Good News for Cakewalk users!

[Top Cat]

Wow, yeah, I guess Windows 10 really is a pain in the butt. If you only use this computer for audio stuff you could probably just keep it disconnected from the Internet, but it's probably only a matter of time before you need to connect for some reason and all hell breaks loose.

I do know that driver issues in general (at least ones I experienced with XP) were the most common cause of crashes of applications and/or the operating system, so those seem to be the most likely culprit. Good luck!

Oh wait until all heck breaks out with Apple users. They are changing their OS to something called Catalina, and although I use Windows, I've received several emails from software companies like GForce that are recommending to their clients to not upgrade because their software may no longer be compatible.
See what I mean? those old 4 track portastudios are looking pretty good bout now. lol(I have a Tascam 246 portastudio )still in my home studio here, just in case and back up Revox A77 2 track just in case.

[Guitarplyrjvb]

^^ You must be fearing an audio apocalypse!

[Plasmatopia]

Oh wait until all heck breaks out with Apple users. They are changing their OS to something called Catalina, and although I use Windows, I've received several emails from software companies like GForce that are recommending to their clients to not upgrade because their software may no longer be compatible.
See what I mean? those old 4 track portastudios are looking pretty good bout now. lol(I have a Tascam 246 portastudio )still in my home studio here, just in case and back up Revox A77 2 track just in case.

Luckily my main music computer is an older iMac that can no longer be updated. Or at least I think that's lucky.

[hFx]

Oh wait until all heck breaks out with Apple users. They are changing their OS to something called Catalina, and although I use Windows, I've received several emails from software companies like GForce that are recommending to their clients to not upgrade because their software may no longer be compatible.
See what I mean? those old 4 track portastudios are looking pretty good bout now. lol(I have a Tascam 246 portastudio )still in my home studio here, just in case and back up Revox A77 2 track just in case.

Apple Sierra update: "We will remove 32 bit support in upcoming updates so you'd better go for 64-bit software"
SW companies: "yeah, ok..."
Apple High Sierra update: "We will remove 32 bit support in upcoming updates so you'd better go for 64-bit software"
SW companies: "sure..."
Apple Mojave update: "We will remove 32 bit support in the next update so please go for 64-bit software"
SW companies: "yada yadda..."
Apple Catalina update: "We have removed 32 bit support."
SW companies: "WTF!?! How can you do that to us??!"

[Top Cat]

^^ You must be fearing an audio apocalypse!

not really, I just love vintage gear.

Luckily my main music computer is an older iMac that can no longer be updated. Or at least I think that's lucky.

I like that idea.

Apple Sierra update: "We will remove 32 bit support in upcoming updates so you'd better go for 64-bit software"
SW companies: "yeah, ok..."
Apple High Sierra update: "We will remove 32 bit support in upcoming updates so you'd better go for 64-bit software"
SW companies: "sure..."
Apple Mojave update: "We will remove 32 bit support in the next update so please go for 64-bit software"
SW companies: "yada yadda..."
Apple Catalina update: "We have removed 32 bit support."
SW companies: "WTF!?! How can you do that to us??!"

That wouldn't surprise me, however one of the companies who sent out a email was GForce Media which of course created MTron Pro and is owned by Dave Spiers. Dave's company is a very professional and stable company, so I would think there might be more to the story than apathy by software companies.
The gist I got from GForce media was until it's stable it might be a good idea to wait before switching.

[hFx]

That wouldn't surprise me, however one of the companies who sent out a email was GForce Media which of course created MTron Pro and is owned by Dave Spiers. Dave's company is a very professional and stable company, so I would think there might be more to the story than apathy by software companies.
The gist I got from GForce media was until it's stable it might be a good idea to wait before switching.

I joke of course It's true that the software companies relying in part on legacy code are reluctant to dig into it, but also that Apple tend to make some late changes that play havoc even among the well prepared developers. I use Logic X as DAW so I expect it will work, but then many of the "serious" music software companies have issued warnings about upgrading, including Eventide, Soundtoys, Ableton, Reason Studios, Kush Audio and a few others.

