# Cakewalk by BandLab Reviews **Vendor:** BandLab Technologies **Category:** [Audio Editing Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/audio-editing) **Average Rating:** 3.8/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 15 ## About Cakewalk by BandLab Creating better products, services, and experiences for music makers and music lovers ## Cakewalk by BandLab Reviews ### 1. The Product Is Decent, the Problem is The Company is Abandoning It for a Subscription-Only Version **Rating:** 0.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Music | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 10, 2024 **What do you like best about Cakewalk by BandLab?** It was free prior to BandLab announcing that they were abandoning it. **What do you dislike about Cakewalk by BandLab?** The DAW is decent, The big problem you can't overlook is that BandLab has announced that they're abandoning Cakewalk by BandLab and the replacement is only available by subscription. Even worse, their new replacement stops working if you stop your subscription and you can't access any of the projects you made with the DAW. Their competitor Presonus, offers a DAW, Studio One, with a subscription whereby the DAW still works if you end your subscription. You can still access all of the projects you created, plus they offer a perpetual license mode. BandLab customers / users on the Cakewalk Forum are censored, berated and banned for even politely asking questions like is BandLab open to offering perpetual licenses at any point. The company went from seemingly customer friendly to being the polar opposite pretty quickly. They lost my trust and business. I'd strongly recommend avoiding buying anything from BandLab. At minimum, understand that when you stop paying the subscription fees, you can no longer access the projects you created with their software. I think most people don't realize that until after they've paid up. To me, that's a dealbreaker, and I don't know of another DAW developer that works that way. **What problems is Cakewalk by BandLab solving and how is that benefiting you?** It is a decent digital audio workstation, but the company's practices and poor treatment of customers are dealbreakers. ### 2. Easy to use, FREE DAW. So many uses. **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Devon Courtney T. K. | Wellness Advocate | Bridging Evidence-Based Practices with the Esoteric, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 16, 2024 **What do you like best about Cakewalk by BandLab?** Cakewalk is an unintimidating DAW. The interface is easy to learn and you can begin creating with it in a short period of time. It's also a very capable DAW that comes at no cost, works with a lot of plugins for costly DAWs and I've never had an issue with bugs or crashing. I could just open it up play around and start using the features within minutes. **What do you dislike about Cakewalk by BandLab?** I don't know from my uses, but I hear that it is not very robust - it does not have universal plug-in use, and there is a limit to how many tracks you can compile at a time. I don't dislike these things. The limitations help me not be overwhelmed as I learn how to put together a track, clean up a voiceover, or produce something full-on. **What problems is Cakewalk by BandLab solving and how is that benefiting you?** Recording voice audio - creating and editing stems and samples. Playing around learning how to produce music and creative audio. ### 3. Complex user Interface **Rating:** 1.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Mildred S. | Administrative Technician, Biotechnology, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 24, 2024 **What do you like best about Cakewalk by BandLab?** It provides a range of features that make it difficult choice for music production. The interface is not user friendly allowing for navigation and quick access to all the tools. It lacks to customize and fine tune every aspect of your sound. **What do you dislike about Cakewalk by BandLab?** The limited number of instruments and effects available can restrict creativity and diversity in music production. The lack of customer support often leads to issues and frustration. For beginners the complex user interface is difficult to navigate and understand. Drawback is the performance and frequent crashes, which hinder workflow and productivity. **What problems is Cakewalk by BandLab solving and how is that benefiting you?** Cakewalk by BandLab is not capable to solves problems for music producers like myself making it a game changer in the industry. It provides a range of tools and features that are essential for anyone in this field. With its interface and seamless workflow creating music has become difficultier, than before. ### 4. Customer support tends to be slow and unresponsive **Rating:** 2.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Tracy R. | Publications Specialist, Construction, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 19, 2024 **What do you like best about Cakewalk by BandLab?** Cakewalk by BandLab is an audio workstation (DAW) that provides a limited array of features for music production. Its less user friendly interface does not allow for navigation and difficult access to tools. **What do you dislike about Cakewalk by BandLab?** The collection of instruments and affects possibilities. With its monitoring recording and mixing capabilities it fails to enable professional level audio production. The collaboration features make it hectic to share and collaborate with musicians. Due to its learning curve beginners find it difficult to grasp all its functionalities. **What problems is Cakewalk by BandLab solving and how is that benefiting you?** The interface is overwhelming at times making navigation difficult. The absence of built in instruments and effects also limits the potential for creativity. Frequent software crashes pose a risk of losing work, which is frustrating. ### 5. More powerful than you'd expect! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Dana D. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 19, 2024 **What do you like best about Cakewalk by BandLab?** Cakewalk by Bandlab allows me to record and mix professional-quality audio projects using any plug-ins, VSTs, or instruments I want. I've found it to be more stable than other industry-standard DAWs, and you can't beat the price. **What do you dislike about Cakewalk by BandLab?