Waveform vs Cakewalk by Bandlab

No session based Workflow (like Live/Bitwig), hiccups upon loading projects.

There is no scissors tool or similar....

Cakewalk is based on old code, that is why you see errors randomly. Since more than a decade ago no function has been improved - they were more concerned in the past with buzzwords and packaging third party software than in improving their own tools. The result is that it is now a decade behind developing competitors. There are better DAWs on the market that outperform Cakewalk. Free doesn't mean having the latest and greatest in technology - Cakewalk has never had it, there are important components of that DAW that haven't been touched for almost two decades, and they will likely never get the upgrade they need.

Cakewalk has constant errors such as engine crashing when working with songs with more than 100 tracks, it loses saved settings, BSOD, it randomly stops recognizing your midi controller and disconnects, do not try to disconnect it, the software goes crazy, your tracks are exchanged for other vst or midi clips known bug years ago.

Cakewalk by BandLab is currently available exclusively for 64 bit versions of Windows 7, 8, and 10. There are no current plans for availability on other operating systems.

It's a con for those who don't like having to use a program to install and update another program. The Bandlab's installer doesn't even have the courtesy to stop and ask you where you want the middleware installed.

Does not respect your freedom. Does not provide source code.also if it were really free, there wouldn't be any need for the Bandlab Assistant and signing up, and having to reauthorize every 6 months or drop into 'Demo' mode (get that? Demo mode in a FREE product :lol: :clap:), you would just download, install, done . . . there is a price to pay.

Cakewalk has some buggy and unfinished features, probably due to marketing decisions and the changes of ownerships: Staff view, Matrix View, Audiosnap etc.

For a complete and free package it is amazing what Bandlab is offering here. But crashes on startup or audio engine failures happen too often.

If you are squished for space on your boot drive, don't install this. It automatically sets up the Bandlab Assistant on C without giving you the opportunity to put it elsewhere. If you choose to use certain Cakewalkfeatures like the Drum replacer, it just starts installing all the drum samples onto drive C regardless of the fact that you've already set up a Cakewalk Content directory on D.

Unfortunately Cakewalk has a kind of philosophy of recycling old plugins under the DX and DXi code such as the sonitus fx and the newly added Classic Creative Suite audio effects (which were included in old versions of previously known SONAR) in its new update, which requires to new users or beginners to look for free or paid plugins, since these plugins are once again surpassed by the best vst in the market in addition to that they often sometimes block the software and disappear strangely, which is sad since most Of the DAW's on the market, both paid and free, include their own factory plugins so that the user does not have to spend any penny on third-party plugins.

Stability and tools are unfinished. As an example, AudioSnap simply does not work as it should when editing transients in the audio and staff view it does not work correctly.

If you like to work with external hardware, this software is not compatible with most software: when inserting an external effect on a track or bus, the DAW will crash and send you an error message. This is because Cakewalk has not fixed in years the problem with external insertions, which puts it behind the competition.

SO3 cannot control your synth. You cannot see/control or access patches, their names, or SysEx. It seems that everything is centered around use of virtual instruments, and not hardware synth.

Cakewalk does not have a sampling instrument for multisample playback and import. Third-party plug-ins exist but they often crash the DAW. It is strange that cakewalk does not have a sampler for the modern musician.

Cakewalk by Bandlab does not have a promising future since the company that acquired it does not even market it. For example, Cakewalk's social media platforms are practically dead, the user base seems small and, in general, it seems past for high. The Bandlab pages are live, but without even minimal mentions of Cakewalk on your website or social media, it will one day die quietly.

In the same way, Cakewalk does not have a drum sampler for playing and creating beats from jazz musicians to EDM producers.

It doesn't matter if you have a decent enough PC or solid and robust cakewalk is too laggy when one navigates between the mixing console the PRV. It is not optimized for Windows 10.

Unusable third party Pro-Channel modules such as Softube (Mix Bundle) and Overloud (BREVERB and REMATRIX) will not work properly when trying to open a project with them will cause Cakewalk to crash on the desktop.