Money Management Group's 'One Stop Shop' 2009

This year’s One Stop Shop Producers Conference in Phoenix, Arizona will be off the chain! Hosted by Money Management Group at the Hyatt Regency Hotel from May 9th – 10th, hundreds of hip-hop producers from around the world will be representing at workshops on music publishing, artist management, studio and sound equipment, production, and artist scouting.

If you’ve got skills, join in on an extensive two-day beat battle, where the contestant with the hottest beats receives surprise gifts, music placement, the latest technology, and more. Also, Cakewalk will be on hand laying down tracks and dropping beats with the SONAR V-Studio 700 & 100 music production systems. 

Founded by Sha “Money” XL in 2002, Money Management Group has boosted the careers of beat-makers and trend-setters worldwide including 50 Cent, Lloyd Banks, Tony Yayo, Young Buck, Hi-Tek, and Jake One. Every year, the group’s One Stop Shop Producer’s Conference pulls together 700+ artists and producers from around the world. 

What will it take to make it or break it in tomorrow’s hip-hop scene? Stop by the conference to find out.

ASCAP Expo 2009: Aspiring Producers & Industry Professionals Talk Trade

I guess day #2 technically starts at midnight, so I will take it from there where we were fortunate enough to land some passes to the ASCAP celebratory dinner and party at The Highlands on Hollywood Boulevard. Steve Thomas and I had a great time catching up with some CPU’s (Cakewalk Pro Users) including Vivek Maddala, Wendy Starland, Justin Lassen and Chuck Carr. 

We also got a chance to hang with our friend Jake Ottmann of EMI publishing who is overseeing our installment of the new V-100 and SONAR Producer into the EMI US Headquarters in New York City. 

ASCAP did an amazing job putting together a round of some pretty heavyweight songwriters who took turns banging out their hits in a very informal and interesting setting.  There is something so cool about hearing hit songs performed by the actual people who wrote them and not the people who you hear perform them on the radio.  It was a great night and it’s obvious that this ASCAP Expo is on its way to becoming one of the most respected music conferences in the US.

The morning came pretty quickly and just when I thought we would have a tough time matching up to the production quality of yesterday’s home studio master-class with Giovanni Lauren, in stepped Mr. Shawn Clement who scored a 30 second Land Rover spot in front of a packed house all day. 

Continue reading “ASCAP Expo 2009: Aspiring Producers & Industry Professionals Talk Trade”

Cakewalk Tours A Retailer Near You

You’ve heard the news, you’ve seen the videos, now here’s your opportunity to check out SONAR V-Studio 700 and SONAR 8 in person. You’ll be able to twist the knobs, move the faders and learn about all of the incredible features this all-in-one system has to offer.

Whether you are interested in purchasing SONAR V-Studio 700, SONAR 8, or just want to see it the two products in action, Cakewalk Product Specialists will be at the stores to offer one-on-one training and clinics on the following dates below. More dates will be coming soon!

Guitar Center- Towson
1524 E. Joppa Road
Towson, MD 21286
(410) 821 5200
Clinic: Tuesday April 28 at 6:00pm

Guitar Center- North Dallas
4519 LBJ Freeway
Dallas, TX 75206
(972) 960 0011
Clinic: Tuesday April 28 at 6:00pm

Performance Audio
2456 S. West Temple
Salt Lake City, UT 84115
(801) 466 3196
Clinic: Thursday April 30 at 6:00pm

Alto Music
180 Carpenter Avenue
Middletown, NY 10940
(845) 692 6922
Clinic: Thursday April 30 at 6:00pm

Continue reading “Cakewalk Tours A Retailer Near You”

Cakewalk in LA: ASCAP 'I Create Music' Expo 2009

Hello everyone.  This is actually my first blog here on The Cakewalk Blog as the new Artist Relations Manager for the company.  I’m writing this from the The Renaissance Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles, CA where I am attending the ASCAP I CREATE MUSIC Expo. I’m here with my brilliant co-workers Brandon Ryan, Seth Perlstein and Mike Trujillo and we have quite a bit going on here this week.

I got into town on Monday and I spent some time with the artist Jessica Lombard who is tracking and mixing her new EP on our new V-Studio 100 (and SONAR 8 Producer) in Torrance, CA. You will be hearing more about this young artist (13 years old) soon here on the Cakewalk blog.

Tuesday, Brandon and I spent the day with the artist Dilana and her producer/band member Erik Eldénius at her home studio near Hollywood. What a great day we had creating an acoustic version of a song on her upcoming record with the new V-Studio 700. This song is still being developed but hopefully it will be available at some point when the record comes out in the near future. You might remember Dilana from the TV show “Rock Star Supernova” as the girl with the voice that can cut through metal? Anyway; we thank her and Erik for the day and wish her all the best with the new music. 

