What happens when you mix technical chatter on the Cakewalk forum, Samuel Beckett, and The Matrix? I’d wager you get something like the surreal video above. Prompted by the posting of technical details for a new update to Cakewalk’s SONAR production software for Windows, and empowered by a strange, new tool that generates eerie virtual reality from typed text, we get banter like this:

The arpeggiator is now on every track, so you are supposed to use it. It is one of the new rules of recording.

Yes, I came from the days of one-finger piano playing. This is a total blessing to me.

I’m going to take that as a challenge and base my review of SONAR 8.5 on using an arpeggiator and step sequencer on every track. And I’ll have to pronounce all those hard g’s in the voice over, clearly.

And no, this is not some twisted viral campaign on the part of the folks of Cakewalk; I’ve been assured that this came from a user.

Okay, what was this post originally about? Oh, yeah – the actual technical details of the SONAR 8.5 release. Noel Borthwick talks about all the details of the new SONAR release on the Cakewalk forums. Apparently, some people care deeply about whether this is SONAR 9 or 8.5 or some conspiracy theory there, but what interests me is the technical details of the software itself.

SONAR 8.5 Fine Print

Noel goes down to a code level. Interesting tidbits: working with Intel, Cakewalk was able to do a demo of SONAR running an absurd number of tracks, instruments, effects, and live video without pegging the CPU, with a tiny 2 ms of latency. The Cakewalk engineering effort also has put together what may be the most highly-optimized VST support and richest 32-to-64-bit bridging on any platform, anywhere.

Whatever the opposite of “marketing speak” may be, I think that’s what Noel has achieved, getting into a sort of developer-to-developer level discussion. It is still readable, and worth digging through.

See also: Intel Developer Forum details and video on the Cakewalk blog

I could talk more about that, but let’s just leave it at step sequencers and arpeggiators on every track, okay?

Windows matters. It’s what roughly half of CDM readers use, and – for all the attention Apple gets – it’s a big part of the computer music world. Windows today also faces many of the same under-the-hood challenges that other operating systems do, so even if you’re a die-hard Linux or Mac user, you may want to pay attention.  You don’t need to love Windows, and you certainly won’t be hosting a Windows 7 launch party. You want to know if the OS will get out of your way and let you get to work.

Windows Vista proved what happens when an operating system’s many interconnected pieces are out of alignment. Even a graphics driver out of sync with underlying changes in the OS could render audio unusable, because just one missed sample can produce an audible glitch or dropout. Part of why I’m optimistic about Windows 7 is that Vista today is a radically different picture, thanks to many, many fixes delivered by Microsoft in updates and more mature audio and video drivers. But that means not just whether 7 is better than XP, but whether 7 is also better than Vista.

Vista wasn’t entirely alone: Mac and Linux have all had their share of growing pains in recent years. The devil is usually in the details. So, I again turn to one of the best guys in the business for sorting out all those technical details. Noel Borthwick, the CTO for Cakewalk, probably has a better big-picture view of how music and audio work in Windows than anyone on the planet. He’s a person hardware and software vendors outside Cakewalk often rely upon as a resource. Noel kept us technically honest on Vista, and he’s doing it again on Windows 7, with some exclusive information for CDM.

Those details get mighty technical, so here’s the punchline: Windows 7 is an OS Noel would use himself. It was hard to get anyone to recommend Vista over XP; loyal Windows-using developers I know still largely stick to XP. But would Noel switch from XP to 7?

Yes, absolutely. Windows 7 finally delivers on the stability and performance that users hoped for from Vista. The kernel changes and optimizations for large scale multi-core processors make it very attractive to DAW users who are interested in better low latency performance. I will be building a new DAW soon and Windows 7 X64 will be my OS of choice.

What’s new in Windows 7?

