I didn't read every post here but one thing said a few times is that needs correction, like 'it is like getting Sonar Platinium ', No it's closer to getting Sonar Artist which was only $100. Stripped of all the add on's, it's almost the perfect DAW for midi programming, certainly leaps and bounds above any other in that regard. I can't remember the last time I had a crash in this most current version of Sonar. What has been put forward by BandLab is the remarkable level of refinement Sonar had ascened to after a few bumpy years of terribly inconsistent buggy software. I'm so glad BandLab did not attempt to include all the bloatage of the Sonar, most of it was pure junk. Now all bandlab has to do is return the stereo interleave and phase buttons back to the track view and fix the problems in staff view and Sonar will be back on it's way to becoming a professional product once more, which it hasn't been since it became the X series.Totally agree. This is what Cakewalk should have been doing from the start instead of ignoring tons of bugs and removing features that worked so that they can use the time in the update cycle to figure out how to jam more bloatware and garbage into Sonar to attract more sales. Stripped of all that Craig Anderton garbage. No more of those tons of plugs every update. I would expect one such service like BandLab's will become mega big, but then all social media formats seems to be phased, with napster getting replaced by Apple music/Amazo, FB for myspace, etc.If you mean scoring as in notation (Staff View), well that feature is still there so no need for anyone to buy that, unlike what Presonus does to have that type of thing where it's separate from Studio One and also a paid addon.Ĭonsidering Cakewalk was, if not THE most bloated software on the planet, releasing it stripped down is a nice change. Maybe they'll add pay features like scoring. And they should continue to bug fix CbB and add a few new features, tho because it is 'free' I wouldn't expect much. From what I can gather BL will re-release the 'premium' effects/synths for sale (what that means for us current users of Rapture Pro and the SSL channel etc. The extra software (I suppose CbB does have the Sonitus suite and a few other older DX and other plugs, which are enough for basic, clean mixing). You get the built-in PC channels (I believe, I haven't downloaded it yet) but none of the other VST/VSTis (again, I think).

It is basically a stripped out version of last year's SONAR w/ a couple of updates. Cakewalk by BandLab (CbB) is the free DAW.

Download free sonar 8.5 le plugins