Sonar, not privy to the dark times of the Gibson announcement (which, I feel ya there, especially the people who sprung for the perpetual licenses) or the weirdness of the BandLab announcement.
First one was replying to someone who posted about the MIDI filter, and I was appreciative and mentioned something humorous about my Kawai K1 that Toddskins thought was funny. Came full circle on that. Toddskins and I have been forum pals ever since, I guess.
Second one was a long one about psychoacoustic perception changes induced by upsampling and downsampling algorithms in different DAWs. No attention paid to it because New Forum Person Syndrome.
Third one was ripping someone a new orifice when they disparaged the change to a freeware licensing model. LOL :-)
Guess I settled in to that role pretty quickly....well, I hope that one or more of my screeds reminded people that free software is all around us and that the wealthiest software companies in the world make a practice of licensing freeware (I never even brought up iTunes!).
Even before there
was consumer software, Gillette became the top brand in their field by "giving away the razor and selling the blades."
I found it weird that so many people couldn't get their heads around the change to a freeware licensing model.
It seemed self-evident to me that:
1. Although it may be central to our musical lives (in my case it's the main thing I use my computer for), Cakewalk is just one product of dozens in BandLab's portfolio. It doesn't have to pay its own way directly. It can be an advertising handout, a loss-leader, a gateway to get people to sign up for other services or products, a prestige item, any number of things. Google Chrome, anyone? Right up to the end I saw rustbelt-era business theory about how if something in the portfolio ain't payin' its way, kill it. Well, that's exactly the logic behind Gibson dumping Sonar. Synergy, anyone? Long-term vision?
2. They probably got a heck of a deal on it. The code was already written, and just needs to be maintained and added on to. Rather than an army of coders with a physical headquarters and all that, they can have a small team, each working in home offices. It is likely an efficient operation in that way. Low overhead. The costs associated with developing CbB at this point are probably not likely to drag the rest of the company down. This is pure speculation, but I'm a software industry veteran and am familiar with how it's evolved since I got out of the game. Back in my day, there was enormous overhead. Building lease, HR department, shipping department, shipping costs, printing costs, electricity, accounting department, advertising in magazines, sales department, marketing department, facilities department, help desk, front desk, phone support, IT, on and on and on. Now subtract ALL of that and replace it with maybe half a dozen (or fewer) guys working at home. And, ironically, by not having to earn as much keep, it can be a better product. It's not as beholden to flashy new features that draw new seat licenses.
3. All of the conspiracy theories, that they were going to embed spyware or adware or that it was a big bait-and-switch, they were going to start charging for it, wouldn't that be bad business? Companies who distribute spyware become pariahs pretty quickly. There has never been a piece of spyware that wasn't detected within 48 hours, and that's because in order to get data and send it somewhere, they have to use some kind of network connection, which is easy to spot. People don't like being deceived or cheated, and BandLab aren't going to go to all this trouble to screw up their reputation. And who cares, anyway? For as long as it lasts, we have a free, non-spyware CbB that's better than the last revision of Sonar. Rejoice!
4. The possible usefulness of Cakewalk as a component to the online part of BandLab the DAW platform seemed huge to me right from the start. We've already seen the Export Module show up on the Control Bar, and more 2-way functionality will be added. It could get to the point where entire Cakewalk projects or hybrid projects could live in the BandLab cloud for access or collaboration from any computer you have Cakewalk installed on. There, I just thought of that on the spot. Winter NAMM is in a few weeks; let's see what's bakin'.
5. Denying yourself the benefits of an upgraded product because you're pissed off that other people get to use something for free that you used to pay for (even though you got a lot of added software for your money that they can't get at any price) actually means in practice that you are using a worse piece of software than the people who now get it for free. Is this your idea of maintaining "pride?"
Really?? Anyway, it looks to be a much happier family over at the new place, and I shall strive to be less gadfly and more shepherd.
And please, if there are any spite holdouts reading this, let it go. Start using the new program and don't tell anyone. ;-) You'll be the envy of us freeloaders who would
love to have things like Channel Tools and the fancy EQ and multiband compressor and the synths and all that stuff. Come home, come home!