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MIX Nashville 2009: Town Talents Check Out SONAR V-Studio Series

Day 2 of Mix Nashville started out great but you really can’t go wrong when you are in a town that has top notch music, weather and of course the most important element; BBQ!

In between the panels at the conference, I found myself having some great conversations with local Nashville songwriters, producers and musicians about “all things music”.  I have come to the conclusion that there are more home studios in this town than there are BBQ joints.

Mike Lawson from Lawson Media stopped in to say hello and check out the new SONAR V-Studio 100 and he brought a friend of his by the name of Bob Welch.  You may or may not have heard the name ‘Bob Welch’ but I can guarantee that you have heard his music, if you have listened to the radio and especially if you are a Fleetwood Mac fan.  Bob was the original guitarist for Fleetwood Mac and was also a solo artist chalking up three massive hits from 1977 – 1979 with the songs “Sentimental Lady”, “Ebony Eyes” and “Hot Love, Cold World”.  I had an amazing conversation with him about the digital music age compared to his experiences as a successful musician and artist in the 70’s.  I have always been fascinated with that era of music so I really enjoyed and appreciated talking to him.  I was also psyched to find out that he is a PC user and will be recording some of his upcoming projects in SONAR 8 Producer.

Later in the afternoon while my co-workers and Product Specialists Rich Curtis and Mike Trujillo were exemplifying all the features of the V-Studio 700,  I caught up with Producer / Mixer / Songwriter / Musician Chris Trevett who is a friend of mine that I haven’t connected with in a while.  Chris is an amazingly talented music guy who has two Grammys under his belt (yep 2!) and has worked with many iconic artists such as Britney Spears, The Backstreet Boys and R. Kelly (to name a few).  He was stopping in to check out the new V-Studio 100 as well and I was psyched to catch up with him.

Chris relocated to Nashville from New York about a year and a half ago so he was able to fill me in on what the local music scene in Nashville is really like.  He is also working with some great international artists and I was able to get an interview with him, which will be featured on my Cakewalk Artist Spotlight series in the near future.  In the meantime, check out Chris Trevett’s website for more information on his work.

Later on in the afternoon things started winding down a bit as most of the people were attending the panels and performances.  I did get a chance to meet with new SONAR user Tiffany Shea and also the very talented Nashville Producer / Musician / Songwriter (and Artist) Nathan Meckel who has been busy working with LA-based Singer / Songwriter Sara Hayes as well as his own project “Upside of Envy”.

Nathan was checking out MIX/Nashville with his father Mark Meckel who owns Street Singer Music Publishing. Besides producing and writing for other artists, Nathan has got a great work-horse story and has played shows from Nashville to Israel and I think we will be hearing and seeing more from him in some bigger pictures soon.

To wrap up the conference, I was invited to check out a band called Pico vs. Island Trees and was pleasantly surprised at what I heard and saw.  I highly recommend you check them out.  The band has a very unique sound coupled with great songwriting and an authentic image that works well.  It was an exclamation point on a great trip and also a confirmation that this town is filled with ridiculously talented people.

Thanks to everyone who stopped in to check out the new V-Studio 100 and thanks to MIX Magazine for holding such a great event.

Thanks for reading,

Jimmy Landry
Cakewalk Artist Relations Manager

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Day 2: The Future Producers of Hip-Hop Battle It Out

Live From One Stop Shop Music Producers Conference Phoenix, Arizona, Day 2 (May 9th… 1am overlooking Phoenix city lights from a Jetblue red-eye to NYC)

Hope everyone had a Happy Mother’s Day! Day 2 technically starts at 12:00am from yesterday so I will pick it up from there. We found ourselves at Club PHX with Sha Money and many of the talented producers and artists who attended One Stop Shop. I have to admit, I had no idea that Phoenix was such an after-hours kind of town. The club was packed and as always when hanging with a bunch of musicians after midnight, the conversations flowed candidly about gear, projects and the state of the music industry.  Everyone I spoke with agreed that no matter how much turmoil the music industry is facing, it’s an amazing time for musicians who want to take control of their own music (and future) by empowering themselves with tools such as Cakewalk. As you will read later, this proved to be true from the OSS Beat Battle.

My wakeup call rang early. Seth Perlstein and I caffeinated up and prepared for what was to going to be a very busy day. The second day of the “V-100 Challenge” brought new talent early and with fury as MC’s jumped on the Cakewalk mic like it was nothing. I was amazed with some of these cats when I asked them if they wanted to hear the beat first…  or warm up… or something…  nope – these dudes would just step up to the mic and throw lyrics like they had been there all night practicing. Today we had some MC’s representing Boston, Phoenix, Florida, Dallas, Queens, Brooklyn and even Mississippi.  I’m glad I’m not the one deciding on who is walking away with SONAR 8 Producer. Thanks to all the cats that participated and please check Youtube this week for a V-100 video montage.

