Optimized for VISTA x64: Rapture 1.2

Cakewalk’s award-winning Rapture is the ultimate wavetable synthesizer for igniting the sounds of today’s pop, dance, and electronic music scenes. Sounding like no other synth, Rapture offers brilliant sound design capabilities with patches that blend up to six different elements. Available for PC and Mac.

Out of the box you get a stunning collection of over 500 programs including Basses, Leads, Pads, Arpeggios, Textures, Electronic Percussion and Sequences. At the heart of Rapture’s six-part sound engine are powerful, multi-mode wavetable oscillators. These pristinely produced wavetables provide a virtually endless array of sonic possibilities, plus you can multiply each oscillator up to 9 times across the stereo field with controlled detuning, creating some of the fattest sounds ever heard.

New Features in Rapture 1.2:

-Envelope Generators can now be retriggerd from the Step Generator
-Internal Tempo with Tap – Rapture can now sync to its own internal t tempo
-You can now save and load presets in the Envelope Generator and Step Generator sections
-Envelope Generator now autoscrolls when entering nodes
-Knob Focus Indicator – the currently selected knob will now have edging around it
-Built-in DC Offset blocker to remove unwanted DC Offset distortion
-Up/Down selectors now have direct text entry by double-clicking on them
-New alternate ‘Zoom On View’ mode in the Envelope Generator
-Vista x64 improvements – the installer now allows you to choose to install either the 32 or 64-bit versions of Rapture on Windows Vista x64

All registered Rapture customers are eligible for the free update.

Create & Share Your Music Fast with Music Creator 5

Cakewalk introduces Music Creator 5, the newest version of our leading home music-making software. With its brand new look and feel, Music Creator 5 is everything you need to start making music fast – offering a host of new features and a streamlined user interface.  Simple recording, editing, mixing, great-sounding instruments, and tons of effects – it’s all here in one package… all for less than the price of four CDs!

New Features Include:

•A simplified user interface that puts the controls at your fingertips. All you have to do is focus on making music

•Active Controller Technology (ACT)™ – connect a MIDI keyboard to your PC and automatically control your mix, effects or virtual instruments with its knobs and sliders

•Cakewalk Sound Center™ – an exclusive, easy-to-use tool that combines 150 different instrument sounds from our award-winning professional instruments, Rapture & Dimension Pro

•IK Multimedia’s AmpliTube X-GEAR™ – a built-in virtual guitar amp, plug directly into your computer for great sounding guitar parts

•Add your own soundtrack to your home movies and other digital video files – including .MOV, .WMV, .MPEG – before you upload it to YouTube, MySpace and Facebook

•Burn CDs with Music Creator’s integrated CD Burner and share your music online with Cakewalk Publisher

•And much more…

For More Information:

See the Music Creator 5 press release

ALSO please visit the Music Creator 5 web pages

Complete Your Projects Quickly & Efficiently with SONAR 8

T. Michael Testi, author of ‘The RAM Review’ column at BlogCritics.org, shared his thoughts about SONAR 8 in a recent software review. For those of you who are on the fence about upgrading your DAW to the latest version of SONAR, Testi lays it all out on the line. He skillfully dissects the new tools, effects, and instruments added to latest version of SONAR. Here’s a few quotes from the article we thought you might want to read:

“Keep in mind that SONAR 8 is an incredibly complete and complex software package that is aimed at the professional and the sophisticated enthusiast who wants a product that is powerful, flexible, and very configurable.”

“With all of this, SONAR 8 is a must have upgrade. If you truly want the ultimate in DAW software, then you need SONAR 8.”

Read the full SONAR 8 Producer Software Review by T. Michael Testi of BlogCritics.org.

The Fine Print III: Sidechaining in SONAR

The term ‘sidechaining’ refers to the manipulation of one signal by another where signal B (typically referred to a key input) effects signal A (primary input). Sidechaining is most often found in compressors, limiters and gates. Examples of sidechaining include ducking, voiceover, de-essing and pumping. For more information, check out this article on the Basics of Sidechaining.

Cakewalk’s CTO Noel Borthwick discusses the implementation of Sidechaining in SONAR is his latest Fine Print article. Since version 7, SONAR has supported side-chaining for both VST and DX plug-ins in all of its applications. This article describes how SONAR communicates with side-chain capable VST and DX plug-ins as well as how SONAR can be used as a guide to write a side-chain capable plug-in of your own.

The :90 Music Show Interviews Platinum Producer Mark Needham

In this episode of The :90 Music Show, host Scott Austin chats with Multi-Platinum Producer Mark Needham in the Cakewalk Booth at NAMM 2009.

The pair discuss Needham’s favorite technologies on display at the show as well as his history developing artists. This year, he brought new acts, Iglu & Hartley and Divide the Day, to share in the nation’s biggest music industry tradeshow.

Mark Needham has produced and mixed award-winning albums for a wide variety of recording artists including Michelle Branch, Cake, Fleetwood Mac, Chris Isaak, and The Killers.

Click here for more episodes of The :90 Music Show.

Free Club Presets Available for Z3ta+1

Need new sounds for your mix? There’s a new library of club presets now available online for Z3TA+. Check out the video and grab the presets at Synthtopia !

Whether you’re looking for luch, warm pads, slowly evolving atmospheres, searing leads or sparkling FW sounds, Cakewalk’s Z3TA+, delivers the goods and includes hundreds of professional presets. Z3TA+ is an award-winning analog-style synthesizer with incredible sound-shaping capabilities. The exclusive bandwidth Waveshaping technology makes Z3TA+ one of the best and most respected synths in the industry.

As a complete instrument, Z3TA+ is oriented to the professional musician and sound programmer looking for uncompromised sound quality and features. Z3TA+ ships with DWi, VST, and stand-alone versions.

Produce Robotic, Metallic Sounds with SONAR Vocoder

Robin Kelly’s latest video shows you how to use Pentagon, one of SONAR’s soft-synths, as a vocoder. A vocoder is an audio processor also known as a “talking synthesizer”. It analyzes speech, transforms it into electronically-transmitted information and recreates it into robotic, mechanical sounds. Vocoders can be heard in recordings by Cher, Beastie Boys, Kid Rock and Lil Wayne.

View more of Robin’s videos and tech tips.

Cakewalk's Holiday Bundles: Music to Your Ears

The holidays are just around the corner and to celebrate, we’re bringing back Cakewalk’s Holiday Bundles! This is your chance to upgrade to the software you want at prices we can only offer once a year.

We’ve put together a Cakewalk Holiday Bundle for everyone on your list, for every budget. Plus, we’re offerng free shipping through December 30th on orders of $99 or more! Browse our eStore to pick the perfect bundle!

Enjoy and Happy Holidays!