Recs.
Updated
Cakewalk by Bandlab is the most complete music production package with all features that you need to make high quality music. The best feature is: it‘s completely FREE!
SpecsUpdate
Pros
Pro Much improved stability of late, especially recent releases such as 2019.07
Pro Arranger Track
The Arranger track is an arrangement tool that provides several workflow benefits .For example, instantly swap the positions of the first and second chorus for all tracks, or copy the first verse in order to double its duration.Experiment with different song structures in a non-destructive and non-linear manner. You can Create arbitrary song sections anywhere on the project timeline and then stitch them together for seamless playback, sections provide an additional way to make time-based project selections and edits. You can also create an unlimited number of arrangements per project, which can all be exported simultaneously.
Pro Cakewalk Theme Editor
Cakewalk Theme Editor allows you to easily customize the look of Cakewalk by editing existing UI themes or creating your own UI themes.
You can change colors directly and you can even customize images when used in combination with an external image editor such as Adobe Photoshop.
Pro Articulation Maps
Cakewalk by Bandlab recently added Articulation Maps If you work with sample libraries and virtual instruments, articulation maps are sure to improve your MIDI and articulation / keyswitch workflow Articulation maps provide a much easier way to change articulation, without having to manually edit events MIDI on the track.
Pro Mix Recall
Mix Recall allows you to save and recall multiple mixes for the same project, without having to save multiple copies of the project file.
A mix can be saved as a Mix Scene within the project, and each project can store multiple Mix Scenes. A Mix Scene contains all track, bus, hardware output, ProChannel and plug-in static and automation mix settings.
Cons
Con Not very powerful audio editing
Cakewalk it is not as fast as other tools on demanding audio editing tasks such as multitrack drum-editing or slip editing and it doesn't have spectral view or real-time transient positioning.
Con Unfinished features
Cakewalk has some buggy and unfinished features, probably due to marketing decisions and the changes of ownerships: Staff view, Matrix View, Audiosnap, Lenses, Plugin Manager, Screensets etc.
Con Only available for 64-bit Windows
You need a 64-bit version of Windows to use this DAW
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Con Only supports 64-bit plugins
You will need a bridging software to use 32-bit plugins in this DAW.