20 years ago - Cakewalk press release, January '03: Sonar 2.2

[abacab 7,640]

Cakewalk® Announces SONAR™ 2.2, Expanding Support for Windows-compatible Audio Hardware

— Adds support for Windows ASIO drivers, in addition to WDM and MME drivers; Free 2.2 Download for Registered SONAR 2.x Users —

https://www.cakewalk.com/Press/Release/1004/01-16-03-SONAR22

Press release archive:

https://www.cakewalk.com/Press/2003

Edited January 27 by abacab

[craigb 6,858]

But did Sgt. Pepper teach the band to play too? 😁

[jesse g 1,325]

Over 20  years ago I downloaded something called Sonar 2.0 from Bear Share and fell in love with it,  When version 2.2 XL was realeased I purchased it and have purchaed every version I've owned until BandLab took over. 

Sonar set me on a straight path.  😭 Cakewalk Sonar changed my life for the better.  👍

Edited January 27 by jesse g

[bitflipper 3,014]

20 years ago I was still deep into my leave of absence from music, devoting 80-90 hours a week to coding, split between my demanding day job and my own startup. Living off gas station hot dogs and feeling like crap most of the time.

I went on like that until 2005 when a heart attack changed everything. Sold a vehicle, used the proceeds to buy a synth. Started playing live again. I decided to see what Cakewalk had been up to during my absence. SONAR 5 had just been released, so I gave it a go. It filled a hole I didn't even know existed.

Priorities shift after you've stared down Death.

[John Vere 1,779]

My first version of Cakewalk was around then. It came with Roland drum machines , keyboards etc. I was a Roland dealer and the sales Rep gave me a disk. It was called Guitar studio I think.  I couldn't get it to sync the audio ( Sound Blaster ) but I used it for midi.

I think it was 2005 I stumbled on the Cakewalk forum and started sorting things out and on advice bought a proper interface. ASIO was a new thing back then for sure and everyone was told to install asio4all which as it turns out was just as stupid as Creative Labs so called ASIO driver ( not). The M audio i bought was still suffering ASIO birth pains.  I started getting somewhere with the purchase of a Tascam then a Scarlett. I would safely say more than a decade had gone past before I got this stupid stuff working properly. They are all  sitting on the shelf and they all work just fine now that the ASIO drivers have finally been sorted out.  

And I'll add that Cakewalk  has paralleled  the development of better Audio drivers and is now (more or less) stable and (sort of) trouble free.  Too bad I'm too old to make use of this stuff properly anyhow.  

Edited January 27 by John Vere

[Colin Nicholls 757]

I am so old

[abacab 7,640]

I think we all are getting older. 🤣

I started using Cakewalk about 5 years prior to this Sonar 2.2 announcement...

[craigb 6,858]

1 hour ago, Colin Nicholls said:

I am so old

Getting older beats the currently known alternative!

[Rain 1,159]

The year I moved into my first appartment all by myself -  no roommates, no wife, no permanent gf.

I wrote quite a bit of music that year, although for some reason I don't remember working with Sonar 2 , so I must be thinking late 2003. Version 3 is where I felt it really came into its own, with the updated console, the new channel inspector, Speedoft VSampler and the Sonitus plug-ins (I'd been a big fan of the Sonitus bundle from way back in the days of Ultrafunk). At that point, it felt like Cakewalk really was working hard on building my dream DAW.

I LOVED that new  console.

Edited January 28 by Rain