1. Record [R]
With a track record enabled, selecting [R] will begin recording.
2. Play/Stop [Spacebar]
This starts playback of your project. Selecting [Spacebar] again will stop playback.
Converting and Recording MIDI into Audio
MIDI files function like sheet music. Sheet music contains all the information an instrumentalist needs to make music. If the instrumentalist does not play what’s written on the sheet music, you hear nothing. Like sheet music, MIDI does not transmit audio signals (digital or analog). Meaning, if you were to plug your MIDI cable into a loudspeaker or audio device, you wouldn’t hear anything.
Therefore, you need to convert a MIDI file into an audio file in order to hear what it really sounds like. There are several ways you can playback MIDI in Cakewalk and several ways you can convert or record MIDI to audio. Follow the link to Cakewalk’s support pages for more information.
Amplify your Home Recordings with Guitar Tracks Pro
Fretbase.com’s Brian Stolte, mainly a Garageband / Mac OS user, pulled out his Windows XP laptop recently to try out Cakewalk’s Guitar Tracks Pro 4 and was pleasantly surprised at the wealth of tools available for the guitar player turned home recording guru. “As compared to Garageband from Apple, one of the first things I noticed was there were a lot more options and features for each track,” he wrote.
Stolte was impressed by the wealth of ‘extras’ Guitar Tracks Pro offers. “Beyond the recording software, Cakewalk has included a demo version of Guitar Rig 3 to provide you with a ton of amp modeling options,” he noted. Later, he found that “the ability to generate tablature or notation from any MIDI track is handy for exporting individual parts for band mates.”
Apple and Garageband customers are notoriously loyal to their OS but, even Stolte had to give some props to Guitar Tracks Pro: “Overall I thought Guitar Tracks Pro 4 performed very well on my laptop and provided a very good solution to a guitar player looking for a way to create and record new songs. I found myself using the application to record guitar parts and riffs along with some backing drum tracks.”
Read Brian’s full review at Fretbase.com
What do Garageband & Cakewalk Have In Common?
We stumbled across this video on Youtube and thought it answered the question quite well! The creator of this video, Versyke, shows off his very first song created on the computer. He recorded his guitar solo using Cakewalk’s UA-1G USB Audio Interface and brought the track into Garageband for final editing.
Whether you’re using Garageband or SONAR to create music, Cakewalk’s new audio and midi interfaces can be used to record great tracks with today’s most popular music programs on Mac and/or PC.
Kompoz.com: A Social Workspace for Songwriters & Musicians
We’ve all been there. You’ve laid out the perfect vocal track and a killer guitar solo. But you’re lacking the skills to bang out a drum track to complete your recent project. Perhaps, all you need is a little help from your friends!?
The people behind Kompoz.com are making the process of collaborating and sharing your music online with peers easier than ever. We came across Kompoz.com while searching for collaboration platforms for our users. To our surprise we found a SONAR user group with 100+ members (!) already working together on the site to create a variety of projects. Membership is free, each individual project gets its own workspace and the site supports the use of MP3, WAV and WMA digital music files. They also hold a few contests too!
Visit Kompoz.com to see how it all works and be sure to stop by the SONAR users page.
Create Seamless Audio CDs with pyro Audio Creator 1.5
Have you ever listened to a music CD that seems to flow from track to track without a pause or a gap? Whether you are creating ambient music, a mix CD, or one large audio track that needs to be divided up into multiple CD tracks, there are several scenarios where you may want seamless transitions between each track. Unlike many of the CD burning programs that ship standard with CD burners, pyro Audio Creator has the ability to create seamless audio CDs that blend into each other without interruption.
Break the silence! Burn a perfect mix with the full tutorial today
Note – Before following along with this tech tip, please make sure you’ve installed Cakewalk’s pyro Audio Creator software with version 1.5 patch, which introduces the DAO (Disc At Once) burning capability. There are two different versions of the Audio Creator patch available. Follow the links below to download the correct patch:
Audio Creator 1.5 patch Full
Audio Creator 1.5 patch LE
Play Along Jazz Contest Gets Your Music Heard By Jazz Pros
Take the next step in your musical journey this summer at PlayAlongJazz.com. Devoted to giving Jazz musicians the tools they need to succeed, Play Along Jazz gives you the chance to play with some of today’s finest musicians, to learn from their live playing, and to combine your musical voice with theirs.