[progmatist]

Catalina is very much along the lines of Apple doing away with the headphone jack. Steve Jobs and his design team built OSX on top of Unix. The whole point of Unix is compatibility with all conceivable hardware. Unix was created in the days of the ARPANet, when every building sized mainframe was a custom job, and all spoke their own language. Unix allowed all these computers to communicate with one another.

EDIT...Here's why that's important: In all flavors of Unix, hardware support is at the kernel level, the kernel being the heart of the operating system. In order to discontinue 32bit support, Apple would have to rip 32bit support out of the FreeBSD kernel. As it was in the beginning, Apple opted to use the clunky and bloated FreeBSD kernel over the elegant and efficient Linux kernel. The reason is quite simply because the Linux kernel is covered under the GNU Public License. Had Apple used it, they'd have to give OSX away for free. Apple is apparently ripping some of the bloat out of the FreeBSD kernel. Since they made iTunes less elegant and more bloated, I wouldn't hold out much hope they'll be successful in their current venture.

[Top Cat]

I joke of course It's true that the software companies relying in part on legacy code are reluctant to dig into it, but also that Apple tend to make some late changes that play havoc even among the well prepared developers. I use Logic X as DAW so I expect it will work, but then many of the "serious" music software companies have issued warnings about upgrading, including Eventide, Soundtoys, Ableton, Reason Studios, Kush Audio and a few others.

A bit off topic but I think you've got some great music on your Soundcloud page. Do you still have your Prophet 12?

[hFx]

A bit off topic but I think you've got some great music on your Soundcloud page. Do you still have your Prophet 12?

Thanks! Yes the 12 is still here although 80% of its time is spent as master keyboard in the DAW rig (along with a Q-Nexus for poly AT). It integrates so well with the Omnisphere HW-profiles, mapping almost all of the the 58 knobs to the software!

[progmatist]

After using Cakewalk since Home Studio 8, being on the Sonar Upgrade path starting with version 1, and ending when Gibson changed it to a subscription service, I've come to the stark realization I've been using entirely the wrong DAW software all these years. For the longest time, I've been plagued with random distortion when recording vinyl records. In the course of troubleshooting, I skipped Bandlab Sonar and tested using X1. That did somewhat alleviate the distortion.

My next troubleshooting step was to dust off my license for Cubase Elements 7. The difference was night and day. All recordings were quite clean and pristine. The only unwanted noise was the usual surface noise. Additionally, the overall sound quality was light years ahead of Sonar. I hear much more of what one would expect from 24/96 Hi-Res. The real kicker is the Izotope RX7 I use to clean up vinyl noise was far more effective. The RX7 Decrackle module in particular I found unusable with Sonar recordings. If I raised the level to a point where it had any effect at all, it would degrade overall sound quality. With a Cubase recording however, it works astoundingly well.

The main reason I stayed with Sonar for so long was other Sonar users, and my own experience said Sonar had the best work flow. Once I got over the Cubase learning curve, which for me wasn't particularly steep, I found Cubase is actually more logical and straightforward in its usage. Just one example: when editing a vinyl side into its individual tracks, in Sonar I'd look up the timing of the first track from the record label or sleeve, press "G" for goto, then one by one painstakingly change the minutes and seconds to match the track time. For the next track, I'd have to use a separate time calculator app to add the second track time to the first, then repeat the goto process.

In Cubase, I click the minutes in the primary time display, and it automatically highlights the minutes for editing. When I type in the minutes value, "07" for example, it automatically advances to the seconds and highlights the seconds for editing. Since I learned 10 key by touch in High School, this makes very quick work of entering timings. It gets really easy for the second track and beyond. I click in the primary time display, press the + key on the number pad, and enter the timing of the second track. Cubase will automatically add the second track timing to what's already in the primary time display. The more tracks I go through, the more convenient this becomes.

I now see why professionals never considered Sonar a serious DAW platform. There must be something inherently inferior in the way Sonar encodes WAV files. BTW: I found the sound quality of Reaper recordings to be on a par with Cubase. I can use Reaper to record on a computer for which I don't have a Cubase license, then edit the recordings in Cubase. A Reaper license is a mere $60. The personal Reaper license allows installation on a number of computers. The only stipulation is only one of those computers can be used at a given time.