Video from Winter NAMM 2015

NAMM

Highlights from Winter NAMM 2015
NAMM was our first opportunity to show off the new SONAR line to the public, and the reception was nothing short of spectacular. To handle the crowds, products were demoed at three locations—the Gibson, TASCAM, and Hal Leonard booths. We met artists, press, and of course many, many customers—and we were equally happy to thrill long-time Cakewalk supporters as well as bring new users into the fold.

Cakewalk NAMM 2015

We wish everyone could experience the excitement of NAMM, but to give you a taste just click the links below to see demos and interviews from the show floor. And—there’s also a sneak peek of the new David Bendeth Signature Series Compressor.

Dan Gonzalez demos the new features in SONAR

Audiofanzine gets a demo of the new SONAR

Keyboard magazine interviews Craig Anderton on Membership

Engineer/Producer, John Paterno shows off Overloud REmatrix

Sneak peek at new David Bendeth Signature Series Compressor

 

SONAR X3 Making Its Mark in the LA Scene

On the backend of the 2014 NAMM Show, we had an opportunity to take a spin around LA and drop in on a few SONAR users hard at work.  From rock, to EDM and just about every genre in between, here are what some SONAR X3 users in the LA scene are up to:

Adventure Club

While we were making the rounds, we were lucky enough to find out that the Canadian duo Adventure Club was camping out in downtown LA for a while with their mobile SONAR rig.  Adventure Club is defining a new wave of modern musicians and SONAR is at the forefront of their sonic assault.  Originally hailing from Montreal, the duo has recently been all over the globe playing to more and more dedicated fans after seeing the success of over 1.3 million views with their single “Gold” feat. Luna.  Their SONAR tracks have been streamed over a million times on Spotify, and they were noted in the 2013 Top 10 artists most consumed on SoundCloud.

AC has been touring across North America, as well as parts of Europe and Australia and has also played at various music festivals including the American Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas, Nevada. They also made their first appearance at the Ultra Music Festival-2013 in Miami and additionally found themselves playing at the Ultra Music Festival in Seoul, South Korea in June 2013.

The duo’s remix of “Crave You” by the Flight Facilities was featured in the episode “Restraint” of the MTV television series Teen Wolf.  We got a chance to sit down with Christian and listen to some of his productions in SONAR and found it interesting to see how he gets some of his unique sounds Continue reading “SONAR X3 Making Its Mark in the LA Scene”

Cakewalk at NAMM 2014

NAMM embodies so many different aspects of the music industry that it’s hard to describe it in a few words. As a first time NAMM newbie I for one can say that it is a music geek’s ultimate paradise for poking and prodding different companies about the products they bring to the show. Attending with Cakewalk gave me the freedom to demonstrate world-class software as well as interact face to face with our customers and users.

 

10am Thursday morning started off with a Continue reading “Cakewalk at NAMM 2014”

SONAR User and Composer Jerry Gerber to Give A Power-workshop on MIDI at NAMM 2014

When programming complex orchestrations, getting that authentic “feel” can be a big challenge for any producer or composer regardless of the DAW at hand.  It takes many years of use-case scenarios along with a full bag of MIDI tricks of the trade.  Longtime SONAR user and MIDI-manipulator Jerry Gerber possesses both of these elements, and will be sharing his secrets at the 2014 NAMM show.   Interestingly, the workshop is not targeted for just SONAR users, but rather for anyone who wants to create the most artistic MIDI recordings possible with the technology they have available. Continue reading “SONAR User and Composer Jerry Gerber to Give A Power-workshop on MIDI at NAMM 2014”

Why Cakewalk’s CA-2A Made a Big Impression at NAMM 2013

Every January, thousands of gear companies, PR professionals, artists, and gear-junkies converge in Anaheim, CA for what is known as one of the world’s biggest music festivals; The NAMM Show.  If you have never been, it’s a playground for the musician where one can find everything from the latest boutique guitar amp to the newest beta software development.

