The Cakewalk Blog

Live From One Stop Shop Music Producers Conference Phoenix, Arizona, Day 2 (May 9th… 1am overlooking Phoenix city lights from a Jetblue red-eye to NYC)

Hope everyone had a Happy Mother’s Day! Day 2 technically starts at 12:00am from yesterday so I will pick it up from there. We found ourselves at Club PHX with Sha Money and many of the talented producers and artists who attended One Stop Shop. I have to admit, I had no idea that Phoenix was such an after-hours kind of town. The club was packed and as always when hanging with a bunch of musicians after midnight, the conversations flowed candidly about gear, projects and the state of the music industry.  Everyone I spoke with agreed that no matter how much turmoil the music industry is facing, it’s an amazing time for musicians who want to take control of their own music (and future) by empowering themselves with tools such as Cakewalk. As you will read later, this proved to be true from the OSS Beat Battle.

My wakeup call rang early. Seth Perlstein and I caffeinated up and prepared for what was to going to be a very busy day. The second day of the “V-100 Challenge” brought new talent early and with fury as MC’s jumped on the Cakewalk mic like it was nothing. I was amazed with some of these cats when I asked them if they wanted to hear the beat first…  or warm up… or something…  nope – these dudes would just step up to the mic and throw lyrics like they had been there all night practicing. Today we had some MC’s representing Boston, Phoenix, Florida, Dallas, Queens, Brooklyn and even Mississippi.  I’m glad I’m not the one deciding on who is walking away with SONAR 8 Producer. Thanks to all the cats that participated and please check Youtube this week for a V-100 video montage.

In between the action of the rap battles, we were pretty psyched to connect with some great producers in the game who stopped by to say hello and get a 1 on 1 taste of the new V-700, that is creating quite a buzz in the Hip Hop world. Neither Seth nor I had ever met Pete Rock and it was a pleasure to connect with him as well as Don Cannon, Just Blaze and Drumma Boy.  Throughout the day there were some pretty heavy panels going on as well.  Sway moderated a panel I caught in the afternoon with RZA, Just Blaze, Pete Rock, Steve Lobel, and many other pioneers in the game.  It was interesting to hear these guys comment on modern production and the state of the music industry.

Later on in the afternoon, we were approached by Microsoft Technical Evangelist, Arif Gursel, along with Sha Money who offered us an opportunity to demonstrate the V-700 right before dinner in front of all the conference goers.  It was a bit of work breaking down our booth and setting back up on stage but it was well worth it.  Seth Perlstein took the stage and did a great job going through some of the main features of the controller, interface, phantom synth and also fielded some questions from the crowd.

In the evening, I interviewed Lee Bannon who has been using SONAR and Project 5 on his recent project with Talib Kweli. Then we checked out the finals of the beat battle and it was crystal clear to me that we are in the middle of a music revolution.  Basically, any undiscovered producer could submit beats for this competition and it was ridiculous how crazy-good the final four contestants were.  Some of these new age producers are really thinking outside the box, that is outside the box with how they are constructing the beats, and the sounds were very refreshing to say the least.

Thanks again to Sha Money and I definitely recommend this conference to any up and coming Hip Hop producer for two main reasons:

1) It’s a great place to easily network with some name brand guys because the vibe is “we’re all in this together”.

2) It’s a great place to get your work out there if you really have an amazing talent.

A big WHAT IS UP from Phoenix, AZ !!!

I have to say there’s a common thread of goodness here in Phoenix AZ this weekend; Sha Money (and staff), amazing weather, and great people all pooled together for one reason – the spirit and the state of Hip Hop and creating music.

My co-worker and Cakewalk Product Specialist Seth Perlstein and I rolled into town yesterday and we hit the ground running preparing our Cakewalk booth and demonstration area.  On a lighter note, we showed up at 7:30am and were well prepared for the day but there was one problem…  we failed to realize that we were on “Hip Hop time” and what was supposed to be a 10am start turned into a noon-time launch.  It’s all good? I utilized the time tapping into the wealth of SONAR knowledge that Seth has to offer.  That guy has more SONAR tricks than a magician has rabbits – thanks Seth!

What a great day we have had so far showing people the new V-Studio 100 as well as the V-Studio 700 and SONAR.  I’m getting a great response from artists who are digging the fact that you can throw the V-100 in your suitcase with a laptop and make a record when you land.

A few of our many friends and fans that have stopped by to say hello so far today include Che Vicious who is working on the new Dr. Dre record, Grammy winning producing team Play N Skillz, Q-tip, and Sha Money, but I think the show stealer was Che Vicious’s 6 year old son who logged about an hour of studio time with Seth, and then busted out a monstrous pose with the V-100 (I think we found a new spokesman).

On the plane ride into Phoenix I was thinking about ways to get people engaged with the new V-100.  So instead of just telling everyone how good the mic pre’s are I decided to trigger a way for them to hear it for themselves by having a weekend long contest called the “V-100 Challenge”.

Any willing, rap-battling street soldier can walk up to our booth and throw down a verse over a beat we created in SONAR.  When the weekend is over, we’ll (Cakewalk) take a listen back to all the tracks. The flow-fighter with the most convincing rap will have a shiny new copy of SONAR 8 Producer to make great music with.  So far, it’s been a blast and I think it’s going to be a tough decision.  We have heard some crazy talent step up to mic with representation from Hawaii all the way to Phili!

We were fortunate enough to get an invite to the conference party tonight at club PHX which should be a great time. A sincere Happy Mother’s Day to all from everyone at Cakewalk, and thanks for reading.

