Studio Makeover Month: The Controller Freak Setup

The Controller Freak is an on-the-road/off-the-road producer, sound designer, and analog enthusiast. His hands-on approach to digital music requires quite a few tactile surfaces for immediate and innovative musical ideas. He limits himself to this world because he finds that infinite possibilities can sometimes hinder his creative process. Keeping a solid sextet of different synthesizers spreads his ideas around equally. Moving, standing, sitting, and walking to different synthesizers is a part of the entire feel of his studio and how he stays in touch with his inner muse.

The Gear

The Controller Freak creates with a DAW and hardware that needs to be bridged by a dependable system. These days his work is mostly his own productions. To keep things mobile he opted to lay down some money on an HP Z-book 17” laptop. This high performance laptop can support multiple display formats (even Thunderbolt) Continue reading “Studio Makeover Month: The Controller Freak Setup”

Buy any Roland interface, controller keyboard or synth and get Cakewalk’s SONAR X2 Studio for £59 (RRP £195)

Attention UK customers: We have set-up an amazing offer through June 30th (or while supplies last). When you buy any qualifying Roland hardware, you can add SONAR X2 Studio for only £59. SONAR X2 Studio is a fully-featured DAW that includes all the tools, instruments and FX needed to create professional-sounding music. It’s the perfect partner to your new Roland hardware, especially when you can buy it for just £59, saving £140 on the normal price.

Visit the Roland UK Blog to learn more about this special offer

SONAR X2 Feature Peek: R-MIX SONAR (Video)

I will never forget witnessing a demonstration of R-MIX software for the first time.  Fast-forward a bit, and I will also never forget being in a meeting where I discovered that R-MIX was going to be incorporated into SONAR X2 Producer. Music production light-bulbs started going off in my head imagining what I was going to be able to do with multiple instances of R-MIX inside SONAR (see video below.)

What is R-MIX? 

Technically speaking it is an audio manipulation plugin that is powered by Roland’s newly developed V-Remastering technology in conjunction with VariPhrase — lets you see the components of a stereo mix as color-coded clouds of energy and harmonic matter as the track plays.  Speaking as a musician, the only way I can describe it is by calling it “visual sound,” and it is truly impressive as well as creative.

Get hands on control of SONAR X1's ACT functionality with the Roland A-300PRO

SONAR X1′s Active Controller Technology (ACT) allows for full control over your mix and effects via hardware MIDI controller. Not only can you control mix settings like volume and pan on tracks, ACT lets you control parameters on effect and synth plugins in real time!

Coupled with the Roland A-300PRO MIDI Keyboard Controller you can fully immerse yourself in your mixes. No more “mousing around” to draw automation for a filter sweep on a synth, grab a control and get interactive.

ACT has templates for most MIDI controllers so setup is a breeze and hardware controls are already mapped to the most common parameters in all of your plugins. Want to customize the mapping? It’s as simple as pushing one button, clicking the parameters and moving the desired hardware controls. No menus needed!

Watch ACT and the A-300PRO in action Continue reading “Get hands on control of SONAR X1's ACT functionality with the Roland A-300PRO”

Upgrade your music studio with Cakewalk and Roland gear

Roland Specials

There has never been a better time to build or upgrade your home music studio thanks to great offers from Roland US. As we head into the summer, Roland is offering unbelievable deals on some if it’s best selling products. Here’s a little recap of the special Roland-Cakewalk offers:

In addition, Roland is offering promotions on other hardware products, including special financing on all Roland and BOSS product.

Visit their promotions page for more information.

Cori Yarckin's New Record "Part of Me" Released in Japan Today: See How SONAR X1 was used in her living room…

After a long road of hard work and perseverance, the new Cori Yarckin record titled Part of Me was released today in Japan on Spinning Records.  Cori is a busy international singer/songwriter who is also signed to BMG publishing in the United States.  In the past, she has toured extensively, being known for her powerful voice and stage presence, and has even been seen in Rolling Stone magazine and the ever-famous MTV show TRL.  This new record, which was recorded and produced in SONAR X1, is initially available in stores and here in Japan and eventually will be released in the United States.

I’ve had the privilege of working with Cori on a few different records/projects as a producer, mixer and co-writer, and I think this record was the most fun out of them all.  This record has an interesting twist to it as we recorded and produced most of the tracks entirely in SONAR X1, with various people jumping in to assist.  Brandon Ryan did a lot of the preproduction and bed tracks, while Robin Kelly laid down a lot of the synth and drum programming. Then it was my job to take everything and completely mess it up…  I mean put it all together 😉  Continue reading “Cori Yarckin's New Record "Part of Me" Released in Japan Today: See How SONAR X1 was used in her living room…”

Remix K'Naan's New Single to Win $1000 and SONAR X1 Production Suite

Hopefully by now you have a version of the award winning SONAR X1 running on your machine, because A&M/Octone recording artist K’NAAN wants to hear from you; musically.  With this exclusive opportunity through Cakewalk, Roland, Indaba Music and A&M/Octone, you can sign up for this contest and download the actual stems to craft your own work of art.   If that work of art is chosen by K’Naan and his label, it will result in a nice chunk of cash or a Cakewalk/Roland gear package for you. Continue reading “Remix K'Naan's New Single to Win $1000 and SONAR X1 Production Suite”

It's in the bag – SONAR X1 on a Laptop

Just like many of the members of the Cakewalk staff, part of my job requires me to travel all over the world giving trainings and demonstrations on SONAR X1 Production Suite and the other members of the SONAR family. Although shows like NAMM have dedicated machines for demos like the HP Z800, the majority of trips require that I am self contained and bring my studio with me. This means a mobile SONAR rig is paramount.

I am getting ready for a trip to the UK and thought I would share what I pack as my typical mobile SONAR rig.

Continue reading “It's in the bag – SONAR X1 on a Laptop”

Cakewalk Artists on Both PC and Mac Are Off to an Enormous 2012

Cakewalk Artists on Both PC and Mac are off to an Enormous 2012

We are well on our way into 2012 and many artists relying on various Cakewalk products are off to an enormous year.  I’ve been fortunate enough to have spent some time with most of these artists recently, and even more fortunate to have worked with a few in some creative capacities using SONAR X1 in the recent past.  There are some common threads that these artists share, but I think the most important element is that they are all working ridiculously hard in their own circles.

Murray Daigle

[Toronto, ONT, Canada]  Murray Daigle is a very talented Canadian Producer/Mixer/Songwriter out of Toronto Canada.  He just relocated to a new space in Toronto and opened a new studio running SONAR X1 Expanded.  A big “congratulations” goes out to him on a “Certified Gold” record for Neverest’s track “About Us” along with a SOCAN #1 Award (co-written and mixed on Cakewalk Sonar X1.)  Murray also produced and co-wrote other tracks on the Neverest release which came out in January and is already working on material for another release later this year. Continue reading “Cakewalk Artists on Both PC and Mac Are Off to an Enormous 2012”