Cakewalk Returning With Cakewalk Sonar, Cakewalk Next

BandLab Technologies has announced a corporate rebranding of Cakewalk, along with plans to make the music production software more accessible to musicians.

Under the new structure, Cakewalk by BandLab will transition into Cakewalk, with two distinct products underneath: Cakewalk Sonar and Cakewalk Next.

The Cakewalk Sonar rebrand reintroduces the SONAR name for Cakewalk’s original DAW. With a significant UI refresh and a platform committed to ongoing feature development, Cakewalk Sonar will be focused on offering a best-in-class production experience on Windows desktop devices. This will include ensuring compatibility with legacy projects created in previous iterations of SONAR and Cakewalk by BandLab.

Cakewalk Next is described as a ‘user-centric music creation tool’, which will be available for Mac & Windows.

Pricing for both Cakewalk Sonar and Cakewalk Next will be provided as the products get closer to launch. Details are to come at the Cakewalk site.

5 thoughts on “Cakewalk Returning With Cakewalk Sonar, Cakewalk Next

  1. I bought Sonar X3 and had it for awhile before Sonar went away. I downloaded the free Cakewalk by Bandlab a few years ago, and my Sonar X3 files worked with Cakewalk by Bandlab. At that time, I couldn’t understand why anyone would pay for a DAW when Cakewalk by Bandlab is available for free and is feature packed. It’s essentially an updated version of Sonar Platinum with the bells and whistles, inlcuding an optional/available Pro-Channel strip on each track. In my opinion this DAW has the best (and best looking) user interface. The look of many other DAW platforms pales in comparison. Now that they will no longer be supporting the free version, I may be switching to some other DAW down the road. Many of the current DAW platforms have great features, but at a price. I’m curious as to how much the cost will be when it is no longer available for free. I hope the new Sonar is not going to be some stupid monthly/annual subscription fee only DAW for those who don’t have it and would like to use it.

  2. When Logic became Apple only I had nowhere else to go, having used both Cubase as my first daw and fruity loops somewhere between Cubase and Logic. Thought I’d give the recently rebranded Cakewalk a try (Sonar). I thought it served me well for the brief period I utilized it. It was quick to pick up. Switched over to Mac and got back onboard with Logic. Was always interested in Rapture and Z3ta (whatever) and they were quite nice too. There were hiccups in the cross-platform paradigm and the back and forth was a tad bit frustrating and mood souring. It was resolved but at that point I was over the Cakewalk thing, including Edirol which was some type of Roland exclusive product line tie-in with Cakewalk. The inheritance of a pre-baked platform is good for the new company but their mission statement is juvenile fluff. There are plenty of DAWs on the periphery of the big boys and that is all they will ever be having stood their ground for easily two decades now.
    Good fortune to them to be certain.

  3. Started using CW with whatever version of the Pro was back in 1998ish? I dunno, but did many CDs with it, and Sound Forge for final audio/mastering back in the day. Stuck with the Sonar versions for awhile and finally moved onto Ableton. Curious as to pricing, etc.

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