Music Creator 6 Touch now available for download on Steam

Music Creator 6 Touch on SteamIf there is anything the Cakewalk crew likes as much as music, it’s computer technology.  So, as you might imagine, we have more than our fair share of hardcore PC gamers.

When the Cakewalk gamers found out that Steam (the enormous video game platform by Valve) was opening up to offer other computer software, we became hell-bent on being the first major music software on board.  And that day has finally come!

We a VERY happy to announce that Music Creator 6 Touch is now available for download on Steam!

Music Creator 6 Touch is a great fit for Steam users and anybody looking to get started making music with fun, powerful, and inexpensive recording software.  Music Creator 6 Touch makes it easy to create original music with no musical experience required. Music Creator has all the tools, loops, instruments, and FX needed to create, edit, and mix music, transforming any Windows 7 or 8 computer into a music studio. Musician’s can share music with the world by burning a CD or using SoundCloud to post music on Facebook and Twitter.

Music Creator 6 Touch was previously available as a download from Cakewalk’s store for $49.99/£39.99/€49.99, and now it makes its debut on Steam. Created by Valve, makers of best-selling game franchises like Portal and Counter-Strike, Steam has more than 50 million users around the world and offers more than 2,000 titles.  And the folks at Valve could not be cooler.

They let us have a little fun recreating the song “Want you gone” from the Portal 2 video game in Music Creator for the new Music Creator 6 Touch video.  Check it out!

Murder FM Finds Their Way to Revolver Magazine with SONAR X2; New Single “We the Evil” Finding International Success

The interesting and never-boring Texas-native front man of MURDER FM, Norman Matthew, will be guest appearing on the Cakewalk blog every other Monday (NorMondays) delivering music production tips, tricks and conditional evilness.  As a seasoned producer/songwriter/instrumentalist, he will be delving into his bag of production wickedness to shed some interesting light on how he approached sounds, songs and life in general;)

MURDER FM’s dark, edgy, and sleek style has been creating a buzz in the music industry domestically, and is quickly becoming a huge hit internationally.  Norman Matthew and the band have established a cult-like following, propelling two of the bands’ videos “As Beautiful as You Are” and “Machine Gun Kisses “to the Top-Ten list on Continue reading “Murder FM Finds Their Way to Revolver Magazine with SONAR X2; New Single “We the Evil” Finding International Success”

Download new Music Creator 6 Touch Bundles and save on great sounds

Music Creator 6 Touch

Music Creator 6 Touch makes it fun and easy to create original music or remix your favorite songs – with no musical experience required. Transform any Windows 7 or 8 computer into your own personal music studio. Music Creator has all the tools, loops, instruments, and FX you need to create, edit, and mix great music. And when you’re ready to share your music with the world, you can burn a CD or use SoundCloud to post your music on Facebook and Twitter.

Music Creator 6 Touch also adds touch support for Intel-inspired Ultrabooks and other Windows 8 touch enabled devices. Use the same multi-touch gestures you’ve grown accustomed to on your smartphone to interact with Music Creator 6 Touch.

Highlights

  • NEW! Seamlessly create, record, edit, and mix your music using the award-winning Skylight user interface – with over 100 enhancements
  • Get creative with 32 audio tracks and 128 instrument tracks
  • NEW! A complete backing band – features 6 virtual instruments including Studio Instruments (Bass, Drums, Electric Piano, and Strings)
  • All the must-have FX including Reverb, EQ, more
  • NEW! Plug-in your guitar and get incredible sounds using the Overloud TH2 Creator amp sim
  • NEW! Create beats and drum tracks with the integrated Step Sequencer
  • Trigger audio and MIDI loops using the Matrix View for real-time performance and remixing
  • Easily drag and drop loops, instruments, FX, and project templates from the built-in Browser
  • NEW! Windows 7 and 8 support
  • NEW! Use any Windows 8 touch enabled device and interact directly with the software using your hands (touch device not required to use the software)

Save more with new bundles: You can get even more value and savings when you purchase Music Creator 6 Touch bundles which include Music Creator 6 Touch plus additional sound packs.

Music Creator Dance Bundle – $79 – Includes 3 sound packs with EDM, Hip Hop, & Vintage Synths.
Music Creator Strings Bundle – $99 – Includes 5 sound packs from Guitars to Orchestral Strings.
Music Creator Keys Bundle – $119 – Includes 9 sound packs from Organs to Classic Keyboards.
Music Creator Complete Sound Studio – $149 – Includes all 19 packs with 1,285 additional sounds!

