Having trouble getting your Cakewalk instruments to load in your OS X DAW or sequencer? Use this guide to get Rapture, Dimension Pro and others to install correctly on your Mac computer. This guide provides basic setup information for a variety of hosts including Ableton Live, Apple Logic and Pro Tools. There is also a section that explains what to do if your instruments are not recognized as available plugins under the OS X platform. For more detailed information on using Cakewalk’s instruments within your host, you will need to refer to the programs’ documentation.
At this year’s SIGGRAPH Conference in New Orleans, Carl Jacobson met with the host of Intel’s Visualize This! TV Show, Arti Gupta, to discuss Cakewalk’s advancements in it’s software performance. Some of Arti’s questions were so technical that we thought it only fair to ask Cakewalk’s CTO Noel Borthwick to add his thoughts. Watch the video and check out Noel’s comments below:
AG: Cakewalk is a member of the Intel Software Partner Program. What challenges were you trying to solve?
NB: The bandwidth available to the typical modern DAW user using a modern CPU such as the Core I7 is astounding compared to what was available just a couple of years ago. Users expect our software to use every ounce of available CPU cycles and horsepower it can to process their audio and mix. Cakewalk has been on the bleeding edge of technology for the last 15 years, taking advantage of cutting edge capabilities of the operating system as well as available hardware resources. With multiprocessing and 64-bit computing rapidly becoming mainstream, it has become even more critical for our software to make efficient use of hardware resources.
For example, for efficient multiprocessing we try and optimize all the code paths that are used in asynchronously mixing audio. The goal is to present a multi core machine with even and distributed workloads allowing the cores to work as hard as possible. To do this, we streamline the relevant code and minimize all high latency instructions.
Some typical areas that we try and improve our performance in are:
• Multi-processor load scaling: How well does a controlled test project load across multiple CPU cores?
• 64 bit performance: How well does the 64 bit version of the application perform with multiple workloads?
• CPU use: How efficiently does SONAR play back a CPU intensive project?
• High bandwidth tests: How well does the application perform while streaming audio at high sample rates (192K, 384K, etc) and bit depths (64 bit audio, etc)?
• Low latency performance: How well does the application perform streaming audio with very small audio buffer sizes (such as 1 msec buffers)?
Gadget Reviewer Rob Beschizza spent the weekend with Cakewalk’s SONAR V-Studio 100. After hooking up the portable device to his computer via USB and plugging in his guitar through the Hi-Z input, Rob discovered that he did not need an amp to produce great sounds. In a matter of minutes, Rob was blown away by the device’s ‘triple play’ of powerful features:
“The key point is that it’s a unique box, combining MIDI controller, portable multi-track recorder, and mixer, all in a case the size of a Harry Potter hardback.”
Rob also liked the unit’s SD Recorder function (or as he called it ‘screw software’ mode) for recording on the go; saying that it gives the SONAR V-Studio 100 an ‘aura of awesomeness’.
Read the rest of Rob’s short & sweet review and see close-up shots of the V-Studio 100 at Boing Boing.net
Cakewalk makes setting up your computer for audio production easier as our software products are designed to work with any audio hardware that supports standard Windows drivers; providing you with the widest range of hardware choices available. These day’s its common for the audio device to be built into your PC’s motherboard, which is commonly referred to as an integrated audio device, such as a MME or WDM.
Whether your PC came with an integrated device or has an actual audio card installed by the factory, the results are about the same. These devices are usually designed for very basic media playback, such as playing an audio CD or listening to MP3 files. We’ve created the What Audio Hardware Do I Need? guide to help you find the audio hardware best-suited for your Cakewalk-based recording system.
The portable music production studio, SONAR V-Studio 100, is now shipping worldwide!
The second product in the SONAR V-Studio line of integrated hardware and software by Cakewalk and Roland is a compact, feature rich, music production studio that enables musicians to create, record, produce, and perform music with or without a computer. SONAR V-Studio 100 is ideal for the musician, singer-songwriter, MC, producer, or engineer on-the-go, regardless of whether they use a Mac or PC.
How will SONAR V-Studio 100 fit your production needs? Read on to found out:
On June 15 2009, Cakewalk Product Manager Samara Krugman discussed music production in the classroom with Keith Mason, coordinator of Music Technology at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee and producer for the Music Tech For ME podcast.
In this episode, Samara explains how Music Creator 5 can benefit the music student. It’s simple interface and getting started tutorials guide users through the process of recording, editing, and mixing their first tracks. Students can add sound effects and backing tracks to their projects with hundreds of high-quality instrument sounds, loops and samples built right into the software studio. With these tools, plus Music Creator 5’s various project views and assistant features, students will learn basic music composition techniques as they work toward arranging and printing their own sheet music.
