New Cakewalk Home Studio 9 adds more audio tracks and effects, thousands of new audio and MIDI drum loops, a sleek new mixing console, and a free MIDI plug-in to an already very full-featured digital audio/MIDI workstation. Some significant new features are: twice the audio tracks of earlier versions with eight, simultaneous stereo tracks during playback and 256 virtual tracks available; professional response time (little or no latency) to mixing, muting, solo, record, effects parameters, track playback and other real-time audio functions; performance indicator meters show real-time visual feedback of CPU and disk activity.

Enhanced mixdown options provide additional control for bouncing tracks and preparing mixes for CD's. MP3, RealSystem G2 and Windows Media files are all supported allowing users to mix and encode to the most popular compression formats for distribution over the Internet. Multitrack Piano View provides the ability to display, select, and edit multiple MIDI tracks simultaneously through a Piano Roll GUI. Users have complete control over which tracks should be displayed, which tracks should be shown in front or behind others, and which tracks should be active for selection, editing, or playback.