Winter NAMM 2012 was a huge success for Cakewalk. For the second straight year, we were located in the Roland Arena with a great location right by the entrance. We got to meet a lot of new, existing, and potential users. In addition, we had great demos from some of our favorite Cakewalk artists (and even some special appearances). We also got to show off SONAR X1 Production Suite, the new ProChannel Concrete Limiter, and Cakewalk instruments like Z3TA+ 2, Dimension Pro, and Rapture. We wish everyone could have joined us for the show, but here’s a recap that hopefully makes you feel like you were there.
Booth Set-up:
It never ceases to amaze me how much work is involved in getting a show set-up. When you get to a trade show, you don’t even have carpet laid down. It is literally just crates, ladders, power tools, and a lot of flying dust. Luckily we are seasoned pros, and with the help of Roland US, we were able to set-up pretty quickly. Here are some pics of what the booth looks like before getting the full Cakewalk Booth Makeover treatment:
The last day before the start of NAMM is also the time to put the finishing touches on demos and main stage preparations. In this photo, Cakewalk’s Seth Perlstein and a very caffeinated Brandon Ryan huddle together to make final preps:
Showtime:
Cakewalk had a really great location right near the Roland Arena entrance, which meant we got to meet a lot of people! As mentioned in an earlier blog post, this year the Cakewalk booth was completely outfitted with the latest and greatest HP Z series workstations. The systems worked flawlessly and were more than enough to handle the rigors of live presentation. Demos featured an in-depth look at new SONAR X1 Production Suite as well as the new ProChannel Concrete Limiter.
Our very talented team of Cakewalk presenters included Product Specialists, Mike Trujillo and Seth Perlstein, and Director of Product Marketing, Brandon Ryan:
Cakewalk staff were also stationed at the two Desktop Music Production Workstations at the Cakewalk booth, offering 1-on-1 sessions to NAMM attendees. The workstations were powered by HP EliteBook 8560w Mobile Workstations and featured SONAR X1, V-Studio 100, V-Studio 700, Quad-Capture, A-300PRO MIDI Controllers, and MA-15Ds. Here’s Seth Perlstein dropping knowledge:
Artist Appearances:
Along with showing off the latest and greatest products from Cakewalk, the main stage was host to daily demos from true SONAR X1 artists who use Cakewalk products every day on major commercial projects. Cakewalk’s Artist Relations Manager, Jimmy Landry, was tasked with the difficult job of bringing this altogether for the NAMM show. Here were some of the featured artists on the Cakewalk main stage this year:
Better Life With Music stage:
This year, Cakewalk was featured on Roland’s “Better Life With Music” stage. This was a great opportunity to show off SONAR X1 to standing-room only crowds. Since this was an important daily event, Cakewalk enlisted the help of two special artists – up and coming popstar, Cori Yarckin, and producer/engineer/SONAR artist, TC (Paul Oakenfold, Madonna). With the help of Jimmy Landry and Brandon Ryan, Cori and TC performed several tracks from Cori’s upcoming album, Part of Me, as well as the Paul Oakenfold remix of Lady Antebellum’s hit single “Need You Now.”
Special appearances:
In addition to the scheduled artists on the Cakewalk mainstage and “Better Life With Music” stage, we also had some special appearances by SONAR X1 artists, Javier Colon and Hollywood Undead.
This is just a small snapshot of all the exciting happenings at this year’s NAMM 2012 show. We’d like to thank everyone who helped make the show a great success including Roland, Cakewalk Staff, Cakewalk artists, and of course all the people who stopped by to say hello and learn more about Cakewalk products. We’ll have new NAMM 2012 videos on CakeTV in the coming weeks!
And a special thanks to Tara Zanett at TLZ Photography for all the photos.