Reply To: The Long-Term Cost of DAWs Compared

[peter]

On fretman said

I’m a little confused. Studio One is listed as $262-$300 with a comment that it’s available for $139-$160. Is one the initial price and the other the price for major updates?

It was an error on my part when I was cutting and pasting over from a draft I was working on where I was going to do something slightly different. Thanks for the catch. I fixed it.

The point of the original post is to compare the MINIMUM REQUIRED COST FOR USING A DAW FOR 5 YEARS. I state that in the second sentence of the original post, but I think that I may revise the title of the thread to reflect that so people quickly understand the point wasn’t to write an extensive article, just a simple point, that I think is very important when we compare these DAWs. Of all of the choices listed above, each allows the user/customer to continue to open and edit projects after paying a one-time fee. Only Cakewalk Sonar — which is substantially higher cost than the other DAWs — does not permit the user to open and fully edit files created in the DAW without paying an ongoing fee. I thought writing this this was important, as, while it’s a really simple point, it’s one that many people shopping for a DAW may not realize until AFTER they’ve started a subscription and created projects that, in the case of Cakewalk Sonar, they won’t be able to open and fully edit without paying a subscription fee. Even more, once Bandlab pulls their free version — which their representative has stated that they may do at any time, that it is not a permanently free DAW — the only option these users will have to open and edit these projects natively will require them to pay Bandlab a subscription fee.

As a former Cakewalk Sonar user (I used Sonar from the earliest version), I thought it was valuable information to share with those researching DAWs.

LinkedMusicians Founder. Your friend who keeps the beat.

Check out my music.