CAKEWALK SONAR LIVES — BANDLAB TECHNOLOGIES ACQUIRES CAKEWALK BRAND FROM GIBSON:
[Updated at 17.20pm GMT to reflect CEO Meng Kuok’s statement about not charging existing SONAR customers again for cross-grades and also BandLab’s hiring of Cakewalk personnel]
BandLab Technologies — the company behind social music platform BandLab, as well as Rolling Stone magazine, Mono cases, Harmony Guitars and more — have today announced the acquisition of certain assets and the complete set of intellectual property of Cakewalk Inc. from Gibson Brands.
CEO of BandLab Technologies, Meng Ru Kuok said, “The teams at both Gibson and BandLab felt that Cakewalk’s products deserved a new home where development could continue. We are pleased to be supporting Cakewalk’s passionate community of creators to ensure they have access to the best possible features and music products under the BandLab Technologies banner.”
It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster for Sonar users since November 2017 when previous owners Gibson unexpectedly announced that they were ceasing development of the popular Windows-based DAW. This latest news will come as a huge relief to those who rely on Sonar and other Cakewalk products such as the Z3TA +2 and Rapture Pro synths. There’s every reason to be optimistic about the future of Sonar after this announcement. BandLab have past form in acquiring and developing audio technologies — something they’ve done already with AudioStretch, an iOS app that slows down audio and video without any change to pitch for transcription and music learning.
As someone who has used Sonar as my primary digital audio workstation software since around 2000, for music, podcasts, and PJM’s late, lamented Sirius-XM show, I was genuinely stunned when Gibson unceremoniously pulled the plug on Cakewalk right around Thanksgiving of last year, after acquiring the company in 2013. I don’t know anything about BrandLab other than what is reported above, but I’m glad somebody bought the Cakewalk brand, which dates back to 1987.
Related: Speaking of Gibson, “S&P lowered its rating for Gibson to CCC-minus, from the already very low rating of CCC. S&P says a CCC-minus rating indicates that a default is imminent,” CNN reports, adding, “The company has $145 million in outstanding bank loans that will come due on July 23 and another $377 million of outstanding secured notes maturing on August 1. ‘With multiple maturities looming and operating weakness ongoing, we believe Nashville-based Gibson Brands could default on its debt obligations over the next six months,’ said S&P in a report from analyst Francis Cusimano Jr.”