Its surprisingly difficult to find and install CakeWalk

[Francois van der Merwe]

When you Google CakeWalk you get redirected to Bandlab.com . Then on Bandlab homepage there is no mention or link to Cakewalk. 

And its not only me, here are a Reddit link to someone who also agree.

 

[User 905133]

Early in 2018 I had a similar problem and only found out Cakewalk was alive and well about 6 weeks ago or so. Personally, I feel it would have been nice if BandLab had reached out more directly to those of us who have been long-time Cakewalk/SONAR users (instead of letting us stumble on it).*  However, all of the BandLab links I got just now from a Google search mention and lead to Cakewalk by BandLab.  So far as I know, it has been that way for the past month or two (at least since I found it).  

The Google Search for just "Cakewalk" here puts as number 1 the old Cakewalk (circa 2108) and has outdated information.  Cakewalk by BandLab was number 2.

In the popular press, I have heard all kinds of things about Google's search engine.  I am not at all sure how it works, but maybe more people need to search "Cakewalk" and click the Cakewalk by BandLab link so it will raise to number 1.  I am not sure if the new owners of Cakewalk can ask Google to change it.  Well, they can probably ask (and might already have done so), but I am not sure Google responds to those kinds of requests.  From what I have seen in the news, their go-to response is something like--"It's algorithm-based" to avoid the appearance of bias.

I can't speak for anyone official; just sharing some of my experiences.  Hope you can get the new and improved Cakewalk working; I have been enjoying re-learning it (including z3ta+ pre-2 and Dimension Pro, from previous purchases).

Steve 

*BTW, back in 2018, the only thing I found after the announcement of BandLab's SONAR/Cakewalk acquistion was the web-based BandLab app which was not what I could use for my own personal needs.

[Jim Fogle]

Accurate observation.  I suspect part of the reason is how Bandlab Technologies is composed of multiple, standalone entities.  From the outside looking in there doesn't appear to be many direct channels of communication between the group responsible for BandLab Assistant, the group responsible for the DAW, the group responsible for the website and the group responsible for the social platform.    Integration is happening but in small steps.

[Starship Krupa]

I've tried to do my part by at least doing some much-needed cleanup on Wikipedia in the old Cakewalk and SONAR articles, and adding CbB to the lists of DAW's and music production software, setting facts straight, and with links to the Cakewalk by BandLab site.

It was a miserable mess, and if you go check it out, please don't blame me for what's there now, mostly what I could do was grammar and rough timeline cleanup, and remove ad copy and useless lists of unimplemented features from the SONAR page. I corrected what facts I could.

I would like to someday start an article on Cakewalk by BandLab itself, but that's a big task, and the SONAR article is so garbled as to be unusable as a starting point.

[Some Guy]

Also going to cakewalk.bandlab.com loads and then instantly redirects to bandlab.com

The product page is surprisingly sparse, as well. Honestly doesn't tell you anything about the actual product.

Why didn't they just migrate the old site to BandLab domain and edit out the references to Gibson/Sonar?

I still think changing the product name was a massive blunder for discoverability. 

[mkerl]

Interesting. Searching Google (or Bing) for "cakewalk" leads me to cakewalk.com. A Popup appears, one click and I'm at Bandlab.com/products/cakewalk. Without the popup (in repetition) clicking on "learn more" leads to Bandlab.com/products/cakewalk too. There you have some Information (Ads) and finally the Downloadlink to Bandlab Assistant. (Last Version)

In  search results I also found Links to Computer Magazines with tests of CbB and download-links. CbB usually is highly recommended.

Edited August 28, 2019 by mkerl