Hello everyone, last week was an exciting week for us with Cakewalk being featured and spotlighted by Intel in a number of ways.
By now, it shouldn’t be any secret that SONAR is the technology leading digital audio workstation. We’ve been first to support all of Microsoft’s operating systems for the last 12 years, and we’ve been first to support so many of Intel’s technological developments: hyperthreading, multiprocessor machines, multicore processing, 64-bit x64 processing and others. And our support for these technologies have not just been pioneering, both Intel and Microsoft recognize SONAR as one of the best examples of a software product supporting them. Last June, Cakewalk was the only audio company named a finalist in Microsoft’s Global ISV Partner Awards and last week, Intel honored Cakewalk by making us the only audio company featured in the launch of their new Mobile Core i7 Processor and the keynote presentations at their IDF Conference.
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)?
Seth Perlstein shows you how to add haunting sound effects to your audio project using Cakewalk’s SONAR 8 and SONAR V-Studio 700! This clip was the final step in the digital content creation pipeline demo at SIGGRAPH 2009. Seth show’s you how to get greater control over your entire scoring, syncing and mixing process as well as how to access more tracks and more effects with ultra-low latency by using SONAR’s latest enhancements.
In part 2 (seen below) Seth adds environmental sound effects and convolution reverberations. Watch Seth ‘geek out’ as he explains how to build an audio studio with audio equipment small enough to fit in your backpack.
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
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.
Hello everyone, last week was an exciting week for us with Cakewalk being featured and spotlighted by Intel in a number of ways.