In between the action of the rap battles, we were pretty psyched to connect with some great producers in the game who stopped by to say hello and get a 1 on 1 taste of the new V-700, that is creating quite a buzz in the Hip Hop world. Neither Seth nor I had ever met Pete Rock and it was a pleasure to connect with him as well as Don Cannon, Just Blaze and Drumma Boy.  Throughout the day there were some pretty heavy panels going on as well.  Sway moderated a panel I caught in the afternoon with RZA, Just Blaze, Pete Rock, Steve Lobel, and many other pioneers in the game.  It was interesting to hear these guys comment on modern production and the state of the music industry.

Later on in the afternoon, we were approached by Microsoft Technical Evangelist, Arif Gursel, along with Sha Money who offered us an opportunity to demonstrate the V-700 right before dinner in front of all the conference goers.  It was a bit of work breaking down our booth and setting back up on stage but it was well worth it.  Seth Perlstein took the stage and did a great job going through some of the main features of the controller, interface, phantom synth and also fielded some questions from the crowd.

In the evening, I interviewed Lee Bannon who has been using SONAR and Project 5 on his recent project with Talib Kweli. Then we checked out the finals of the beat battle and it was crystal clear to me that we are in the middle of a music revolution.  Basically, any undiscovered producer could submit beats for this competition and it was ridiculous how crazy-good the final four contestants were.  Some of these new age producers are really thinking outside the box, that is outside the box with how they are constructing the beats, and the sounds were very refreshing to say the least.

Thanks again to Sha Money and I definitely recommend this conference to any up and coming Hip Hop producer for two main reasons:

1) It’s a great place to easily network with some name brand guys because the vibe is “we’re all in this together”.

2) It’s a great place to get your work out there if you really have an amazing talent.

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The Future of Hip-Hop At One Stop Shop

A big WHAT IS UP from Phoenix, AZ !!!

I have to say there’s a common thread of goodness here in Phoenix AZ this weekend; Sha Money (and staff), amazing weather, and great people all pooled together for one reason – the spirit and the state of Hip Hop and creating music.

My co-worker and Cakewalk Product Specialist Seth Perlstein and I rolled into town yesterday and we hit the ground running preparing our Cakewalk booth and demonstration area.  On a lighter note, we showed up at 7:30am and were well prepared for the day but there was one problem…  we failed to realize that we were on “Hip Hop time” and what was supposed to be a 10am start turned into a noon-time launch.  It’s all good? I utilized the time tapping into the wealth of SONAR knowledge that Seth has to offer.  That guy has more SONAR tricks than a magician has rabbits – thanks Seth!

What a great day we have had so far showing people the new V-Studio 100 as well as the V-Studio 700 and SONAR.  I’m getting a great response from artists who are digging the fact that you can throw the V-100 in your suitcase with a laptop and make a record when you land.

A few of our many friends and fans that have stopped by to say hello so far today include Che Vicious who is working on the new Dr. Dre record, Grammy winning producing team Play N Skillz, Q-tip, and Sha Money, but I think the show stealer was Che Vicious’s 6 year old son who logged about an hour of studio time with Seth, and then busted out a monstrous pose with the V-100 (I think we found a new spokesman).

On the plane ride into Phoenix I was thinking about ways to get people engaged with the new V-100.  So instead of just telling everyone how good the mic pre’s are I decided to trigger a way for them to hear it for themselves by having a weekend long contest called the “V-100 Challenge”.

Any willing, rap-battling street soldier can walk up to our booth and throw down a verse over a beat we created in SONAR.  When the weekend is over, we’ll (Cakewalk) take a listen back to all the tracks. The flow-fighter with the most convincing rap will have a shiny new copy of SONAR 8 Producer to make great music with.  So far, it’s been a blast and I think it’s going to be a tough decision.  We have heard some crazy talent step up to mic with representation from Hawaii all the way to Phili!

We were fortunate enough to get an invite to the conference party tonight at club PHX which should be a great time. A sincere Happy Mother’s Day to all from everyone at Cakewalk, and thanks for reading.

Jimmy Landry
Cakewalk Artist Relations

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Keyboard Magazine Recognizes SONAR V-Studio 700 With 'KeyBuy' Award

Pick up the latest issue of Keyboard Magazine at your local newstand to see Craig Anderton’s exclusive review on the SONAR V-Studio 700 system. Five whole pages are dedicated to a product walkthrough complete with numbered images, a ‘pros’ and ‘cons’ chart, a ‘what you need to know’ guide, and information on the new SONAR 8.3 update.

