Roland has announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire a major share of Cakewalk, a leading developer of products for music creation and recording.

Roland and Cakewalk have been partners since 1995, and have cooperated closely on numerous business projects and complimentary product lines.

In 2003, Roland augmented its strategic partnership with Cakewalk by becoming a minor shareholder in the corporation. As a part of that unique relationship, Roland gained exclusive worldwide sales distribution rights, (with the exception of Cakewalk’s USA home territory.)

Roland expanded its commitment to the Cakewalk product line even further when it began bundling Cakewalk software such as Sonar LE with a wide range of Roland/BOSS/Edirol products. In recent years, the two companies co-developed and released innovative recording solutions, including the popular SONAR Power Studio.

Recently, Cakewalk adopted Roland’s REAC technology (Roland Ethernet Audio Communication) to develop the SONAR REAC Recording System—capable of recording up to 40 channels of high quality audio directly input to a PC via an Ethernet port.

Roland Corporation President, Hidekazu Tanaka, relates, “Through this mutually beneficial partnership, both corporations have enjoyed a marked increase in sales and market share. As a logical evolution of our relationship, we have decided to increase our investment in Cakewalk by becoming its major shareholder.”

New products for musicians and professional audio producers will be branded as “Cakewalk by Roland.”