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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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Chuck Carr Mixes The Hoff's Vocals for Video Game Release

Producer and Songwriter for video games, Chuck Carr, posted this video to his YouTube account and we wanted to share it with you. In the video, Chuck uses the brand new VX-64 Vocal Strip (included in SONAR 8.5 Producer) to tweak The Hoff’s rendition of ‘Do You Really Want to Hurt Me’ for an upcoming release of the Playstation 3 game, PAIN.

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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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Quite Nyce Records Beats On the Road with V-Studio 100

As one of the North East’s most prolific MCs in the game today, Quite Nyce has completed three world tours with legendary hip hop acts such as Das Efx, Onyx, Lords of the Underground and Afu-Ra. He continues to be successful and 2009 is perhaps the biggest year of his career. Nyce just released a hugely popular downloadable mixtape alongside MC Seek called ‘RADIx Mixtape’, launched a critically acclaimed collaboration album with Raydar Ellis entitled, ‘The Champs vs. The League’, and began recording his album with Geoff from Portishead. Today, Quite Nyce announces the release of his digital solo album, ‘Through My Eyes LP’.

Pegged as having one of the most recognizable voices and flows of hip-hop today, Quite Nyce uses his words to embody life through music. Watch the video below to see him, spitting his soulful lyrics in action, with the SONAR V-Studio 100!

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Artist Impression: Recording Artist Javier Colon on V-Studio 100

Full of heart and soul, major label recording artist Javier Colon is set to release a new album and launch a new tour! No stranger to the stage, Javier founded a R&B acapella group while studying at the University of Hartford’s Hartt School of Music, performed as lead singer of the neo-funk group, EmCQ, wowed Soulive’s guitarist Eric Krasno during an opening set, and spent a few years on the road fronting the Derek Trucks Band. For his new release recorded in SONAR, Javier breaks away from his Urban, R&B mold and grabs his acoustic guitar to sing some soulful melodies over more contemporary and melodic chord changes. Javier is now currently touring the world with a whole new sound, opening for the likes of Joss Stone and Andy Hamilton while also playing solo acoustic shows at 100+ colleges. In this video, Javier talks about the upcoming tour and tells how a mobile recording unit, like the SONAR V-Studio 100, can benefit making music while on the road and on the stage.

Artist Impression: Javier Colon on SONAR V-Studio 100
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SONAR Pro-User Justin Lassen Featured in Intel's Visual Adrenaline Magazine

A master at his craft, Justin Lassen dominates a new realm of creativity, composing music to computer-generated graphic art. A one-of-a-kind producer, composer and re-mixer, Justin translates the inspiring yet hauntingly beautiful art he sees into his own musical masterpieces. With the help of his PCAudioLabs digital audio workstation with an Intel Core i7 processor, SONAR 8 and various media editing tools, Justin gives life to the one dimensional art forms.

Recently featured in Intel’s Visual Adrenaline Magazine for his work with computer technology, Justin states:

“Cakewalk’s SONAR 8 was one of the applications that were optimized and ready to take full advantage of the four cores and eight threads available with the Intel Core i7 processor.”

Among the many new features in SONAR 8 that Lassen appreciates are“the new compression, gating, and limiting as well as the tried-and-true Sonitus FX, which always find their way into all of my projects, since they don’t overload my CPU.”

Synaesthesia, a series of his latest works, has gained high acclaim throughout the fine art and technology industries. The series pairs his music with still images created by well-known graphic designers including Alex Ruiz (The Simpsons) and Nykolai Aleksander.

To view scenes from Synaesthesia and other works, visit Intel’s website and scroll through the August edition of Visual Adrenaline Magazine

Follow Justin through life in the digital world on his Live Journal

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Artist Impression: Singer-Songwriter Cori Yarckin On the Road With V-Studio 100

One of Rolling Stones ‘Top 5 Up and Coming Female Artists’ and Cherry Lane Music Publishing Singer-Songwriter, Cori Yarckin, recently released her debut album, featuring the edgy new single, ‘Everything You Said’. Watch the video below to hear everything she had to say about writing and recording on the road with the SONAR V-Studio 100.

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Cool Videos on Making Music for Video Games

Composing music for video games is a growing industry and an increasingly important part of our customer base. At NAMM 09′, we hosted a panel discussing this very topic with some of the best known composers around. Many of our customers, such as Stephen Hanson and Diwa Deleon, use SONAR for sequencing and recording music to their favorite video games. We recently came across their Youtube videos and thought you would get a kick out of their creativity:

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Artist Impression: Joe Stokes Talks Post Production with V-Studio 700

Joe Stokes specializes in Post Production Sound and Video Editing. He worked for several years in theater as a production manager, in corporate television as a producer and later as a visual effects production manager for POP on films such as Independence Day, What Dreams May Come, and Star Trek: First Contact.

He is the founder of Stokes Audio, Recording & Post located in Tarzana, CA. Recently, Cakewalk’s Steve Thomas visited Stokes’ studio with the SONAR V-Studio 700 music production system. Joe shares some of his favorite features and a few production tips & tricks: