Ashwin Rao

Welcome to our bi-weekly update! We're committed to keeping you in the loop about our progress, much of which is shaped by community suggestions. This week, we're excited to share some key updates on Sonar. Color Customization A simple yet effective approach to color theming is well underway. We know it’s important to personalize your workspace, not just for aesthetics, but for creating a comfortable environment that reduces eye strain and helps you stay in the creative space longer. We're designing a system that is both powerful and easy to use. We're closing in on the first edition and expect to release it to the beta team shortly. Plugin Updates We're continuing to enhance our suite of plugins based on user feedback. Here’s a sneak peek at what’s in the works: Long awaited updates for the LP EQ and LP Multiband are almost here. Retooled for modern systems, these plugins provide exceptional sonic transparency for surgical, artifact-free adjustments. The Adaptive Limiter is also getting an overhaul and will be deployed alongside the LPs. This power trio will bring a powerful, mastering-grade toolkit to your mixes, available later in Q4. Soon, you'll see spectrum analyzer overlays integrated into some of our Core effects. This will provide immediate, precise visual feedback right where you need it, making it faster to identify frequency issues and make informed EQ decisions. Early Access Returns! We are reintroducing the Early Access program, which will be available to Next and Sonar users. This will help us gather more pre-release feedback before final deployment. It also reinforces our commitment to transparency and building the future of Sonar together with you. On the Horizon We’re cooking up some other new features that we can’t wait to put in your hands: Soon you'll be able to probe various tap points with integrated signal analysis, helping you visualize your audio's journey in real-time and troubleshoot routing issues with ease and precision. Global app search is in the works, designed to get you to your tools faster than ever. Get ready to turbocharge your workflow! We’ll be back in two weeks with another update. Thank you for your continued support and feedback! Best regards, The Cakewalk Team

In this, our second bi-weekly product update, we’re focusing on Cakewalk Next! Our goal with bi-weekly updates is to provide more transparency about what we’re working on and why, and remain engaged with you to ensure you’re getting the most value out of every release. ICYMI: Cakewalk Next is Now Free to Use Cakewalk Next is now available as a comprehensive free tier. Whether you’re just starting out or you’re a seasoned producer, you can now use Next’s quick yet powerful workflow to record, edit, mix, and publish your music to BandLab, completely free. Latest Updates Last week's update (version 1.0.1.657) is packed with new creative tools and workflow improvements, including: Access to a comprehensive set of free samples from BandLab Sounds, directly available in the Loop Browser As a workflow improvement for BandLab Studio users, Sampler tracks now automatically import into Cakewalk Next as a Pad Controller track, with all your original samples perfectly mapped. We recently announced the availability of Cakewalk Core plugins, a suite of essential, high-quality, low-CPU track effects. An update with improvements and a new plugin is coming within a few days. NEW: Spatial Panner - a perceptual sound panner with Doppler and attenuation rendering, and graphical path editing for immersive automated panning effects. Phase scope visualizer - Core Phase now has a scope display that provides a real-time visualization of the stereo relationship between the left and right channels of an audio signal. This release is also packed with stability and feature improvements with MIDI, XSampler, UI, Sounds and more. Many of these fixes address issues directly reported by you - thank you for your detailed feedback. It helps make Next a better experience for everyone. On the horizon Your feedback is shaping our roadmap, and we're excited to give you a sneak peek at what's in the pipeline based on your top requests: Piano Roll View updates, bringing next-level improvements to MIDI editing workflows and beat making capabilities. Performance boosts on Mac will bring smoother, faster, and more responsive performance, allowing for more CPU headroom for more tracks and effects. And more premium plugins on the way - more on that soon. We'll be back in two weeks with another update! Best regards, The Cakewalk Team

Hi Everyone, Our apologies, our engineers are aware of this issue and are working to rectify the upcoming September build. If you're currently on the 2025.09 build, please revert to 2025.08 by accessing Product Center and selecting 'Download and Update' under Cakewalk Sonar. Installing this should get you back to version 2025.08 If you're unable to obtain 2025.08, please refer to the link here for the download. Once installed, sign in with your BandLab account to reactivate. If you're still experiencing issues, please contact us at support@cakewalk.com. Thank you!

