This could be good news.

Wow, very interesting. I don't know much about Bandlab Tech but certainly good to see some potential!
 
Thanks Wook

It's definitely better than no news at all.
Still remains to be seen what will happen. They are in Singapore and I don't think it's possible to continue development without any of the original Cakewalk team, while the PR explicitly calls out 'certain assets and all IP'. It also depends on the price they paid.
But still, I would doubt that the Bandlab CEO would make statements like 'We have immense respect for Cakewalk’s legacy and the incredible community of people who love the brand' or 'The teams at both Gibson and BandLab felt that Cakewalk’s products deserved a new home where development could continue.' if they only intended to rip some of the software IP and drop it in other/new/existing products they had in their portfolio and do nothing at all with Sonar, Z3ta, etc...

 
 
Beer for everyone..... Thanks, Bandlab...

I predicted a while ago that someone might buy the IP and ditch Cakewalk. I'm not sure if that's what's happening. That was around the time I was advising people not to panic and rush off to buy another DAW, which was just before I panicked and rushed off to buy another DAW! :)
 
I am glad to see that Sonar may live on, but right now I have invested in and moved on to new DAWs so I am not sure if I would come back to Sonar now if it meant reinvesting in it. I guess that if they don't buy out the Cakewalk brand, they will probably owe us Cakewalk/Gibson customers nothing and would be starting with a clean slate. It's doubtful whether they would take on the Cakewalk devs - most of whom have probably moved on to new jobs by now. And I doubt the lifetime free updates will be continued as they probably wouldn't have to honour anything like that. It will be interesting to see what happens. I am glad the Cakewalk/Sonar legacy will live on though.
 
EDIT: Well, they seem to have kept the Cakewalk name and branding at least https://cakewalk.bandlab.com/ Not sure who they think they are addressing when they say, "Hello, Bakers".

35mm
I predicted a while ago that someone might buy the IP and ditch Cakewalk. I'm not sure if that's what's happening. That was around the time I was advising people not to panic and rush off to buy another DAW, which was just before I panicked and rushed off to buy another DAW! :)
 
I am glad to see that Sonar may live on, but right now I have invested in and moved on to new DAWs so I am not sure if I would come back to Sonar now if it meant reinvesting in it .....

35mm
 
Me too, I have invested in other DAWS and dont regret same because TBH all of them were at ridiculous knock down prices. Tracktion was for less than a night out. Its plugins are usable in other DAWs inc Sonar.
 
I ended up getting the Samplitude deal also BUT that came with Soundforge, Vegas and more. Soundforge and Vegas were on my list to upgrade anyway to have alongside Sonar ( original idea ). This way i got samplitude into the bargain and the lot for crazy price.
 
I did go for Studio One, again knock down price. TBH I havent used it that much, most likely will sell it on.
 
So all in all I still use Sonar, but was very happy to have a few other Daws on board and deliberately did a few projects moving these projects from one DAW to the other. Just to see how that worked. All the above did not break the bank nor any link with still using Sonar. Glad with this news as it means Sonar hopefully will keep on being updated under Windows 10, so no more scarey fear that a win 10 update might bork Sonar at some stage :D
 
 
 
 
 

I have emailed them asking about what happens to those who took out lifetime updates.

promidi
I have emailed them asking about what happens to those who took out lifetime updates.

TBH I would not expect them to honor this lifetime update thing. Not sure originally, it was the best of ideas anyway. But I did go for it.
 
Going forward and with any new Sonar updates / versions I would be happy to support afresh again. At minimum they probably might offer some sort of extra sweatener to lifetime customers  as a transition. Thats fine with me!
 
I am just glad Cakewalk is out from under the Gibson situation ..
 
 
 
 

As a lifetime upgrade owner, I realize that this news leads me to believe that I'll have to re-up and pay for a new Sonar under a new company's price model. I am totally OK with that as I am currently paying subscriptions for multiple products. If we as users honestly love Sonar and want to see it stick around, we have to be open to realistic ownership pricing going forward. Fortunately Bandcamp has a diverse income strategy and Sonar can both benefit and contribute to that portfolio. Here we as owners will now show what our true commitment to this product and its survival is.

DonM
As a lifetime upgrade owner, I realize that this news leads me to believe that I'll have to re-up and pay for a new Sonar under a new company's price model.

From BandLab:
 
" I’m an existing or old SONAR user and have questions about my old account or subscription or want a refund.
 
BandLab Technologies did not acquire the operating company of Cakewalk Inc., only the complete set of intellectual property, patents, trademarks and certain assets necessary or related to the entire Cakewalk product suite. 

For users of Cakewalk from before 21st February 2018 – please refer to the original Gibson/Cakewalk announcement FAQ here. "
 
 

 
I wonder about that ( bold part ). i am sure bandlab are as aware of the old Sonar user drift as everyone else here is?
 
So here is what I reckon. They will possibly run VERY QUICKLY with what would have been the next big monthly update to Sonar before the November event. I wonder was there such an update in the cooker already that did not get released at the time?
 
Email all Sonar users saying its available at the Command center FREE.
 
Then from there once they have the initial goodwill gesture sorted .. they start offering upgrades and other pathways going forward?
 
 


Yes..agree...the quicker something happens the better. The longer this drags on the more users will get disheartened. A free update would be nice... my membership lapsed over a year ago... I never liked this subscription model...

wetdentist
i am a lifetimer who is still using Sonar, but if moving forward with new "Sonar" requires me to pay full price again, i "would prefer not to" - Herman Melville, from “Bartleby, the Scrivener” (1853)

I think the real question is, what is the appropriate price model that 75% of us Lifetime owners would pay. I feel certain that BC would not ask a 100% re-up. But I think the message we send as owners regarding our willingness to fairly pay for this product will determine their commitment to us as well.

Some want their Cake and eat it too, I'll annually commit to a fair price.

D

This is great news. What I learned from this was that Sonar was way behind! S1P is a much better product and improved my workflow and efficiency. Now the challenge from BC is to leapfrog S1P and make the "new sonar"  better than S1P. 
 
If they succeed, I'll come back. If not, no biggie, they already did me a big favor by forcing me to learn a better product which I would have never done on my own. So THANKS!
 
gabo

good luck everyone!

35mm
 
BandLab Technologies did not acquire the operating company of Cakewalk Inc., only the complete set of intellectual property, patents, trademarks and certain assets necessary or related to the entire Cakewalk product suite.

Although Cakewalk (the company) has already passed intact into a couple of hands (Roland and Gibson), this is a first.  Cakewalk is no longer an operating company.
 
So we will just have to see how this plays out.  As customers, our business relationship was with the company.
 
This would be a good opportunity for BandLab to offer some incentives to keep former customers engaged, but that remains to be seen.  They do not "owe" us anything.  Clean slate that it is...