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Professional SONAR users weigh in on SONAR X3 – Stability, Performance, & Workflow

X3 is being hailed as the most rock solid edition since SONAR’S inception.  Beyond the new tools and features, a lot of work was put into the core functionality of the program to make sure that even top-notch music-making professionals would find performance improvements.  From the Skylight User Interface enhancements, to audio engine improvements – and everything in between, professional users who depend on SONAR day-in and day-out for their livelihood are weighing in:

 

Timothy Wynn (Sonic Fuel Studios / SonicFuel.net) – Los Angeles, CA

Congratulations to SONAR X3 user Timothy Wynn on winning Best Score at the CineRockom Film Festival for “The Liberator” this year.  With several globally successful franchises already to his credit ranging from blockbuster video games such as Command & Conquer, Dungeon Siege, GUN, The Punisher, Red Faction, 2K’s The Darkness II, The Simpsons and Warhawk to music in the hit television series Supernatural, Tim Wynn has gained international recognition as a leader in a new generation of highly talented and versatile composers.

Most recently, Timothy used SONAR to work on the feature films “The Starving Games” and “MK Reloaded (2014),” while also scoring EA Sports Madden 25 with Chris Lennertz.

“Cakewalk software has always been great for me in general, but this round of SONAR has really been stepped up.  SONAR X3 is the most stable DAW I have ever used.   I’m running huge projects Continue reading “Professional SONAR users weigh in on SONAR X3 – Stability, Performance, & Workflow”

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Intel's Core i7 980x Processor Brings Unbelievable Performance to Computer Music-Making

Slow and steady may win the race but it does not make creating music on the computer any easier!

Accelerate your music-making experience on the PC with more power and better stability, check out Intel’s new Core i7 Extreme Edition Processor. Code-named “Gulftown” the Core i7 980x is the first 32nm, six-core processor with 12 computing threads! In short, it brings a whole new level of performance to your computer’s workload. See the video below, produced for the Core i7 980x’s launch, at last week’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, CA.

“The Core i7 Extreme and SONAR 8.5 equals UNBELIEVABLE performance.”

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New SONAR Update Enhances AudioSnap Functionality

audiosnapWe’ve just announced another free update for SONAR 8.5 Producer and SONAR 8.5 Studio. The SONAR 8.5.3 update focuses on AudioSnap 2.0, providing usability enhancements, optimizations, and overall improved stability for performing complex audio timing tasks.

In conjunction with this release, we’ve created four new video tutorials on some of the key features in found in AudioSnap including aligning audio to midi, changing project tempo, groove matching and sound restoration.

Watch the AudioSnap 2.0 videos to take full advantage of this innovative technology.

Registered SONAR 8.5 Producer, SONAR 8.5 Studio, and V-Studio 700 customers can download the FREE SONAR 8.5.3 Update today.

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AudioMidi.com Likes the Sound of the V-Studio 100

audiomidiAudioMIDI.com’s Dee Davis gave the V-Studio 100 a workout recently and came away very pleased with the results.

Dee hooked up the VS-100 to a PC running Windows XP Professional, with 4 GB RAM and two 1 TB Hard drives, all powered by an AMD Phenom X4 Quad processor. After installing SONAR 8.5, Dee pulled up some recent SONAR-produced projects and found them to sound terrific , “perfect” in fact.

After checking out projects in higher sample rates and getting positive results, Dee recorded some vocals using the mic pres and was also “pleasantly surprised with the sound quality.” But the true test came when s/he recorded his/her Musicman StingRay Bass with the VS-100. Initially skeptical — “I am very hard of audio interfaces, as I feel they never truly get the real tone” — Dee was delighted when the resulting sound turned out to be “the best I have ever heard on any recording system!” S/he also went on to highlight the VS-100’s Windows 7 compatibility, solid control surface functions and use in Mackie Control Function Mode.

“Ultimately, I found the V-Studio 100 an excellent device to work with,” she concluded. “The sound quality was great! The mixer and effects were solid and very easy to use.” Finally, she noted that “This compact unit will serve many of your needs with just one purchase. With the included software, you have everything you need to start recording right away.”

