Cakewalk closes and with that development of Sonar DAW
Music software company Cakewalk closes for good.
Hailing from Boston in the USA, Cakewalk is one of the oldest music software companies.
They are most known for producing the digital audio workstation (DAW) Sonar, which sprang to life in 1987 as a software MIDI sequencer, also named Cakewalk.
Contrary to what their name indicates, Cakewalk has had a tumultuous run, being bought and sold by parent companies until finally being bought by current parent, Gibson, in 2013.
Gibson attributes the foreclosure “to better align with the company’s acquisition strategy,” by focusing on building a strong presence in consumer electronics through its Philips brand.
In addition, the company said that it is “ceasing active development and production of Cakewalk branded products.”
Cakewalk to remember
Great news comes from Cakewalk’s CTO Noel Borthwick who blogged that Cakewalk will continue to work normally and its servers will continue to operate, though monthly Sonar updates will cease.
“Our greatest motivation was the joy in producing software for an astonishingly passionate base of artists, musicians and producers who used our software to create music on a daily basis,” he said.
The last decade of the company has been turbulent, from being bought by Roland in 2008, to being sold to Gibson in 2013, though all the while maintaining a strong following.
In a recent studio interview with FACT , Chromeo admitted that they only stopped using their 1997 Pentium II PC and Cakewalk on the production of their latest album.
We recently reported on Cakewalk’s new development, Momentum, which is an app for syncing song ideas across both mobile and desktop.
Last year the company also launched a free version of Sonar for Mac users.
Although the doorway to Cakewalk closes, who knows what might open?
