Cakewalk Sonar is a world-leading DAW – a professional production tool for creating and recording music. It harnesses and continues the legacy of more than 30 years of development, including all core premium features of SONAR Platinum, such as the award-winning Skylight user interface, flexible ProChannel modules, ARA support, and powerful end-to-end 64-bit mix engine.
Yes, Sonar is free to use, but many exclusive features are offered as part of a BandLab Membership as a paid upgrade.
Cakewalk Sonar is currently available through our Cakewalk Product Center on the Cakewalk Sonar website. If you have a BandLab account, you can also purchase BandLab Membership here, or learn more about it in the BandLab Membership FAQ.
At this time, the fully unlocked versions of Cakewalk Next and Cakewalk Sonar are available exclusively through BandLab Membership.
Yes, Cakewalk Sonar builds and improves on Cakewalk by BandLab, offering advanced technology, effortless workflow, and an interface that amplifies inspiration. Cakewalk by BandLab will cease to operate after 1 August 2025.
Yes, Cakewalk Sonar can open projects made in Cakewalk by BandLab. Conversely, Cakewalk by BandLab can open projects made in Cakewalk Sonar. However, any new features or capabilities that are exclusively available in Cakewalk Sonar will not be available in Cakewalk by BandLab.
Cakewalk Sonar represents a new brand identity, introducing a significant UI refresh with high DPI display support, feature enhancements, and a platform committed to ongoing feature development. The latest capabilities of Cakewalk by BandLab will carry forward into Sonar, along with a continued focus on performance and stability. While hundreds of improvements have been made since SONAR Platinum was discontinued, Cakewalk Sonar will be able to open projects created in SONAR and Cakewalk by BandLab.
No, the two applications install to different locations on your file system, so they can coexist on your computer.
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