I Started off with Cakelive 2.0 for DOS (briliant Rock solid for stage work) and Cakewalk for DOS 4.0, then Cakewalk 3.01 for WIndows (Superb best ever) then Pro Audio 5,6,7,8,9 and Sonar 1, 1.31, 2.2, 3.03, 4.04, and hopefully 5.01 Hee Hee

You could say I am loyal

DD

ORIGINAL: Scottzilla
Cakewalk 2 for DOS running on an IBM XT w/ 10 meg HD.

Old school! Whereas I started with Cakewalk 2 for DOS running on an IBM AT w/ 10 MB HD. Downright modern (or at least it was in 1987). :) :) :)

I liked that button. Got the idea across! My copy came with a Midi-man midi input device. (m-audio now) I used it in Win 3.1. Sill works on a nephews computer

I didn't start with Cakewalk, but with Passport's Master Tracks Pro on the Atari ST around 1987-88. It was really cool at the time, I liked it alot.

One thing that was cool about it was you could enter in almost any type of ratio tuplets you wanted, still can't find a way to easily do that in Sonar, but maybe for version 6?

Flashback screenshots: http://tamw.atari-users.net/mtpro.htm

I first started using Cakewalk in 1995, I think it was version 7 on widows 3.0 but I can't remember (I was 12). I played around with the sounds on my soundblaster but really didn't start getting into it until about 1997 when my dad got a Yamaha MU100R and a joystick to MIDI cable. I spent the next year trying to make the yamaha sound like a Nintendo with some interesting results. I used to record the tracks straight from the synth to tape cassette. Now I am at version 5PE and just recently started digitizing those old tapes (some of which needed to be spliced back together). Great thread.

Yeah, I agree... bring back the screaming dude! Time for a "throwback" button in 5.0.1



;) -Dave

I stumbled across my Cakewalk Home Studio 4 for Windows 3.1 floppy disks last night, along with one labeled Cakewalk Apprentice (which I think came free with my Soundblaster AWE 32).

Home Studio 5 was my first paid upgrade. Then I went to HS 6, and then HS 7. I upgraded to Professional 8 to get the extra few tracks of audio, and then in version 9, the Professional line was abandoned so I had to go up to Pro Audio 9.

TB303, 909, 606, RX7, CS05 and SH101 was the first real setup in the early 80s.
Moved on to Yamaha CX5M (http://www.notam02.no/~eirikli/CX5MFAQ.html) a computer with a non-velocity sensitive keyboard. Horrible thing.
Ensoniq ESQ1 was the next step, which had a very nice 8 track sequenser. Added on a couple of Roland S10.

Changed that for a Roland D20, Casio FZ1 and an Atari 1040ST running Hybrid Art's SMPTE track synced to a Fostex 4-track porta. That worked very well for a long long time. Rock solid. Mastering to DAT.
Replaced the 4-track with a Roland VS1680, whilst trying out Cakewalk 5 and 6. Still running the VS1680 + SMPTE track as the main recording setup though.

Tried Cubase VST and started to think PCs could actually be used for both audio and midi. Never really liked Cubase so went back to Cakewalk 9 (I believe). SMPTE track and VS1680 was not replaced properly until Sonar 1.3 however.

Now we use Sonar 5, Project 5 v2, Cubase SX3 (a couple of the guys like this software for some reason) as the main audio and midi recording tools. Mastering in Wavelab.

From real reel tape and a porta1 4 track cassette,
to Cakewalk Pro Audio 9. Dabbled a bit with my DA78HR....
Before that it Was Musictime and Master tracks Pro.
Then upgraded to SONAR 2.2XL, went to
SONAR 4 from there last year.

I think I might go to Sonar 5 soon

I'm with you here, hard to believe 20 years has gone by on this stuff. Cakewalk 1 for DOS and I also still have the floppy disks and the Roland MPU 401 as well. My first "real" key board was a Sequential Circuits Prophet which I also still have (still works too)! (Along with a couple of Yamaha TX81Z's!) My PC was an IBM PS-2. Moved on to Cakewalk 2.0 then ultimately 3.X for Windows for Workgroups.

Started recording on TEAC reel to reels bouncing until the highs were toast. As exciting as it was, I don't miss the good ole days but other than the simplicity of that early Cakewalk sequencer!

I didn't start with Cakewalk, but with Passport's Master Tracks Pro on the Atari ST around 1987-88. It was really cool at the time, I liked it alot.

