What the "Cakewalk By Bandlab FREE Daw" really means in my opinion. And it's a good thing.

     I'll cut through the normal "Glad to see this or that stuff and get to the point of this thread, which is a good thing". 
 
Everyone starts these Cakewalk By Bandlab threads over and over saying "I WAS THINKING". Ya know, first and foremost, that's the problem with the news, and by that I mean NOBODY CARES WHAT YOU ARE THINKING THEY JUST WANT THE FACTS. And I'm sure someone will RETRO in response to me starting this thread "Oh you just done the same thing", but no I did not, I had a purpose to point an opinion of my own and made it clear in the title that it was what I was doing. 

Sad, but you have to explain things to others, but there ya go whoever might question. 
 
First off : "What does the Cakewalk By Bandlab Daw Actually mean?".  - "It means it's free, and we know that." 
Second : "Will it be free forever?" - Answer : "If you have the power to live forever then I am sure Daw's mean nothing." 
Third    : "Why is it not 32 Bit?" - Answer - "You don't take a man's Beautiful WIFE to the alter and dress her in old clothes!". 
Forth    : "I don't like two Daws installed on my system" - Answer "I don't like a lot of things, but that is just the way it is". 
Fifth     : "They're giving away what I PAID FOR!" - Answer - "Uh, NO, DON'T LIE! You have paid NOTHING FOR THE NEW DAW". 
Sixth    : "Why don't I have ALL the plugins for Sonar Platinum, I thought it was FREE!" - Answer "Because you did not pay for                         Sonar Platinum PLUGINS.
Seventh: "Where can I get the missing Sonar Platinum Plugins?" - Answer, As of now nowhere unless you purchased platinum, but                    wait and there may be some if not all available in the future. 
 
Why is Cakewalk By BandLab FREE DAW a good thing? 
 
1st - The continuation of a Daw that you'd never be able to use again. Meaning all your master tracks depending on your system would go into the abyss forever. 
 
2nd - Because regardless of whether they offer it free, here's the thing. Nobody has thought about the fact that the Daw itself in terms of audience reach could be the new FACEBOOK of DAWS, meaning while the DAW is free, the add on's to make things sound better would be a great step. Although personally I think they need to change around Bandlab's Website apperance because it's not straight forward, it's using terms to avoid issue's with COPYRIGHT's from other sites that confuse others. EXAMPLE : I call a flat tire a FLAT, BANDLAB would call it a mulligan....... LOL......... 
 
3rd : The latest Bandlab update got rid of that irritating AUTO load OPEN assistant thing, which was good. But I removed it from auto starting at startup myself, because I will check for updates AT MY CONVENIENCE and don't like the idea of an auto starting application running in the background on my PC. Something they should look into. But then again, why is that a good thing? Because some people don't check for updates all the time and complain about crashes when an update could fix such things. 
 
4th : Because Noel is working with BandLab, and that should be enough, the man is the reason there is still a CAKEWALK and probably why BandLab has taken the steps it has. 
 
Either way, if this upsets you, I apologize, these are just a few of my thoughts thinking about loud, and BY ALL MEANS PLEASE CORRECT ME if I said anything wrong, that was not my purpose. I was trying to take a positive spin on the current status of the DAW that we all know and LOVE. 
 
Bobby
 

you are "Sir Les" and i claim my free mug

Serious_Noize! I agree with most of your post,
and planning to fully switch to BL Cake full time in near future with a single DAW on PC.
My main concern and hope that it is not going to be a monthly/yearly "subscription" based product.
I am all in for "paid" upgrades as long as they are not enforced and lets me decide if I want to upgrade this season or not. 
I am super glad Meng saved Cake, and idea of future collaboration with other musicians across time and space is awesome.  There is no limitation now if another party does not own Cake but wants to record something fun with somebody thousands of miles away. Does not have to spend money, especially in lower income countries. 
 
P.S. There is almost always an amount of remorse when buying larger items such as a car or a house, but then it passes and in most cases you get to enjoy your investment. I hope Meng overcame these feelings. It will take time, but his venture might be just next BIG thing in music making world.  Stay well!
 
P.S.S. For sourhead pessimists I think the best thing would be to make some music and meditate. Life is short, gotta enjoy it while you can :)

mgigani
I downloaded Cake and installed it right when it was announce.  Late April.  If I look at about box it has a license number and says membership thru 10/11/2018. what does this mean? is going to expire day after 10/11/2018. If so, so much for free.  Am also wondering about this because their language says "Free to download". This qualification of the word Free seems to me that the free business is for six month and thereafter who knows.  I would like to hear some comments on this. 
Thanks
 

I think you will find that information here 
 
http://forum.cakewalk.com...-4282018-m3743935.aspx

I am with the OP. It is what it is. 
 

I paid for Sonar thru many versions and now your giving it away free. That’s not fair to me Nd other users that spent their money?