Cakewalk now owned by Bandlab! (April 2018)

[chrisNova777]

http://cakewalk.bandlab.com
https://www.bandlab.com/products/cakewalk
https://www.soundonsound.com/news/sonar-now-free-renamed-cakewalk-bandlab

Fueled by over 30 years in the relentless pursuit of innovation, Cakewalk by BandLab is the new standard for the modern recording studio. The most complete music production package -- The creative experience only SONAR offered: advanced technology, effortless workflow, and an interface that amplifies inspiration.

What is Cakewalk?
For more than 30 years, Cakewalk has been the leading developer of powerful and thoughtfully designed products for the modern musician. Millions of musicians worldwide—including Grammy® and Emmy®-winning producers, composers, sound designers, and engineers—have used Cakewalk products to produce audio for the professional music, film, broadcast, and video game industries.

What is BandLab? Who is BandLab?
BandLab Technologies is a collective of global music brands with a vision to connect the world of music. Millions of creators around the world use BandLab, our flagship digital product, to make and share their music with other musicians and fans.

Unlimited Projects
Unlimited Secure Storage
Unlimited Collaborations
Unlimited Algorithmic Mastering
Unlimited High-Quality Downloads
>2000 Professionally Recorded Royalty-Free Loops
>120 Free MIDI-Compatible Virtual Instruments
Cross-platform Customisable Guitar/Bass/Vocal FX & Presets
Full Version Control and Collaboration Tools
Multi-Device - Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Tablet, Chromebook

Minimum System Requirements
Windows 7 or higher (64-bit only)
Multi-core Intel or AMD CPU
4GB RAM
3GB free disk space
1280x800 screen resolution
ASIO compatible hardware is recommended
***NO SUPPORT FOR WINDOWS 32BIT***

https://blog.bandlab.com/bandlab-wins-microsoft-start-up-partner-of-the-year-award-2016/

In November, Gibson publicly killed Cakewalk. Then, three months later, BandLab Technologies announced they would be bringing it back, having acquired the DAW-maker's intellectual property. Today, though, they’ve done something even more unexpected. BandLab Technologies have relaunched Sonar, with the entire Sonar Platinum feature set and made it completely free, under the new title of ‘Cakewalk by BandLab’.

[chrisNova777]

https://blog.bandlab.com/cakewalk-by-bandlab-press-release/

SINGAPORE, 4 APRIL 2018 — Today, BandLab Technologies launched early access to ‘Cakewalk by BandLab’ – replacing SONAR, the iconic DAW developed by Cakewalk Inc. This highly anticipated product release follows BandLab Technologies’ announcement just last month that it had acquired all of Cakewalk’s IP and certain assets from Gibson Brands.   

The new successor to the legendary DAW is available to download for free now at https://cakewalk.bandlab.com. The revived DAW includes all core premium features of SONAR Platinum such as the award-winning Skylight user interface, flexible ProChannel modules, and powerful end-to-end 64-bit mix engine.

CEO of BandLab Technologies, Meng Ru Kuok said, “We are excited to be able to continue development of SONAR in its new guise as Cakewalk by BandLab and have an aggressive feature development roadmap ahead. We are making the software completely free to use to ensure that anyone, regardless of their resources, technology or stage in their career, can have access to the highest level of professional music production tools. This is part of our ongoing effort to empower musicians to make and share their music around the world. Professional products like Cakewalk are essential to those who make their living in music production and the natural next step for musicians who use platforms like BandLab to simplify their creative and collaborative process. We are very excited by the potential of Cakewalk by BandLab and think that many creators will benefit from access to a professional DAW with a long history of empowering music makers.”

Cakewalk by BandLab will continue SONAR’s track record of world-leading innovation for creatives using Microsoft Windows. Pete Brown, from Microsoft’s Windows and Devices Group, said “We’re thrilled that Cakewalk has found a new home with a company that understands the musician community, and that cares sincerely about digital audio production. Cakewalk has been a great partner, working to make their DAW better for their customers by quickly adopting new Windows features like pen, Bluetooth MIDI, multi-touch, Dial, and more. We look forward to working closely with BandLab to continue this innovation.” Cakewalk by BandLab will support pen, touch and Surface Dial throughout the user interface.

