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SONAR 8 Review: Make Music Professionally At Home

Today’s musicians face a tough job market and an even worse economy. To cut the production costs of making and recording their music, many musicians are building their own DIY recording studios at home. These studios are creating some of the industry’s best tracks with off-the-shelf yet extremely powerful software and hardware solutions.

In response to this growing trend, Mark Eustace from This is Tamworth (an all things local publication of the Tamworth Herald, UK) recently took a look at SONAR 8, calling it “a raft of virtual instrument, effects, plug-ins, and all the production tools you would ever need to record and master your own hit record.”

Discover the power of SONAR 8 with Mark Eustace in the latest edition of This is Tamworth.

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First Impressions of V-Studio 700: Danny Klein

Just a few weeks ago, Cakewalk’s Zac Kenney met up with Boston-based bassist Danny Klein at Guitar Center-Boston to pick up his SONAR V-Studio 700. A Cakewalk pro-user since the Pro Audio days, Danny was looking for a new controller to use in his SONAR-outfitted studio. After many years producing his music with the Roland JP-1000 and then with an Alesis Mixer, Klein started to seek other alternatives. Since it’s a controller dedicated to SONAR and would speed up his workflow without the aid of a mouse, Danny knew he just had to get the SONAR V-Studio 700!

“I use SONAR V-Studio 700 because of the quality of the system (and the quality and reliability of Cakewalk / Roland products), the many features at a reasonable price, the ease of setting up and using the system and the seamless integration with my SONAR 8 Producer, making this system all I need to make professional recordings in my home studio.”

Danny Klein grew up in New Jersey and came to Massachusetts to study at Worcester Polytechnical Institute in the 1960’s. While attending WPI, he befriended J. Geils and Magic Dick, who taught Klein how to play a washtub bass. The trio formed the ‘J Geils Blues Band’. Eventually they hooked up with ex-Hallucinations percussionist Stephen Jo Bladd and his vocalist, Peter Wolf, as well as keyboardist / songwriter Seth Justman… thus setting the stage for 17 successful years touring as the ‘J. Geils Band’ from Boston.

The group recorded 17 albums and toured with the Rolling Stones, releasing such hits as ‘Centerfold’ and ‘Freeze Frame’. In February 2009, J. Geils Band reunited for the grand opening of the House of Blues-Boston and played two sold out shows at the Fillmore Theater in Detroit. Currently, the band is leaving the door open to new opportunities, hoping to play together again, soon.

In 1994, Danny founded the blues band ‘Stone Crazy’ (produced by J. Geils). The group released its first 14-track, self-entitled album in 2005 and performed its ‘bluesy grooves’ at select clubs throughout New England.

Danny’s latest project, ‘Danny Klein’s Full House Band,’ is a group of Boston’s well known and most talented musicians who come together to celebrate the music of the J.Geils band. Danny Klein’s Full House Band performs at many charitable events throughout the Boston area.

We congratulate Danny on all of his accomplishments and hope he enjoys working in studio with the new SONAR V-Studio 700!

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Play Along Jazz Contest Gets Your Music Heard By Jazz Pros

Take the next step in your musical journey this summer at PlayAlongJazz.com. Devoted to giving Jazz musicians the tools they need to succeed, Play Along Jazz gives you the chance to play with some of today’s finest musicians, to learn from their live playing, and to combine your musical voice with theirs.

How does it work? At Play Along Jazz, you will find a list of Jazz standards from which to select: you have the option to choose your tracks (stereo drum track, mono bass track, stereo guitar track etc) and mix the session yourself (what we call “Mix Your Own”) or download a stereo file that has one of the tracks omitted: drums silent for the student drummer; guitar silent for the student guitarist, etc. Downloads are priced for students and each month you will have the chance to play along with a new stream for free. There’s also an email request link so that you can suggest the addition of tunes that interest you.

Through August 31, 2009, when you purchase 15 downloads at Play Along Jazz.com, you will have the chance to submit one of your Play Along songs for review by some of today’s top jazz professionals. This acclaimed panel will select one special song from one aspiring artist that shows the greatest potential in creatively improvising in the play along environment. The winner will also receive a complimentary copy of Cakewalk’s most intuitive digital audio workstation, SONAR 8 Producer!

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Cakewalk Pro User Spotlight: Sparks the Rescue

In an ongoing effort to support and promote all the amazingly talented artists and producers that use our products, we are excited to announce the Cakewalk Pro User (CPU) Spotlight Series which will be posted here on a regular basis.

Right now, more than ever, aspiring artists are taking control of their music creation to capitalize on what will be known as the independent music age. These independent spirits are taking their money saved for studio time and investing in their own future by purchasing the studio tools themselves. With so many choices on the market, we salute the artists in this series who are capitalizing on SONAR’s unlimited track count, or the crystal clear sounds of Rapture, or the fat pre amps in the V-Studio 100 and the V-Studio 700, or the… well, you get the point.

Whether these CPU Spotlight artists are on a major or independent label, producing for labels, or simply doing their own thing, they all have three things in common: they’re all tremendously talented, they’re all doing their own thing and they all depend on the quality of Cakewalk products to achieve professional results.

CPU Spotlight #1: An interview with Sparks the Rescue at the famous Stone Pony in Asbury Park, New Jersey – Take one mic-swinging vocalist who throws himself to the floor, the crowd, the walls and into his band mates; add two guitarists providing vocals and an insane amount of movement; mix in a bassist with an impressive set of lungs providing screams and harmonies; and top it off with a rock-solid drummer holding it all down – this concoction renders Sparks the Rescue, a group of guys in their early 20’s from Portland, Maine.

Logging in over 200 shows throughout New England, Sparks the Rescue has shared the stage with Hawthorne Heights, Just Surrender, As Tall As Lions, Dave Melillo, Roses Are Red, A Change of Pace, Showbread, Chiodos, A Static Lullaby, Saosin, Boys Night Out, Stretch Arm Strong, Emanuel, The Static Age, Glory of This, and many others.

2007 saw the release of ‘The Secrets We Can’t Keep’ digital EP, preceding a full-length album on Fearless Records which is available now in stores and on ITunes.

Check out our first-ever Cakewalk Pro User Spotlight featuring Sparks the Rescue and stay tuned for more in the near future!

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Artist Impression: Producer Giovanni Loria Talks Recording With V-Studio 100

Giovanni “Gio” Loria is a Los Angeles-based professional music producer and musician (multi-instrumentalist) who wears many musical hats creating on a wide variety of musical stages. He is no stranger to pop, hip-hop, rock, orchestral and jazz as well as other genres. He has played, recorded and produced with artists such as The Black Eyes Peas, Jack Johnson and jazz phenomenon Brad Mehldau, to name a few. Overall, Giovanni had the rare ability to be at home in any musical situation, finding a way to support and shine as a leader.

Having traveled much of the world making music with SONAR, we thought Giovanni would be a perfect artist to give us some first impressions of the new SONAR V-Studio 100. Take a look at the video we taped, when we caught up with Gio in Los Angeles in between projects.