Free Sonar Platinum

[Ingo Lee]

Cakewalk has been sold to BandLab who is now offering a free version of Sonar Platinum if anyone is interested. The license is for six months and I don't know what will happen at the end of that period.

Windows only apparently. Here is the press release.

https://blog.bandlab.com/cakewalk-by-bandlab-press-release/

Here is the download link.

https://www.bandlab.com/download/assistant/windows

.

[Socrates Arvanitakis]

Thanks Ingo.
Explaining this procedure does help quite a lot.
Of course the stabling block for me (apart from learning first how to manipulate sounds in Sonar), is to learn video editing also.
I have downloaded last year a video editing programme (blender if you know it), which the wikipedia says it's terrific. It was completely free. I have run it 2-3 times but it look so complicated to me that I got scared and gave up. I suppose, there are no short cuts anywhere. I have to jump into the sea if I want to learn how to swim. :-)

[Ingo Lee]

I have used Blender and it is a good program with a horrible learning curve. It is primarily used for 3D graphics and video but you can do basic video editing as well.  There are some good tutorials available but there are definitely easier programs out there and a whole lot of Blender is useless for what you want to do.

As far as your text editor issue; you can uninstall the BandLab assistant separately from the Sonar software. I don't think that will affect Sonar but I don't know for sure. But if you continue to use Sonar you will probably need the assistant back at some point, again I'm not sure, this is all new stuff here.

Just out of curiosity, is your Windows 64 bit, (I think Sonar requires that) and what browser are you using? My text editor is working fine here. I'm on Win 7 64 bit with the Firefox browser. I think Sonar is running OK for me but I haven't done much with it other than a simple recording.

Socrates Arvanitakis said:

Thanks Ingo.
Explaining this procedure does help quite a lot.
Of course the stabling block for me (apart from learning first how to manipulate sounds in Sonar), is to learn video editing also.
I have downloaded last year a video editing programme (blender if you know it), which the wikipedia says it's terrific. It was completely free. I have run it 2-3 times but it look so complicated to me that I got scared and gave up. I suppose, there are no short cuts anywhere. I have to jump into the sea if I want to learn how to swim. :-)

[Bob Porter]

I think Blender is a 3d animation program. Is that what you are after? If you truly only want video editing, there are fairly simple programs that are free.

[Socrates Arvanitakis]

Ok Bob fire on. I don't want to be involved in animation as well (at least not for the moment). What do you have in mind?
I got one of those a while ago, it's called VIDEO PAD, but I did not realise it was only a trial version. After I did some editing in about 10 sound files it stopped working (saving my edits) for free and they want me to buy. What else is there?

[Bob Morabito]

You might look into the Sibelius pdf ref guide about this--in Sib 7.5.1, p 586 "Playing back an audio track with your score".

You would silence Sib playback so you only hear the DAW playback and see Sibelius' notation. (see attachment)

Screen%20Shot%202018-04-06%20at%209.44.49%20PM.png

I think, but Im not sure, that you can try to then export the video, and I seem to remember about some syncing problems also but the best place to ask this question is at:

http://www.sibelius.com/cgi-bin/helpcenter/chat/chat.pl?com=show&am...

Thanks Bob

https://soundcloud.com/bob-morabito

[Vn]

Hi,

Sonar (like any other DAW) is most useful for audio production. So u can record live tracks or import midi files, hook up VSTs to that track, then bake out WAV files for each track with all the fx/mixing/mastering you want to do. Then typically for a video post stage, you would go to Premiere/Avid etc lay your music sheet video output (scrolling etc), and add the audio tracks you exported from ur daw to make a final movie that you can upload to youtube etc.

Sonar comes with built in VSTs but most of these are great for piano, synth type sounds. If you are interested in good orchestral sounds, the built in sounds wont cut it. You should consider buying a good VST/Kontakt based library, there are many around depending on your budget. 