• Better multithreading: Improved performance of highly-multithreaded software and hardware by removing a significant bottleneck, especially relevant to a tool like SONAR
• Better memory management: Improved memory management when working with multiple threads
• Less nagging: More customization over UAC prompts (meaning they don’t have to nag you more than you want)
• More lightweight: Fewer system services run by default on a stock system, plus a leaner footprint of the OS
• Media support: More native media format support, including QuickTime MOV and H.264, plus drag-and-drop media transcoding
• Composite devices: More logical display of hardware with multiple functions (like audio and MIDI).
• FireWire: Enhanced FireWire support, with IEEE 1394b
• Multi-touch: Multi-touch display support
• Usability improvements: An improved user interface, task bar, and Libraries for managing files

If you’re ready for all the gory details, read on – including a frank appraisal of how all of this compares to XP in real-world performance, and what compatibility issues to look out for if upgrading from either Vista or XP.

Noel Borthwick of Cakewalk effectively wrote this story in response to my questions, so these answers all come from him. Microsoft has not responded to my requests for a review copy, so I’ll be able to evaluate this on my own system – albeit far less scientifically than Noel can – closer to launch.

WARNING: Extremely geeky details of the inner workings of Windows 7 follow, in keeping with our “never dumbed down” policy. If you’re a developer, you can likely get some leads on how to better support Windows 7 in a single point, something even Microsoft doesn’t provide as completely. But if you’re willing to dig, you get a rare view of the OS from a developer view – no marketing speak, no cheerleading, no fanboyism, no platform wars, no writing for the lowest common denominator.

What Actually Improves Audio Performance

Peter: In terms of performance for audio production, what are the significant differences in Windows 7?

Noel: Windows 7 on the surface is very similar to Windows Vista. It has the same audio driver support and same audio system infrastructure as Vista. However, it’s some of the under-the-hood improvements that are more significant for audio production. There are some interesting innovations and optimizations in the Windows kernel, making the OS more scalable for concurrent processing. This makes it attractive for highly multithreaded applications like SONAR. Additionally there are various new API’s/SDK’s that may be of significance to developers. Some highlights are below:

Multi-threading: Removal of the kernel “global dispatcher lock”

In Vista and earlier, on a highly multi-threaded system (e.g. SONAR running on an 8 core hyper-threaded Intel Core I7 PC), you have many threads all processing tiny audio buffers at low latency. All these threads are ultimately waiting on the dispatcher lock when it comes time for them to be managed by the Windows scheduler. This global lock becomes a bottleneck in the system and prevents efficient multi-core workload distribution and scalability. This problem gets magnified as you increase the number of cores since they are all gated by a common lock. In Win 7 the kernel team changed the logic in the Windows scheduler to abolish this global dispatcher lock and use per object locks. This effectively removes this age old bottleneck and allows Win 7 to scale better even under workloads of 256 processors.

This change means a lot to applications like SONAR that rely on multithreaded processing of very small workloads. Initial benchmark results have been promising in this regard. SONAR performs more efficiently at low latency on multi core machines.

Improved Memory Management – PFN database lock

The PFN (page frame number) database lock was used by the memory manager to lock pages of memory in the working set. Like the dispatcher lock above, this would gate memory access from different threads causing resource contention. Work in this was first done in Windows server 2003 SP1 and Windows 7 has now has this optimization as well, improving asynchronous access to memory.

Power Optimization: Core Parking

Windows 7 has a new feature called Core Parking. Core Parking is a power saving optimization that shifts processing load to one or more cores and puts other less busy cores to “sleep”. The objective is to let other cores idle if workload levels allow for it. This optimization had us scratching our heads when we ran a benchmark test on a Quad Core I7 machine. At any point in time, we would notice that some cores were idle in task manager. The reason for this turned out to be Core Parking. Core parking can be useful to save battery life while running projects on laptops.

Better WaveRT Performance

Unlike Windows Vista, Win7 now uses event mode internally. This is good news, since it will help guarantee that HDAudio drivers in Win7 support WaveRT event mode properly. Additionally event mode is now part of WHQL logo certification for driver vendors, so any WAVERT device must support this to get a Win7 compatibility logo.

Ed. note: The plain-English translation here is that WaveRT, Microsoft’s own real-time audio driver facility, now is more likely to work the way you expect. Cockos, makers of REAPER, actually provided the ability to turn off WaveRT Event Mode at the end of last year because of unpredictable results. Windows 7 should resolve these issues.