This is the first of our new, bi-weekly product updates relevant to all of our software. Our goal is simple: to be transparent about what we’re working on and why. We've been heads-down, not just on small fixes, but on a series of major updates designed to address your most frequent requests. Here are some of our immediate priorities: Color customization We are in the process of refining our existing themes and bringing new color theme customization capabilities. We look forward to posting more about this soon! Stability We remain dedicated to hunting down and resolving other reported differences in behavior between CbB and Sonar to ensure a seamless transition for those of you still on CbB. With our focus shifted to Cakewalk Sonar, we've made numerous improvements. Widespread field testing has revealed a few regressions that we’re happy to report are now fixed, including a fix for virtual desktop window support, which arose from high DPI support changes. Core Plugins (Early Preview) We recently announced the availability of Cakewalk Core plugins, a suite of essential, high-quality, low-CPU track effects. An update with improvements and a new plugin is coming within a few days. NEW: Spatial Panner - a perceptual sound panner with Doppler and attenuation rendering, and graphical path editing for immersive automated panning effects. Phase scope visualizer - Core Phase now has a scope display that provides a real-time visualization of the stereo relationship between the left and right channels of an audio signal. Sonar’s preset manager now has direct access to factory presets and will automatically migrate any Sonitus user presets you may have saved previously. UI refinements Read more about the Core plugins here On the horizon We are working on bringing more instruments and effects, track management improvements, and a novel workflow enhancement that could be a game changer for many. These are just a few of our priorities, with your feedback continuing to be a key driver of our roadmap. We’ll be back in two weeks with another update! Best regards, The Cakewalk Team

Hi, the issue has been fixed and is now on our latest release. Please update to the latest version of Sonar and try importing your BandLab Project again.

Hi everyone, We’ve been listening closely to feedback from across the Cakewalk community, and we want to address some of the main concerns around the transition from Cakewalk by BandLab (CbB) to Sonar. Extended access to CbB We’ve extended CbB access through September 30 to give you more time to plan, prepare, and transition at your own pace. We heard that the original timeline felt too short, and we agree that more breathing room will help make the process smoother. Sonar is still Cakewalk at its core Sonar builds on the same workflow and feature depth that long-time users rely on, with significant performance and stability upgrades under the hood, including a modernized engine, improved handling of heavy project loads, and better support for high-resolution displays. If you’re coming from CbB, it will feel familiar, but faster, sharper, and ready for what’s next. Improving usability We’re introducing expanded color customization and theming controls to give you more flexibility in how the DAW looks and feels. We will also continue to evaluate ways to make Sonar easier and more comfortable for everyone to use. Thank you to everyone who has shared feedback and helped others through the transition. Getting it right for the long-term means listening, especially to people like you who know the product inside out. We’ll continue to share updates here and across our channels, and we remain committed to supporting this community through the next chapter. — The Cakewalk Team

Hi there, I'm sorry for the frustration. To clarify, first-time subscribers can get an annual membership for USD$99 and a recurring subscription for USD$149 the year after. USD$149 is our standard annual BandLab membership pricing without any discounts. If you've already subscribed to a monthly or annual membership, it will automatically recur upon its expiry date. Your BandLab account has a membership option under Settings, which shows your current status and when it is due for renewal. Here's a direct link once you've logged in to your BandLab account - https://www.bandlab.com/settings/membership We highly recommend not cancelling and re-subscribing, as discounts or sales do not work for current subscribers. We will introduce alternative sales/discounts for these subscribers in the near future. If you're experiencing payment issues or concerns with pricing, please write in a request to us via Submit a Request

Hi there, Happy to assist. If these crashes generate a .dmp file, please send in a request via https://help.cakewalk.com/hc/en-us/requests/new Cheers!

Hi Kamikaze, We're sorry for the frustration. We've been interacting with your ticket no. 2030557, but noticed that we did not get a recent reply. Can I check with you if you've been reaching out to us via our Submit A Request or through our email at support@cakewalk.com? The screenshot above shows you're trying to file a bug report via the Help Menu. These reports will only be sent to our developers and not through support. Nevertheless, I've created a follow-up with ticket no. 2038073, and you should be able to reach out to us there. Let me know how it goes.

Hi! Could you write to us at support@cakewalk.com with your BandLab email address? We can help investigate this issue along with the BandLab project in question.

Hi there, Thanks for highlighting this issue. We've checked our records, but we did not receive a support request from your email address. We've reached out to you with your email on hand to investigate this issue further.