The Windows version of Cakewalk by BandLab is available to download now. For more information visit https://cakewalk.bandlab.com.

Note to Editor

Cakewalk by BandLab is a streamlined version of SONAR Platinum – and certain third party products and content bundles will no longer be included. Existing users who have already purchased bundles or individual third party products and plug-ins can still use those products with Cakewalk by BandLab.

The new installation of Cakewalk by BandLab via BandLab Assistant will not affect previous installations of SONAR.
All users can download Cakewalk by BandLab and access the full feature set for free, without access limitations.
Any bundled or independently purchased plug-ins or add-ons that worked with SONAR will integrate with Cakewalk by BandLab.
More detail on the feature offering can be found at https://cakewalk.bandlab.com.

About BandLab Technologies

BandLab Technologies is a collective of global music brands with a vision to connect the world of music.

Together, our brands share a passion. We’re driven by integrating the physical, digital and social supply chain, to enable better experiences, opportunities, and connections for all music lovers.

BandLab, the group’s flagship digital product, is a social music platform that enables creators to make music and share the creative process with other musicians and fans. Other notable brands within the portfolio include Rolling Stone, the world’s leading voice in pop culture and music since 1967, MONO, an award-winning music lifestyle product company, and Swee Lee, Asia’s leading online retailer and distributor of musical instruments and pro-audio brands.

Established in 2016, BandLab Technologies is headquartered in Singapore. For more information about BandLab by Cakewalk, visit https://cakewalk.bandlab.com.

[chrisNova777]

https://www.keyboardmag.com/gear/sonar-is-now-cakewalk-by-bandlab-and-free
http://cdm.link/2018/04/cakewalk-sonar-windows-back-free/
https://www.musicradar.com/news/sonar-renamed-as-cakewalk-by-bandlab-and-is-now-free
http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2018/04/04/cakewalk-sonar-now-available-as-a-free-daw-from-bandlab/
https://www.gearnews.com/bandlab-rebrands-sonar-cakewalk-sets-free-windows/
https://bedroomproducersblog.com/2018/04/05/cakewalk-bandlab-free/
https://www.kvraudio.com/news/sonar-relaunches-as-cakewalk-by-bandlab---free-to-download-for-everyone-40857

[chrisNova777]

i thought they made cakewalk free? but i guess they changed their minds?

http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/SONAR/Versions#start
Sonar Home Studio $49, Sonar Artist $99, Sonar Professional $199, Sonar Platinum $499

Minimum System Requirements

    Windows 7 or higher (64-bit only)
    Multi-core Intel or AMD CPU
    4GB RAM

    3GB free disk space
    1280x800 screen resolution
    ASIO compatible hardware is recommended

[rasputin]

i thought they made cakewalk free? but i guess they changed their minds?

http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/SONAR/Versions#start
Sonar Home Studio $49, Sonar Artist $99, Sonar Professional $199, Sonar Platinum $499

Minimum System Requirements

    Windows 7 or higher (64-bit only)
    Multi-core Intel or AMD CPU
    4GB RAM

    3GB free disk space
    1280x800 screen resolution
    ASIO compatible hardware is recommended

Well, as of now (Oct 2019) with BandLab group managing it, I can verify that the complete fully-operational version of Sonar is indeed free. In fact, since my 12-year olf Win 7 Pro system finally died, I am trying to move everything over to a new Win 10 system. This is a nightmare which I will write about elsewhere. But I did go back to BandLab and am pleased to see it is still a going concern.

Briefly, they appear to be mimicking the old Acidplanet model: provide free music creation tools and then a Soundcloud-like platform for people to collaborate and release tracks. I'm not participating in the social media side of it, but the free sonar is irresistible and of course it is 64-bit compatible.

An article I read said that a Singaporean billionaire bought all the Cakewalk IP (from whoever the last buyer of the Cakewalk assets was -- might have been Sony) and decided to front the money to build the Bandlab platform using Cakewalk software. But I think they are continuing to support, upgrade, and maintain the software...again, you'd probably need to research this since things were in flux and what I'm saying may not be completely accurate/true at this point.