Here’s a few quotes from the article:

“I like to mix, not just click, and I’ve been using motorized fader boxes with SONAR for years, but this custom controller is orders of magnitude better”

“Buying similar components separately would cost the same or likely more, and they wouldn’t form this well-oiled a machine right out of the box… V-Studio 700 is way better than it should be for the price” – Craig Anderton

Also, Keyboard Magazine presented SONAR V-Studio 700 with a “KeyBuy’ Award for outstanding musical instruments and music technology products. According to Keyboard, a product music meet the following criteria to win such recognition:

1) It represents a genuine technological breakthrough
2) At press time, it’s the best product in its class
3) It offers bang-for-buck that’s better than what anyone would expect

Thank You Keyboard Magazine for the honors!

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Bonjour! Roland Europe & SONAR V-Studio Systems Visit France

Across the pond, Roland Central Europe has been very busy showing the new SONAR V-Studio 700 and 100 systems to potential dealers and aspiring producers. On April 23rd, Roland’s Cedric Verchere visited the world-renown school for multimedia, the SAE Institute in Paris, France.

French R & B Producer, Zoheir Mokkedem, was on hand giving live demonstrations, showing the audience how to make beats in SONAR 8.  Zoheir is most known for his work with French chart-topper, Nadiya.  He co-wrote, programmed and produced two songs on her platinum-selling, breakthrough album, Flashback. Both songs were tracked in SONAR.

Also in attendance was Loic, the founder of the first French SONAR users community, www.sonarfrance.com. Cedric was glad to finally meet him.

Like Zoheir and Loic, professional producers and musicians worldwide choose SONAR for its 64-bit audio engine, intuitive user interface, ease of creating tracks and beats, and ability to control EQ, effects and synths with ACT for their music production needs.

Roland Central Europe will make two more stops in France this spring. Check out the schedule below for more details:

Univers Clavier Percu
3, Rue du General de Gaulle
Brumath, FR
Clinic: Monday, May 25 at 3:00pm
+03 88645911

Aux Guitares
63 Avenue de Belgique
Illzach, FR
Clinic: Tuesday, May 26 at 3:00pm
+03 89464638

ALSO…  Watch for Nadiya’s new album, Electron Libre, featuring former Destiny’s Child member Kelly Rowland and the “Latin Casanova,” Enrique Iglesias.

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Money Management Group's 'One Stop Shop' 2009

This year’s One Stop Shop Producers Conference in Phoenix, Arizona will be off the chain! Hosted by Money Management Group at the Hyatt Regency Hotel from May 9th – 10th, hundreds of hip-hop producers from around the world will be representing at workshops on music publishing, artist management, studio and sound equipment, production, and artist scouting.

If you’ve got skills, join in on an extensive two-day beat battle, where the contestant with the hottest beats receives surprise gifts, music placement, the latest technology, and more. Also, Cakewalk will be on hand laying down tracks and dropping beats with the SONAR V-Studio 700 & 100 music production systems. 

Founded by Sha “Money” XL in 2002, Money Management Group has boosted the careers of beat-makers and trend-setters worldwide including 50 Cent, Lloyd Banks, Tony Yayo, Young Buck, Hi-Tek, and Jake One. Every year, the group’s One Stop Shop Producer’s Conference pulls together 700+ artists and producers from around the world. 

What will it take to make it or break it in tomorrow’s hip-hop scene? Stop by the conference to find out.

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Cakewalk Tours A Retailer Near You

You’ve heard the news, you’ve seen the videos, now here’s your opportunity to check out SONAR V-Studio 700 and SONAR 8 in person. You’ll be able to twist the knobs, move the faders and learn about all of the incredible features this all-in-one system has to offer.

Whether you are interested in purchasing SONAR V-Studio 700, SONAR 8, or just want to see it the two products in action, Cakewalk Product Specialists will be at the stores to offer one-on-one training and clinics on the following dates below. More dates will be coming soon!

Guitar Center- Towson
1524 E. Joppa Road
Towson, MD 21286
(410) 821 5200
Clinic: Tuesday April 28 at 6:00pm

Guitar Center- North Dallas
4519 LBJ Freeway
Dallas, TX 75206
(972) 960 0011
Clinic: Tuesday April 28 at 6:00pm

Performance Audio
2456 S. West Temple
Salt Lake City, UT 84115
(801) 466 3196
Clinic: Thursday April 30 at 6:00pm

Alto Music
180 Carpenter Avenue
Middletown, NY 10940
(845) 692 6922
Clinic: Thursday April 30 at 6:00pm

Continue reading “Cakewalk Tours A Retailer Near You”

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Cakewalk in LA: ASCAP 'I Create Music' Expo 2009

Hello everyone.  This is actually my first blog here on The Cakewalk Blog as the new Artist Relations Manager for the company.  I’m writing this from the The Renaissance Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles, CA where I am attending the ASCAP I CREATE MUSIC Expo. I’m here with my brilliant co-workers Brandon Ryan, Seth Perlstein and Mike Trujillo and we have quite a bit going on here this week.