Yesterday, we arrived at ASCAP Expo and got set up for the demonstrations we have going on throughout the week. Last night, we got a chance to swing by some post ASCAP awards’ parties including the EMI Publishing party at XIV Terrace on Sunset which was fun. 

On to ASCAP…  To begin with, we have an actual recording room where we are developing a real track throughout the day, every day. Right now as I type, one of our CPUs (Cakewalk Pro User) Gionvanni Loria (Producer/Composer) who has used SONAR to work with such artists as Black Eyed Peas, Jack Johnson and Everlast is at the V-Studio 700 with Brandon Ryan creating a great track for the artist Tawny Ellis who will be coming in shortly to lay down some vocals. Also, we have a very informative demo room where Seth Perlstein is holding down the fort and giving great one-on-one advice to a room full of music creators. Later on this afternoon I am psyched to catch up with some great CPUs including Chuck Carr, Rob King, Justin Lassen, Cheese Beats, and Jorg Kohring (from the band Orbit Monkey).  

If you are in the LA area, please come out and say hello, and if you have time tomorrow I will be moderating a great panel at 3:15 in the Mount Olympus room at the Expo with the following people and topic:

When Demos Turn Into Masters: The Importance and Relevance of Project Studio Recordings

“Spider” Ron Entwistle – Producer, Songwriter, Remixer
Alex Hackford – A&R – Sony Computer Entertainment America/Playstation
Gavin Haverstick – Lead Acoustical Engineer – Auralex Acoustics
Emanuel Kiriakou – Songwriter, Producer – “Crush,” “What’s Left of Me,” “A Million Miles,” “2 in the Morning”
Ankur Malhotra – A&R, Urban/Pop – Capitol Records
Mark Needham – Mixer, Producer – The Killers, Iglu & Hartly, Metro Station

That’s it for now and we hope to see you at ASCAP. 

Thanks for reading,
Jimmy Landry

NAB 2009: Robin Answers The Most Common SONAR & V-Studio 700 Questions

As the NAB Show wraps up, it’s a good time to reflect:

I have to say that for a product that has only been on the market for 2 years, I was amazed at just how many people I met, who have adopted the SONAR REAC Recording option for the V-Mixing system (Digital Snake and/or M-400).

As mentioned before, the REAC sends 40 channels of digital audio down a CAT-5 cable. Connect the cable to your PC’s network card and the Cakewalk REAC driver will pump the audio into SONAR. Many live venues, houses of worship and rental companies are taking advantage of the recording option. Using this option, the tracks record directly into SONAR. Once in SONAR the ‘live’ tracks can now be mixed, edited and mastered for either DVD, CD, web, or other formats. Obviously, this opens up a whole range of possibilities as you essentially have a 40 track recording studio at every live event whether it is a sermon or an outdoor rock festival.

Aside from the REAC recording customers, I spoke with many people who were in disbelief of the power and functionality SONAR has. I never like to say ‘no’ to customers, so NAB has been a great show and here’s a few examples why:

Customer: Can I use SONAR’s 64-bit internal audio engine on a 32-bit operating system?
Me- Yes , you can!

Customer: Do you have 64-bit audio plugins for mastering?
Me- Yes, we do and they’re included in SONAR.

Customer: What if my other plugins are 32-bit, I can’t use them right?
Me: Actually, SONAR has something called Bit Bridge which allows you to run 32-bit plugins on a 64-bit system.

Customer: Does Cakewalk support SONAR and/or the VS-700 running under Bootcamp?
Me: Yes, we do.

Customer: If I have a multitrack project that is in stereo, is it possible to convert it to surround?
Me: Yes! Just add a surround bus and route your tracks to it.

Customer: What about a surround mix to stereo?
Me: Of course, just reverse the steps and assign the tracks to a stereo bus.

Continue reading “NAB 2009: Robin Answers The Most Common SONAR & V-Studio 700 Questions”

Cakewalk's Bob Damiano Takes Center Stage

Cakewalk’s Director of Engineering Bob Damiano, or the artist known as Roberts Reason, was recently featured as the Center Stage artist on the Saturday Night Rocks internet radio show at Mixposure.com. Bob is a seasoned guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and engineer who has been playing in bands since he was 15 years old. When not behind the scenes at Cakewalk, Bob runs Rock Science Studios.

The program director for Saturday Night Rocks is Mike Kohlgraf, a SONAR fan and Cakewalk forum member.

Take a listen to the show here.

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

NAB 2009: SONAR & V-Mixing System Wow Crowds

For more than 80 years, The NAB Show, produced annually by the National Association of Broadcasters, has served as the premiere event for broadcast technology professionals. But there’s more to the show than just tv and radio broadcasting, it’s the ultimate educational experience! Technology professionals and solutions providers from every corner of the world, come to the show each year to explore every stage of the audio / visual content lifecycle, from creation to consumption.

