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Get Amazing Add-Ons With A SONAR 8.5 Producer Upgrade

MatrixView

If you’re ready to take the ultimate step to SONAR 8.5 Producer, there has never been a better time to upgrade! SONAR 8.5 Producer includes all of the innovations, instruments and effects that were included in version 8 plus a host of new features including:

 • Matrix View – simple and flexible cell-based, non-linear audio and MIDI arranging with live triggering capability
• 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
• 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

We would also like to let you know that there are a number of Elite Upgrades available to existing SONAR 8 Producer customers at an incredible price! For years, SONAR has been a completely open system, meaning you can add virtually any third party software program to your studio with the peace of mind that it will work flawlessly with SONAR. In that spirit, we have partnered up with some of the industry’s top third party manufacturers (including TruePianos, IK Multimedia, Native Instruments, Notion, Izotope) to create special upgrade options in hopes of rounding out your SONAR experience!

You can find more information on these Upgrades here

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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.

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Carmen Rizzo & Huun Huur Tu Reach Global Audiences

Electronic Musician & Record Producer, Carmen Rizzo – an avid Cakewalk softsynth user – just released a new album in collaboration with the indigenous throat-singers, Huun Huur Tu. Hailing from the Republic of Tuva (a remote area 2,500 miles east of Moscow, Russia), Huun Huur Tu’s music highlights rare native instruments and preserves what is arguably some of the world’s oldest forms of music making. The group’s unique vocals combine with Rizzo’s modern electronic production to take listeners on a lush cinematic journey.

The album is now available at all major online outlets including Amazon.com. Catch Huun Huur Tu live this fall in select cities across the US including New York, Minneapolis and Richmond, Indiana.

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Cakewalk's V-Studio 100 Gets New Snow Leopard Drivers

Mac-Snow-LeopardToday, Cakewalk continues Mac compatibility with the release of new Snow Leopard Mac Operating System (version 10.6) device drivers for the V-Studio 100 portable music production system. The new Snow Leopard drivers are also available for the UA-1G audio interface and UM-1G, UM-2G, UM-3G MIDI interfaces. More hardware drivers will be announced soon.

Cakewalk’s Vice President of Products & Marketing Michael Hoover states:

“Mac users are loyal, and very much looking forward to the new version of their OS. In turn, Cakewalk is loyal to its Mac customers, and supporting them means staying ahead of the development curve and anticipating customer’s needs. These new drivers are just the first step in our planned support for Snow Leopard and our Mac-based consumers.”

To download the drivers for your hardware, please visit our website. Click here for more information on Cakewalk’s V-Studio 100  and Audio / MIDI Interfaces

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Berklee Professor Steve MacLean Talks SONAR in the Classroom

Berklee-Online-LogoHello to all SONAR users!

In efforts to empower artists and music producers it is hard for me to imagine the huge numbers of students I’ve had the opportunity to work with over a 20 year span.  This happens in every format from private one-on-one or small group classes to many years in Berklee classrooms along with the Berklee online school (teaching production techniques in SONAR).  A range of numbers somewhere between 12,000 and 20,000 students is a not so calculated guess!  The truth is that I’m grateful for every one of them as each helped teach me to be a better coach and teacher along with all of the wonderful and amazing musical rewards when students apply what they have learned.  It gives me great satisfaction to know that these people will continue making progress and developing the music careers they wanted. 

One area of confusion that constantly comes up is this: 

I often notice that the technology almost forces people to work in ways that are very unnatural for what they are trying to do.  A great example of this is when the type of musical “style” the student is pursuing vigorously is ultimately made to sound lifeless and sterile.  You might ask, how can the musical style play such a huge role in the successful outcome of various production projects?

Continue reading “Berklee Professor Steve MacLean Talks SONAR in the Classroom”

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SONAR's Snap to Grid Function Makes Editing Easier

Cakewalk_Tips-smEditing your tracks can be the most tedious and time consuming part of the whole music-making process. In almost every project, you’re going to need to do things like line up your Acapella track, line up your Loops and Groove Clips, syncopate your Drum clip, extend the intro or outro, add a break, etc.

DJ Serg, one of today’s hottest remix artists, makes editing much easier by giving you this in-depth look at the Snap Options in SONAR. Now, you can spend less time changing the settings and more time expressing your creativity.

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Cakewalk's V-Studio 100 Is All That & More!

CakewalkVS100What’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.

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Produce Powerful Music with the Fantom VS Synthesizer

Designed by Roland, the Fantom VS hardware synthesizer is built into the SONAR V-Studio 700R interface. It’s a perfect complement to the powerful SONAR digital audio workstation. The Fantom VS includes 1400 patches suited for all kinds of productions and accepts Roland’s specialized ARX expansion cards for piano, drums, brass, and more. Watch the video below and visit the SONAR V-Studio website for more information.

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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.