New Videos: Create Amazing Things with SONAR X2 and Intel Technology

Intel video

Chuck Carr creates amazing content for Twisted Metal
Chuck Carr is a multi-faceted game audio professional and accomplished musician for over 60 games and counting. Intel has put out a new video showing how Chuck Carr used SONAR X2, an Intel® Core™-based PC and SSDs in his creative process to create the soundtrack for the hit game, Twisted Metal. It’s just one example of the amazing results that can be achieved with Intel technology and SONAR X2.

 

Timothy Michael Wynn Composes Amazing Content for Darkness II
Timothy Michael Wynn is an award-winning composer for films, television and video games. Hear how he uses SONAR X2 and the Intel® Core™ Processor and SSDs in his creative process.

A Deeper Look at SONAR X2a – Native Windows 8 and Touch Support

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few months ago I wrote an article about Windows 8 and how it applied to music applications like SONAR.  In this article I will mainly cover what’s changed or new in our Windows 8 support as of SONAR X2a.

What’s New

~ We shipped SONAR X2a, our brand new Windows 8 native version of SONAR. This was exhaustively tested with Windows 8 and specifically takes advantage of new Windows 8 specific features like multi-touch. More about this below.

~ Windows 8 is widely available in the mainstream and appears to be selling well – even better than Windows 7, based on media reports from ZDNet. As of end November Microsoft had sold 40 million Windows 8 licences in a month (more than its predecessor Win7)

~ There is a large proliferation of Windows 8 PC’s available in the consumer channel, including several Intel Ultrabooks, hybrid’s and convertibles, laptops that can switch to tablets etc. Microsoft’s surface RT is also now available, although the much awaited Surface Pro (the version that can actually run classic Windows desktop applications) is yet to be released. There are also several interesting mobile solutions scheduled for early 2013. Its definitely an exciting time for users interested in mobile music platforms, since many of these have powerful Intel CPU’s and specs that are easily capable of running DAW software. It can also be confusing – there are so many products out there that you will have to do your research and look for something that fits your needs best.

~ Metro, the new application model from Microsoft which runs on both Intel and ARM CPU’s, is no longer called Metro. Perhaps not the most logical name, but the new official name for Metro Style Apps is “Windows Store Apps”. Windows Store Apps are not the same as Desktop Apps – they have somewhat limited capabilities, at least from a DAW user standpoint.

~ Many hardware vendor’s have tested and released Windows 8 compatible drivers for their supported hardware. (Although Windows 8 did not mandate any changes to driver’s, many vendors have to update installers and do compatibility testing before releasing their products)

~ Microsoft released its its latest Visual Studio development platform for building Windows applications. Applications like SONAR X2a built for Windows 8 typically use this platform for application development.

SONAR X2a

SONAR X2a is Cakewalk’s latest update for SONAR X2. While SONAR X2 and X1 are compatible with Windows 8, SONAR X2a is the first DAW release specifically designed to take advantage of new Windows 8 specific features such as multi-touch support. X2a was also built with the latest development tools and Windows SDK’s, bringing over various fixes from Microsoft. X2a is still fully compatible with Windows 7 and will continue to install on Vista (though not officially supported anymore).

X2a  includes the following: Continue reading “A Deeper Look at SONAR X2a – Native Windows 8 and Touch Support”

Windows 8 – A benchmark for music production applications

Windows 8 Background

There has been a large amount of interest and speculation about Windows 8, Microsoft’s latest OS scheduled for release in late 2012. Windows 8 is one of the most ambitious OS releases from Microsoft since Windows 95, and is the first OS that attempts to unify the desktop and mobile user experience with multitouch support baked in across the board. A lot of attention in the media has been devoted to the new user interface and the brand new application model called Metro aka WinRT.  Understandable, since changes to UI tend to attract the most attention in any software product.

After attending one of the Windows 8 developer camps and talking with some folk at Microsoft, we learned about some of the work done in Win8 to make the operating system scale better to devices with a smaller disk/memory/CPU footprint. This was done primarily to make Win8 perform more efficiently and with lower power requirements on mobile devices like tablets. I was curious if the effects of these changes would percolate through to the general OS and kernel level and benefit desktop applications as well. Continue reading “Windows 8 – A benchmark for music production applications”