Cakewalk is one of this year’s exhibitors showing off their state-of-the-art creations at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada from April 20 through April 23. Follow along with Robin Kelly live from the show, here on The Cakewalk Blog.

Here’s his first post:

At the Roland Systems Group booth, Zac Kenney and I were presenting the SONAR V-Studio 700 as the mixing and editing solution to the V-Mixing system. At the heart of the system, is the M-400 Digital Mixing Console from RSS by Roland. Add to that the personal monitoring system, allowing each live performer to have up to 40 individual monitor mixes and the digital snake whick allows up to 40 channels of audio over a single CAT-5 cable, and you have an extremely impressive live mixing setup.

So how does Cakewalk’s SONAR integrate into this system? You can split the signal coming down the CAT-5 cable and connect it to the network card on your PC. Using the REAC driver, you then have 40 discreet inputs going into SONAR to record each channel individually to their own track.

After the live show the VS-700 becomes the platform for mixing and editing the 40-track live performance. From live venues and houses of workship to broadcast customers, the feedback was extremely good. They were all impressed with the flexibility and depth the SONAR V-Studio System provides. Add to that the ability to harness and control all the power of SONAR via a hardware inferface, and you have a ‘perfect solution’. The Fantom VS is an added bonus as this provides the added ability to add extra synth tracks after recording. The ARX slot was also wowing the customers when the ARX-01 Drum card was added.

In Las Vegas, people seem just about willing to bet on anything, but one thing no one I spoke to today was willing to gamble on was their audio. All through the day, customers were coming up to me explaining bow they prefer to mix in SONAR because it ‘just sounds better’ than other programs. Of course, it is always nice to hear such positive compliments about our flagship DAW but in a way it is extra special to hear this coming from folks who have very high (if not limitless) budgets, allowing them to choose any audio platform they wish. Even with that they are still using SONAR because of it’s quality.

It makes sense if you think about it. SONAR has a 64-bit double precision audio engine, multiple gain stages, and 64-bit/convolution plugins to sweeten the mix.

So YES. In Vegas, people will gamble on just about anything, anything but their audio quality!

That’s it for now. Day 2 starts tomorrow!

Robin Kelly
Cakewalk’s Director of Worldwide MI Sales

As Seen On TV: Cakewalk Featured in 'Gear Spotlight'

Guitar World’s Gear Spotlight is a new segment about the latest and greatest gear available to guitar players, airing now on Comcast’s On Demand programming. The segment aired for the first time this past Friday, featuring Cakewalk’s new USB Audio & Midi Interfaces; UM-1G, UM-2G, UM-3G, and UA-1G! The segment will air on Comcast’s Life & Home channel until Monday May 4, 2009.

For those of you sans Comcast, see the video clip here on Guitar World’s Gear Spotlight

For more information on the products seen above, visit the Cable Products web page.

Cakewalk Hosts Masterclass at ASCAP EXPO 2009

ASCAP’s Annual “I Create Music” EXPO is a three day event taking place next Thursday April 23 through Saturday April 25 at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles, CA. It is the one place where serious songwriters, composers and producers alike can connect face to face at panels, workshops, performances, exhibitor demos, one-on-one sessions and networking events.

This year, Cakewalk is hosting live demonstrations on the new SONAR V-Studio 700 given by Product Specialist Seth Perlstein and an exciting new masterclass in a fully-functional on-location studio!

Cakewalk Modern Music Creation & Demo Room

 Expert producers and music creators will be using the award winning SONAR V-Studio 700 to exemplify different techniques, tips and tricks for the modern recording musician. Cutting edge technology is allowing creative people to take control of their music and turn demos into finished masters; this is the place to ask questions and learn.

The Home Studio Master ClassIn sessions taught throughout the day, pieces of music will be recorded by a producer and engineer and developed in a fully-functional on-location studio. Featured studio tools and products to include Auralex Acoustics, Behringer, Blue Microphones, Cakewalk, Gibson, iZotope, NightBird Studios, Roland, Solid State Logic and West LA Music. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to get a close-up view of the Home Recording process.

Thursday: Constructing & Recording a Unique Track that Cuts Through the Pack with Producer/Composer Gionvanni Loria

Friday: Composing & Producing for Film & TV with Producer/Composer Shawn Clement and Producer/Musician Justin Lassen

Saturday: Writing, Producing, & Recording a Contemporary Pop-Rock Song with Producers Jimmy Landry, Brandon Ryan and Jorg Kohring (from the band, Orbit Monkey) as well as Guest Artist Cori Yarckin

ASCAP EXPO 2009: Schedule of Events