How does it work? At Play Along Jazz, you will find a list of Jazz standards from which to select: you have the option to choose your tracks (stereo drum track, mono bass track, stereo guitar track etc) and mix the session yourself (what we call “Mix Your Own”) or download a stereo file that has one of the tracks omitted: drums silent for the student drummer; guitar silent for the student guitarist, etc. Downloads are priced for students and each month you will have the chance to play along with a new stream for free. There’s also an email request link so that you can suggest the addition of tunes that interest you.
Through August 31, 2009, when you purchase 15 downloads at Play Along Jazz.com, you will have the chance to submit one of your Play Along songs for review by some of today’s top jazz professionals. This acclaimed panel will select one special song from one aspiring artist that shows the greatest potential in creatively improvising in the play along environment. The winner will also receive a complimentary copy of Cakewalk’s most intuitive digital audio workstation, SONAR 8 Producer!
Altsounds.com: SONAR 8 is 'an Audio Mechanics Dream'
Chris Maguire, record producer and owner of Altsounds.com, recently re-wired his studio to run SONAR 8 Producer. After using SONAR to record various session work, Maguire published an extensive review of the new upgrade, giving major props to the DAW’s versatility and sound quality.
“SONAR 8 Producer is intuitive and makes complete sense straight out of the box but is MUCH deeper than meets the eye and holds gems for users as their skills progress.”
“There is so much packed into SONAR 8 in fact that even a seasoned user such as myself never really touches the surface of what it can do…”
“LP-64 Multiband – Excellent Multiband Compressor that will allow even novices to get mastered mixes at levels expected.”
“TL-64 Tube Leveler – Awesome for adding Tube Warmth to your mixes or two individual entities in a mix.”
Macguire also compliments SONAR’s new workflow enhancements including the improved transport controls, the audio engine optimizations (arm/disarm tracks, ability to change audio settings without restart) and the endless array of VSTs and effects hosted in one package.
“(It’s) a mechanics toolbox worth of useful tools, fx and instruments. It’s an audio mechanics dream.”
Hard Rocker Andrew W.K. Produced Albums With SONAR
Did you know that the Party Animal / Rock Star Andrew W.K. is a SONAR user? With the exception of his 2006 release ‘Close Calls With Brick Walls,’ W.K. has recorded all of his albums using SONAR. As told to EQ, “I really liked working with SONAR because I could have multiple regions of audio in one track and overlap them to make this collage of waveforms’.
‘Brick Walls’ proved to be a change from the usual for W.K. as he literally stepped outside the ‘walls’ of his software to collaborate in real time with the legendary Rastafarian Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry. ‘He is the first person I have met who truly uses magic in the studio,’ states W.K. The pair jammed out a whole album with the help a few mics and a small group of session musicians to play the backing tracks. Without the help of a computer, the instruments were mixed naturally in the air.
Read the whole article on Andrew W.K. at EQMag.com
Tani Diakite's New Reggae / R&B Track Featured At Kicksville
Tani Diakite of Mali, was recently featured in the first edition of Kicksville’s The Singles with a new project entitled Kalamaya or ‘it’s not good to fight’.
Kalamaya was built around an ‘incredibly haunting’ melody and a kamale ngoni (an African harp) with reggae and R&B influences. The track was recorded and produced using SONAR.
Kicksville is a ‘political movement, a virtual community and a musical collective.’ Everything is created from scratch by Kicksville’s citizens, a team of musicians, artists, and technology wizards who commute to Kicksville from twelve different cities on three continents and who’ve worked with a dizzying range of other artists ranging from Laurie Anderson to Van Halen and dozens of others, including Queen, BB King, King Crimson and members of the Grateful Dead.