Cakewalk (company)

Cakewalk is a company based in Boston, Massachusetts that develops music production software. Their best known product is their comprehensive music sequencer SONAR, which is designed for professional use. SONAR incorporates multi-track recording and editing of both audio and MIDI. Moreover, the company offers a full range of music software products, including the Project5--a soft-synth studio, and Dimension Pro--a virtual instrument.

SONAR creates projects that allow the operator to edit MIDI files, raw audio tracks, and other associated information like lyrics, and to present them in a range of formats including musical scores, editing console, event lists, etc. The operator can also mix the various tracks down into a stereo .WAV format ready to be saved on a CD.

Although MIDI is a widely recognized standard for representation of digital music, there is no broadly accepted standard for the interchange of projects between competing recording/editing software (e.g., see Cubase). Consequently, one can not easily import a Cubase project in its native format into SONAR and vice versa. You can however swap multitrack audio projects between applications as OMFI files, which keeps audio timing, tempo, volume, and pan information intact.

Project5 is a host application for software synthesizers. In Project5 version 2 Cakewalk introduced audio recording capabilities and a "Groove Matrix" which allows live performance of groove clips (either audio or MIDI). Project5 is an open platform for hosting hundreds of commercial and free software synthesizers. A very helpful user community has formed around Project5 in the Cakewalk online forums and have even begun a popular [http://p5.sonarama.com/ Project5 Wiki] .

Originally, back in the 1980s and in the 1990s, the company was named "Twelve Tone Systems, Inc." and "Cakewalk" was the name of their flagship MIDI sequencer, first for DOS and since 1991 for Windows 3.0. Early versions of Cakewalk for DOS (up to 3.0) required the intelligent mode of the MPU-401 card and could not be used with today's clones, while later versions (since 4.0) relied on dumb UART mode only. Cakewalk was renamed "Cakewalk Pro" at some point, and later into "Cakewalk Pro Audio" when support for digitized audio was added.

Greg Hendershot is the managing director.

Current Cakewalk products

Sequencers & Digital Audio Workstations
#SONAR 7 Producer Edition (Flagship DAW)
#SONAR 7 Studio Edition
#SONAR Home Studio 6
#SONAR Home Studio 6 XL
#Project5 Version 2
#Guitar Tracks Pro

Integrated Hardware and Software
#SONAR Power Studio 250 (25 outside the US)
#SONAR Power Studio 660 (66 outside the US)
#USB Music Pack

Instruments
#Dimension Pro
#Rapture
#Z3TA+
#SFZ+
#Studio Instruments
#Session Drummer 2
#Pentagon
#Square
#TriangleEffects
#Sonitus:fx Suite

Consumer Products
#Kinetic
#Music Creator
#Pyro
#USB Music Pack

:"Products have multiple versions" [http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/default.asp]

Awards given to Cakewalk

*2007
**"Electronic Musician's" Editor's Choice
**"Keyboard Magazine" KeyBuy Award
**"Music and Sound Retailer", Best New Software Product

*2006
**Computer Music Editor's Choice
**Mix Certified Hit
**Remix Editor's Choice Best Soft Synth Workstation
**Remix Editor's Choice Best DAW
**Guitar Player Reader's Choice
**Music and Sound Retailer Best New Software Product
**MMR Dealer's Choice Award

*2005
**Computer Music Editor's Choice
**Keyboard Magazine KeyBuy
**Musikmesse International Press Award (MIPA) Best Recording Software
**Music and Sound Retailer Best New Software Product

*2004
**Computer Music Reader's Choice Award Best Sequencer
**Keyboard Magazine Key Buy
**Music and Sound Retailer Best New Software Product

*2003
**Pro Audio Review PAR Excellence
**Maximum PC Softie
**Mix Magazine 2003 TEC Awards Nominee
**Music and Sound Retailer's Best New Music Software/Multimedia Product
**Computer Music Editor's Choice

*2002
**Keyboard Magazine's Key Buy Award
**Electronic Musician's Editor's Choice Award
**Videomaker's Best Soundtrack Editing Product
**Music and Sound Retailer's Best New Music Software/Multimedia Product
**AV Video's Platinum Award
**Acoustic Guitar's Player's Choice Gold Award

*2001
**American Foundation for the Blind Equality of Access & Opportunity Award
**Music and Sound Retailer's Best New Music Software/Multimedia Product
**Musical Merchandise Review Dealers' Choice Award for Best New Software Product (two **Cakewalk products received this award this year)
**MP3.com 5-star rating
**Future Music Platinum Award
**Computer Music Smart Buy Award

*2000
**Computer Shopper's 5-Star Award
**EQ Magazine's Best Multitrack Recording Software
**Music and Sound Retailer's Best New Music Software/Multimedia Product
**Prorec.com's Best Multitrack Software
**Macworld's 4-Star Rating

*1999
**Keyboard Magazine's KEYBUY Award
**Maximum PC's Kick Ass Product
**Music and Sound Retailer's Best New Music Software
**Music and Sound Retailer's Best-selling Music Software
**Musician Magazine Editor's Pick
**Post Magazine's Award for Technical Excellence in Audio Recording/Editing Software
**Game Developers' Front Line Award [Nominee]

*1998
**Pro Audio Review's Reviewers Pick Award for Best of 1998
**Pro Audio Review's PAR Excellence Award for Best of 1998 AES Show
**MacWorld Four Mice Rating
**Maximum PC's Kick Ass Product
**Game Developers' Magazine Hall of Fame
**Game Developers' Front Line Award for Audio Composition
**Future Music Platinum Award
**Music and Sound Retailer's Best New Music Software
**Music and Sound Retailer's Best-selling Music Software

*1997
**Boot- Kick Ass Product
**Mix TEC (Technical Excellence and Creativity) Award
**Music and Sound Retailer's Best-selling Music Software
**Music and Sound Award for Most Innovative Music Software Product
**Post Magazine's Professionals' Choice Award

*1996
**Boot- Kick Ass Product
**Music and Sound Retailer's Best-selling Music Software
**Music and Sound Award for Most Innovative Music Software Product
**New Media- Awesome Award

*1995
**Electronic Musician's Editors' Choice for Best MIDI Sequencer
**Home PC's Readers' Choice Award
**Multimedia World's Readers' Choice for Best MIDI Software
**Music and Sound Retailer's Best-selling Music Software

*1994
**Home PC's Readers' Choice Award
**Multimedia World's Readers' Choice for Best MIDI Software
**Music and Sound Retailer's Best-selling Music Software

*1993 and earlier
**Music and Sound Retailer's Best-selling Music Software
**Music and Sound Award for Most Innovative Music Software Product
**PC Magazine's Editors' Choice :"source [http://cakewalk.com/News/awards.asp#Awards] "

External links

* [http://www.cakewalk.com/ Cakewalk]
* [http://sonar.sonarama.com/ SONAR User Wiki]
* [http://www.project5.com/ Project5]
* [http://p5.sonarama.com/ Project5 User Wiki]
* [http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=CakewalkSoftware Cakewalk's YouTube Channel]