Other Improvements

Peter: Noel also assembled some other improvements worth noting in Windows 7. They’re subtle, but useful: you may finally be able to avoid installing QuickTime/iTunes just to play some video files, interfaces with audio and MIDI jacks don’t have to show up separately any more, there’s improved FireWire support, usability improvements, and multi-touch on mainstream computers is now nearly here.

Noel:

Additional File Format support

Windows 7 adds native playback support for media in MP4, MOV, 3GP, AVCHD, ADTS, M4A, and WTV multimedia containers. It has native codec’s for H.264, MPEG4-SP, ASP/DivX/Xvid, MJPEG, DV, AAC-LC, LPCM and AAC-HE

Yes you read that right – QuickTime MOV file support is now natively available in Windows 7 so you don’t need to install QuickTime. Another big plus is that this is supported under the X64 version of Windows 7 as well, something you cannot do with Apple’s native QuickTime itself!

All media files using these codec’s should play in Media Player. It appears that these new codec’s are exclusively available to Media Foundation applications and not via other legacy API’s such as DirectShow etc.

File format transcoding

File format transcoding of many popular formats is now built into the Windows 7 shell. I.e. dragging and dropping files onto a device automatically performs the necessary format transcoding if the format is supported. This was primarily done to copy formats to portable devices like cameras but should be useful in other scenarios as well.

Multi-function devices and Device Containers:

Prior to Windows 7, every device attached to the system was treated as a single functional “end-point”. While appropriate for single-function devices (such as an audio interface), this does elegantly represent multi-function devices such as a combination audio/MIDI interface. In Windows 7, the drivers and status information for multi-function device can be grouped together as a single "Device Container", which is then presented to the user in the new "Devices and Printers" Control Panel as a single unit.

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/Device/DeviceExperience/ContainerIDs.mspx

Note: this should not be confused with device aggregation as is available with Core Audio on Mac OS. On the Mac, you can treat multiple audio interfaces as though they’re one interface, so, for instance, you could get extra outputs by combining a couple of audio interfaces, and your software will see them as if they’re just one box. But SONAR provides this capability on its own, so if you’re a SONAR user, you can get the same functionality.

FireWire/USB

Windows 7 contains a new FireWire (IEEE 1394) stack that fully supports IEEE 1394b with S800, S1600 and S3200 data rates. According to reports, USB 3.0 may be supported in a future Windows Update. It was initially planned for Win7 but is not supported in the shipping version of Win7 due to delays in the USB 3 specification.

Multi-touch

Windows 7 includes integrated support for multi-touch displays.

Libraries

Libraries are user-defined collections of content including folders. It’s a handy way to categorize and create shortcuts to samples, music, etc. Special shell folders (Documents, Pictures, Music, and so on) are now Libraries.

Accelerators for Windows

Windows 7 Accelerators provide a way for learning more about selected text, optionally using voice control.

Virtual hard disks

The Enterprise and Ultimate editions of Windows 7 incorporate support for the Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) file format. VHD files can be mounted as drives, created, and booted from.
An installation of Windows 7 can be booted and run from a VHD drive, even on non-virtual hardware, thereby providing a new way to multi boot Windows.

Leaner Footprint

Win7 has a leaner footprint and has been tweaked to work well on less powerful PC’s, laptops and Netbooks. I have heard reports of Win7 working more smoothly on machines that would be slow under Vista.

Listen Mode

Another nice touch in Win 7 is that they now have a listen tab in the audio properties. Turning on "listen mode" basically routes input to the default output device allowing you to monitor an input device in Windows itself. Sadly this runs via the Windows audio engine which is always running in WASAPI shared mode, so it’s subject to a 30 msec delay. Of course you can always load an application like SONAR and route the audio inputs to an output for low latency monitoring.

Compatibility: What to Watch

Upgrading from Vista

Peter: Relative to Vista, are there any changes that are likely to introduce new compatibility issues with hardware or software?

