“Integrated” hardware and software is a mysterious thing. It tends to hit extremes. At one end of the spectrum, you have bare-bones hardware bundles with an interface and software, or basic integration features so an audio interface doesn’t require extra configuration or a control surface works out of the box. These might save you a few dollars or a few minutes here and there, but they’re hardly revolutionary, and in the end you might not bother at all. At the opposite pole, you have the titan Digidesign Pro Tools HD solutions, which typically involve an investment in tens of thousands of dollars of hardware gear. These can work nicely, but only if Pro Tools is your platform of choice, and for many the price means they’re not an option at all.

Cakewalk’s new SONAR V-Studio 700 heads straight for the middle of that spectrum, the area a lot in the industry have ignored. The V-Studio is a massive love child of Roland’s controller and synth hardware, a multichannel audio interface, and Cakewalk’s software. In brings a deeper level of software control than SONAR has seen before.

When Cakewalk became “Cakewalk by Roland,” after Roland bought a controlling interest in its long-time software partner, everyone wondered what integration that deal would bring. The V-Studio may be more substantial than anyone imagined, particularly after simplistic offerings in the past (some Roland sounds in a soft synth or a bundled Edirol audio card pre-configured for SONAR). I expect your take on it may depend on how you already feel about Roland hardware and Cakewalk software. This is definitely more of what these companies already offer – it’s just a lot more of it, and better integrated.

What’s included:

• SONAR 8 Producer: Big, spendy hardware aside, this is really a Cakewalk product and software is central. Cakewalk’s flagship audio software is here with all the extras, including end-to-end 64-bit audio, 64-bit processor support, and lots of included effects and instruments, including the Dimension Pro sampler, mastering effects, and vocal processing.
• Rapture: Cakewalk also throws in the full release of their deep soft synth Rapture, which has become a favorite among electronic producers for its easy envelope editing and sound design. The only danger I see: it might upstage Roland’s more conventionally-minded Fantom VS hardware.
• Control surface: The VS-700C V-Studio Console (ah, Roland branding) is the control surface part of the equation. Cakewalk has already been touting their ACT control system, which is designed for zero-configuration integration with controllers. What’s unique about the VS-700C is that you get a really full-featured control surface, and a greater level of integration. Transport, motorized faders, push-button rotary encoders, of course. Where things get interesting is there are automatic mappings to any active plug-in, surround joystick panning, and other goodies. We’re also supposed to get excited about the fact that you can then switch the same control surface to control Roland’s non-linear video editing hardware, but I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that applies to exactly none of you and move on.
• Audio interface: Interestingly, this runs on USB 2.0, but offers 20 inputs and 26 outputs, digital effects, some eight XLR ins, 24-bit, 192 kHz audio, digital I/O, MIDI, and front-panel metering. If Roland nailed the audio quality here, this could be a fantastic bargain.
• Roland Fantom VS hardware synth: This is the part you probably didn’t expect. The Fantom VS hardware synth from Roland adds 1,400 presets and integrates with SONAR as a VSTi for “zero-latency” synthesis without taxing the CPU.
• Two cables, no configuration: To make the whole thing work, you plug in two cables (one for the controller, one from the controller to the audio interface), install, and go. There’s no configuration or extra drivers to install.

Grand total: “around” US$4000, estimated, with international distribution in February 2009.

It’s a big, Roland-style box, even with the Cakewalk name. To me, the results will live and die on the quality of the audio I/O and the controller integration. Fantom synth? If you want it, you probably already own it. To anyone using SONAR, a hardware Fantom synth is just icing; potentially nice to have, but probably not the selling point. V-LINK? I’ve yet to hear from anyone using Edirol’s hardware DV editor; I’m sure they exist, but they’re a small market, so the number who would want that and this would be even smaller.

So, let’s look at those control surface and audio details, at least on paper – and expect more on the specifics soon.

Elijah B Torn New Album Preview from Elijah B Torn on Vimeo.

Elijah B Torn was introduced to me at the Warper Party. Apologies to Elijah, but the gimmick was a microcontroller-manipulated light bulb. “Hey, come downstairs, you’ve got to see this guy — he’s got a lightbulb that flashes in time to the music!” Actually, maybe that’s perfectly appropriate: crowded on our feet in front of Elijah on his laptop, everyone stared into his bright, blinking lightbulb, like a uniquely retro rave. Elijah’s music can lend itself to that.

If there are any doubts about this connection we like to talk about between handmade music and handmade other things, here’s Elijah’s work used as the soundtrack to British artist Julia Pott for one of Etsy’s Handmade Portraits. (Warning: Julia has an animation of animals talking about their crushes; my guess is that you, man, woman, straight, or gay, may be crushing on Ms. Pott by the time you’re done with the video.) It’s funny to hear Julia talk about introducing the human hand into her art as Elijah’s electronic sounds echo in the background, but by coincidence, I think some of what Elijah’s doing is about keeping an organic element in sounds.

Elijah has just assembled a video showing off the techniques he’s put together for his new album, “You Are Lucky I am Not a Vigilante.” As seen at top, Elijah narrates it as though he’s a malfunctioning android. There are plenty of weird and wonderful sounds in there, partly through some abuse of Live clips. I asked him to share some more details of what he was doing, and got this semi-cheeky response. Some techniques will be very familiar to long-time Live users, but may have a twist on them that fits Elijah’s personal style; others may be new (click images for larger versions):