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Musikmesse Day 2: O Fortuna

Ok… I can’t contain myself so we’re going to have blog dessert first and jump right to the end of the day. SONAR V-Studio 700 won the MIPA award for Best Recording Hardware!

If you’re not aware of what the MIPA is or what it means to Cakewalk, just imagine that you won a Grammy award. Over 100 music products magazines worldwide come together each year to vote on what they feel are the best and most innovative products of the last year. So it is such a incredible honor that SONAR V-Studio 700 was selected for this!

Greg Hendershott, Cakewalk’s Founder and CEO and Mr. Kimitaka Kondo Managing Director of Roland Corporation were hand to accept the award.

I’ve uploaded a video clip from the event of our winning the award and Greg and Mr. Kondo’s speech:


SONAR V-Studio 700 Wins MIPA 2009
Uploaded by CakewalkInc

And here are some more pictures from the night:

Greg and Mr. Kondo accept the award.

The stage was filled with many happy people, as they called up the winners of all categories.

Charly Steinberg won a Lifetime Achievement award tonight for his work over the years to move music technology forward. It was a moment of sheer transcendence for me to see Greg and Charly together. Cakewalk won a MIPA tonight in a category that beat out Steinberg’s latest offering, and Charly the founder of that same competitor was honored for his life’s work.

Despite how fiercely we have competed over the years, the two of them greeted each other like old friends and had a genuine, warm moment congratulating each other. It really reminded me that we’re all in it for the same reason… to make music and to help people make music. And maybe we shouldn’t forget that are competitors are just like us in that regard. In alot of ways, they help us make better products for you, because we have to continue to innovate to stay competitive with each other.

Anyway enough of the philosophical ramblings. Here’s another photo from the evening, it features some of my favorite people, members of the Cakewalk and Roland team.

From left to right: Masahiro Minowa, Michael Hoover, Robin Kelly, Koichi Mizumoto, Greg Hendershott, Alex Westner, Carl Jacobson (me), Steve Thomas and Brandon Ryan.

Those are genuine smiles you’re seeing in this picture. This team and many other people back in the offices of Cakewalk and Roland, put in a tremendous effort over the last couple years to make SONAR V-Studio 700. To be recognized with a MIPA for that work, really made it all worthwhile.

Well, I need to run to a meeting. Part 2 of Day 2 will be coming soon.

Signing off,

Carl Jacobson

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Create Digital Music Uncovers SONAR V-Studio 100

Create Digital Music is one of the industry’s top blogs featuring the latest news, tips, product reviews, forums and articles on digital music making. Yesterday, CDM was among the first outlets to introduce SONAR V-Studio 100!

“The V-Studio 100 is set up in a way that appears to come close to what I think a whole lot of us need as laptop musicians. And despite the Cakewalk name, it’s actually aimed at users of a variety of Mac and Windows tools…”

See what else they had to say about Cakewalk’s newest product, the portable music production studio for Mac and PC.

Visit Create Digital Music Now.

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Musikmesse Day 1: Ich Bin Ein Frankfurter

Well, it was such a good first day of the show, i’m not really sure where to begin. I guess starting at the beginning of the day is a good place.

Things started to look good first thing in the morning when I received the Messe Show Daily, and saw that the editors had decided that SONAR V-Studio 100 was one of the hottest announcements at the show and it deserved front cover placement on day 1.

Alex Westner, Cakewalk’s Director of Product Management is pictured here with the Show Daily…

The show floor was humming with excitement. Our European Distributors Edirol Europe did a great job with the booth. And they take a more rock & roll approach to our produce demos than we usually do in the states.

They hired an amazing group to do SONAR V-Studio 100 product demonstrations that showed how a band would usually use the product. I thought their demos were a lot of fun. Chris is here explaining to the audience the benefits of having an audio interface, daw controller, digital mixer, and SD Wave recorder all in one compact device.

I imagine it looked something like this.

But the audience clearly enjoyed themselves.

Craig Anderton, came by and shot a very entertaining product video with Alex, Brandon Ryan, Steve Thomas, and myself about the SONAR V-Studio 100, I don’t want to give any spoilers, but keep an eye out on Harmony Central for the video.

MusicRadar.tv also came by to get the scoop on the V-Studio 100. They interviewed Alex and the video is already online. You can check it out below.

Not sure if you saw the announcement yesterday, but we have extended our distribution into a bunch of new markets. I got to meet some of the new distributors today and talk to them about our products and our marketing. They were really a great group of people and I think we’re mutually very enthusiastic about working together.

