RobH,
Cakewalk by BandLab (CbB) has a few features that can help simplify and declutter the look of the GUI.
One is to right click on the Control Bar and select modules.
Another is to use the Lenses feature.
https://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=SONAR&language=3&help=Lenses.1.htmlThe program comes with several "lenses" that try to orient the GUI for the tax at hand (tracking, mixing, mastering, etc.) This hides things that aren't particularly relevant to that task. And you can build your own lenses as desired.
Regarding the comparisons with Cubase and StudioOne, I own all three. StudioOne is the best for packaging a CD. Cubase has some great tools for composing with chords and sampling. They all have their strengths. For everyday tasks, I find myself using Cakewalk more than the others. They all have learning curves, but I find I get the best sounding results faster with Cakewalk for most of the things I do. And I don't use it because it is free. I paid for a half dozen versions of SONAR before Bandlab made it a free product.
Regarding the question about business model, Bandlab is an Asian (Singapore) company.The ethos in that part of the world is quite a but different than the dog-eat-dog US economy. Bandlab is privately held, and well funded. This puts the owner in a position to look at the long term game. Bandlab is all about creating music collaboratively and interactively with ultimate platform flexibility. And it is about getting your music noticed and shared. I believe they decided to pick up Cakewalk for several reasons, including:
1) there was a lot of technology that could be shared in Bandlab's other platforms
2) If you are serious about publishing music, you eventually need to get the whole thing into a professional production environment in order to give it a fully polished sound. Bandlab had tools for spontaneous music composition, but they had nothing to produce the final product to commercial standards. Cakewalk filled that hole.
But how do they make money? It is a good question. They say they will not charge for the DAW, but they may charge for services related to the production and publication of the music projects. One of their competitors is SoundCloud, which charges a fortune for file storage. That might be an area for Bandlab to monetize their investment. But note that they also own a large chain of music stores, so they may not require this software to go directly to the bottom line. They may view this as part of the overall atmosphere for their total business.
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