GIBSON PLAYS HARD

25 September 2013

From a Gibson press release, buried within a jumble of legal gobbledegook such as “pursuant to definitive acquisition agreements” is the news that Gibson is making a serious play to purchase Cakewalk, the developer of Sonar. The language is quite amiable and it seems to be just a matter of thrashing out the finer details, before Roland Corporation hands over Cakewalk, which will then come under the mantle of a newly-created company called Tascam Professional Software. Cakewalk will continue to operate out of its Boston headquarters as an independent division and apparently won’t lose any of its identity or branding. What will be very interesting to watch is how the Sonar/Roland partnership will morph across to a Sonar/Tascam relationship. And with a new Tascam DAW software division does this herald the end of Tascam’s Portastudio range of recorders? At the moment the Portastudio DP-24 is described by Tascam’s website as “the best and most affordable way to remove the mind-numbing glow of the computer screen from personal recording”. That should get a rewrite. But forget Gibson, this is all about big changes at Tascam. How far will it go?