Updated Cakewalk DAW Debuts At AES

BandLab Technologies is introducing the latest version of Cakewalk by BandLab – the successor to the former Cakewalk Sonar DAW – at the 145th AES International Pro Audio Convention, being held this week in New York.

This is Cakewalk’s first official outing since BandLab Technologies acquired Cakewalk in February 2018 and subsequently released the DAW as a free platform. At AES, the company is showcasing the latest Cakewalk updates, including integrated élastique Pro time and pitch stretching as well as AudioSnap enhancements.

New features include:

  • élastique Pro time/pitch stretching
  • AudioSnap enhancements
  • Advanced multi-track piano-roll MIDI editing and event filtering
  • VST compatibility improvements and optimizations
  • Updated UI themes
  • Dante driver improvements
  • Improved contextual help and toast notifications

Details are available at the BandLab site.

4 thoughts on “Updated Cakewalk DAW Debuts At AES

    1. Yea, perhaps they want us to create an account and log in. I’m not doing that.

      If they have a lovely Cakewalk update, they shouldn’t be ashamed of it. That’s a good thing. No need to hide it behind a spam wall.

      I’m particularly curious about its new MIDI editing abilities.

      DP’s MIDI editing was changed in a past update, and has been a little wonky ever since. MOTU won’t acknowledge, so it’ll just be like that. So I may just do MIDI editing in a 2nd DAW.

  1. BandLab isn’t spyware or spam. I use network sniffers and other tools when installing new software and after months of checking logs, there’s nothing suspicious. I’m one of those guys that believes nothing is really ‘free’, but this so far is the exception. It’s also the full version of SONAR Platinum stripped of most of the 3rd party VSTs. And it gets updated each month, ie the MIDI Piano Roll got a massive update and it now has Elastique Pro (realtime time-stretching), in addition to iZotope Radius and Cakewalk Groove time-stretching, Plus if you’re into Ableton-style Clip Launching, Cakewalk has the ‘Matrix View’, which by the way predates Live by several years.

    BandLab is a ‘modern’ social networking platform for musicians and hobbyists. They offer lots of audio loops and tools for co-op music-making. The owner makes his money from his music gear distribution companies in Asia and Rolling Stone magazine, and Cakewalk is his way of giving back and getting more people involved in the arts. Sure, he’s a businessman but seems to be an all-around decent guy based on the interviews and profiles I’ve looked at. Just Google ‘Meng from BandLab’ and you’ll see that he’s active on the old Cakewalk forums, etc. Later, they plan on updating Rapture Pro and selling it along with other add-ons for Cakewalk or any other DAW, but right now their priority is the DAW. There’s lots of amazing musicians around the world that don’t have any money, but have access to a computer, so the free Cakewalk opens lots of doors for those people to get their music recorded and shared.

    The installation process is easy: install BandLab Assistant, turn off ‘Launch at Startup’ if desired, then in the ‘Apps’ tab, install Cakewalk. You can drag-n-drop audio loops from BandLab to Cakewalk. If you’re into electronic music there’s lots of good free loops. You can export your stems from Cakewalk onto the online BandLab arranger and let others work on your track. I don’t use those tools, and just run Cakewalk standalone. No internet required except for installing updates.

    Oh, and several of the top developers from the old Cakewalk work for BandLab now, and those guys and amazing and would never sell their soul. 🙂 I don’t work for BandLab, and am just a happy 20-year Cakewalk user.

  2. Thanks for taking the time to write this up, a 20+ cakewalk user here as well. Will try out the bandlab version now that I know it’s a no strings attached deal.

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