You can read the full review on AudioMIDI.com

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Cakewalk Announces New SONAR 8.5.2 Update

S85screenToday, Cakewalk announces a free update for SONAR 8.5 Producer and SONAR 8.5 Studio! Registered SONAR 8.5 Producer, SONAR 8.5 Studio, and V-Studio 700 customers can download the 8.5.2 update* for free.

The SONAR 8.5.2 update offers over 100 usability enhancements, plug-in/component optimizations, and new features. These enhancements also address various performance issues across the entire application. All of these new and exciting features found in the SONAR 8.5.2 update are a direct result of active dialog with our users. Cakewalk’s delivery of timely product updates is an extension of Cakewalk’s commitment in providing the very best in product support for our customers.

* The 8.5.2 Update for Windows XP, Vista, and, Windows 7 (32-bit & 64-bit) versions of SONAR 8.5 is available as a free download to all registered SONAR 8.5 and V-Studio 700 customers at: www.cakewalk.com

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TUAW.com, the Unofficial Apple Weblog, Explores the Versatility of V-Studio 100

Mac+VS100_v1Josh Carr, a reporter for the unofficial Apple weblog, TUAW.com, is slowly migrating from his analog mixer to the world of digital audio workstations. In studio, Josh uses Logic Pro for his music production needs. During the past two weeks, he has managed to learn the ins and outs of the V-Studio 100 as a DAW Controller and SD Recorder. In his review, Josh comments on how versatile the unit really is:

“When you toss in the SD card of your choosing, you’re able to record individual tracks for later synchronization… set it up at your latest show and record it for critiquing or a low budget live album… you can even toss an already-produced track from your computer onto the SD Card and use if for live playback… if you’re a one man band like me.”

Keeping the holiday season in mind, Josh recommends the V-Studio 100 as a great gift for the musician making the jump from analog mixer to DAW controller and for someone setting up a home studio on a budget.

Read Josh’s full review of Cakewalk’s V-Studio 100 at TUAW.com

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Amplify your Home Recordings with Guitar Tracks Pro

GTP4_TrackViewFretbase.com’s Brian Stolte, mainly a Garageband / Mac OS user, pulled out his Windows XP laptop recently to try out Cakewalk’s Guitar Tracks Pro 4 and was pleasantly surprised at the wealth of tools available for the guitar player turned home recording guru. “As compared to Garageband from Apple, one of the first things I noticed was there were a lot more options and features for each track,” he wrote.

Stolte was impressed by the wealth of ‘extras’ Guitar Tracks Pro offers. “Beyond the recording software, Cakewalk has included a demo version of Guitar Rig 3 to provide you with a ton of amp modeling options,” he noted. Later, he found that “the ability to generate tablature or notation from any MIDI track is handy for exporting individual parts for band mates.”

Apple and Garageband customers are notoriously loyal to their OS but, even Stolte had to give some props to Guitar Tracks Pro: “Overall I thought Guitar Tracks Pro 4 performed very well on my laptop and provided a very good solution to a guitar player looking for a way to create and record new songs. I found myself using the application to record guitar parts and riffs along with some backing drum tracks.”

Read Brian’s full review at Fretbase.com

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An Affordable Alternative for Mobile Recording

VS-100-Multiple_Screenshots_Black_BGRecording your music, whether on the road or in studio, can be a costly venture. Expenses for instruments, equipment, session time and sound engineers can land you in serious debt. Many of today’s musicians take the DIY approach, either hiring friends in the biz or building their own home studios, to save time, money and resources.

Cakewalk’s V-Studio 100 is a perfect companion for the ‘new age’ musician. An all in one portable music studio, the V-Studio 100 is a high quality audio and MIDI interface, DAW controller, digital mixer and SD Recorder. You can take the unit to a live gig, plug in your instruments, and record the entire show with an SD card. With it’s on-board effects (Reverb, EQ, Compression), the V-Studio 100 doubles as a digital mixer during your live performance. Prefer to record in your home studio? The V-Studio 100 is also Mackie-control friendly, compatible with both Mac and PC DAWs.