Right on. I loved Master Tracks Pro - I used it on a Macintosh, though. I wrote a lot of tunage with that software. I joined the PC/Cakewalk movement with ProAudio 7. I've upgraded every year since.

Vernon

CW Version 1.x ,Computer DIY 8088/4.77 mhz with a turbo switch to that would get you to 5 mhz. Keyboards, Korg M1, Ensoniq EPS and Mini Moog. Hell, you can even find me in your cakewalk.ini file. Almost forgot my 2 port SE midi interface, which I was a beta tester.

What a great thread!
I almost never get to think about this stuff…the impertinent young pups at work lay the “grandpa Simpson” line on me if I start to ramble on about
“back in the day”
Or
“We wore an onion in our belt, which was the fashion at the time”.
And the temptation to launch into a Monty pythonesque.
”You were lucky!"
"When I was a lad, our dad would make us lick road clean wi’ our tongues, and he came home, he'd slice us in two wi’ bread knife!”
Type raves is almost irresistible.

Ok, discovered electronic music with the EMS VCS3. One of them had a touch strip keyboard, and a very limited sequencer which could play 30 notes or so (EMS EPS I think)… moved through Moog’s, mellotrons etc…wound up in the late 70s using Roland equipment (sponsored)…main rig was modular,looked like a telephone exchange…. sounded damn fat…still miss that rig.
Moved on to Roland micro-composers…cassette tape storage!!!! Yay finally could keep something without having to reprogram from scratch every time you turned the equipment on!
Then came MIDI…CV rigs disappeared overnight.
And Roland had a Program that ran on the first Macs… caused headaches, it was prone to crashing and corrupting weeks of work.
…. But the next big step for me was the mighty Atari 1040STE with Notator… with the damn MIDI right on the motherboard… Ensoniqs made the Fairlight experience affordable for everybody…I held on to that combo ‘til everybody just looked at me and groaned…I resisted the Mac/Pc thing because of my earlier Mac/Roland horrorshow. just used the sequencers and multitrack analogue tape.
When I Finally bought a PC, I used CuBase really, really hated it… a friend showed me Cakewalk 7 which was derided in professional circles…but it just ran smoothly in windoze, so I took the plunge.

Today I run Sonar5, Project5 v2, Acid Pro, Vegas6, Audition, Soundforge and a mountain of plugins/soft Synths, on my music workstation.
My job requires me to compose around 2 minutes of original music a day, the equipment just hums along invisibly, And I don’t have a bass player hanging over my shoulder telling me to “Turn me up a bit in the mix Maaan, it needs to pump more”.
This is still the coolest game in town and I can’t wait til y’all invent the next shiny toy for my playpen!
Whew, thank you for the opportunity to waffle on like a sentimental lunatic for a few minutes, now where did I leave my teeth?

(Edited once to correct incoherent muttering, and correct typos)

Back in my day we didn't have belts, had to carry the onions around in a leather bag.

Started with a Moog Modular, then a Fender Rhodes with an Arp Oddessy (still have the Rhodes, wish I hadn't sold the Oddesey). My first sequencing was done on a Buchla in the late '70s and then MIDI happened and I bought one of the first Commodore 64's with the Sequential Circuits interface and Dr. T's KCS, a Korg Poly 800, Casio MT mini keyboard and an original DX7 and I forget which drum machine. Upgraded to the Commodore 128. Figured out a way to hook the 64 up with the 128 and do really weird arhythimc minimalist stuff. I think I started with Cakewalk 2 on a 386SX, went throught the 486s, and then retired in the late '90s right after I upgraded ProAudio 9 to Sonar 1 on a Card D with Win98.

Trying to get back on the horse, so to speak. Upgrading from Sonar 1 to 5PE on an AMD platform and hoping to find the muse once again.

I still wish Emile Tobenfield had ported his KCS to the PC platform. Cakewalk for DOS was great for linear sequencing, but at the time nothing beat KCS for loop improvising.

I guess I'm a newbie. Started w/ an already outdated copy of ProAudio 6 which I used for a few months before I bought ProAudio 8. Then it took me ages to update to PA9, but ever since, I've been updating almost religiously. I literally learned to use MIDI w/ Cakewalk products.

Before that I used to use an old Sony TC830 w/ an akai XR-10 to record song ideas, bouncing from one channel to the other over and over again.