Cakewalk is a company based in Boston, Massachusetts that develops music Software. Their best known product is the music sequencer SONAR, which is quite comprehensive and designed for use by professionals. SONAR incorporates multi-track recording and editing of both audio and MIDI. However, the company offers a full range of software products, including the Project5--a soft-synth studio.

SONAR creates projects which 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.

While MIDI is a fairly ubiquitous standard for representation of digital music, there is no broadly accepted standard for the interchange of projects between SONAR and other competing recording/editing software (e.g see Cubase). i.e. one can t easily import a Cubase recording in its native format into SONAR and vice versa.

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 has a fantastic user interface for dealing with MIDI and 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.x. Interestingly, 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.

=Cakewalk products=

#SONAR #PYRO #PROJECT 5 #Home Studio #Kinetic #Music Creator #Plasma 2003 #Cakewalk VST Adapter #Cakewalk MP3 Encoder #Cakewalk Loop Series : Products have multiple versions [http://cakewalk.com/Products/default.asp]

=Awards given to Cakewalk=

*2005

**Musikmesse International Press Award (MIPA) Best Recording Software *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 Award 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 link =