As described in the latest issue of Tape Op, the V-Studio 100 is a “very cost-effective package for recording.” The reviewer, Alan Tubbs, goes on to say, “I’m sure you could rig up a similar system out of various components, but it wouldn’t be as compact and would most likely cost more.”

Pick up the latest issue of Tape Op magazine to learn how Cakewalk’s V-Studio 100 can save you more than just a few dollars.

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SONAR 8.5: The Fine Print

borthwick2Cakewalk’s CTO Noel Borthwick has been hard at work creating this microscopic view of SONAR 8.5 for those of you who have expressed an interest in learning more about the internals of the new features. Throughout this post, Noel will uncover the new version from an engineering perspective. However, before we get started on the fine print, let’s  first clarify some facts and myths about SONAR 8.5.

What’s in a name?”

What’s in a name? That which we call SONAR 9 by any other name would sound as sweet.” I guess Juliet was misinformed, based on the wild speculation and reaction to our announcement of SONAR 8.5. To ease the anxiety for the next release I will let you in on a secret – the next product release will be called: SONAR 1C21B83D-EDCE-41b7-BBEF-31F912E88B1D. We think that a 128 bit version number will dispel all ambiguity the next time around.

FACT:
• The .5 release name for a major product reflects a change in our internal nomenclature for naming products, a business decision that was made after careful deliberation.
• Going forward this more accurately reflects our strategy of shipping products with high value for customers, while simultaneously planning for certain types of features whose depth may require a longer timeframe to develop and integrate.
• The 8.5 name is also indicative of the fact that 8.5 is available as an downloadable upgrade. i.e. unlike earlier versions it can upgrade an existing SONAR 8 install.
• Don’t be confused by the .5 in the name. 8.5 IS the next version of SONAR – It installs as a brand new version and lives alongside your existing SONAR 8 version just like any prior full release of SONAR.
• You can also simultaneously use 8.5 or an earlier 8.0 version just like any earlier full release of SONAR.
• If you purchased SONAR 8.5 as a downloadable upgrade, you must have SONAR 8 installed prior to installing SONAR 8.5. To reduce download size, the package doesn’t include all the content that you already have in your SONAR 8 install.
• You can also purchase a full set of 8.5 DVD’s even if you bought the download from our web store.
• If you bought the retail version of 8.5 from a store you already have the full 8.5 DVD set with all the content.
• There is no difference between an 8.0 install upgraded to 8.5 and a full retail 8.5 box install
• The depth of the new features and enhancements in 8.5 actually exceed what went into SONAR 8 coming from SONAR 7.

FICTION:
• The main SONAR 9 release was postponed and SONAR 8.5 is a patch or hotfix. Wrong – our maintenance releases are for compatibility and improvements only with the occasional bonus feature thrown in. We never add full blown features.
• A new version of SONAR is around the corner and 8.5 is an interim release. Wrong – We’re good, but not THAT good to be able to deliver a full new product just after shipping this one. Thanks for the compliment though!

So let’s cut to the chase shall we? There are several classes of new features in SONAR 8.5. I will try and focus on the pieces that are not covered in our marketing copy since by now you are already familiar with most of that.
You can read more about SONAR 8.5’s big features here if you are still catching up.

Disclaimer: The information below may be subject to errors and is not intended to be an exhaustive list of 8.5 features. It may be edited from time to time. You have been warned – nauseatingly geeky details follow. Stop reading now if this is objectionable to you 🙂

Continue reading “SONAR 8.5: The Fine Print”

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Using Cakewalk Instruments in OS X Hosts

Having trouble getting your Cakewalk instruments to load in your OS X DAW or sequencer? Use this guide to get Rapture, Dimension Pro and others to install correctly on your Mac computer. This guide provides basic setup information for a variety of hosts including Ableton Live, Apple Logic and Pro Tools.  There is also a section that explains what to do if your instruments are not recognized as available plugins under the OS X platform. For more detailed information on using Cakewalk’s instruments within your host, you will need to refer to the programs’ documentation.

Read through this helpful tutorial at Cakewalk.com