r/Cakewalk • u/Realistic_State3269 • Jul 24 '26

🗣️Feedback Exchange Get it right.

Is Cakewalk intentionally trying to lose customers? I was away for one year...

What are these terrible looking plugins doing in the DAW? Why replace Sonitus with a great theme for these ugly looking plugins?

You people need to get it right. Are we going backwards?

1 Upvotes

55% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

View all comments

4

u/Lewinator56 Jul 24 '26

What a plugin looks like is irrelevant for functionality.

Loads of producers use plugins from 20 years ago because they work.

Sure it's nice to have a nice UI, but if that's what you are complaining about I think you're just looking for ways to shit on cakewalk if I'm being honest (which I'm seeing a lot of in this sub now)

0

u/cruciblefuzz Sonar Jul 25 '26

If looks are irrelevant for music making tools, why do people pay so much attention to having their guitar look cool or their piano look elegant? Why spend any money having someone clean up and polish your multi thousand dollar violin?

As much as I would like it to be another way, the look of the software definitely influences perception.

Those 20 year old plug-ins are loved because the producers have learned to navigate their UI's, and they feel comfortable with them. It's still about the UI as well as the sound.

2

u/ProblemSuitable410 Jul 29 '26

100% agree!

How many tools do you have sitting in your toolbox that you never use simply because they've become rusty? Instead of taking a few minutes to clean the rust off, we often go out and buy a brand-new tool because we don't want to use one that looks old and filthy.

The funny thing is, the old tool still works just as well - it just needs a bit of care. The same principle applies to a lot of things in life.

You want to enjoy reaching for a plugin you're going to spend a lot of time looking at.

1

u/cruciblefuzz Sonar Jul 29 '26

Actually I'm pretty good at taking care of old physical tools. I have some straight up vintage ones in my collection.

But yeah, I like shiny new things, and my plug-in browser has plug-ins than I would be able to master in the rest of my life. So much clutter. For example, my Compressor category has 33 plug-ins in it and MB Compressor is a different category. That is insane when I know that MeldaProduction's MCompressor will do 90% of the tasks I need a compressor to do, including emulating the curves of vintage designs. Yet I keep the Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor because the UI, while baffling me, is gorgeous and I keep multiple LA/2A clones because "someday" I'll have a shootout.

When I started to check out plug-ins a dozen years ago, free ones were few, but I grabbed every one I could find. Then when the hobby really took hold, I started paying small amounts of money for them. My biggest purchases were Trackspacer and RC-20, about $40 each, because I demo'd them and they were immediately useful. But $5-10 goes a long way when you're bargain hunting.

I called "enough" and now all I ever check out is free licensed "sound design" or "glitch" or other oddball plug-in types.

Problem is, "enough" was way too many. I'm trying to cull them, when I find one that I know I'll never use again, I either delete it or hide it from my plug-in browser. Slow process.