As a software company that participates at the NAMM show year after year, one pattern we have seen which holds true for all companies is that you just know when you have a great product on your hands.  This year was no exception when we unveiled the new CA-2A leveling amplifier to the press, artists and gear-heads; the feedback was beyond our expectations.

The CA-2A had 3 primary points of contact with the public at NAMM:

1. On the show-floor where SONAR X2a was being demonstrated on three machines.

2. The main-stage demonstration area where Cakewalk’s Seth Perlstein (along with other artists) showed off all the features of our software.

3. The Cakewalk V.I.P suite at the Hilton where we set up a studio atmosphere to show off our newest software combines with Roland’s integrated hardware.

While the show-floor and main-stage demo area served as a platform to show our customers and retail buyers our new products, the Hilton suite was where we were able to get the CA-2A in the hands of some well-known artists, along with seasoned experienced gear-savvy journalists.  The beauty of these meetings was that we were not looking for pats on the back or hot air; this was a chance for us to get straight feedback from professional users other than our beta developers for the first time.  After 4 days filled with over 50 meetings, here are a few quotes directly from the demonstrations:

TC Spitfire (producer/songwriter/engineer – Paul Oakenfold, Cher)

“With the style of music I produce on a daily basis, I’m excited to put the CA-2A to work next week.  I absolutely have to have side-chaining capabilities with dance music, so to have that feature in this type of leveling amplifier is huge for me.”

 

 

Tim Wynn (producer/composer/musician – co-owner of SonicFuel studios specializing in Film, Television and interactive media music)

“On any given week I could be writing and producing music for feature films, TV shows or mixing music for some of the biggest titles in video games.  I think the CA-2A is going to be a big part of my plugin arsenal.  From what I just heard in direct comparison to the other leveling amplifiers, I can’t see why anyone would not pick this up.  The fact that it’s lightweight on DSP and you don’t need an external card to run many                                              instances will be a big plus for me; for anyone for that matter.”

Shawn Clement (producer/composer/musician – Clemistry Music at Paramount Studios, Hollywood, CA)

“Anyone looking for a fat classic vintage compression sound will love this thing.  It’s great that you [Cakewalk] guys modeled the R37 screw as well which works miracles on vocals.” [The R37 screw helps control the high-frequency compression.]

 

These were just a few out of the many folks that stopped in to hear the CA-2A up against other leveling amplifiers.  In the next week I will be uploading another blog here exemplifying the sonic capabilities of the CA-2A as I put it to the grind here in my studio in NYC.

A quick look at the CA-2A Feature Highlights:

  • VST, Audio Units & ProChannel compatible (Mac/PC)
  • Meticulously modeled.
  • With only a few simple controls, it’s easy to use and provides instant gratification.
  • Warm, smooth and natural sounding compression characteristics.
  • Frequency-dependent gain reduction.
  • Compressor and Limiter modes.
  • Up to 40 dB of smooth gain reduction.
  • Sidechain input for ducking, de-essing and pumping.
  • Gain reduction CV output to modulate other effects.
  • Zero latency for real-time tracking and mixing.
  • Fully modeled “R37” HF Pre-emphasis control.

See all CA-2A T-Type Leveling Amplifier features

Availability and pricing:

The CA-2A T-Type Leveling Amplifier is now available for $99/£79/€99 and includes VST, AU, and ProChannel Module formats.  Customers who previously purchased the PC2A (ProChannel Module) format can upgrade for $19.99/£15.99/€19.99 on the Cakewalk Store.

Download the CA-2A T-Type Leveling Amplifier

Highlights from NAMM 2013: New Products from Cakewalk and Roland

Cakewalk and Roland at NAMM

If you weren’t able to make it to sunny Anaheim California for the 2013 Winter NAMM show, you missed out on quite a show from Cakewalk and Roland.  Ballroom A was packed with press, dealers, artists, and engineers hoping to get a look at our latest technology and new products.

