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.
SquarElectric is a duo, consisting of Belgian drummer/producer Michael Schack and DJ/Electro wizz Steve Pittoors.
In the early 2000s, Steve and Michael met backstage at music festivals in Belgium and sometimes at an Antwerp petrol station filling up their cars. By 2005, they started exchanging musical ideas and their first demo track, “Sex & Death”, immediately turned heads on Broadjam.com.
Both being perfectionists and total music addicts, they continued composing, recording and tweaking their compositions, which resulted in a finished first “solo” album for both of them. Through their joint connections, this SquarElectric album features guest appearances by Chuck D (Public Enemy), Joseph Bowie (Defunkt), Hans Dulfer (Candy’s dad) and David “Tweeky” Ahlund (Stockholm, Sweden) among others. It even includes a Chinese traditional love chant, totally remade into a challenging high energy “Drum’nBass’nSynth” track named 1000 Years.
For more information on the Squarelectric’s new album and to hear their latest projects, check out: http://www.myspace.com/squarelectric
A few weeks before the launch we got to sit down in the studio with Shayna Zaid and the Catch. Their live shows have been packing crowds in NYC and colleges up and down the east coast. They’ve shared the stage with Norah Jones, Harry Connick Jr, Raul Midon and The Roots.
Their music has gone on to see much success with 8 songs licensed to “Young & the Restless”, 4 #1 singles in Shayna’s Native Malaysia, a 1/4 million Myspace plays, and Finalist in the 2008 International Songwriting Competition, among many other honors. As you can see, they know what it’s like to be a touring and recording act so we asked them for their impression of the SONAR V-Studio 100. Watch the video to see what they thought.
“Brilliant! Finally something that encompasses everything we need to professionally go mobile. With killer mic pre’s, an onboard SD recorder/player, an audio/midi interface and a DAW controller, the V- Studio 100 lets us create on the road – and at home.”
See the New SONAR V-Studio 100 Announcement here!
Quite Nyce is one half of the emerging Hip Hop duo RADIx. They’ve recently been featured on MTV2 and in URB magazine. And have toured with Das EFX, Onyx, the Beatnuts and many others.
Their debut album MONSTAPLEx is set to be released this April and features Afrobatik on a guest track. Quite Nyce also has a side project called Champs vs. the League, which just toured the UK and Germany with Akil from Jurassic 5.
Quite Nyce is a man who needs a complete solution that he can take on the road, so when he got a sneak peak of SONAR V-studio 100 last month he described his reaction as “speechless.” Contrary to that comment, he ended up having alot to say about the V-Studio 100. Watch the video to get his impressions.
Sharkey has performed and produced with such heavyweights as Eminem, Everlast, Mickey Petralia, Mario Caldato Jr., Jedi Mind Tricks, The Black Eyed Peas, and Wyclef Jean. His first solo album “Sharkey’s Machine” featured guest appearances by Cannibal Ox, The Pharcyde, Grand Puba of Brand Nubian and Cherrywine from Digable Planets.
2008’s Monster Maker with C-Rayz waltz was a critically acclaimed foray into the world of alternative hip hop. In 2009 he’s set to release Dastardly with 2009 Grammy-nominated artist Kokayi.
Based in Maryland, but doing regular sessions in NYC, Nashville, and LA, not to mention DJ sets, we thought Sharkey might appreciate a sneak peek of the V-Studio 100…but we didn’t expect him to try to walk away with it. Watch the video to hear his impressions and more.
Producer, DJ, multi-instrumentalist, and long time SONAR expert, Johnny Juice was an original member of the Bomb Squad at the age of 15, and has been doing productions for Public Enemy, Reverend Run, and countless others ever since.
The man is always working; his credo is “sleep is for the dead,” so he’s always looking for tools that speed up his workflow, travel with him, and sound great…and if they can combine more than one function in one device, even better.
Because of his long history with SONAR and relentless schedule, we asked Juice to put the V-Studio 100 through its paces. Watch the video to find out if it passed his test.
“This unit is ridiculous. I can bounce with it on the road and use it for backing tracks AND recording, and then import my work when I get back to my studio right from the SD card.”
Sparks The Rescue, is an incredibly high energy group of guys in their early 20’s from Portland, Maine. They’re constantly touring and constantly writing. Having logged over 200 shows throughout New England alone, Sparks The Rescue has shared the stage with Hawthorne Heights, Just Surrender, As Tall As Lions, Dave Melillo, Roses Are Red, Stretch Arm Strong, and plenty of others.
Inspiration can strike at the oddest times, and when you’re always on the road, chances are there isn’t a good solution around to get that idea down in a usable form. That’s why we let them check out the SONAR V-Studio 100.
“The V-Studio 100 is allowing us to write our second record on the road while touring in support of our first record. This thing is built for the modern musician.”
Keep an ear out for a full-length album coming soon from Sparks the Rescue on Fearless Records. And check back at this space for their video impression of the V-Studio 100.
As the annual Game Developers Conference gets under way in San Francisco, Intel releases a new portion of its website to coincide with their Gaming Industry magazine called Visual Adrenaline. SONAR is one of two featured products on the new site for its superior performance using multicore processors.
Intel’s new site features an article entitled “Composing Audio for Video Games – Art Enabled By Science and Cakewalk Software,” which discusses how the software is used to score and edit audio for games. There is also a solution brief on how to optimize your DAW for superior performance written by Cakewalk’s CTO Noel Borthwick and a video interview with Cakewalk’s VP of Marketing Carl Jacobson and Director of Business Development Gina Garda.
SONAR’s popularity among today’s most-acclaimed video game composers is evident as the new site also hosts interviews with award-winning, SONAR-using composers and audio engineers including Doyle Donnehoo, Shawn Clement, Justin Lassen, Rob King, and Timothy Michael Winn.
In this episode of The :90 Music Show, host Scott Austin chats with Multi-Platinum Producer Mark Needham in the Cakewalk Booth at NAMM 2009.
The pair discuss Needham’s favorite technologies on display at the show as well as his history developing artists. This year, he brought new acts, Iglu & Hartley and Divide the Day, to share in the nation’s biggest music industry tradeshow.
Mark Needham has produced and mixed award-winning albums for a wide variety of recording artists including Michelle Branch, Cake, Fleetwood Mac, Chris Isaak, and The Killers.
Click here for more episodes of The :90 Music Show.
As we get closer to this week’s American Idol episodes, we can’t help but note the viewing audience’s fascination with Scott MacIntyre, the young, blind contestant from Scottsdale, Arizona. Each week, Scott plows his way through the competition, doing a stellar job both singing and performing. As one of AI‘s Top 10 finalists this season, Scott will tour cross-country with the other 9 finalists this summer.
While Cakewalk doesn’t root for any one performer, we have a soft spot in our hearts for Scott. In fact, we have worked with a number of visually-impaired musicians, from Ray Charles to ABC’s Extreme Home Makeover’s Patrick Henry Hughes, through SONAR’s assistive technology. We wish Scott the best of luck as he continues with the show.
Follow Scott MacIntyre’s Journey here.
