Former MacWorld Editor at Large Jim Dalrymple has followed Apple and it’s myriad of products for decades. As a writer and seasoned guitar player, Dalrymple tracks the latest developments in music creation and recording products on his blog, ‘The Loop’. A few weeks ago, Dalrymple got his ‘hands on’ the V-Studio 100; plugging in his Guitar and taking it for a spin. Visit The Loop to read his review.
Blog Critics Calls The V-Studio 100 A One Stop Shop!
There was a time when building a studio meant that you needed a lot of space and a lot of equipment. Today, depending on your needs, there are plenty of ways to create a working music studio without exhausting space and money. T. Michael Testi explains that with the V-Studio 100, you can record, edit, mix and master your tracks with one space-saving device. Not only it is expandable but the V-Studio 100 is flexible, integrating nicely with all major DAWs on Mac and PC.
“Through the Mackie Control Support you can use (the V-Studio 100 with) other DAW software to handle the load. When you are in Active Controller Technology (ACT) mode you will have more advanced control with the SONAR software. All you have to do is press the ACT button and you will be able to control the parameters of plug-ins that support the ACT function.”
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SONAR 8.5 May Convince You To Try A 64-bit OS & Windows 7
Create Digital Music’s Peter Kirn was one of the first to cover the launch of SONAR 8.5 as it happened yesterday. In his initial review, Peter took a look at some of the most compelling functionalities being offered in the new version.
Among his favorite features are the argpeggiator and step-sequencer included on every track, the audio manipulation tool (AudioSnap 2.0), the strips for percussion and vocals (PX-84 and VX-64, respectively), and SONAR’s compatibility with x64 and Windows 7! Here are some of our favorite quotes. Click the link below to read Peter’s full review.
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Cakewalk's V-Studio 100 Is All That & More!
What’s sleek, compact, and all that and a bag of chips? According to The Gadgeteer.com’s David Flowers, it’s Cakewalk’s V-Studio 100!
In his latest review, David takes the V-Studio 100 on a test drive in his home studio. With his guitar in hand, David works toward the ultimate goal of using the V-Studio 100 as a stand-alone recorder, as an interface with included production software, and as a DAW control surface to complete the final mixdown. How will did the unit perform? What did his final project sound like? Visit The Gadgeteer to read David’s review, view his exclusive photos, and learn more about the V-Studio 100.
What do Garageband & Cakewalk Have In Common?
We stumbled across this video on Youtube and thought it answered the question quite well! The creator of this video, Versyke, shows off his very first song created on the computer. He recorded his guitar solo using Cakewalk’s UA-1G USB Audio Interface and brought the track into Garageband for final editing.
Whether you’re using Garageband or SONAR to create music, Cakewalk’s new audio and midi interfaces can be used to record great tracks with today’s most popular music programs on Mac and/or PC.
'How to Make A Noise' Using Z3TA+
Simon Cann, author of the book, Cakewalk Synthesizers: From Presets to Power User, releases a new update to How to Make A Noise, a comprehensive guide to synthesizer programming.
The new update will be available as a free download and for purchase in print on Amazon. The new edition offers more content, more graphics and more sounds, featuring over 300 different patches. Pick up the book to get in-depth tutorials on how to program sounds using Cakewalk’s Z3TA+; create and control your sounds with envelopes, modulation, the arpeggiator, step generator, and other playback tools. Cann also shows you how to build patches for various instruments including keys, bass, drums and more.
For more information visit SImon Cann’s website.
Create Digital Music Looks 'Under the Hood' of V-Studio 100
Create Digital Music’s Peter Kirn takes you on an extensive tour of the SONAR V-Studio 100 as a mixer, interface, control surface, digital recorder and more in his latest review. This all-in-one portable studio for Mac & PC charms Peter with its durable shell, touch-sensitive controls, and many included features. Small enough to fit most backpacks and carrying cases, this unit is a great addition to the travelling musician’s gig bag.
Peter takes an in-depth look at the VS-100. Read his entire review at Create Digital Music.com
Live from SIGGRAPH 09: Intel Interviews Carl Jacobson & Noel Borthwick on Processor Optimizations for Music Production
At this year’s SIGGRAPH Conference in New Orleans, Carl Jacobson met with the host of Intel’s Visualize This! TV Show, Arti Gupta, to discuss Cakewalk’s advancements in it’s software performance. Some of Arti’s questions were so technical that we thought it only fair to ask Cakewalk’s CTO Noel Borthwick to add his thoughts. Watch the video and check out Noel’s comments below:
AG: Cakewalk is a member of the Intel Software Partner Program. What challenges were you trying to solve?
NB: The bandwidth available to the typical modern DAW user using a modern CPU such as the Core I7 is astounding compared to what was available just a couple of years ago. Users expect our software to use every ounce of available CPU cycles and horsepower it can to process their audio and mix. Cakewalk has been on the bleeding edge of technology for the last 15 years, taking advantage of cutting edge capabilities of the operating system as well as available hardware resources. With multiprocessing and 64-bit computing rapidly becoming mainstream, it has become even more critical for our software to make efficient use of hardware resources.
For example, for efficient multiprocessing we try and optimize all the code paths that are used in asynchronously mixing audio. The goal is to present a multi core machine with even and distributed workloads allowing the cores to work as hard as possible. To do this, we streamline the relevant code and minimize all high latency instructions.
Some typical areas that we try and improve our performance in are:
• Multi-processor load scaling: How well does a controlled test project load across multiple CPU cores?
• 64 bit performance: How well does the 64 bit version of the application perform with multiple workloads?
• CPU use: How efficiently does SONAR play back a CPU intensive project?
• High bandwidth tests: How well does the application perform while streaming audio at high sample rates (192K, 384K, etc) and bit depths (64 bit audio, etc)?
• Low latency performance: How well does the application perform streaming audio with very small audio buffer sizes (such as 1 msec buffers)?
Live from SIGGRAPH 09: Create a Killer Score with SONAR 8
Seth Perlstein shows you how to add haunting sound effects to your audio project using Cakewalk’s SONAR 8 and SONAR V-Studio 700! This clip was the final step in the digital content creation pipeline demo at SIGGRAPH 2009. Seth show’s you how to get greater control over your entire scoring, syncing and mixing process as well as how to access more tracks and more effects with ultra-low latency by using SONAR’s latest enhancements.
In part 2 (seen below) Seth adds environmental sound effects and convolution reverberations. Watch Seth ‘geek out’ as he explains how to build an audio studio with audio equipment small enough to fit in your backpack.
V-Studio 700 Unboxing Video by Digifreq.com
Digifreq’s Scott Garrigus just received his new Cakewalk SONAR V-Studio 700; the ultimate music production system. See how the V-Studio 700 looks when it first comes out of the box. Check out all of the accessories that are included and get a quick tour of the VS-700R I/O & VS-700C control surface. Watch Scott’s unboxing video below and be sure to check out Digifreq.com for more SONAR tips and tricks!