I got into town on Monday and I spent some time with the artist Jessica Lombard who is tracking and mixing her new EP on our new V-Studio 100 (and SONAR 8 Producer) in Torrance, CA. You will be hearing more about this young artist (13 years old) soon here on the Cakewalk blog.

Tuesday, Brandon and I spent the day with the artist Dilana and her producer/band member Erik Eldénius at her home studio near Hollywood. What a great day we had creating an acoustic version of a song on her upcoming record with the new V-Studio 700. This song is still being developed but hopefully it will be available at some point when the record comes out in the near future. You might remember Dilana from the TV show “Rock Star Supernova” as the girl with the voice that can cut through metal? Anyway; we thank her and Erik for the day and wish her all the best with the new music. 

Yesterday, we arrived at ASCAP Expo and got set up for the demonstrations we have going on throughout the week. Last night, we got a chance to swing by some post ASCAP awards’ parties including the EMI Publishing party at XIV Terrace on Sunset which was fun. 

On to ASCAP…  To begin with, we have an actual recording room where we are developing a real track throughout the day, every day. Right now as I type, one of our CPUs (Cakewalk Pro User) Gionvanni Loria (Producer/Composer) who has used SONAR to work with such artists as Black Eyed Peas, Jack Johnson and Everlast is at the V-Studio 700 with Brandon Ryan creating a great track for the artist Tawny Ellis who will be coming in shortly to lay down some vocals. Also, we have a very informative demo room where Seth Perlstein is holding down the fort and giving great one-on-one advice to a room full of music creators. Later on this afternoon I am psyched to catch up with some great CPUs including Chuck Carr, Rob King, Justin Lassen, Cheese Beats, and Jorg Kohring (from the band Orbit Monkey).  

If you are in the LA area, please come out and say hello, and if you have time tomorrow I will be moderating a great panel at 3:15 in the Mount Olympus room at the Expo with the following people and topic:

When Demos Turn Into Masters: The Importance and Relevance of Project Studio Recordings

“Spider” Ron Entwistle – Producer, Songwriter, Remixer
Alex Hackford – A&R – Sony Computer Entertainment America/Playstation
Gavin Haverstick – Lead Acoustical Engineer – Auralex Acoustics
Emanuel Kiriakou – Songwriter, Producer – “Crush,” “What’s Left of Me,” “A Million Miles,” “2 in the Morning”
Ankur Malhotra – A&R, Urban/Pop – Capitol Records
Mark Needham – Mixer, Producer – The Killers, Iglu & Hartly, Metro Station

That’s it for now and we hope to see you at ASCAP. 

Thanks for reading,
Jimmy Landry

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NAB 2009: Robin Answers The Most Common SONAR & V-Studio 700 Questions

As the NAB Show wraps up, it’s a good time to reflect:

I have to say that for a product that has only been on the market for 2 years, I was amazed at just how many people I met, who have adopted the SONAR REAC Recording option for the V-Mixing system (Digital Snake and/or M-400).

As mentioned before, the REAC sends 40 channels of digital audio down a CAT-5 cable. Connect the cable to your PC’s network card and the Cakewalk REAC driver will pump the audio into SONAR. Many live venues, houses of worship and rental companies are taking advantage of the recording option. Using this option, the tracks record directly into SONAR. Once in SONAR the ‘live’ tracks can now be mixed, edited and mastered for either DVD, CD, web, or other formats. Obviously, this opens up a whole range of possibilities as you essentially have a 40 track recording studio at every live event whether it is a sermon or an outdoor rock festival.

Aside from the REAC recording customers, I spoke with many people who were in disbelief of the power and functionality SONAR has. I never like to say ‘no’ to customers, so NAB has been a great show and here’s a few examples why:

Customer: Can I use SONAR’s 64-bit internal audio engine on a 32-bit operating system?
Me- Yes , you can!

Customer: Do you have 64-bit audio plugins for mastering?
Me- Yes, we do and they’re included in SONAR.

Customer: What if my other plugins are 32-bit, I can’t use them right?
Me: Actually, SONAR has something called Bit Bridge which allows you to run 32-bit plugins on a 64-bit system.

Customer: Does Cakewalk support SONAR and/or the VS-700 running under Bootcamp?
Me: Yes, we do.

Customer: If I have a multitrack project that is in stereo, is it possible to convert it to surround?
Me: Yes! Just add a surround bus and route your tracks to it.

Customer: What about a surround mix to stereo?
Me: Of course, just reverse the steps and assign the tracks to a stereo bus.

Continue reading “NAB 2009: Robin Answers The Most Common SONAR & V-Studio 700 Questions”

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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