Noel: With any new OS there is always the potential for compatibility issues. Win7 is built on the Vista foundation and one of its goals was better compatibility. As such most applications that are Vista compliant should work as well or better in Windows 7. UAC in Windows 7 has been improved so this might also help with general compatibility problems with some applications.

We have run into only a couple of compatibility issues in Win7 during the course of our development/testing of SONAR 8.5.

The MMIO API in Win7 (typically used for writing RIFF wave files) has a compatibility issue with the mmioDescend API with LIST ‘WAVE’ chunks. This caused our code that reads audio bundle files to fail and read scrambled audio data. We worked around this problem in 8.5

In WASAPI exclusive mode under Win7, the minimum latency you can achieve is now unfortunately 3ms and the code reports an error if lower. The fact that Vista has no such limitation has been reported to Microsoft. Hopefully its a mistaken fence in their code and this issue is fixed via an update, since it’s a step backwards for low latency in WASAPI mode.

Ed.: That last issue is an interesting one for anyone really pushing the envelope with low latency, so I’ll keep in touch with Noel if there’s any update.

Upgrading from XP

Peter: What hardware and software compatibility issues should users be aware of if they’re thinking of migrating not from Vista but from XP to Windows 7?

Noel: The compatibility issues that typically affect users migrating from XP to Vista/Win7 are:

UAC problems: Many applications and plug-ins are not built to handle the newer security settings in these OS’s. For example, if an application relies on something that requires administrative access it will fail when running as a limited user in Win7. This is a serious issue since in Vista/Win7 even if you are running from an administrator account; programs are launched by default with limited user privileges. Unlike XP, you have to explicitly run as an administrator to use such programs. To be Win7 logo-compatible, all applications need to should support running as a limited user.

Drivers: Although for most practical purposes audio drivers in XP and Windows 7/Vista are similar (you still need to write WDM drivers) there are sometimes quirks in specific drivers may cause problems. Most typical driver issues here are caused by installers that make assumptions about the OS version. In many cases this issue can be solved by the end user by setting the “compatibility mode” to Vista in the file properties for the appropriate driver installer file. (Right click the setup exe file to set its properties)

Ed.: I don’t feel either of these is a deal-killer, as I’ve been living with Vista for some time, but they’re still worth watching out for if upgrading from XP. And it means if you have an older machine that’s still working properly, you’re just likely to leave it on XP and worry about sorting the upgrade on a new box.

Less Nagging?

Peter: We talked when Vista came out about User Account Control and particularly audio-specific tasks that required elevation or different handling of permissions in Vista. I know UAC has been streamlined in W7. Do these changes impact audio apps at all? Are there corresponding under-the-hood changes?

Noel: The UAC changes in Win7 are primarily to allow more customization over the UAC elevation prompting process. There are no changes to the fundamentals of how UAC itself works that I am aware of. The classic problem with audio applications with UAC is when programs or plug-ins write to areas of the registry or file system prohibited from standard user access. Even when you are running as an administrator, by default when you launch a program (or the program itself launches a secondary process) Windows 7 will run that process with standard user privileges. If a program or plug-in attempts to write to an area which it doesn’t have write privileges for, virtualization will kick in. While this may allow the program to work, in general it is bad practice to rely on virtualization, since it can cause many unwanted side effects and behaviors in applications.

There are now four customization settings for UAC:

1. Never notify (least secure). The user is not notified when a program tries to install software or make changes to the computer. The user is not notified when they make changes to Windows settings or when programs try to do so.

2. Only notify me when programs try to make changes to my computer. The user is not notified when a program tries to install software or make changes to the computer. The user is not notified when they make changes to Windows settings. However, the user is notified when programs try to make changes to the computer, including Windows settings.

3. Always notify me. The user is notified when a program tries to install software or make changes to the computer. The user is also notified when they make changes to Windows settings or when programs try to do so.

4. Always notify me and wait for my response (most secure). The user is notified when a program tries to install software or make changes to the computer. The user is also notified when they make changes to Windows settings or when programs try to do so.

Customization and Tuning Advice

Peter: How much customization would you advise people do to their OS? That is, you’ve just installed a build of Windows 7 for working with SONAR on a test machine. Do you run the stock configuration, or start turning off services, disabling disk indexing, etc.?

Noel: Optimization and customization is a topic that can’t be fully discussed in the scope of a brief article. In general you need to optimize a system when you have known bottlenecks. Otherwise you can spend a lot of time tweaking things that have little effect on the end goal. In fact, you may even end up destabilizing a perfectly working system. A stock Win7 machine is not optimized for audio necessarily but it appears MS put some thought into trimming out unwanted startup tasks to cut down on startup time. For example there are now “Triggered start services” in Windows 7, so out of the box you can have fewer services running after a fresh boot. There are probably many background services in a modern DAW that could be suspended if you don’t need them but they should be evaluated on a case by case basis depending on what you use the machine for.

Peter: A lot of users were advising running Vista with Aero off, certainly in the early days. Do you think it’s now advisable to leave Desktop Window Compositing switched on for audio work? (Note: I am aware that there’s actually no way to *completely* disable the Aero windowing environment in a way that it reverts to XP, as even in Class mode with no compositing settings the engine has been altered.)

Generally speaking, turning off Aero will free up some resources on your system, since it uses more costly 3D graphics rendering and transparency a lot. However on any modern graphics card, Aero offloads a lot to the GPU so unless your DAW is also competing for the same GPU resources, turning it off may or may not make an appreciable difference to performance. Most applications that are not graphics intensive use GDI for rendering to the screen and since GDI doesn’t take advantage of DirectX hardware acceleration it’s normally not contesting with the GPU. If you are using plug-ins that use Direct 2D or Direct3D, you are probably better off disabling Aero.

Launch Party, After All?

Thanks, Noel. So, the big news behind all of this is that a move from XP to Windows 7 is finally advisable.

I would still caution, as I did recently with Mac OS Snow Leopard, that you typically don’t want to upgrade to a new OS the day it launches. You’ll want to verify compatibility with your software and hardware before making the jump.

That said, this is an unusual upgrade in that it appears to resolve more issues than it introduces. I actually haven’t been able to find a single user out there testing Windows 7 who has found any issues with audio or music production. Of course, when it launches, we’ll have a much larger test base, so I expect we’ll find something – even Windows Service Packs and point releases of Mac OS have been known to create some issues. As we get closer to launch, I’ll review how you would backup your existing XP or Vista system to ensure that if you do choose to upgrade, you can revert to a previous version.

I am, however, cautiously optimistic. And now is an especially good time to make the jump to 64-bit. It’s easier on Windows than any other OS at the moment, and easiest in SONAR, because SONAR allows you to easily migrate 32-bit plug-ins into the 64-bit environment. You’ll need a 64-bit machine and enough memory to make 64-bit worthwhile, but if you’re building a new workstation, as Noel is, the timing could be perfect.

I also think there’s plenty of room left to talk about issues that go between operating systems, particularly how audio software can better support multi-threading and processing on the GPU, multi-touch, as well as emerging I/O standards like USB3. (OpenCL, much-touted in Snow Leopard, is also supported on Linux and Windows, and Linux actually beat both Mac OS and Windows to the punch in providing a first implementation of USB3.) Correction: I should also add that the excellent Reaper has also added this feature. With full 64-bit support in Cakewalk’s own Dimension and other instruments, NI’s Kontakt sampler, and the bundled 64-bit-native plug-ins in Reaper and SONAR, that means you can build a really capable 64-bit rig on Windows.

With fixes getting the OS out of your way, we can return to issues that really matter, many of which apply to every OS.

Music is, as always, the perfect place to talk about these issues. We push our machines harder than just about anyone, and in ways that are the least tolerant of timing discrepencies and glitches. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: if you want to look into the future of computing, ask a musician.

And that calls for a party.