Vn

[Socrates Arvanitakis]

Thanks for the advice Bob and Vn!

It solves a few of my wonderings, at least in theory. But hands on experience is still my want.

 

BTW, since I've installed Bandlab assistant and Sonar I keep receiving messages from Bandlab about their products/updates in which I am not interested at the moment and as I said before I evaluate them only as cow boy marketing techniques, plus the assistant keeps loading automatically every time I boot up, plus I strongly suspect it has something to do with my text editor disappearing from this forum.

I repeat my initial question:

Does anyone know if I un-install the assistant whether Sonar is going to be functional or not.

It is important to me for deciding whether I will carry on with Bandlab products or not.

(my text editor was not available yesterday but it is functional again today-very temperamental !)

[Bob Porter]

Yes, you can uninstall the bandlab assistant.

[Bob Porter]

http://www.freewarefiles.com/OpenShot-Video-Editor_program_106675.html
http://www.freewarefiles.com/Shotcut_program_85370.html

links to two of many free video editors that work on w10 and earlier.

[Socrates Arvanitakis]

Yes, there is something not going ok, Dave, I believe, but II cannot find it exactly. Now that I am writing this post I have no text editor available if I wanted to manipulate text or upload files or attachments, but three posts above in this thread they were available as I confirmed. It seems that the text editor is available when we post something new like a discussion or blog post but becomes unavailable for subsequent posts, somehow.
I thought I was the only one with this problem, now at least I have a confirmation from you.
Plus when I click on "Reply" to quote your post it does not let me, so I copy and repost your post without been able to do anything like bold, italic etc to it.
Anyone else guys?

Reply by Dave Dexter 2 minutes ago
I've been having issues with forum functionality over the last week or so with no changes to my system. I think it's just coincidence.

Socrates Arvanitakis said:
But the problem I had yesterday is that my text editor had disappeared for posting in this forum. Gav advised that it may have something to do with programmes I installed recently or with my browser. I cleared the cache memory of my browser yesterday and I regained my text editor for this forum, but the problem re-appeared today, so I do not have again a text editor available.

[Timothy Smith]

Well I'm a little late to the party here...about a year late. I am a long time user of Cakewalk. Yes there were a few niggles about Cakewalk and the Bandlab app. I'm happy to say there are work arounds for all of that. Understandably the initial impression might be less than stellar...like what's this app doing?

The short explanation is that the person who owns Bandlab bought Cakewalk from Gibson when it was ailing and needed to dump some baggage. Gibson should have never tried to buy Cakewalk in the first place...they are a guitar maker.

Cakewalk is now in a good place with regular updates. 

Most people here who might use it want their compositions to sound better and mainly have been using notation software.

So the question is, how could I accomplish that in Cakewalk? 

Here's the short list

-Import  midi from whatever notation program you are using into Cakewalk. Cakewalk is drag and drop or you can use the import features found under EDIT. If you have multiple midi tracks drag a midi into each individual track. If you add too many right click>delete.

-next send these midi tracks to an audio engine

-Each track can be mixed to a desired outcome. Look for the pro channel or PC on each track. There's an arrow you click that "flys out" the pro channel.

-colorize your individual tracks for identification, make templates to save for later. Have fun with it!

Questions? Feel free to ask.

Oh and don't go to a freeware site to download. You can go directly to Cakewalk.

[michael diemer]

I've been using it for a year. there is no limit on the license. The guy behind Bandlab is independently wealthy (as in Daddy is a multi-billionaire). The free deal is for real. 

It's great for notation-based composers, because its staff view allows you to 'lasso' any number of notes in any number of measures, so you can quickly copy/paste etc. And you can scroll infinitely horizontally, and have up to 20 or so instruments in the view. It is meant as a way to work, not as actual notation, so don't expect that. Most people would use it after already doing the piece in their notation software, in order to render a decent mockup. I do most things backwards, so I create and work up the piece in Cakewalk, then export it to Notion to make a score.