Cakewalk today announced that Sonar – a digital audio workstation with its roots in DOS, nearly three decades ago – is making the jump to Mac OS X.
And it’s going to be free.
SONAR OS X Alpha
This fall, Cakewalk plans to release Sonar OS X Alpha – a free version of the DAW that comes with a set of Cakewalk plug-ins and ProChannel modules and works with any Core Audio interface.
“Ever since SONAR appeared, Apple users have been asking for a Mac version,” says Cakewalk CTO Noel Borthwick. “We’re excited to explore SONAR for OS X, and open up our award-winning Windows software to a brand new audience of music creators.”
Cakewalk says it’s releasing the free version first, to gauge interest in a full Mac port. The company also has planned a dedicated forum will solicit feedback on the program and provide support.
Here’s a video of the announcement from CakeTV:
Cakewalk also announced news for Windows users.
SONAR Platinum with Lifetime Updates
From June 1 through August 31 2016, purchasing or upgrading to SONAR Platinum will get you free, lifetime updates of any future core features, enhancements, and fixes. Customers who purchase SONAR Platinum with Lifetime Updates will never again need to pay for another renewal of the Rolling Updates plan.
They also have announced that Cakewalk’s development team is focusing on a curated list of outstanding issues and requests from the SONAR community. Slated enhancements include a new ripple editing function, “load balancing” to allow loading more plug-ins without sacrificing speed, and updated comping and take management.
Pricing & Availability
SONAR OS X Alpha is expected to be available this fall, as a free download. You can find about about it and the new Platinum Lifetime Updates plan at the Cakewalk site.
Weren’t we just talking about Acid Pro making news? I’m starting to feel that we’ve somehow slipped into the 90’s, and next we will be reading how Reason is going to be the DAW of choice this summer! I’m a bit curious to know what (if anything other than coincidence) is resurrecting these names at the same time!
I’m glad it is free, and would be curious to check it out. My experience with Cakewalks support has been … well… one-sided. I’ve contacted their support many times and have gotten zero help or responses.
It is possible cakewalk HAS support, I’ve just never seen evidence of it.
My experience with Cakewalk Tech support has been the opposite of yours. They answer the phone within 2 minutes and solve my problems quickly. There was one problem I had that they could not solve and it turned out it was the diver on my video card, which once it was updated, solved the problem. They also did a remote access once to check some settings. I have called them many times when I was first learning the DAW. Since then, I rarely call, but when I do, their tech team is the best. I deal with tech support teams a lot in my line of work and Cakewalk has one of the best.
> “We’re excited to explore SONAR for OS X, and open up our award-winning Windows software to a brand new audience of music creators.”
Not much of a new audience. Think they just lost a lot of their old ‘been upgrading since it was twelve tone systems’ audience to OSX.
What would rule would be to seem them release a port of Cakewalk 5 for DOS, blocky graphics and all. What a great MIDI sequencer. Kinda lost the plot with Windows 3.1 and audio DLLs and never really recovered imo
i suspect that you really have no current experience with Sonar… or, if so, please state what version you used.. The current version, Sonar Platinum is extremely comprehensive and very robust.
We need emulations of the Mac Classic cause my macbook is way to fast for the nineties. also some bleached jeans and cable modems. Yeah! And analog synths of the 70`s! Why move into the dark future when it`s so easy to recreate the past? Full scale Old school Revival but with boring sonic results will be the heritage we will leave. These are some exciting times!! WOOOOOO YYYYYYY!!!!!!!!
I switched to Mac and Logic in 2008, but I am curious to find out whether I will be able to migrate some old Sonar projects to OSX, and hopefully bring in some of those AU plugins, lol.
Is that asking too much? I hope not. Even just having the old versions archived will be kind of nice.
iPad version?
they already have some aps for iPad
Sonar is the reason I’m still on a PC. They handle MIDI better than any DAW I’ve experienced.
* address NRPNs by their number values, instead or separate MSB: LSB
* friendly renaming of all ports
* easy to make custom patch lists for your synths
* easy to rename controllers based on your synths, including NRPNS.
* handles sysex as both realtime in a channel, and as dumps stored with the project
If all of this is maintained on the Mac side, I’m sold.
Wow! I used Sonar 9 years ago on a PC and, sorry to say, I liked Sonar, but absolutely despised Windows! I switched to Mac then and because of the reliability and ease, I have used Logic Pro since! I always wished Cakewalk would make a Mac version, but it just seemed Sonar was too stubborn, and stuck on the Microcrud Kool Aid. I wouldn’t use Windows if was the only computer in the world!!! I HATE them. Hopefully, the new Sonar will work smoothly on the Mac. Anxiously waiting to try it!
I just want to know your first line products ( software) and the year they debut. From Cakewalk for Dos to the present.
Please hurry with Sonar for Mac! I’ve been running Sonar Producer for years now on a Mac Book Pro using the VMWare Fusion environment and just last week something went corrupt and I cannot get it working again! We have around 1500 people attending our service each Sunday and I use Sonar like crazy! I do not want to lose my bells and whistles! Plus… do you guys offer pricing for churches? I’m pretty sure you do not offer the upgrade cross platform… hmmmmm??
Anyway… Sonar for Mac (and Churches….) make it so.
(We’ve been a customer for a long time…. beachCHURCH… DBA – Myrtle Beach Community Church)