Last week Brandon Ryan and I hosted our second CakeTV Live webinar on music production with SONAR X1. Broadcast live over the internet from Burbank, CA, this latest installment of CakeTV Live was every bit a success as the first CakeTV Live webinar. With a steady 240+ viewers this time from all over the world, we had a steady stream of great questions coming in throughout the demo.
Of course, we understand that many of you couldn’t make it to the live broadcast, so we’ve uploaded the video to YouTube for your viewing pleasure. This hefty video weighs in at one hour and forty minutes and is loaded with music production workflow techniques straight from Brandon Ryan’s bag of tricks.
Each Spring the Musical Instruments world descends upon Frankfurt, Germany for the planet’s largest MI trade show; Musikmesse. Cakewalk’s had a presence at the Frankfurt Musikmesse for decades and with one small exception this year was no different. This year I was a part of the crew. And this year I wrote a blog about it!
If you thought NAMM was something, wait until next week when Musikmesse 2012 opens itself to the world in Frankfurt, Germany from March 21st – 24th. The planet’s largest Music Industry trade show is looming just over the horizon and we’ll be there to show off our latest wares, gadgets, and goodies, including a new brand new, yet to be released ProChannel module.
We’ll formally announce the new module at the show. In the meantime, check out the picture below to spot the module in action. But don’t tell anyone I gave you the drop, OK?
Hidden in this sea of ProChannels is the new module we’ll announce at Musikmesse 2012
If you’re a SONAR X1 user then you’ve probably already seen that the free SONAR X1d update has been released for all versions of SONAR X1. And if you’re a SONAR X1 Producer Expanded user, then you’ve probably already noticed that you’ve got a shiny, new EQ in the ProChannel called the QuadCurve EQ.
However, you might be wondering what exactly the deal is with the new EQ and and what the differences are in the four modes.
For the past several years our Meet a Rep events have been a fantastic alternative to the traditional clinics and scripted demos that have, for the most part, gone the way of the dinosaurs in our industry. Rather than being rehearsed demos, Meet a Rep days were more of a casual hangout where we would show you whatever you wanted to see in SONAR.
Cakewalk's Seth Perlstein hosting a JAM Session at PMT Leeds in Leeds, England
Recently we released our NAMM videos to CakeTV. The six videos contain over an hour of footage of SONAR X1 demonstrations narrated by a combination of Cakewalk staff and Cakewalk artists. And there’s certainly a lot of interesting and useful information to be seen (and heard).
However, due to circumstances beyond our control, the video’s audio quality didn’t turn out quite as expected. With our booth in the Roland arena, and with so many adjacent demo booths within direct earshot, said audio contains not only what’s in the demo being filmed but also a lot of what’s going on around it.
Seth Perlstein at the tail end of one of his SONAR X1 demo at NAMM 2012
By now you may have heard about the upcoming X1d update which will be free for all registered SONAR X1 customers. And you may have also seen the press release which lists all of the features and enhancements contained in the free update.
However, what you might not have seen is just how insanely cool the FX Chains 2.0′s new Mod Matrix is. OK, since its really just a couple of menus it may not look cool, but what it does is absolutely awesome.
Another week is done and another video is produced. This time its a Go Deeper video about PX-64 Percussion Strip, which should make a nice compliment to the PX-64 Get Started video and the Drum Production Master Class.
In fact, the video you see in the link above is rendering on my PC Audio Labs workstation while I write this. As I ease back into my studio chair and swing my feet up onto my ottoman, I can’t help but think what an essential piece of gear that computer is to my workflow.
The seamless configuration of the system and the sheer muscle of the Intel i7 965 CPU in the PCAL DAW are what make it possible. I’m able to run SONAR, Vegas, and Camtasia all at the same time in Windows 7. Having all those apps open at once means I have instant access to them so I can move between music writing, sound design, screen capture, recording voice over, and video editing seamlessly.
PC Audio Labs DAW in temporary location on my desk
I shudder to think what a nightmare this would have been on my first PC, a now ancient Pentium III which had a whopping 384 megs of RAM. Heck, there’s more processing power in my mobile phone than there was in that once beloved but now aged dinosaur.
Ultimately my hope is that our videos will inspire you to make music and help you get better results than you’ve ever gotten before. And I want the Go Deeper – PX-64 video to be no exception, which is why it’s fast paced, action packed, and loaded with information.
When you’re done watching Go Deeper – PX-64 check out our other new Go Deeper video. Its about AudioSnap 2.0 Drum Replacement and was done by fellow Cakewalker Mike Trujillo. It’s not finished at the time of publishing so I can’t provide a link at the moment. However, it should be up on our YouTube Channel sometime this weekend.
On tap for next week is something brand new and totally awesome; CakeTV. I can’t give away too many details just yet but I can say its shaping up to be the hub for all things Cakewalk.
Stay tuned.
Seth Perlstein is a Product Specialist for Cakewalk, Inc. He is also a huge fan of the NFL and looks forward to a great 2010 season. Go ‘Niners!
Every day that I work on a SONAR video is a good day. However, while it’s a lot of fun to create demonstration videos about a product that I’m deeply passionate about, it’s also a ton of work.
A perfect example of this is the Drum Production Master Class video that I recently created. In case you haven’t seen it it’s a five-part series of videos that goes over writing, arranging, and mixing drums in SONAR.
Despite being roughly forty-five minutes in length and covering a wealth of topics, the Master Class was originally supposed to be a simple Step Sequencer video. Being that the Step Sequencer involves so many other features in SONAR, things quickly ballooned and the video grew to unexpected proportions.
Screen capturing, editing, and doing voice over for that amount of material was a monumental task, though I didn’t realize it would be as such when I started. Thankfully the video turned out well and has received a warm reception from viewers.
Really, though, this is just the tip of the iceberg. We’ve created three categories of SONAR-based videos that we plan to enhance our library with.
* SONAR: Get Started – an introductory, basic overview of a feature, group of features, or plugin
* SONAR: Go Deeper – an in-depth, hands-on demonstration of a specific feature or plugin
* SONAR: Master Class – a comprehensive tutorial of a group of related features within a larger workflow
For example, for those who want to learn about the very basics of the PX-64 Percussion Strip plugin but don’t want to sit through an entire Master Class, I’ve created a Get Started: PX-64 Percussion Strip video.
And there’s so much more to come.
Next week we’ll release Go Deeper videos on PX-64 Percussion Strip and Drum Replacement with AudioSnap 2.0, and we have a laundry list of topics to cover in the coming weeks and months. If I’ve learned anything from making the Master Class video it’s that there’s plenty of fun, and hard work, ahead.
Stay tuned.
Seth Perlstein is a Product Specialist for Cakewalk, Inc. He is also a bi-pedal humanoid residing on Planet Earth, a small, blue planet in the far reaches of the Milky Way Galaxy.
