Is Cakewalk by BandLab Really Free?

Discussion in 'DAW' started by TonyG, Apr 9, 2018.

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  1. TonyG

    TonyG Guest

    One of my clients decided to avail herself of Cakewalk by BandLab. As we know the program can be downloaded free of charge from the BandLab website. I did noticed, however, that in the about section there is a "membership" which is valid, in her case, until October 2018. Is that an indication that after that date the software will go into demo mode unless the user renews the "membership" by paying a fee to BandLab?
    If I was one of the users of Cakewalk from BandLab I will keep that in mind and either read BandLab's Terms of Use or contact its Support Department and inquiry about the "membership". If you cannot find an answer or can not obtain one from BandLab you should not use it on any of your important projects.

     
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  3. BaSsDuDe

    BaSsDuDe Guest

    On an objective level - I installed it to see how legitimate it is.
    I did an uninstall of the Bandlab completely to see what happened and the Bandlab reinstalls itself, unless you uninstall the whole lot.
    While nobody wants to assume anything because it is the mother of all messups, without them saying anything your hunch definitely seems to be sensible because nobody ever made money by giving their product away.
     
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  4. notrace

    notrace Producer

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    I agree, it certainly seems to indicate that Oct 2018 will have some consequence regarding maintaining a valid free license with them. If it's too good to be true, it usually is!

    Update: Just saw this posted on Gearslutz in the Topic: Cakewalk Sonar, Best Program In The World, free?
    The POW-R dithering component was a third-party plugin. Meng at Bandlab is looking at getting that back. And Meng has also clarified the expiration date issue, saying that in the next update that will be gone, and that the product does not expire.
     
    Last edited: Apr 9, 2018
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  5. TonyG

    TonyG Guest

    Thanks for your reply. Do you have a link to that specific comment by BandLab's Meng? Thanks.
     
  6. notrace

    notrace Producer

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  7. lerkjurk

    lerkjurk Platinum Record

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  8. notrace

    notrace Producer

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    Thanks for the actual link lerkjurk! :)
     
  9. Sylenth.Will.Fall

    Sylenth.Will.Fall Audiosexual

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    Something didn't sit right with me when I saw it being given away. That's why I never d/l it!
     
  10. Kwissbeats

    Kwissbeats Audiosexual

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    someone pointed out in the gs forums that melodyne ara still works
     
  11. safran5020

    safran5020 Platinum Record

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  12. safran5020

    safran5020 Platinum Record

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    I don't know what you mean man, I did install on one of my test PC and then uninstalled and it didn't reinstall itself ? :dunno:
    I never seen any software being reinstall by itself anyways... (besides malware)

    @tonyg0499 you can see a short review I made yesterday here :
    https://audiosex.pro/threads/cakewalk-by-bandlab-my-test-by-safran.38208/
     
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  13. TonyG

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  16. Amydarkfang

    Amydarkfang Member

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    If you want a trojan horse go ahead it tried giving me one luckily my antivirus caught it
     
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  17. Pagurida

    Pagurida Producer

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    Will only the date display be removed or the entire authorization check?
    If the authorization check remains, I'm sure the program will no longer be "free" soon...
     
  18. safran5020

    safran5020 Platinum Record

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    Giving people false information is not very cool.

    I have McAfee VirusScan Enterprise + AntiSpyware Enterprise set up on most of my machine and did some testing with Bandlab on quite a few of them and beleive me there is nothing there to worry.

    Beside, with all the other folks here who has tried it, the flag would have raised before.
     
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  19. notrace

    notrace Producer

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    Amydarkfang: I'd recommend you check your own system out since no one but you is complaining about a Trojan! It would also absolutely make no sense for Bandlab to do such a thing!
     
    Last edited: Apr 9, 2018
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  20. alwinvrm

    alwinvrm Newbie

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    Interesting read. I wanted to try it and jumped through all the hoops, installing Bandlab, registration, installing Cakewalk, etc.

    But, when starting Cakewalk I get a small banner message like 'demo version , you can't save, go to Bandlab to activate' (I indeed can't save). When I click the message I end up on a bandlab webpage where a bearded gentleman wants to tell me all kinds of things about Cakewalk but nothing about activation. I checked forums but can't find anything about activation of the new Cakewalk.

    I am not sure whether I am in some eternal loop, resulting from a glitch in development or something more worrying.

    I know I shouldn't complain about a free program but before a long download I would have appreciated a clear representation of the status of the program.

    So free, not free, a glitch????
     
  21. TW

    TW Guest

    I read about minor bugs in the cakewalk forum that the registered versions sometimes jump back to demo mode. And I read something that you cant use the downloaded installer more than 1 time, to get an activated version. I did not have any problems with the activation. And yes it is completly free. All they want is a registration.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 2, 2018
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