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The Cakewalk Mystery


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It's been almost two years since BandLab took over Cakewalk. During that time, the program has remained free, been updated often with bug fixes and new features (including some really significant ones, like changing the stretching engine), and users who had Sonar still have access to their accounts to download plug-ins and such. There's a new forum, better support, and integration with BandLab.

 

That's all very cool, but I wonder why BandLab hasn't started selling add-ons...seems like that would be an easy way to fund continued development, and broaden the program's appeal. I'm assuming Cakewalk falls under "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," and that doing things like getting Heritage and Harmony guitars up to speed uses up the company's available bandwidth. Still, it seems like add-ons for Cakewalk (especially plug-ins for the ProChannel and Rapture Session) would be your basic low-hanging fruit.

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As always, there is your truth, their truth and the actual truth.

 

They may have bit off more than they can chew, they may have another project in the works that is more important to them, the variations are endless.

People may wonder why you or I don't do A or B when they don't know about C or XYZ and assume the obvious.

So it goes...

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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They may have bit off more than they can chew, they may have another project in the works that is more important to them, the variations are endless.

 

I suspect it's the "other projects in the works." Obviously Cakewalk is being well-maintained, so I assume they have future plans for it. I just figured someone here might know more about the topic and shed some light on the situation.

 

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Obviously Cakewalk is being well-maintained, so I assume they have future plans for it. I just figured someone here might know more about the topic and shed some light on the situation.

I had a fairly in-depth talk about this with the staffers that BandLab rescued from Gibson to keep the platform alive, over the past year or so. From those discussions, which were fairly tightlipped for IP reasons:

 

At the moment, they're doing their best to maintain Cakewalk By BandLab and keep it current and reliable. That's Job One.

 

Job Two is to offer an expanded capability to tie Cakewalk into the main BandLab platform for online collaboration and song sharing. The online BandLab DAW is very primitive by anyone's standards, and they're looking at a tight integration with Cakewalk in future releases so that the DAW's power can be leveraged online. When I asked about how BandLab would extend this power to Mac users, I was told that they're looking into an eventual crossplatform option for DAW integration that will be fairly agnostic as to what you use on your client machine, but that the development of this was still in the very early stages (Job Three). Adding content is probably a fairly low priority compared to keeping the DAW optimized and growing it into something that will pull in a larger audience.

 

Right now, BandLab as a corporation seems to be doing well with its various product lines, and I don't think they're that concerned with rushing Cakewalk into the black when a more measured approach is warranted. They believe in it and they want it to work, and they're doing their best in the face of a world that has largely forgotten that Cakewalk ever existed, which is a pity.

 

What I find particularly puzzling is that among the very loyal community of users on the Cakewalk Forum (which BandLab also rescued from Gibson), there still seem to be a surprising number of people who feel slighted by the fact that Gibson dropped the platform after they'd paid for lifetime subscriptions to everything, and who are tapping their feet with their arms crossed and waiting for BandLab to do SOMETHING to give them a return on their investment.

 

Um, hello? When Opcode went under, Gibson buried Vision permanently and told the thousands of users out there to go suck wind. Everyone thought that's what would happen when Gibson walked its Cakewalk division out behind the barn and put a bullet in its ear. When BandLab talked Gibson into selling Cakewalk rather than killing it (unprecedented in Gibson's decades-long reign of terror!), BandLab was under absolutely no obligation - none at all - to do anything for old users other than make them pay for everything again.

 

Instead, BandLab announced that it was not only going to keep the DAW alive, but that no current owner would ever have to pay for anything a second time, and that the platform would be maintained and offered free to everyone who wanted it.

 

Am I missing something? I am having a hard time seeing a problem here.

 

mike

 

Dr. Mike Metlay (PhD in nuclear physics, golly gosh) :D

Musician, Author, Editor, Educator, Impresario, Online Radio Guy, Cut-Rate Polymath, and Kindly Pedant

Editor-in-Chief, Bjooks ~ Author of SYNTH GEMS 1

 

clicky!:  more about me ~ my radio station (and my fam) ~ my local tribe ~ my day job ~ my bookmy music

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Cakewalk was my favorite DAW early on (early for me was '91). Before getting a computer I actually used a hardware sequencer briefly. It started shortly after I began my new job as an electronic tech. I went to a co-worker friend's place, got a demonstration of his computer sequencing setup and my future flashed before my eyes!

I rode the computer/cakewalk upgrade train for probably a decade before deciding I needed to incorporate sequencing into live band things. I quickly discovered that Cakewalk on a PC laptop was not a terribly efficient method in that environment and switched over to MBP's and DP. After investing the time to relearn everything with that setup I just stuck with it.

 

I wouldn't rule out going back to using Cakewalk but my music making time is limited and I don't have much desire to be mixing it up with different DAW programs.

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I tend to be suspicious when someone gives something away real cheap or FREE. Are they going to steal my songs? I really never closely read the FINE PRINT. How can you support something without money? Are they laundering money ? Even laundering money you have to get SOMETHING back. Sounds silly , right?

 

Dan

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I tend to be suspicious when someone gives something away real cheap or FREE. Are they going to steal my songs? I really never closely read the FINE PRINT. How can you support something without money? Are they laundering money ? Even laundering money you have to get SOMETHING back. Sounds silly , right?

 

Dan

The press and goodwill that BandLab got by acquiring Cakewalk was probably worth more than what they paid for it. Effective marketing often involves taking a loss in one place to make money in another. If BandLab hadn't bought Cakewalk, I would not have been aware of all the sister companies, some of which are doing really cool stuff (and making money). Cakewalk brought an influx of people to BandLab...probably the cheapest customer acquisition cost ever :)

 

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I tend to be suspicious when someone gives something away real cheap or FREE. Are they going to steal my songs? I really never closely read the FINE PRINT. How can you support something without money? Are they laundering money ? Even laundering money you have to get SOMETHING back. Sounds silly , right?

 

Dan

The press and goodwill that BandLab got by acquiring Cakewalk was probably worth more than what they paid for it. Effective marketing often involves taking a loss in one place to make money in another. If BandLab hadn't bought Cakewalk, I would not have been aware of all the sister companies, some of which are doing really cool stuff (and making money). Cakewalk brought an influx of people to BandLab...probably the cheapest customer acquisition cost ever :)

This. And they're making tons of money from elsewhere in their firm; they could run BandLab and Cakewalk as loss leaders for ever and probably never feel the pinch.

 

Dr. Mike Metlay (PhD in nuclear physics, golly gosh) :D

Musician, Author, Editor, Educator, Impresario, Online Radio Guy, Cut-Rate Polymath, and Kindly Pedant

Editor-in-Chief, Bjooks ~ Author of SYNTH GEMS 1

 

clicky!:  more about me ~ my radio station (and my fam) ~ my local tribe ~ my day job ~ my bookmy music

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This. And they're making tons of money from elsewhere in their firm; they could run BandLab and Cakewalk as loss leaders for ever and probably never feel the pinch.

You nailed it! Think how much companies spend on advertising and marketing...Cakewalk was, shall we say, cost-effective :)

 

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