Cakewalk kicked off the show by announcing the new CA-2A T-Type Leveling Amplifier – now available for download at the Cakewalk Store for only $99/£79/€99. This legendary vintage electro-optical tube compressor, originally released as a ProChannel module, is now available in VST or AU format.

CA-2A

The other big showpiece at this year’s show was touch support in SONAR X2. We had multiple experience stations where users could reach out and touch SONAR X2 for themselves. Station setups included a 27″ touch display, Z420 PC from HP, 2 Intel Ultrabooks with built in touch screens, Roland A-300 PRO MIDI Keyboard Controllers, Roland Octa-Capture Audio Interface, and a brand new Roland Studio-Capture USB 2.0 Audio Interface.

Our main stage demos included Working with Touch in Skylight, Mixing with Touch, Touch in the Matrix View, plus SONAR Technology including R-MIX SONAR, ProChannel, and Virtual Instruments like Z3TA+ 2.

We had some special guest demonstrations as well. Our friends at Overloud joined us to show of TH2 Producer and BREVERB SONAR.

We also had TC, Paul Oakenfold’s main engineer, discussing techniques for remixing and vocals in SONAR X2.

As usual, Cakewalk’s NAMM booth was surrounded by all the other the other members of the Roland family.  We were fully impressed with all the new Roland product announcements.  You should be sure to check out the entire lineup for Roland Connect 2013.

How Chris Standring Used SONAR X1 to Hit Two #1 Chart Positions

The success of SONAR X1 user Chris Standring’s groundbreaking 2010 CD Blue Bolero, which topped several year-end lists and produced a No. 1 single, made it tough for him to create a follow-up record; but all early indicators are showing that he managed quite nicely with the new Electric Wonderland recording which came out yesterday.

As of this morning, Chris woke up to find out that Electric Wonderland has hit #1 in its genre on the Amazon.com sales chart, as well as #1 on the BDS Radio Tracking Chart (Billboard) for the same genre.  I would say that’s a setup for a pretty great day, especially considering the “sales” climate of the music industry in general.  Electric Wonderland is a 10-song CD of original songs that fuses elements of the last record Blue Bolero’s orchestral touches with a deft jazz-pop touch that’s been a hallmark of Standring’s stellar career.

One of the changes Chris made on Electric Wonderland besides going from SONAR 8.5 to X1 was mixing the record on his own.  Continue reading “How Chris Standring Used SONAR X1 to Hit Two #1 Chart Positions”

Softube's Mix Bundle for SONAR X1 Producer Expanded's Pro Channel delivers the goods at NAMM

Softube’s new Mix Bundle for the Pro Channel in SONAR X1 Producer Expanded includes five awesome sounding modules that will make your mixes come alive!

In addition to three distinctly different EQs (Passive, Active and Softube’s own creation the Focusing EQ), the Mix Bundle has the TSAR-1R reverb and a great FET Compressor. I used these two modules for my demos at this year’s NAMM Show and I wanted to share my experience with them this week. Continue reading “Softube's Mix Bundle for SONAR X1 Producer Expanded's Pro Channel delivers the goods at NAMM”

NAMM 2012 Videos and CakeTV Live Webinar

Recently we released our NAMM videos to CakeTV. The six videos contain over an hour of footage of SONAR X1 demonstrations narrated by a combination of Cakewalk staff and Cakewalk artists. And there’s certainly a lot of interesting and useful information to be seen (and heard).

However, due to circumstances beyond our control, the video’s audio quality didn’t turn out quite as expected. With our booth in the Roland arena, and with so many adjacent demo booths within direct earshot, said audio contains not only what’s in the demo being filmed but also a lot of what’s going on around it.

Seth Perlstein at the tail end of one of his SONAR X1 demo at NAMM 2012

Continue reading “NAMM 2012 Videos and CakeTV Live Webinar”