Jimmy Landry
Cakewalk Artist Relations

Across the pond, Roland Central Europe has been very busy showing the new SONAR V-Studio 700 and 100 systems to potential dealers and aspiring producers. On April 23rd, Roland’s Cedric Verchere visited the world-renown school for multimedia, the SAE Institute in Paris, France.

French R & B Producer, Zoheir Mokkedem, was on hand giving live demonstrations, showing the audience how to make beats in SONAR 8.  Zoheir is most known for his work with French chart-topper, Nadiya.  He co-wrote, programmed and produced two songs on her platinum-selling, breakthrough album, Flashback. Both songs were tracked in SONAR.

Also in attendance was Loic, the founder of the first French SONAR users community, www.sonarfrance.com. Cedric was glad to finally meet him.

Like Zoheir and Loic, professional producers and musicians worldwide choose SONAR for its 64-bit audio engine, intuitive user interface, ease of creating tracks and beats, and ability to control EQ, effects and synths with ACT for their music production needs.

Roland Central Europe will make two more stops in France this spring. Check out the schedule below for more details:

Univers Clavier Percu
3, Rue du General de Gaulle
Brumath, FR
Clinic: Monday, May 25 at 3:00pm
+03 88645911

Aux Guitares
63 Avenue de Belgique
Illzach, FR
Clinic: Tuesday, May 26 at 3:00pm
+03 89464638

ALSO…  Watch for Nadiya’s new album, Electron Libre, featuring former Destiny’s Child member Kelly Rowland and the “Latin Casanova,” Enrique Iglesias.

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 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.

Congratulations to Pro SONAR user, Vivek Maddala, on his election into the Society of Composers and Lyricists (SCL) Board of Directors. In his role, Maddala will serve on the Legislative and Partners committees, helping to investigate and solve the many challenges facing the film and tv music community.

Maddala’s work in composing music for film and TV has earned him international acclaim over the years. In January, his score for the film ‘They Turned Our Desert Into Fire’ won him the Gold Medal and Audience Choice Award for best music in the documentary feature category at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.

Later this year, Maddala hopes to wow crowds again during the premiere of ‘A Journey In My Mother’s Footsteps,’ directed by Dina Rosenmeier. The film follows ‘Jessie’ Rosenmeier’s work as an activist in India and her daughter’s resulting personal struggle and transformation. Maddala’s musical composition for this work fuses the ethnic influences of Carnatic, Hindustani, and Western culture to create ‘wistful and ebullient’ melodies.

Also slated for a 2009 release, is recording artist Wendy Starland’s new album, which Maddala co-wrote and co-produced.  Starland was named ‘VH1′s Best Emerging Artist’ and has performed live with numerous musicians including Shawn Colvin, Jonatha Brooke and Maceo Parker.

To hear Vivek’s latest projects and see his impressive resume, visit his official website.

Cakewalk’s Director of Engineering Bob Damiano, or the artist known as Roberts Reason, was recently featured as the Center Stage artist on the Saturday Night Rocks internet radio show at Mixposure.com. Bob is a seasoned guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and engineer who has been playing in bands since he was 15 years old. When not behind the scenes at Cakewalk, Bob runs Rock Science Studios.

The program director for Saturday Night Rocks is Mike Kohlgraf, a SONAR fan and Cakewalk forum member.

Take a listen to the show here.

SquarElectric is a duo, consisting of Belgian drummer/producer Michael Schack and DJ/Electro wizz Steve Pittoors.

In the early 2000s, Steve and Michael met backstage at music festivals in Belgium and sometimes at an Antwerp petrol station filling up their cars. By 2005, they started exchanging musical ideas and their first demo track, “Sex & Death”, immediately turned heads on Broadjam.com.

Both being perfectionists and total music addicts, they continued composing, recording and tweaking their compositions, which resulted in a finished first “solo” album for both of them. Through their joint connections, this SquarElectric album features guest appearances by Chuck D (Public Enemy), Joseph Bowie (Defunkt), Hans Dulfer (Candy’s dad) and David “Tweeky” Ahlund (Stockholm, Sweden) among others. It even includes a Chinese traditional love chant, totally remade into a challenging high energy “Drum’nBass’nSynth” track named 1000 Years.

For more information on the Squarelectric’s new album and to hear their latest projects, check out: http://www.myspace.com/squarelectric

A few weeks before the launch we got to sit down in the studio with Shayna Zaid and the Catch. Their live shows have been packing crowds in NYC and colleges up and down the east coast. They’ve shared the stage with Norah Jones, Harry Connick Jr, Raul Midon and The Roots.

Their music has gone on to see much success with 8 songs licensed to “Young & the Restless”, 4 #1 singles in Shayna’s Native Malaysia, a 1/4 million Myspace plays, and Finalist in the 2008 International Songwriting Competition, among many other honors. As you can see, they know what it’s like to be a touring and recording act so we asked them for their impression of the SONAR V-Studio 100. Watch the video to see what they thought.

“Brilliant!  Finally something that encompasses everything we need to professionally go mobile.  With killer mic pre’s, an onboard SD recorder/player, an audio/midi interface and a DAW controller, the V- Studio 100 lets us create on the road – and at home.”

Quite Nyce is one half of the emerging Hip Hop duo RADIx.  They’ve recently been featured on MTV2 and in URB magazine. And have toured with Das EFX, Onyx, the Beatnuts and many others.

Their debut album MONSTAPLEx is set to be released this April and features Afrobatik on a guest track. Quite Nyce also has a side project called Champs vs. the League, which just toured the UK and Germany with Akil from Jurassic 5.

Quite Nyce is a man who needs a complete solution that he can take on the road, so when he got a sneak peak of SONAR V-studio 100 last month he described his reaction as “speechless.”  Contrary to that comment, he ended up having alot to say about the V-Studio 100. Watch the video to get his impressions.