Previous coverage:

SONAR 8.5 and how it can smooth the transition to 64-bit (8.5 is the build that includes Windows 7-specific improvements)

Vista Tweak: Use the Audio Profile Cakewalk’s CTO Uses

Optimizing for Vista: Inside the Mechanics of SONAR 8 with Cakewalk Engineering

Adieu, XP; How Vista SP1 is Doing, and Why This OS Generation Has Been So Tough

Vista for Audio, 1 Year Later: Talking OS Plumbing with Cakewalk’s CTO

Vista for Music + Pro Audio: Exclusive Under the Hood with Cakewalk’s CTO

And yes, I think Noel deserves an Honorary Contributing Editor position for all he’s done giving us absurdly-precise inside details for how Windows works.

Microsoft product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation.

SONAR 8.5, I’m sure at some point, was to be SONAR 9. There’s an enormous amount of functionality in this release. But I think the surprise is some of the stuff that won’t necessarily appeal to the widest audio production audience. Here’s a DAW that’s adding unusual new features for arranging tracks, putting an integrated arpeggiator on every track, beefing up its step sequencer (really), and dumping a bunch of class LinnDrum samples into the package. Those are the kind of treats we like in these parts.

SONAR is really a “DAW” in the traditional sense. It does everything. It doesn’t hide features. Given a choice between taking something out and putting something in, it puts the thing in. It has a lot of knobs and buttons. There are positives and negatives to the approach – it’s the reason some readers of this site return to software on game machines that has more in common with early Amiga software. But if you like the feeling of a packed studio, a tool like SONAR can be terrific. As much as I love Ableton Live for sound design and live performance, I find myself returning to something like SONAR for arrangement.

Even with its competitors packing in features, SONAR 8.5 is a tool that really loves MIDI, just as other software focuses on audio. And it’s one of the best-performing tools around. Because it’s so well-tuned for Windows, that means you can drop it onto a wide variety of PC hardware without spending a lot of cash. Most importantly, it could be the first software on any platform that convinces you to try a 64-bit OS – just at about the time you may be doing a fresh install of Windows 7.

Here’s a first run-down of what’s new in 8.5 that I’m personally most interested in:

MIDI lovers, step sequence and arpeggiate away. Every single instrument loaded in SONAR now has a step sequencer, and every track an arpeggiator. The new step sequencer has a lovely pane for controllers, deep control over each step, and probability controls. It could be reason enough to give SONAR 8.5 a try on its own. And yes, this does indeed take SONAR into FL Studio territory – but with a more conventional DAW bringing those kind of features together. FL users probably won’t be impressed, but if you longed for FL-style pattern sequencing but wanted to maintain an existing DAW, this could be for you.

Drum sound goodies. Session Drummer 3 has long been a nice virtual drum tool, and now improves routing and mixing to come closer to what it feels like miking a new drum. But let’s skip the acoustic kits and get straight to the electronic ones: yes, there’s an 808 and 909, as you’d hope given Cakewalk is now “Cakewalk by Roland” but there’s also a 707, a 727, and a Sequential Circuits Drumtraks and Linn Electronics LinnDrum. Oddly, you still have to look at a picture of a photorealistic drum kit – I’d like to see a visual representation of that LinnDrum, please. But it’s nice to have these sounds, unless you have a really big budget for eBay. There’s 2.5 GB of content, but I’ll skip to these files if I can.

Easier-to-edit audio. I gave Apple deserved props, I think, for making Flex Time’s implementation in Logic 9 elegant and allowing squishing of audio materials around. But what frustrated me about their tool was that you couldn’t take your warped audio and do other stuff with it. AudioSnap 2 could blow it out of the water. SONAR had this going before, but I frankly found some of the selection tools and interface a little off-putting. The UI has now been cleaned up, the Transient Tool makes it easier to grab trasients in your audio, and selection looks better. You can do tempo detection, mapping, and syncing, so that this is useful not only for smooshing around your recorded audio but also mapping it to a tempo. And most interestingly, the transients you find in Audio Snap can be integrated with the new Step Sequencer. There are also audio fidelity improvements for working with vocal, reed, and brass instruments.

A Media Browser brings files together. MIDI patterns, audio loops, grooves, and such can now be dragged-and-dropped into one place. That’s not a new idea, of course, but having custom presets for different locations is a welcome improvement (and why is it so hard to get other browsers to do that)?

A new way of improvising arrangements, “Matrix View.” A cell-based interface for non-linear triggering of audio and MIDI clips sounds like Ableton Live. But think of this more as an alternative way of trying out arrangement ideas. Because it loads from RAM only and not from the hard disk, and because SONAR is built more as a studio tool than a live tool, I don’t expect it to be a Live killer. But if you’re happy with the SONAR workflow and want to try out ideas in its environment, it could still be useful. (Cakewalk’s Project5 went a similar route, with similar results.) It’s just about the only copy I’ve seen of Ableton’s Session View, and it really does feel like a copy, so for that reason it’s probably the change I’m least interested in in SONAR. I do think there are other features here that are far more original, though.

You get strips for working with vocals and drums. For vocals, the VX-64 is a combination tube-emulation mic pre + de-esser + compressor/expander + tube EQ + doubler + delay + output strip, which I already loved after seeing it bundled with the VS-100 hardware. For drums, the PX-64 is a combination pre + transient shaper + compressor + expander + contour EQ + delay + output strip – so, roughly the same thing, with some drum-specific tweaks. Cakewalk has done a lovely job with these strips, and they could be the sort of thing that justifies SONAR’s investment. I can’t imagine not liking the PX-64 having enjoyed the VX-64, both for its audio quality and the ease of drag-and-drop routings.

Why you may finally go 64-bit. The BitBridge XR plug-in not only lets your 32-bit plug-ins work on the 64-bit operating system, but gives each of them 4 GB of RAM for up to 128 GB of RAM. That’s possible on the Mac side with Apple’s Logic – but only with its sampler, not with third-party plug-ins. And SONAR ships with a lot of 64-bit plug-ins in the box, not to mention that major vendors like Native Instruments are providing support.

Improved performance, Windows 7 ready. You can now hotswap audio and MIDI interfaces without restarting, and audio and stability are improved. And when you do get the Windows 7 upgrade – which, based on my research so far, you will want to do from either XP or Vista – SONAR has been rigorously tested. I don’t want to just repeat that without supporting evidence, though, so stay tuned for a separate story.

I still don’t think SONAR is for everyone – though, of course, I don’t really think anything is for everyone. (That’s the marketing people’s job, to claim that one product solves everyone’s problems.) Sitting in front of SONAR’s interface can still feel like getting into a jumbo jet cockpit. The Matrix View is not – and is apparently not intended to be – a replacement for Ableton Live’s live performance features. Open as SONAR is, I think it has new competition from the extensible architecture of Reaper. And, of course, all of this is meaningless to Mac users – though I hasten to add, while the Mac faces a tough 64-bit transition ahead, Windows users can grab SONAR, clean install 64-bit Windows 7, and possibly barely notice anything at all aside from a whole bunch of gobs of memory.

But I’ll say this: it’s funny how a few subtle changes can change how you think, but the combination of brilliant effects, this ridiculously-powerful step sequencer, and the possibility that AudioSnap really nails audio manipulation has me taking a second look at SONAR. Expect more details later this fall. (I’ll be writing this up for CDM and not Macworld for obvious reasons.)

Upgrades for existing SONAR 8 users are US$79 (Studio) – US$99 (Producer). If you purchased SONAR after July 1, the upgrade is free. For new users, SONAR is $499 for the Producer edition with the extra effects and instruments, or $299 for Studio without them. (But, really, I think you want the Z3TA+ synth; you’ll just have to trust me on that.)

“Studio” for many of us means packing musical production tools into a corner of our desk, then being able to fit the whole thing into a backpack and take it with us. It’s bringing along your entire production to a cramped rehearsal room and adjusting tracks in a hotel room. It’s putting together an assortment of unusual pieces of DIY hardware, mobile game systems and an iPod touch, and composing and performing a live PA set. So packing in functionality means a lot.

That makes it worth considering a hardware solution like Cakewalk’s V-Studio 100 in obsessive detail. Combining an interface with mixing, control, recording, and software functions makes the VS especially relevant to the computer musician.

