Cakewalk^® Announces SONAR Will Support
Digidesign™ 001™, 002™, MBox™ and Pro Tools|HD Hardware

—SONAR gives Digidesign customers extensive audio and MIDI software tools for their PC studios—

Boston (December 5, 2002) - Cakewalk, developer of the leading music and sound software for Windows, has announced that its flagship SONAR audio and MIDI production software will support Digidesign audio hardware, including the Digi 001, 002, Mbox, and Pro Tools|HD products. Now Digidesign customers can expand their PC studios with SONAR's integrated audio and MIDI recording software, including DirectX audio effects, DXi software synths, ACID™-compatible loop editing tools, and support for ReWire instruments. Cakewalk will support Digidesign hardware using Digidesign's recently announced ASIO drivers for Windows XP. Cakewalk will provide a driver update to all registered SONAR 2.x customers in early 2003. SONAR already supports a wide range of Windows audio hardware using Microsoft's industry-standard WDM and MME drivers.

"Until now, Digidesign customers weren't able to extend their studios with SONAR's complementary suite of audio and MIDI tools," commented Michael Hoover, director of product management at Cakewalk. "With SONAR's new support for Digidesign audio hardware, Digidesign customers can take advantage of SONAR's unique tool set, with features like extensive MIDI and audio editing, automatable DirectX audio effects, low-latency DXi software synths, ACID-compatible audio loop editing, and support for ReWire instruments."

Cakewalk's award-winning SONAR is the industry's only digital audio and MIDI production software designed and optimized exclusively for the Windows platform. SONAR offers unlimited digital audio and MIDI tracks; a centralized interface design for improved creative workflow; advanced audio looping and editing tools; ReWire 2.0 support; global support for control surface hardware; DXi software synthesizer plug-ins; fully-automatable DirectX 8 audio plug-ins; real-time MIDI FX plug-ins; and extensive audio loops and SoundFont libraries.

In October 2002, the company released a free SONAR 2.1 Update on its web site that adds support for OMFI file exchanges between compatible software like Pro Tools, Avid, and Logic. The 2.1 Update also adds support for the Mackie Control™, allowing musicians and producers to use the popular Mackie surface hardware to control SONAR's recording, editing and mixing operations.

Pricing and Availability

A free SONAR update providing Digidesign hardware support will be available for all registered SONAR 2.x customers in February, 2003. Registered SONAR users will be able to download the update for free at www.cakewalk.com. SONAR has a manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) of $479 U.S.; SONAR XL is $599 MSRP. For more information, visit Cakewalk on the web at www.cakewalk.com; or call 888-CAKEWALK (617-423-9004 outside U.S.).

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About Cakewalk

Founded in 1987 and based in Boston, MA, Cakewalk is an international, industry-leading provider of software for music and sound creation. The company's award-winning products are used worldwide by more than 1,000,000 users, for applications including audio CD production, film/TV soundtracks, live stage sound, club remixes, computer game sound, multimedia applications, and Internet delivery.