Greg, Brandon, and Robin are pictured here with our new friends Subhash Khandelwal of Rivera Digitec (Mumbai, India), Roy Viljoen of Paul Bothner Music (South Africa), Magdey El Bouhy of ADawliah (Saudi Arabia), George Triantafillou and Nikos Stamoulis of Venediktos Stollas (Greece), and Ron Nevo and Ilan Murad of Halilit (Israel).

Steve, Alex, and I then attended the Lesser Awards Ceremony put on by PPVMEDIEN, one of the biggest publishers of music magazines in Europe. Two years ago, Kinetic won the Lesser Award for Das Bestes Groove Tool and SONAR 8 was nominated for an award this year. We didn’t win but it is always an honor to be nominated and we had a good time at the event.

One change for the Award Ceremony was that the Surf Rock band was replaced this year by the Justin Nova Band. I liked what I heard and expect good things from this group.

Well, quite a bit for day wouldn’t you say? I’m looking forward to see what tomorrow brings…

Signing off,

Carl Jacobson & Alex Westner (pictured and filmed above)

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Artist Impression: Shayna Zaid and the Catch on V-Studio 100

A few weeks before the launch we got to sit down in the studio with Shayna Zaid and the Catch. Their live shows have been packing crowds in NYC and colleges up and down the east coast. They’ve shared the stage with Norah Jones, Harry Connick Jr, Raul Midon and The Roots.

Their music has gone on to see much success with 8 songs licensed to “Young & the Restless”, 4 #1 singles in Shayna’s Native Malaysia, a 1/4 million Myspace plays, and Finalist in the 2008 International Songwriting Competition, among many other honors. As you can see, they know what it’s like to be a touring and recording act so we asked them for their impression of the SONAR V-Studio 100. Watch the video to see what they thought.

“Brilliant!  Finally something that encompasses everything we need to professionally go mobile.  With killer mic pre’s, an onboard SD recorder/player, an audio/midi interface and a DAW controller, the V- Studio 100 lets us create on the road – and at home.”

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Artist Impression: RADIx's Quite Nyce on V-Studio 100

Quite Nyce is one half of the emerging Hip Hop duo RADIx.  They’ve recently been featured on MTV2 and in URB magazine. And have toured with Das EFX, Onyx, the Beatnuts and many others.

Their debut album MONSTAPLEx is set to be released this April and features Afrobatik on a guest track. Quite Nyce also has a side project called Champs vs. the League, which just toured the UK and Germany with Akil from Jurassic 5.

Quite Nyce is a man who needs a complete solution that he can take on the road, so when he got a sneak peak of SONAR V-studio 100 last month he described his reaction as “speechless.”  Contrary to that comment, he ended up having alot to say about the V-Studio 100. Watch the video to get his impressions.

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Artist Impression: DJ Johnny Juice on V-Studio 100

Producer, DJ, multi-instrumentalist, and long time SONAR expert, Johnny Juice was an original member of the Bomb Squad at the age of 15, and has been doing productions for Public Enemy, Reverend Run, and countless others ever since.

The man is always working; his credo is “sleep is for the dead,” so he’s always looking for tools that speed up his workflow, travel with him,  and sound great…and if they can combine more than one function in one device, even better.

Because of his long history with SONAR and relentless schedule, we asked Juice to put the V-Studio 100 through its paces. Watch the video to find out if it passed his test.

“This unit is ridiculous.   I can bounce with it on the road and use it for backing tracks AND recording, and then import my work when I get back to my studio right from the SD card.”

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Sparks The Rescue Set To Release New Album in May

Sparks The Rescue, is an incredibly high energy group of guys in their early 20’s from Portland, Maine. They’re constantly touring and constantly writing. Having logged over 200 shows throughout New England alone, Sparks The Rescue has shared the stage with Hawthorne Heights, Just Surrender, As Tall As Lions, Dave Melillo, Roses Are Red, Stretch Arm Strong, and plenty of others.

Inspiration can strike at the oddest times, and when you’re always on the road, chances are there isn’t a good solution around to get that idea down in a usable form.  That’s why we let them check out the SONAR V-Studio 100.

“The V-Studio 100 is allowing us to write our second record on the road while touring in support of our first record.  This thing is built for the modern musician.”

Keep an ear out for a full-length album coming soon from Sparks the Rescue on Fearless Records.  And check back at this space for their video impression of the V-Studio 100.