Music Tech For ME covers all aspects of incorporating music technology into the K-12 school curriculum, advising music educators across the globe on the latest advancements in creating and teaching music. Even if you’re not a music educator, you can learn a lot about the numerous technological tools and resources that are available on the market today just by listening to the show.
As the annual Game Developers Conference gets under way in San Francisco, Intel releases a new portion of its website to coincide with their Gaming Industry magazine called Visual Adrenaline. SONAR is one of two featured products on the new site for its superior performance using multicore processors.
Intel’s new site features an article entitled “Composing Audio for Video Games – Art Enabled By Science and Cakewalk Software,” which discusses how the software is used to score and edit audio for games. There is also a solution brief on how to optimize your DAW for superior performance written by Cakewalk’s CTO Noel Borthwick and a video interview with Cakewalk’s VP of Marketing Carl Jacobson and Director of Business Development Gina Garda.
SONAR’s popularity among today’s most-acclaimed video game composers is evident as the new site also hosts interviews with award-winning, SONAR-using composers and audio engineers including Doyle Donnehoo, Shawn Clement, Justin Lassen, Rob King, and Timothy Michael Winn.
Dutch Synthesist and Composer Michel Von Osenbruggen recently reviewed SONAR VStudio 700 in his blog after adding the system to his existing workstation in the Netherlands. Running on SONAR and a Tascam US2400 console, Osenbruggen compliments the system’s compatibility with his studio and comments on the VStudio 700’s flexible control. With transport, jog shuttle and T-Bar controls, Osenbruggen can produce his music without the hassle of switching between mouse and keyboard. He states that he has more room to work, as SONAR VStudio 700 fits comfortably on his desk and features easily-assignable tracks and faders. To read Osenbruggen’s review in full, please visit the Synth.nl blog.
A former software developer and engineer, Michel Von Osenbruggen discovered his knack for music production via his interest of sound production through data communication. He started producing his own music in the early 1990’s and later signed a record deal with electronic music record label Groove Unlimited. In October 2008, Osenbruggen released a project on CD, AtmoSphere, which takes its listeners on a musical journey through the layers of atmosphere between earth and space. You can listen to more of his music here.
The Adventures of a “Displaced Englishman”, 1950s Bollywood samples and the Singapore-based studio with SONAR at its core.
By Oz Owen
Make no mistake – the unusually monikered Calamity Studio is far from living up to its name. Quite the opposite, in fact. Singapore-based Calamity bills itself as the A/V production arm of composer and producer Paul Russell’s Pi2 Creative Services, a successful ‘boutique’ marketing agency.
Paul’s passion for music and production translates into a full studio diary, keeping him busy on a wide range of projects – whether creating original music and soundtracks with the help of an impressive roster of songwriters and musicians from as far afield as the UK, Australia and the USA, or – as his latest project ably demonstrates – weaving vintage Bollywood samples into contemporary compositions.
At Calamity, Paul specialises in creating original compositions in a variety of genres – from ambient through dance to straight-ahead rock/pop. What’s more, he’s making a fine living doing exactly what he loves.
Paul first got hooked when he picked up a bass guitar back in 1976 – the time when musical anarchy was running riot across the UK thanks to the Punk explosion, but it was some years before Paul set about creating his first recording studio, trading in his trusty four-track Portastudio in favour of a more upmarket eight-track setup in what was fast turning into a life-changing quest.
Fast-forward to 1999 and we find Paul living in Singapore, running his own creative agency and building his first digital recording studio replete with Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 to capture every nuance of his compositional ideas. Within a year, SONAR arrived on the scene, and life would never be the same again… Calamity Studio was becoming unstoppable!
With the help of Cakewalk’s Engineering Department, Create Digital Music’s Peter Kirn delves inside the mechanics of SONAR 8. Visit Create Digital Music to learn how SONAR 8 will hold its own in Windows Vista.
Cakewalk’s Noel Borthwick explains, “SONAR 8 introduces several, crucial enhancements for communications with audio devices in Windows Vista, including support for WASAPI (a new audio standard in Windows Vista and future OS), MMCSS task profile support, and WaveRT streaming.”
To view the complete list of enhancements made to the latest version of SONAR, take a look at the posting below.
Having trouble getting your Cakewalk instruments to load in your OS X DAW or sequencer? Use this guide to get Rapture, Dimension Pro and others to install correctly on your Mac computer. This guide provides basic setup information for a variety of hosts including Ableton Live, Apple Logic and Pro Tools. There is also a section that explains what to do if your instruments are not recognized as available plugins under the OS X platform. For more detailed information on using Cakewalk’s instruments within your host, you will need to refer to the programs’ documentation.
On June 15 2009, Cakewalk Product Manager Samara Krugman discussed music production in the classroom with Keith Mason, coordinator of Music Technology at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee and producer for the Music Tech For ME podcast.