Hi, we've recently fixed this issue with the latest Next update. Could you try updating to the latest version via Cakewalk Product Center and try importing a project again?

Greetings, everyone! Over the past few years, we have been working hard to enhance Cakewalk Sonar and make it a more powerful and modern digital audio workstation. Now, we are excited to introduce a new free tier that makes Sonar's capabilities available to everyone. This free version is designed for both longtime users and new producers. It delivers much of the same functionality as Cakewalk by BandLab while including new features previously exclusive to the subscription version of Cakewalk Sonar. Download Free Sonar via Cakewalk Product Center This version is built to support the future of Cakewalk while remaining true to the workflow and power that producers depend on. As part of this transition, Cakewalk by BandLab will no longer offer activation renewal after 1 August 2025. Existing installations will continue to function until their activation period ends. For those seeking even more advanced tools and expanded functionality, a premium tier is available for Sonar through BandLab Membership. This premium tier unlocks additional tools and features, which you can learn more about through the announcement post. We've also updated the Cakewalk Sonar website and added a new FAQ section regarding the transition from CbB to Sonar (scroll down to the end to read them)

Happy to announce that our Sonar Help Center now supports the Japanese language. Please feel free to let us know what you think! And if there are any translation errors, please let us know via support@cakewalk.com. You can access the Help Center and change the language via the screenshot below. Or use the direct link here - https://help.cakewalk.com/hc/ja/categories/32483976563737-Cakewalk-Sonar

Hi Max, could you write to us at support@cakewalk.com? Our team will be able to better assist with this issue and will take a look at what's causing the mouse to disappear. Thanks!

We'll take note of this issue with the current Sonitus Plugin and share it with the team. Thanks for reporting!

If you're using Cakewalk by BandLab, offline activation is possible via the Cakewalk Product Center - https://help.cakewalk.com/hc/en-us/articles/900006210046-Activating-Cakewalk-by-BandLab

Hi David, apologies for the frustration. If you haven't, we'd advise you to write to us at support@cakewalk.com. We can help provide some troubleshooting steps and try recreating the issue.

Hi, Misha. I am happy to share more information regarding your concerns with future plugins and the value they might bring. We're discussing internally bringing back our old legacy plugins, such as Z3TA+2, Rapture Pro, etc., but potentially in the form of a new synth engine since we hold onto the rights to these legacy products' code. Perhaps a brand new plugin with inspiration from the old one? We also have plans to incorporate BandLab's plugins, such as AudioStretch and even AutoPitch, into the Cakewalk ecosystem as VST plugins. These are all in the works that could hopefully deliver a strong release for a perpetual license IF we decide to do so in the future, but I cannot guarantee it will be 100% as the business still makes that decision. However, rest assured that these new potential plugins, features, and revamps will all be included as a part of BandLab Membership as long as you are a subscriber. If a perpetual license does not come to fruition, we might work on a cheaper subscription pricing model just for Sonar and Next.

Thanks! I've reported it to the developers who will be looking into it.

Hi! We're sorry about this issue. It could be that you did not allow cookies when prompted while landing on the BandLab page. Enabling cookies or using an alternative browser should resolve this issue. The Black Friday sale has ended. However, we are still running experimental pricing. Annual Membership is now 44% off at $99! If you're still experiencing discount issues, don't hesitate to contact us at support@cakewalk.com.

HI! Next's release notes are currently embedded within the app itself. You will view the latest release notes once you fire up or update Next. We will check with the developers to have a dedicated link for it. There are also plans for the website to be updated to display these release notes and features. Stay tuned!

Hi! It's one of the most requested queries, and a perpetual or a product-based license/subscription is certainly being considered for Sonar and Next. We do not have immediate plans for this rollout yet, but we're optimistic as we develop these products. At present, Sonar and Next will still be a part of BandLab Membership.

Our apologies regarding this. We hope to make it possible for current subscribers to upgrade or extend their membership plans through these deals in the future. We sent the Black Friday Sale email to everyone who subscribed to our Cakewalk newsletters without filtering out our current subscribers. This is also one of our biggest sales so far, and we're actively working on improving our outreach. I've already forwarded your feedback to our internal team.

Hi! We did notice a few users experiencing this issue. Ensure that you've accepted all cookies when landing on the membership page for the discount to trigger. Alternatively, try another browser and head to https://www.bandlab.com/membership to see if that triggers the discount.