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News from Germany: Musikmesse 2009

It’s the first day of the Musikmesse Show in Frankfurt, Germany. It’s the world’s biggest tradeshow for musical instruments, live music and the music business.

Cakewalk is excited to share some major product news from this year’s show. Follow along on the Cakewalk Blog from April 1 to April 4, 2009 to get all the latest coverage:

The New Portable Music Production Studio: The SONAR V-Studio 100 Is Here

The second product in the SONAR V-Studio line of integrated hardware and software from Cakewalk and Roland provides a compact, feature rich, music production studio that enables musicians to create, record, produce, and perform music with or without a computer. The new SONAR V-Studio 100 integrates a USB 2.0 Audio Interface, DAW Controller, Digital Mixer, SD Recorder, and VS Production Pack for Mac & Windows!

Visit the SONAR V-studio 100 Website

See the full Press Release

Now Going Solo: The SONAR V-Studio Console (VS700C) for SONAR 8 Producer

In response to customer demand, the VS-700C V-Studio Console, the centerpiece of SONAR V-Studio 700 production system, will be made available separately as a standalone control surface for SONAR 8 Producer.

See the full Press Release

Now Shipping: New Line of Portable Cable-Based Interface Products

The new Audio Interface and three new MIDI Interfaces, announced at NAMM in January, are now available. These interfaces allow musicians of all levels to easily connect instruments to their computer via USB and are Mac and PC compatible.

See the full Press Release

SONAR REAC Recording System Driver Gets New Updates

The Roland Ethernet Audio Communication (REAC) Driver Version 1.1 for SONAR REAC Recording System provides Vista x64 support and compatibility with SONAR 8 Producer. The driver update also provides monitoring support through SONAR V-Studio 700’s VS-700R I/O.

See the full Press Release

New Rapture 1.2 Update

Free download for registered customers includes new Envelope Generator and Tempo features, Vista x64 support, and many usability enhancements. The free Rapture 1.2 Update will be available to registered Rapture customers ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­late April, 2009 at www.cakewalk.com.

See the full Press Release

Cakewalk® Expands Worldwide Distribution

New distribution arrangements extend the company’s reach in Asia, Australia, Latin America, the Middle East, South America, and other regions worldwide.

See the full Press Release

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Synthesizer Expert Adds V-Studio 700 to Studio

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.

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The Fine Print II: Updates Released for Cakewalk's SONAR Platform

Here’s an excerpt from Cakewalk CTO Noel Borthwick’s report on the new features that exist in Cakewalk’s SONAR 8.3 and SONAR V-Studio 700 1.1 updates.  To view the entire discussion, Visit the Cakewalk Forums.

We’re happy to see so many of you enjoying SONAR 8.3. I know some of you enjoy the trivia that goes into a release so here is the unabridged version of what went into SONAR 8.3 aka “the making of SONAR 8.3” aka the 8.3 fine print. If details aren’t what you like wading through, just go ahead and enjoy using the product and skip this – what you don’t know wont hurt you 🙂

Disclaimer: This text is not an official Cakewalk endorsement of any features in 8.3 and has not been officially proof checked for accuracy, so I reserve the right to edit the content at will. The sole purpose is to provide more detail on the depth of some of the features in 8.3 that some of you have requested and to hopefully answer some common questions.

8.3 was a particularly intense point release for us and everyone involved spent a lot of long hours and effort to make this happen. Special thanks go out to our beta testers on this who spent long hours trying out all the new risky stuff. Posts from beta testers and Cakewalk engineers going into the wee hours of the morning attest to some of the dedication in this cycle.

As most who have been our customers awhile may know, the typical Cakewalk product lifecycle goes somewhat like this:
– We work on a major release
– Post release we typically do a quick minor point release to address any immediate or urgent issues that might arise
– We then hibernate a bit and do a major point release that makes some feature improvements and addresses any old or new issues that are common customer complaints.
– The cycle repeats

This time around when it was time to do our point release we wanted to continue working on the optimization theme we started in S8, but also revisit some common complaints and workflow issues with some of our existing features that needed some TLC. So we identified the following broad areas that we needed to work on in 8.3:

1. External Insert Improvements
2. Optimization and multi-core enhancements
3. VS-700 updates
4. New/Enhanced Features
5. Bug fixes
6. New content

Read Noel’s Fine Print In Full at Cakewalk.com