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V-Studio 100 Hits Store Shelves Worldwide

The portable music production studio, SONAR V-Studio 100, is now shipping worldwide!

The second product in the SONAR V-Studio line of integrated hardware and software by Cakewalk and Roland is a compact, feature rich, music production studio that enables musicians to create, record, produce, and perform music with or without a computer. SONAR V-Studio 100 is ideal for the musician, singer-songwriter, MC, producer, or engineer on-the-go, regardless of whether they use a Mac or PC.

How will SONAR V-Studio 100 fit your production needs? Read on to found out:

Continue reading “V-Studio 100 Hits Store Shelves Worldwide”

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Elliott & The Untouchables Serve Up Southern 'Stew'

This South Carolina blues band, Elliot and The Untouchables, spice up their vintage blues sound with the release of their latest album, Voodoo Stew (BluePoint Records).

Elliott New (vocals, guitar), Mike ‘Naz’ Nazarenko (harmonica), J.T. Anderson (bass), Sonny “D” Dickey (saxophone) and Jim Heidenreich (drums) showcase their blues fusion sound around the world, performing at various music festivals and opening for music legends such as Van Morrison at the Rhythm & Blues Festival in Ireland.

Their latest album features 12 original songs, recorded and produced in SONAR, and covers a variety of blues styles from jumpin’ swing to the gritty ‘Mississippi swamp’ blues. To incorporate the traditional bluesy sound with the new, Elliot started experimenting and building his own diddley bow, cigar-box guitars which the band uses in 4 tracks on the new CD.

Listed among the Top 5 Best Self-Produced CDs by the International Blues Challenge and Top 100 U.S. Blues Releases by Real Blues Magazine, ‘Voodoo Stew’ is the band’s 5th top-selling release under the BluePoint label. Suggested tracks include: Voodoo Stew (title track), Blues Came Callin’, A Girl Like You, and Toss n’ Turn.

To hear clips from the new album visit Elliot & The Untouchables official website

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Cakewalk Named Microsoft's Partner of the Year Award Finalist

We are pleased to announce that Cakewalk has been named a finalist for the Global Independent Software Vendor (ISV) Partner of the Year Award as part of Microsoft’s WPC (Worldwide Partner Conference) Awards for 2009!

Such recognition is given to Microsoft’s most valued partners who lead the technology industry in their approach to deliver customer solutions with Microsoft in mind. We send a big thank you to Microsoft Corporation for this recognition!

View Microsoft’s WPC Awards press release here

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Creating Music In The Classroom With Cakewalk

On June 15 2009, Cakewalk Product Manager Samara Krugman discussed music production in the classroom with Keith Mason, coordinator of Music Technology at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee and producer for the Music Tech For ME podcast.

In this episode, Samara explains how Music Creator 5 can benefit the music student. It’s simple interface and getting started tutorials guide users through the process of recording, editing, and mixing their first tracks. Students can add sound effects and backing tracks to their projects with hundreds of high-quality instrument sounds, loops and samples built right into the software studio. With these tools, plus Music Creator 5’s various project views and assistant features, students will learn basic music composition techniques as they work toward arranging and printing their own sheet music.

Visit Music Tech for ME online to hear the interview.

Music Tech For ME covers all aspects of incorporating music technology into the K-12 school curriculum, advising music educators across the globe on the latest advancements in creating and teaching music. Even if you’re not a music educator, you can learn a lot about the numerous technological tools and resources that are available on the market today just by listening to the show.

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The How-to Geek.com Awards Music Creator 5 Four Stars

Cakewalk’s Music Creator 5 gets 4 stars and an excellent review at The How-to Geek.com!

Judged in five categories – Installation, Ease of Use, Features, Performance and Product Support – Music Creator 5 scored 8s across the board as ‘the affordable and powerful multitrack recording program perfect for beginners.’

The program’s help guides, simplified project views, and professional quality virtual instruments garnered much attention from the reviewer as he states:

”There is a bit of a learning curve to begin using Music Creator 5 and they offer a detailed user guide in the software and also videos on their site.  Once you start getting the hang of it everything falls into place.”

“While geared at beginners, there is a large amount of professional and studio quality features included in this package… there is a complete set of virtual instruments you can program to make the sound of your song huge.”

The How-To Geek.com features ‘how to’ articles on all things computers from operating systems and internet browsers to computer games and Microsoft Office™ tools. Need advice on running a certain program?  Just ask for help from a fellow geek on the site’s forums and wiki pages.

Get the full review, complete with installation instructions and screenshots, at the How-To Geek.com.

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Cast Your Vote for One Stop Shop's V-Studio 100 Rap Battle

As you probably have already heard, the new SONAR V-Studio 100 by Cakewalk is taking portable music production to another level. When used with your Mac or PC you get a 24/96k audio interface with high-quality mic preamps and a DAW controller. Away from you computer you get an 8×6 digital mixer an SD recorder to play back beats at your gig or to record those inspiring moments on the road or at home when you don’t feel like firing up your computer. Plus it comes with the VS Production Pack of effects and instruments for Mac and Windows.

