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AES 2009 Wrap-Up: SONAR 8.5 Steals the Show

Johnny Juice, Run DMC & Cakewalk TeamGreetings from the 127th Annual AES (Audio Engineering Society) Convention in New York City at the Javitz Center! We are on the last leg of the final day here at AES and it has been a whirlwind. We got here on Thursday to set up for the show and have been working hard at exemplifying all the killer new features in SONAR 8.5 as well as the work-horses V-Studio 700 and V-Studio 100.

Our East Coast Product Specialist Rich Curtis along with our Midwest Product Specialist Mike Trujillo (two of the hardest working guys in show biz) barely have their voices left after all the demoing and dialogue needed for the foot traffic. It looks like the buzz on the street is SONAR 8.5 because we literally had every walk of life (mostly other DAW users) stopping in to check out the new 8.5 as well as the new hardware.

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MIX Magazine Films Exclusive SONAR 8.5 Videos

MIXMix Magazine caught up with Cakewalk’s Brandon Ryan to shoot three exclusive videos – demoing the new version of Cakewalk’s flagship DAW, SONAR 8.5.

The first video displays SONAR’s sheer power hosting Shawn Clement’s remix of Cori Yarckin’s “Everything You Said” with 140 tracks, 50 plug-ins and a high-res 800 MB AVI video file – all running simultaneously on a PC AudioLabs Intel Core i7 desktop machine. The second video focuses on the new compositional features added to SONAR 8.5 Producer such as the Matrix view, the VX-64 vocal processor plug-in, the powerful arpeggiator and the time-stretching tool, AudioSnap 2.0. Lastly, Brandon gives a brief overview of the new percussion instruments, Session Drummer 3 and the PX-64 percussion strip.

Watch these videos now on the MIX TV page!

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Cakewalk's Carl Jacobson Interviewed On 'Into Tomorrow' Radio Show

Carl on Into Tomorrow Radio ShowAt the 2009 Intel Developer Forum, Dave Graveline of “Into Tomorrow” – the consumer electronics & technology radio show – interviewed Cakewalk’s Vice President of Marketing Carl Jacobson on the new Core i7 mobile processor and its benefits when using SONAR for music production.

Visit Into Tomorrow’s website to listen to the clip (labeled Hour 1, you’ll find it half way down the page on the right hand side). Starting at 00:35:30, you’ll hear how award-winning producer Shawn Clement mixes 140 live tracks in real time using the new processor and Cakewalk’s SONAR 8.5 Producer. You’ll also learn more about Cakewalk and Intel’s new songwriting contest being held throughout the fall at Ourstage.com.

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Composer Tim Wynn Featured On New Video Game Soundtrack

Composer / Producer of music for video games, Tim Wynn, announces the release of his recent project, the soundtrack to Red Faction Guerrilla.  Best known for his scores in such successful titles as Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 (2008), The Simpson’s Game (2007) and The Punisher (2005), Wynn uses SONAR and its many available plug-ins to create his works.

To complete the latest soundtrack, 5 composers came together to produce 32 tracks. Listen to one of Tim’s tracks below, the video game’s main theme song, Defiance:

Red Faction Guerrilla takes place in 2075 on the surface of Mars. The Red Faction is a revolutionary force called upon to liberate the ‘Ultor’ colonies and put an end to the grotesque experiments conducted by chief scientist, Capek. The fate of the red planet solely rests of the actions of the Red Faction and its fearless leader Alec Mason.

Hear more of Tim’s work on the Red Faction Guerrilla soundtrack.

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Cakewalk Takes the Stage at Intel Developer Forum

Renee-James-KeynoteHello everyone, last week was an exciting week for us with Cakewalk being featured and spotlighted by Intel in a number of ways.

By now, it shouldn’t be any secret that SONAR is the technology leading digital audio workstation. We’ve been first to support all of Microsoft’s operating systems for the last 12 years, and we’ve been first to support so many of Intel’s technological developments: hyperthreading, multiprocessor machines, multicore processing, 64-bit x64 processing and others. And our support for these technologies have not just been pioneering, both Intel and Microsoft recognize SONAR as one of the best examples of a software product supporting them. Last June, Cakewalk was the only audio company named a finalist in Microsoft’s Global ISV Partner Awards and last week, Intel honored Cakewalk by making us the only audio company featured in the launch of their new Mobile Core i7 Processor and the keynote presentations at their IDF Conference.

