Special Offer: Receive Free Update When You Buy SONAR 8 Today

Cakewalk announces a unique promotion for SONAR customers!

Purchase or upgrade to SONAR 8 Producer or SONAR 8 Studio at any participating music & sound retailer worldwide or Cakewalk.com starting July 1st 2009, and you’ll receive the next feature-rich update to SONAR as a FREE download when released later this year. Cakewalk will be making the free download available to anyone who has purchased SONAR V-Studio 700 as well, starting from the product’s initial release in January.

For more information visit the SONAR 8 Free Update Special page

Can’t decide which SONAR is for you? Get the skinny on SONAR 8 now

“Cakewalk is offering this free promotion to address the concerns of customers who want to buy the latest version of SONAR, but are concerned that they might be left behind if the next update is around the corner.  Now you can start making music today with SONAR 8, and then enjoy a host of new features for free when the next update is released.” – Anthony Conte, Cakewalk VP of Sales

Local prices may vary, please check with your local Cakewalk retailer for more details:

Find a Cakewalk Retailer near you

Visit Cakewalk’s Online Store

NAB 2009: SONAR & V-Mixing System Wow Crowds

For more than 80 years, The NAB Show, produced annually by the National Association of Broadcasters, has served as the premiere event for broadcast technology professionals. But there’s more to the show than just tv and radio broadcasting, it’s the ultimate educational experience! Technology professionals and solutions providers from every corner of the world, come to the show each year to explore every stage of the audio / visual content lifecycle, from creation to consumption.

Cakewalk is one of this year’s exhibitors showing off their state-of-the-art creations at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada from April 20 through April 23. Follow along with Robin Kelly live from the show, here on The Cakewalk Blog.

Here’s his first post:

At the Roland Systems Group booth, Zac Kenney and I were presenting the SONAR V-Studio 700 as the mixing and editing solution to the V-Mixing system. At the heart of the system, is the M-400 Digital Mixing Console from RSS by Roland. Add to that the personal monitoring system, allowing each live performer to have up to 40 individual monitor mixes and the digital snake whick allows up to 40 channels of audio over a single CAT-5 cable, and you have an extremely impressive live mixing setup.

So how does Cakewalk’s SONAR integrate into this system? You can split the signal coming down the CAT-5 cable and connect it to the network card on your PC. Using the REAC driver, you then have 40 discreet inputs going into SONAR to record each channel individually to their own track.

After the live show the VS-700 becomes the platform for mixing and editing the 40-track live performance. From live venues and houses of workship to broadcast customers, the feedback was extremely good. They were all impressed with the flexibility and depth the SONAR V-Studio System provides. Add to that the ability to harness and control all the power of SONAR via a hardware inferface, and you have a ‘perfect solution’. The Fantom VS is an added bonus as this provides the added ability to add extra synth tracks after recording. The ARX slot was also wowing the customers when the ARX-01 Drum card was added.

In Las Vegas, people seem just about willing to bet on anything, but one thing no one I spoke to today was willing to gamble on was their audio. All through the day, customers were coming up to me explaining bow they prefer to mix in SONAR because it ‘just sounds better’ than other programs. Of course, it is always nice to hear such positive compliments about our flagship DAW but in a way it is extra special to hear this coming from folks who have very high (if not limitless) budgets, allowing them to choose any audio platform they wish. Even with that they are still using SONAR because of it’s quality.

It makes sense if you think about it. SONAR has a 64-bit double precision audio engine, multiple gain stages, and 64-bit/convolution plugins to sweeten the mix.

So YES. In Vegas, people will gamble on just about anything, anything but their audio quality!

That’s it for now. Day 2 starts tomorrow!

Robin Kelly
Cakewalk’s Director of Worldwide MI Sales

Learn SONAR Online with Berklee College of Music

Learn SONAR online with Berklee’s renowned faculty from anywhere in the world! Enroll with BerkleeMusic by March 16th and get exclusive access to student-only offers, including deep educational discounts on SONAR software, and $100 off any online course or program.

Visit BerkleeMusic.com for Information on Online Courses and Certificate programs.

Tune Up Your Production Skills with SONAR 8 Help Guides

StreamWorks Audio Offers Complete SONAR 8 Video Tutorial

Whether you are a beginner, just learning the ropes, or a more seasoned veteran of SONAR, this video tutorial leaves nothing out and offers lots of valuable information to get you up and running quickly.

You will learn how to setup your computer for optimal performance, master SONAR’s new user interface & advanced recording and editing techniques, use effects, dial in software instruments, mix down tips & techniques, and much more!

StreamWorks’s SONAR 8 Tutorial: Now Available in HD

SONAR 8 Power! by Scott Garrigus

SONAR 8 Power! is the ideal reading companion for SONAR 8, featuring detailed information that even the most experienced user will benefit from. New users will start from the beginning and learn everything they need to know to use SONAR 8 for recording, editing, producing, mixing, and bringing their music to the masses. Upgraders will learn all about the new features in SONAR 8 as well as enhancements made to existing features that may affect their current production workflow.

Learn how to use AudioSnap, Session Drummer 2, and V-Vocal

Cakewalk In the News: SONAR 8 Producer & Cable Products

Sound On Sound (UK) has followed the SONAR product family since the beginning. Featured in this month’s edition, is an extensive review of SONAR 8 Producer. SOS debunks the myths about the upgrade and sheds some light on the new enhancements; including Beatscape and TS64 Transient Shaper, the 64-bit / VISTA compatibility, and the overall value of the digital audio workstation. Thought I’d share a few quotes from the article:

“The Producer Edition… has an amazing collection of free virtual instruments, signal processing, and MIDI processing plug-ins that give real meaning to the term ‘added-value’.

‘The TS64 is creating a lot of excitement, and rightly so. Though primarily designed for drums and precussion processing, this plug-in offers such precise control over the dynamics of an audio track or mixed audio that it will certainly be used on anything.”

See the SOS website for an article excerpt and more information.

The Video Theater at Harmony-Central is chock full of clips and highlights of this year’s NAMM show. The playlist features Cakewalk Product Specialist Samara Krugman giving a close-up look at Cakewalk’s new line of USB MIDI and Audio Interfaces: UA-1G, UM-1G, UM-2G, UM-3G. Also hosted on the playlist is an overview video of Craig Anderton’s Electronic Guitars Expansion Pack for Rapture, Rapture LE, SONAR HS 7, and SONAR 8.

Cakewalk's Holiday Bundles: Music to Your Ears

The holidays are just around the corner and to celebrate, we’re bringing back Cakewalk’s Holiday Bundles! This is your chance to upgrade to the software you want at prices we can only offer once a year.

We’ve put together a Cakewalk Holiday Bundle for everyone on your list, for every budget. Plus, we’re offerng free shipping through December 30th on orders of $99 or more! Browse our eStore to pick the perfect bundle!

Enjoy and Happy Holidays!