To prove our point, we took the V-Studio 100 to Sha Money’s One Stop Shop Conference in Phoenix, AZ and put it to work. With all the up and coming MCs and producers in attendance, we figured One Stop Shop was the best place to test this product out with the Hip Hop community. To paraphrase one of the original gangstas “If we can make it there, we’ll make it anywhere.”

Cakewalk’s resident producer Lil Shamrock recorded a beat on the spot and then threw down the gauntlet, challenging the MCs in attendance to come up and record their rhymes on the fly while the beat was playing back from the V-Studio 100’s SD card.

Watch the video below to check out the finalists, then cast your vote and let us know who’s got it.   The winner is going to receive a copy of SONAR Producer or Rapture. It’s up to you!

This contest will run through Monday July 6, 2009.

Pick your favorite MC

Big Will

monev360

Normous Child

Anthony Dollar

A-Dymondz

Just Before Dawn

Suave

Leno the beast (intro track, no video footage)

sheepskin boots

Just imagine that if we could do this quickly in a tradeshow environment, what you could do in your creative space.

Learn how the SONAR V-Studio 100 will help you make your music anytime, anywhere

Read more about Cakewalk’s activities at One Stop Shop 2009

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Turn Your Riffs Into Hits With Guitar Tracks Pro 4

Cakewalk announces a clean, new look to the guitar-based software title for PC with Guitar Tracks Pro 4 and Guitar Tracks Pro USB!

Designed for guitarists and singer-songwriters, Guitar Tracks Pro 4 is the recording solution that takes your music from riff to hit! You get an amazing virtual guitar amp, a backing band of virtual instruments, precise editing tools, mixing console, over 2GB of sounds and effects, and more -for less than a few hours in the studio.

New Features Include:

• A simplified multi-track recorder interface makes it easy to record, edit and mix your music

• Create, edit and print your own notation and tablature; an included fret-board view makes it easy to match notes to the guitar neck

• A suite of pro effects including Cakewalk’s Boost 11 Peak Limiter and Native Instrument’s Guitar Rig 3 LE to give you an arena sized sound right in your own studio

• Over 2GB of audio loops and samples spanning rock, blues, country, and bluegrass from Smart LoopsTM, Digital Sound FactoryTM, and Groove MonkeeTM

• Perfect your chops with a collection of Guitar World instructional videos featuring: Steve Morse, Dave Mustaine, Jimmy Herring, Paul Gilbert, Joe Bonamassa, and others.

• Play along with loops recorded by world class drummers including: John Blackwell (Justin Timberlake, Prince), Jerry Marotta (Paul McCartney, Peter Gabriel), Nick D’Virgilio (Genesis, Tears for Fears), Ed Greene (Steely  Dan, Barry White) and Danny Gottlieb (Sting, Pat Metheny Group) courtesy of Sonic RealityTM

• Burn CDs and upload your finished projects directly to the web with Cakewalk Publisher; share your music with friends and family on websites, blogs or social networking sites

PLUS Guitar Tracks Pro USB includes our portable, high quality audio interface, the UA-1G. Optimized for guitarists, the UA-1G features a special 1/4″ jack with Hi-Z option for recording and 24-bit/96-kHZ Stereo I/O for playback!

For more information:

Watch a Live Demo From Sonic State

See the full Guitar Tracks Pro press release

Please visit Guitar Tracks Pro 4 and Guitar Tracks Pro USB online

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Happy 127th Birthday to Igor Stravinsky!

To honor one of the most influential composers of the 20th century, we thought it fitting to post this amazing rendition of Le Sacre du Printemps or The Rite of Spring, arranged in SONAR by Cakewalk user Jay Bacal.

The two-movement piece is shown as a series of four videos – two of which Jay has yet to post. Performed on a 16GB Quad-core Windows VISTA 64-bit PC, Bacal used Vienna Symphonic Library to emulate the pristine sounds of the orchestra and arranged the piece using SONAR 8’s Piano Roll view.

Known as Stravinsky’s most controversial work, The Right of Spring caused a great riot at it’s debut, at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, France in 1913. Performed by the Ballets Russes, the intensely rhythmic score and primitive scenario – the setting evoking pagan Russia – shocked audiences accustomed to the more modest conventions of classical ballet!

Please don’t cause another scandal but feel free to tell Jay what you think of his latest project on the Cakewalk forums!

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Angels & Airwaves Cover Featuring Studio Instruments – Drums

A Studio Instruments fan, who goes by the name of Tadqim on Youtube, posted this video late last week and we wanted to pass it along. Using the Drum kit, included in Cakewalk’s Studio Instruments, Tadqim added his own beats to the Angels & Airwaves hit ‘Call to Arms’.

Cakewalk’s Studio Instruments-Drums allows users to make backing tracks with a realistically animated interface that looks just like a drum set! Now included in the latest recording and editing software for beginners, Music Creator 5.