** I wish it was more widely accepted as industry-standard quality. **What problems is Cakewalk by BandLab solving and how is that benefiting you?** Cakewalks by Bandlab allows me to do anything I need to do with a DAW without limitation. It doesn't overtax my system, and it gives me every option I need. ### 6. Great software for musicians and hobbyists **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ron F. | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 01, 2024 **What do you like best about Cakewalk by BandLab?** This application is very intricate, whilst maintaining a user-friendly interface. The tools provided are of professional grade and can be used in a variety of scenarios. **What do you dislike about Cakewalk by BandLab?** Some may find the interface colour scheme as repetitive and unpleasing to look at after a few hours of usage. **What problems is Cakewalk by BandLab solving and how is that benefiting you?** Situations that require music at short notice and of a very high level can be very easily solved, without having to splurge on more expensive DAWs. This means I can focus on work effort and productivity more often. ### 7. Creating Low quality music **Rating:** 2.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Fuentes J. | Fund Manager, Public Safety, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 26, 2024 **What do you like best about Cakewalk by BandLab?** Cakewalk by BandLab needs to provide a user interface that would make music production a breeze. Its limited range of instruments and effects does not allow me to effortlessly create tracks that sound unprofessional. **What do you dislike about Cakewalk by BandLab?** The MIDI editor included is not enabling me to tune every note with precision. The collaboration feature is obstructive as it does not let me collaborate with musicians in time. The interface feels cluttered and overwhelming making it difficult to navigate and find tools. **What problems is Cakewalk by BandLab solving and how is that benefiting you?** I have encountered crashes and bugs, which disrupts my workflow and can be frustrating. The lack of customer support from the developers adds to the difficulty in resolving issues. ### 8. Cakewalk Band Lab. Very good program **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Michel R. | Retraité, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 18, 2023 **What do you like best about Cakewalk by BandLab?** This is a program that can be translated into multiple languages. It doesn't take up much space on the hard drive. It can convert to MP3. You can upload the latter online. You can easily work with MIDI files and turn them into wave tracks. Ease of use. Ease of implementation. Frequency of use. Easy to integrate. Customer service. **What do you dislike about Cakewalk by BandLab?** Currently, it continues when the MIDI file ends. You must stop it manually at the end of each file. **What problems is Cakewalk by BandLab solving and how is that benefiting you?** Make MP3s Edit MIDI files Upload songs online ### 9. For any producer starting out. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Bethany Beulah S. | Cashier , Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 19, 2023 **What do you like best about Cakewalk by BandLab?** Cakewalk by BandLab and or the BandLab app are the best music production and audio editing tools and software that I have ever used. They make music production easy for those of us who are beginners. **What do you dislike about Cakewalk by BandLab?** There is absolutely nothing that I dislike about their software and apps. I love everything about them and the best thing is , is that BandLab is free to use and can be use on any device. **What problems is Cakewalk by BandLab solving and how is that benefiting you?** I have had absolutely no problems using these products. ### 10. Undoubtedly the best free DAW **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** JOSE P. | Director of Engineering and Product Development, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 20, 2022 **What do you like best about Cakewalk by BandLab?** Using a quality DAW implies the investment of hundreds of dollars in the acquisition of its license. Cakewalk by BandLab is free without cheats. The quality of its interface is top-notch as well as the included effects and plugins. On the other hand, it supports the installation of third-party VSTs, which makes it perfect for most of the tasks that a paid DAW performs. **What do you dislike about Cakewalk by BandLab?** There is nothing that can be objected to, being a free version, it perfectly fulfills all the daily tasks that an amateur musician may require. In case some functionality is not included in the package provided by Bandlab by CakeWalk it can always be compensated by installing third-party software. **Recommendations to others considering Cakewalk by BandLab:** My advice to any musician looking for a DAW is to give Cakewalk by BandLab a try before making any investment in another paid DAW. In most cases, you will find that what is offered is sufficient for everyday use. **What problems is Cakewalk by BandLab solving and how is that benefiting you?** As an amateur musician in full activity, I am related to many musicians with whom we exchange digital files to complete a song, that is, we had to find a common platform with which to work since each of us had to pay for their license according to their preference. These differences in the DAW used by each member of the project complicated the normal development of a musical project, with Cakewalk by BandLab we have solved the problem since, being free, we have all been able to use the same DAW platform. ### 11. One of the most complete DAWs for an unbeatable price, Free! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Heten D. | CG Lead, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 15, 2022 **What do you like best about Cakewalk by BandLab?