Cakewalk Chief Technical Officer Noel Borthwick, a noted expert on Windows platforms, covers crucial topics around the introduction of Windows 7, such as compatibility with Cakewalk products, issues in upgrading from Windows XP and related points of interest for PC users.
For an in-depth look at Windows 7 and how it might affect your use of Cakewalk products, check out Noel’s Q & A below. Also, see Peter Kirn’s article at Create Digital Music for more insightful tips on Windows 7.
Like many of you, Cakewalk is patiently awaiting the big launch of Windows 7 on October 22. We’ve been hard at work testing our products for the new platform and sharing our information with you – see Noel Borthwick’s article.
A few days ago, CNET blogger Matt Rosoff, posted his thoughts on how Windows 7 will make the art of audio production on PC easier – citing Noel in his brief review. Take a moment to read through Matt’s article. There will be more Windows 7 mentions to come.
Inside 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!
In the Autumn issue, Computer Music magazine gets to the bottom of the new point release for Cakewalk’s flagship DAW, SONAR 8.5. As stated in the article, chock full of new features and engine optimizations SONAR 8.5 is ‘far from just a collection of under-the-hood tweaks.’
The new version packs a wealth of plug-ins including two seven-stage processors for treating drums and vocals, a non-linear cell based Matrix view and a fully-loaded Arpeggiator (based off of tools in the now extinct Project5) plus a Media Browser that supports a variety of files (REX, anyone?) which can be used natively in SONAR’s track view. Also available in SONAR 8.5 is a tool called Bitbridge, allowing SONAR to use 32-bit plug ins in a 64-bit environment and guaranteed compatibility with Windows 7 (release date: Oct 22, 2009).
SONAR 8.5 is available for purchase as a download and as a boxed copy with a variety of pricing and upgrades options to fit every musician’s budget.
Pick up the latest issue of Computer Music to see the news article
Create Digital Music’s Peter Kirn was one of the first to cover the launch of SONAR 8.5 as it happened yesterday. In his initial review, Peter took a look at some of the most compelling functionalities being offered in the new version.
Among his favorite features are the argpeggiator and step-sequencer included on every track, the audio manipulation tool (AudioSnap 2.0), the strips for percussion and vocals (PX-84 and VX-64, respectively), and SONAR’s compatibility with x64 and Windows 7! Here are some of our favorite quotes. Click the link below to read Peter’s full review.
For the past month, we’ve been ‘tweeting’ about the new features found in the next version of SONAR. Well, the wait is finally over! Cakewalk today announces a feature packed upgrade for SONAR Producer and SONAR Studio.
SONAR 8.5 continues to innovate with new capabilities including enhanced beat creation and arrangement tools, a new drum instrument loaded with stellar kits and patterns, an enhanced audio timing toolset, new multi-stage effect plug-ins for drums, percussion sounds and vocal tracks, engine optimizations and stability improvements, and many additional workflow and technological advances -notably Windows 7 compatibility.
Plus… for the first time ever… We’re offering it as a download!
New Features & Workflow Enhancements:
· Matrix View—simple and flexible cell-based, non-linear audio and MIDI arranging with live triggering capability.
· Step Sequencer 2.0—the most powerful step sequencing capability in any DAW.
· Integrated Arpeggiator—trigger arpeggiations on MIDI or instrument tracks with in-depth control over all arp parameters. Includes hundreds of presets.
· Session Drummer 3—latest version of Cakewalk’s virtual instrument for easy and fast creation of drum tracks with a new UI, stellar sounding kits and patterns from top sound designers and drummers, more.
· AudioSnap 2.0—updated audio quantizing and time shifting technology with new look and refinements to all the core controls, significantly improving workflow, plus improved offline rendering.
· Media Browser—a new hub for content access in SONAR; supports multiple formats to preview and import your loops, grooves, and MIDI patterns; features presets to grab content from your favorite locations.
· PX-64 Percussion Strip—seven-stage processor designed specifically for use with drums and percussion.
· VX-64 Vocal Strip—seven-stage processor optimized for shaping and sculpting vocal tracks.
· Windows 7 Support—tested, ready, and recommended for use.
· Engine optimizations and stability improvements for recording audio, and while looping.
· “Hotswap” audio and MIDI devices, including control surfaces, without restarting SONAR.
· VST plug-in compatibility improvements.
· Native REX Loop support featured in Track View, Media Browser, and Matrix View.
· BitBridge XR—run 32-bit plug-ins in 64-bit environments, with memory access now extended up to 128 GB RAM.
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)?
Cakewalk Chief Technical Officer Noel Borthwick, a noted expert on Windows platforms, covers crucial topics around the introduction of Windows 7, such as compatibility with Cakewalk products, issues in upgrading from Windows XP and related points of interest for PC users.
In the Autumn issue, Computer Music magazine gets to the bottom of the new point release for Cakewalk’s flagship DAW, 
Create Digital Music’s Peter Kirn was one of the first to cover the launch of SONAR 8.5 as it happened yesterday. In his initial review, Peter took a look at some of the most compelling functionalities being offered in the new version.
For the past month, we’ve been ‘tweeting’ about the new features found in the next version of SONAR. Well, the wait is finally over! Cakewalk today announces a feature packed upgrade for SONAR Producer and SONAR Studio.