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Kevin Kern Augments Late Night Laughs with SONAR

kevin kernIf you’re late night TV fan, you’ve probably heard Kevin Kern’s music flowing from your television set. A pianist, composer and recording artist, Kevin’s music was recently featured on the Late Show with David Letterman during a parody featuring smarmy comedian Chris Elliott in The Curious Case of Bennington Butterworth.  No stranger to the television scene,  Kern’s music has been heard as part of Live! With Regis and Kelly, Oprah, NPR, PBS and more. Legally blind since birth, Kevin relies on SONAR’s assistive technology to record and produce his own music.

Hear Kevin’s latest tracks as part of his new podcast on Itunes, Piano Stories (click on the News tab to subscribe).

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Brooke Hogan's 'Redemption' Is A SureFire Hit

Brooke HoganBoston’s Surefire Music Group landed a role in mainstream TV this summer as their music was featured on the first 4 episodes of VH-1’s Brooke Knows Best (Season 2).  While Brooke’s television popularity continues to grow, Surefire Music Group is also responsible for 2 songs on the reality TV star’s brand new album, Redemption.  Surefire produced the sexy pop banger Handcuffed, and a heartfelt classic, One That Got Away. Brooke’s producers state that “this album is quite different from her last release, this time encompassing the drama of Brooke’s life on and off the television screen while showing her niche for infectious pop melodies and captivating stories within quality lyrics.”

Surefire Music Group use SONAR 8 Producer in studio, pointing out that V-Vocal and SONAR’s audio and midi capabilities make it a “very powerful platform”. Visit Surefire Music Group online for more information.

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The Next Version of SONAR… Is Here!

S8_Producer_3D_boxFor the past month,  we’ve been ‘tweeting’ about the new features found in the next version of SONAR. Well, the wait is finally over! Cakewalk today announces a feature packed upgrade for SONAR Producer and SONAR Studio.

SONAR 8.5 continues to innovate with new capabilities including enhanced beat creation and arrangement tools,  a new drum instrument loaded with stellar kits and patterns, an enhanced audio timing toolset, new multi-stage effect plug-ins for drums, percussion sounds and vocal tracks, engine optimizations and stability improvements, and many additional workflow and technological advances -notably Windows 7 compatibility.

Plus… for the first time ever… We’re offering it as a download!

New Features & Workflow Enhancements:

·  Matrix View—simple and flexible cell-based, non-linear audio and MIDI arranging with live triggering capability.
·  Step Sequencer 2.0—the most powerful step sequencing capability in any DAW.
·  Integrated Arpeggiator—trigger arpeggiations on MIDI or instrument tracks with in-depth control over all arp parameters. Includes hundreds of presets.
·  Session Drummer 3—latest version of Cakewalk’s virtual instrument for easy and fast creation of drum tracks with a new UI, stellar sounding kits and patterns from top sound designers and drummers, more.
·  AudioSnap 2.0—updated audio quantizing and time shifting technology with new look and refinements to all the core controls, significantly improving workflow, plus improved offline rendering.
·  Media Browser—a new hub for content access in SONAR; supports multiple formats to preview and import your loops, grooves, and MIDI patterns; features presets to grab content from your favorite locations.
·  PX-64 Percussion Strip—seven-stage processor designed specifically for use with drums and percussion.
·  VX-64 Vocal Strip—seven-stage processor optimized for shaping and sculpting vocal tracks.
·  Windows 7 Support—tested, ready, and recommended for use.
·  Engine optimizations and stability improvements for recording audio, and while looping.
·  “Hotswap” audio and MIDI devices, including control surfaces, without restarting SONAR. 
·  VST plug-in compatibility improvements. 
·  Native REX Loop support featured in Track View, Media Browser, and Matrix View. 
·  BitBridge XR—run 32-bit plug-ins in 64-bit environments, with memory access now extended up to 128 GB RAM.

Read the SONAR 8.5 press release here
Visit the SONAR 8.5 web pages for exclusive specs, images and more

Here’s the first SONAR 8.5 feature video on Session Drummer 3 to get your creative juices flowing:

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Creating Soundtracks For Video With SONAR

At last year’s AES Conference, Cakewalk’s Robin Kelly gave a presentation on using SONAR 8 for creating a soundtrack to a video. Watch Robin’s tutorial to learn how to use SONAR’s included instruments – Dimension Pro, Session Drummer 2 and Z3TA+ – to create great sounding music tracks for your home movies. Robin also shows you how to export your final project so that you can share it with friends or publish it to your favorite video-sharing site.