** I like that now. Cakewalk by Bandlab is free for any use. It allows for every imaginable composing method, including a staff view, showing music notations in a staff sheet for traditional music readers and writers, piano roll, pattern view and event list. It brings together the best of all. Included within is a Matrix view for live performance, Pro-Channels rock, and allows for excellent control on audio IO. Overall the workflow is quite similar to ProTools and Cubase, and anyone using those DAWs would feel right at home on Cakewalk by Bandlab. The use of keyboard shortcuts throughout the software makes for quick editing a breeze. The price is the show stealer for a well-built DAW like this, which has had continuous development for more than two decades now. **What do you dislike about Cakewalk by BandLab?** As with every piece of excellent software, Cakewalk by Bandlab comes with its share of shortcomings. Lack of a dedicated LFO to control midi automation in real-time, although workarounds exist, which mostly rely on external plugins. Some installed effects have been hidden entirely from the UI and need to be added to the cakewalk VST folder scan path to enable. Cakewalk by Bandlab has removed some great Synths and Effects from Sonar Platinum while transitioning to Cakewalk by Bandlab. However, if you own any of the plugins with Sonar, you use them within Cakewalk by Bandlab with ease. We can only use a single instance of a Pro-Effect on every Pro-Channel. Why this limitation exists is beyond me. Not a single synth is a part of the installation. We have to rely on VSTi for synths. **What problems is Cakewalk by BandLab solving and how is that benefiting you?** Creating music with professional-level mastering tools has been a pain point for budget-conscious creators for a long time. With Cakewalk by Bandlab, I've been able to do just that for Free and without any limitations of an Evaluation/Demo software. ### 12. Guay **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Yonathan C. | Técnico en Salud, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 14, 2022 **What do you like best about Cakewalk by BandLab?** It is a good work tool, practical and easy to understand. Bandlab's three tools are very good for the phone, online, and PC, it's great. If you want to work as a music composer, it's super. **What do you dislike about Cakewalk by BandLab?** What I don't like is that it freezes at times, but in the PC version it doesn't freeze. The software is of very good quality. Its design is very good and it is not complicated to use, and you can use it with or without internet. The phone and PC version can be used offline, but the online version does require internet. **Recommendations to others considering Cakewalk by BandLab:** If you want to be a composer and record an album, this is your best work tool. **What problems is Cakewalk by BandLab solving and how is that benefiting you?** Better sound quality. Better audio quality when recording. Its interface is very well designed. Better voice effects. More instruments. More music options, meaning it has more loops. ### 13. Neutral opinion **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Johnny T. | Intermittent Liquer Store Clerk , Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 17, 2022 **What do you like best about Cakewalk by BandLab?** The layout is consistent with bandlabs online layout **What do you dislike about Cakewalk by BandLab?** Importing files seldom failed making it frustrating. **What problems is Cakewalk by BandLab solving and how is that benefiting you?** When everything functions as expected it makes it easier to stay focus ### 14. Music creation and collaboration for any skill level **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jeff M. | Innovative Learning Coach, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 22, 2021 **What do you like best about Cakewalk by BandLab?** Bandlab has powerful sound profiles that can be added to your recorded track. I love the ability to stack tracks, record while listening to the other tracks. **What do you dislike about Cakewalk by BandLab?** I seem to have a hard time seeing how to loop audio as I'm recording, maybe it's not a feature yet. I also sometimes struggle to find my collaborative work. I don't like how I have to scroll through the fx I want to add to my track. I think a small list would be more effective. **Recommendations to others considering Cakewalk by BandLab:** If you are looking for a tool that allows you to share your musical skills with anyone, or even collaborate on music with someone, Bandlab is the way to go. The user interface is amazing on android and apple devices. **What problems is Cakewalk by BandLab solving and how is that benefiting you?** A family member and I perform at weddings together. I play guitar, she sings. We use Bandlab to practice since we live 3 hours apart. This allows us to not only practice but to have a record of what we've accomplished. ### 15. A must Have for Music Producers **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Augustine B. | P, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 21, 2021 **What do you like best about Cakewalk by BandLab?** What's not like. It provides a virtual audio recording and mixing platform which one has 100% control over, and there are presets available for guidance. It also has a community base to view and provide feedback. And better still, unlimited mastering of tracks. **What do you dislike about Cakewalk by BandLab?** Not having it available offline for mastering. **What problems is Cakewalk by BandLab solving and how is that benefiting you?** Audio fixing, online content sharing, collaboration with other artists, track mastering to use as reference. ## Cakewalk by BandLab Discussions - [What is Cakewalk by BandLab used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-cakewalk-by-bandlab-used-for) - 1 comment - [View Cakewalk by BandLab pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/cakewalk-by-bandlab/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-05-18+00%3A35%3A46+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=0125d211-36c1-4eaf-96be-865e59d9a85d&secure%5Btoken%5D=93d43c982ec18533726dff812be16043d7acc90a512e21412f7fa7a566b5a0d0&format=llm_user) ## Top Cakewalk by BandLab Alternatives - [Audacity](https://www.g2.com/products/audacity/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (456 reviews) - [FL Studio](https://www.g2.com/products/fl-studio/reviews) - 4.6/5.0 (99 reviews) - [Adobe Audition](https://www.g2.com/products/adobe-audition/reviews) - 4.4/5.0 (413 reviews)