Cakewalk, Top Windows Music Dev, Seeking Mac Beta Testers (But . . .) [Updated]
Peter Kirn - September 26, 2005
Mystery solved: Cakewalk introduced the Dimension Pro synth for Mac and Windows simultaneously the week of AES.
A post on KVR Audio which appears to be from the Cakewalk beta team suggests that Cakewalk is looking for Mac OS X beta testers:
Cakewalk is looking for OSX Beta Testers [KVR Message Topic]
Cakewalk (aka 12 Tone Systems) is a long-time leading PC/Windows developer, since their founding in the late 1980s. Their early products were DOS-based, but all their flagship, in-house development has been PC-only. Products like Metro have occasionally brought them to the Mac (thanks to that commenter, yes, a fine product I remember well — er, aside from I forgot it), and, briefly, the cross-platform Overture notation software originally developed by Opcode. But they've never launched a major product for the Mac.
So, what's happening on the Mac? If I knew, I'd be under NDA. Unfortunately, the only information I can share would therefore either have to be speculation — or wrong. And, wishful thinking aside, you probably won't be running Project5 v2 on the Mac any time soon. More likely, as another reader points out, is the Z3TA+ waveshaping synth (pictured), inexplicably pronounced "zay-tah." Cakewalk got distribution rights from rgc:audio, whose other great plugins have started showing up in products like SONAR. (And, having tried it on Windows, it's good stuff.)
Huge news? Okay, maybe not. Big news? I still think so, especially if the Mac gets more terrific plugins. And while Cakewalk may not be plotting a Mac move, that doesn't change the fact that they could. In fact, I'm one of those who thinks they should, if development costs aren't too high. SONAR would be redundant on a platform that already has DP, Logic, Pro Tools, Live, and other DAWs, but Project5 v2 could be a logical jump. I think the reasons they're not on the Mac could be more religious than economical — and that could keep them PC loyal for a long time to come. But that's okay by me. I have to have some reason to keep the PC around.
By the way, on the subject of Metro, that sequencer is still alive:
Metro [Sagan Technology]
. . . Opcode notwithstanding, sometimes discontinued software gets a second lease on life. Now my memory is that Metro was originally not a Cakewalk product, that it's something they bought (like Overture). Can anyone set me straight?
Tags: beta, Cakewalk, developers, Mac, Plug-ins, Windows
Scratch for Less, Scratch Your Computer: Which is Your Turntable of Choice?
Real World Digital Audio Countdown Begins
CHORDimist is an insane Max for Live chord-generating MIDI effect
MacWindows
Map anything in Ableton Live's Browser to MIDI, keyboard with Max for Live
Bitwig Studio just added a free vocoder, because Xmas
Get a free plug-in version of the 1176 Peak Limiter