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Customize your studio setup around SONAR X2 in 3 easy steps

If you are just getting started with SONAR, you could probably use some help figuring out which hardware to buy. If you are a long time user, maybe that audio interface you have been using since the days of Cakewalk Pro Audio could use an upgrade. Either way, Roland has created a simple and fun way for you to plan out your dream studio setup in 3 easy steps.

Roland Media Production System Planner

The Media Production System Planner is an interactive system that will suggest the optimal computer-music setup for you.

Step 1: From the three examples, select the setup nearest to your goals. The Planner will recommend the best Audio Interface, Sound Module, Keyboard, Monitors, and best version of SONAR X2 for your needs.

Step 2: Customize your configuration by selecting or deselecting options as needed.

Step 3: Share your new dream studio with friends on Facebook or print it out and bring it in to your local Roland and Cakewalk Dealer.

If you are planning to make sweet music with SONAR X2, you better make sure your hardware isn’t holding you back.

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An Affordable Alternative for Mobile Recording

VS-100-Multiple_Screenshots_Black_BGRecording your music, whether on the road or in studio, can be a costly venture. Expenses for instruments, equipment, session time and sound engineers can land you in serious debt. Many of today’s musicians take the DIY approach, either hiring friends in the biz or building their own home studios, to save time, money and resources.

Cakewalk’s V-Studio 100 is a perfect companion for the ‘new age’ musician. An all in one portable music studio, the V-Studio 100 is a high quality audio and MIDI interface, DAW controller, digital mixer and SD Recorder. You can take the unit to a live gig, plug in your instruments, and record the entire show with an SD card. With it’s on-board effects (Reverb, EQ, Compression), the V-Studio 100 doubles as a digital mixer during your live performance. Prefer to record in your home studio? The V-Studio 100 is also Mackie-control friendly, compatible with both Mac and PC DAWs.

As described in the latest issue of Tape Op, the V-Studio 100 is a “very cost-effective package for recording.” The reviewer, Alan Tubbs, goes on to say, “I’m sure you could rig up a similar system out of various components, but it wouldn’t be as compact and would most likely cost more.”

Pick up the latest issue of Tape Op magazine to learn how Cakewalk’s V-Studio 100 can save you more than just a few dollars.

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In Studio and On the Road with V-Studio 100

CakewalkVS100Whether recording in your home studio or performing on the road, Cakewalk’s V-Studio 100 can get the job done. With multiple I/O options, easy to use transport controls and a built-in digital audio workstation, you can hook up the V-Studio to your computer via USB and start recording. Away from the computer? Capture your performances with the V-Studio 100’s SD Recorder.

In a recent review, Computer Music gave the V-Studio 100 5.5 out 6 stars. Impressed with the units flexbility, the reviewer exclaims:

“It’s hard to deny the value of the VS-100. The audio interface alone is a winner for its great preamps and rock-solid Mac and Windows drivers, especially when combined with the utility of a flying fader and transport buttons. Throw in a basic mixer with real hardware controls and a fine software bundle, combined with the ability to mix and record even without the computer and the VS-100 is a near-perfect, do-everything box.”

Get a better look at the V-Studio 100,  take our brand new V-Studio Interactive Tour

Read the full review at Music Radar.com

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'Inside Home Recording' Reviews Music Creator 5

IHR logoInside Home Recording (IHR) is the longest running podcast to date that covers the latest in home studio recording, hosted by web guy / ‘podsafe’ musician Derek K. Miller and keyboardist / composer Dave Chick. Derek and Dave are both professional musicians involved in performing, teaching, producing and recording music. Based in Vancouver, Canada, IHR strives to bring the latest news, reviews, examples and techniques to musicians around the globe.

A few months ago, we sent over a review copy of Music Creator 5 to the IHR team. Dave immediately gave his first impressions. In their latest episode, Derek conducted an extensive review on the program- running it on a Windows 7 test candidate.

Click on the links above to hear their thoughts.
Visit IHR.com for more home recording news!

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Cast Your Vote for One Stop Shop's V-Studio 100 Rap Battle

As you probably have already heard, the new SONAR V-Studio 100 by Cakewalk is taking portable music production to another level. When used with your Mac or PC you get a 24/96k audio interface with high-quality mic preamps and a DAW controller. Away from you computer you get an 8×6 digital mixer an SD recorder to play back beats at your gig or to record those inspiring moments on the road or at home when you don’t feel like firing up your computer. Plus it comes with the VS Production Pack of effects and instruments for Mac and Windows.

To prove our point, we took the V-Studio 100 to Sha Money’s One Stop Shop Conference in Phoenix, AZ and put it to work. With all the up and coming MCs and producers in attendance, we figured One Stop Shop was the best place to test this product out with the Hip Hop community. To paraphrase one of the original gangstas “If we can make it there, we’ll make it anywhere.”

Cakewalk’s resident producer Lil Shamrock recorded a beat on the spot and then threw down the gauntlet, challenging the MCs in attendance to come up and record their rhymes on the fly while the beat was playing back from the V-Studio 100’s SD card.

Watch the video below to check out the finalists, then cast your vote and let us know who’s got it.   The winner is going to receive a copy of SONAR Producer or Rapture. It’s up to you!

This contest will run through Monday July 6, 2009.

Pick your favorite MC

Big Will

monev360

Normous Child

Anthony Dollar

A-Dymondz

Just Before Dawn

Suave

Leno the beast (intro track, no video footage)

sheepskin boots

Just imagine that if we could do this quickly in a tradeshow environment, what you could do in your creative space.

Learn how the SONAR V-Studio 100 will help you make your music anytime, anywhere

Read more about Cakewalk’s activities at One Stop Shop 2009

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Artist Spotlight: Eddie King & Megatrax Productions

On Rapture, Dimension Pro & The Difference 64 Bits Make

Megatrax chief engineer, producer and composer Eddie King

By Randy Alberts

“I love the way SONAR sounds,” says producer, engineer and composer Eddie King. “Particularly in the bottom end which is tight, fat and well defined. It’s my subjective opinion that SONAR’s 64-bit processing makes a huge difference.”

Given his aural perspective comes from multiple vantage points, it can be said King’s subjective opinion distills closer to objectivity with every SONAR mix he finishes. A Mac-based Pro Tools engineer/producer by day at Megatrax-a premier production music library and recording studio for film, t.v., advertising and multimedia-and a talented home-based composer and arranger by night with SONAR on his screaming-fast PC server farm, Eddie’s bi-platform, dual DAW audio opinion carries just a bit more weight than most others’ do.

“Once I saw that SONAR runs solidly, has good functionality and then, the big one, that SONAR is the only DAW running at 64-bit,” says King, “that’s when I thought, ‘Well, hello!’ It makes sense that better resolution means things are going to sound better, too. Again, this is subjective, but I have to say that SONAR’s 64-bit resolution does, in fact, make a big difference. I know Cakewalk has done more objective, blind listening tests about this, but at least I know for sure that SONAR makes a big difference for my sound and my mixes.”

Both Sides of the Building: Mega Tracks & King’s Sound

Eddie King’s audio credentials began years before the founding of Megatrax. In 1980 he opened and for years seriously upgraded his old Neve 3 and vintage analog gear racks at Kingsound in North Hollywood, his own commercial studio wherein Megatrax-one of his clients there-first began building their respected, comprehensive music library. Fifteen years later, in 1995, he sold Kingsound to them, Megatrax made Eddie their chief engineer and the two have been a very busy team ever since.

Continue reading “Artist Spotlight: Eddie King & Megatrax Productions”