This really sucks. I hate Gibson even more now. They killed Slingerland drums years ago too.
 

The final nail in Slingerland's coffin, was demand by Gibson, that in order to become a Slingerland dealer, music stores also had to carry Gibson guitars. This was not feasible for the "Mom & Pop" music stores, who simply couldn't afford to carry both lines, given the stratospheric costs.

 
Gee, good think I purchased the Platinum upgrade with free lifetime updates.
 
I smell a class action lawsuit. I hope Gibson goes out of business and someone like Microsoft takes over Cakewalk.
Or maybe it's time to get into Cubase...

Started with Twelve Tone Systems DOS version in the '80s ... ended with Sonar7 Producer XP in '00s.
 
About a week ago,  I paid to have a new laptop built to spec, loaded with Win10, Sonar Platinum, and interface plug-ins.
 
Yesterday,  I read about this gibson muck.
 
Fortunately the online store I ordered my new rig from [ Chris at ADK Pro Audio (Kentucky) ] was great about it, and I was able to swap out the Sonar purchase for other items of equal value (laptop is still being built).
 
The New Rig:
[ADK Pro Audio online store]
- i7-8700K 6 core, 17" laptop @4.7GHz, 32gb ram, 512GB ssd, 1TB spinner
- PreSonus Studio One 3 Pro
- PreSonus Faderport
- Apollo Twin mkii DUO TBolt
- Startech TB3-->TB2 adaptor
[already got / had]
- Softube Console 1
- Yamaha moXF8
- Genelec 1030A's
- VSTs, old rack stuff, etc...
 
Looking forward to learning S1 via Youtube for now, and then later "in person".
 
Good luck to all the code weasels at Cakewalk ...
You've made getting our work done enjoyable & much easier for decades. Thanks Again!
May your in-boxes be filled with job offers. 

First of all, I don't blame Cakewalk. I truly believe this was as much a surprise to them as us. That being said, when they killed phone support by saying you would have to submit an email request to get a call back and then never called anybody back I was getting worried. Then when email support requests were not getting answered I got pissed at Gibson because Cakewalk had always had some of the best support out there and that was a large part of why I was such a loyal customer. But back to the current situation. That we were not even notified and learned of this through the news is all on Gibson and is reprehensible.
 
The real problem however lies with the promotion of the "lifetime updates" as hard as they did. My friend and I debated whether to go with the lifetime purchase by trying to imagine all the various possible scenarios under which the lifetime update purchase might at some point expire. We even considered things as simple as a name change. We never considered Gibson killing Cakewalk and Sonar. In the end, both being long time users and supporters of Sonar, we pulled the trigger, he getting an upgrade from x-3 to Platinum with "lifetime" for $149 and me paying the same $199 as everyone else. The lifetime updates program was sold as a "once in a lifetime" opportunity and was even extended by three months. Funny now to hear that "lifetime" wasn't even a year.
 
From my perspective (and apparently many others) the whole "lifetime updates" promotion was a blatant fraud, perpetrated I feel by Gibson/Philips, NOT Cakewalk. But I believe ANYONE that paid for lifetime updates deserves a refund. And I also think this warrants a class action lawsuit.  It won't get anybody much money, but it can punish Gibson and perhaps make it easier and provide some to force Gibson to sell the company. I woule also encourage everyone to be sure their friends that use Gibson products be aware of this. I have no doubt that since they are now Gibson/Philips (or is it Philips/Gibson) and they are an acquisitions conglomerate focusing on cheap the Philips home electronics brand, their products and guitars will suffer noticeable quality losses.  And I would no longer buy ANY Gibson electronics devices because I would be afraid they would use re-purposed and/or modified cheap Philips electronics.
 
In the event they refuse to refund anyone's money, I think a class action lawsuit would go a long way to easing the pain, at least from a satisfaction stand point. 

Folks, the 50% off Cubase crossgrade is now live at Sweetwater - I guess they have somebody there making sure the lights stay on over the Thanksgiving holiday.

jvlm57
The real problem however lies with the promotion of the "lifetime updates" as hard as they did. My friend and I debated whether to go with the lifetime purchase by trying to imagine all the various possible scenarios under which the lifetime update purchase might at some point expire. We even considered things as simple as a name change. We never considered Gibson killing Cakewalk and Sonar. In the end, both being long time users and supporters of Sonar, we pulled the trigger, he getting an upgrade from x-3 to Platinum with "lifetime" for $149 and me paying the same $199 as everyone else. The lifetime updates program was sold as a "once in a lifetime" opportunity and was even extended by three months. Funny now to hear that "lifetime" wasn't even a year.
 

I grabbed the Lifetime update in June of 2016. So I got a little more than a year. But then I payed a whole lot more for the upgrade then, too. It wasn't "full price" because I was upgrading from X3, but still way more than $199. And I'm happy with that. I got almost 18 months of some amazing updates. When I bought Platinum, the 30th Anniversary wasn't yet in full swing. I certainly didn't get the Lifetime expecting a bunch of freebies, either... just the normal product improvements and fixes.

I am angry at how this closure was handled. I am also angry at the hard sell massive push well into November to keep trying to sell the Lifetime updates - Gibson must have known by then that they would close Cakewalk within a week or so. That is Gibson's Unforgivable Sin. Looking from a business perspective, it appears they had no choice but to close Cakewalk. They sure could have managed it differently, though.

rmfegley

Sempai45
 
My question exactly.  I want to know if I can still use AD2 and Adpaks in another DAW. Melodyne...not so much.

Before this I've always been able to use AD2 in FL Studio and Maschine, so it should work fine. And once you've installed and authorized it you have a separate XLN account which is managed by the XLN product manager.

With my trial version of Studio One, I've had no problems loading Melodyne Studio or Addictive Drums 2, or any other virtual instrument.   So far the only thing that did NOT load was Breverb2.  Not sure why.

EDIT: It was the Breverb 2 Sonar version that wouldn't load.  I found the plugin directory for the full version of Breverb 2, and it does work.

Is that the Breverb2 from SONAR? I have the full version and it's fine

Empathizing with the users and the thousands of hours spent creating, enjoying, this thing, only to watch it fade into the sunset.
I had a similar feeling of disgust when Sony squeezed the life out of the wonderful DAW creative tool known as Acid Pro, which is on life support only because Magix purchased the zombie software. (btw, I still use it on a basic level as a creative tool).
 
Give Gibson some love for trying to make the product viable within a market glutted with free software and major competition.
 
The indicators must have been pretty gloomy to do this right before Christmas and Channuka.
 
Know that the diehards will keep this thing going for a while, and we'll all have to transition into something else because the creative urge will take us to new horizons, regardless of any failed business model that gets in the way!
 

Somewhere in all the threads on this, I read that Gibson kept Cakewalk going longer than its profitability might warrant.  If that's true, then I appreciate that. 
 
I am miffed at the hype for 'lifetime update'.  At least it might mean "will work until Windows breaks it" once we get the authorization codes to install/reinstall/ keep it from reverting to demo mode.
 
 

Sorry to see Gibson flushing Cakewalk down the tubes. I cut my DAW teeth on Cakewalk products, first with DOS version running on a 386 bridgeboard in a Commodore Amiga, and later on PCs running Windows from the midi only versions, through all the "Audio" / "Pro Audio" versions, and five iterations of Sonar. I got to experience Commodore and Amiga disappear from the face of the Earth, and don't look forward to seeing the day when there is no trace of Cakewalk anywhere.
 
RIP Cake