I was one of the first people outside Cakewalk to lay eyes on the V-Studio 100. Part of the initial appeal to me was that it seemed to combine a lot of the tools I wanted into a single package.

Sure, its big brother, the V-Studio 700, is an impressive unit with loads of onboard options. But the V-Studio 100 was more my speed: it has that apartment studio, backpack-friendly attitude. And don’t let the “SONAR” in “SONAR V-Studio 100” fool you, either. While it’s great having a free copy of a special edition of SONAR on Windows you can use the VS hardware and even the plug-in bundle that comes with it on any host on either Windows or Mac. And — oh, yeah – you can also make use of all that audio I/O and mixing to do some crazy stuff with your plugged-in portable game  consoles and iPhones and homebrewed electronics.

The real test is whether this one unit can perform the tasks you need. The V-Studio 100 tries to be a number of different things:

• An audio interface (up to 24-bit/96 kHz)
• A mixer
• A control surface
• A wave recorder
• A software bundle

Correction: The street price of the whole package is US$699. (I had incorrectly put the street at $800 instead of $700!)

Anything that does that much will naturally have to make some compromises. Some of those compromises I think are rather well-conceived on the VS, while others I hope will evolve over time.

This will be partially a review, but partially a description of what it’s like using the VS, so if you do have one of these, I can hopefully give you a sense of how to begin using it.

What’s in the Package

The VS-100 itself is a tidy rectangular box with the main two audio ins on the front, USB, MIDI, and remaining audio I/O on the back, and mixer controls, menu, transport controls, control surface shortcuts, and flying motorized fader on the top. The unit feels terrifically solid, both in overall feel and the details of all of the controls. I wish it came with a carry case, but it’s the right size to fit a lot of generic gear cases out there. Documentation includes a Getting Started Guide, Hardware Manual, and two discs. One disc contains the SONAR V-Studio for Windows, a special edition of the SONAR DAW, plus a big bundle of plug-ins that will work with either Windows VST or Mac Audio Unit hosts. The other disc ships with drivers that work on both Mac and Windows. (In other words, Mac users miss out only on the free SONAR VS – not a deal-killer since you probably have a copy of GarageBand or another DAW, anyway.)

The whole unit weighs just over four pounds and can easily fit into a compartment in your laptop backpack or larger briefcase. You do need its power source – because of the pres, motorized fader, and mixer functions, this is just too power thirsty to draw all its electricity from USB – but the 9V power adapter is relatively compact.

Audio Interface

The VS-100 is a 10-in, 6-out interface. Of course, that’s actually relatively modest for interfaces of this price range. At the same time, those interfaces are just interfaces, the quality here I think is really good, and this could be a pretty practical set relative to what many people actually need.

Here’s the basic configuration:

Inputs 1-2: XLR mic jacks and balanced TRS 1/4” jacks. Input 1 has a Hi-Z (high impedance”) switch that switches to a 500 k ohm impedence for guitars. There are also mic preamps on both 1 and 2. There are also physical knobs on the front of the unit for adjusting input sensitivity of 1-2.

A phantom power switch is located on the back of the unit for mics that need power.

Inputs 3-4: Dedicated mono TRS jacks (balanced).

Inputs 5-6: Stereo phono pair (unbalanced).

Input 7-8: Digital S/PDIF input on the back. (Input only; there are no digital outs.)

Input 9-10: The mixer output can be selected as a separate two ins.

Outputs 1-4: Four channels of balanced TRS 1/4” output. Can you say quad sound, anyone? (Hey, it’s actually the most practical option for live performance.)

Outputs 5-6: Unbalanced stereo output.

You do get 1-in, 1-out MIDI, accompanied by Cakewalk/Roland MIDI drivers, which traditionally have given me good results on both Mac and Windows.

The mic pres on inputs one and two sound really transparent, much higher-quality than I would have expected, and the one indication that Cakewalk and Roland aren’t thinking of this as just an entry-level unit.

For the one-man/one-man performer, it’s a pretty ideal configuration, it’s great having unbalanced I/O, it sounds good, and you have dedicated level knobs where you need them. I’ve played out with the VS, and it’s an ideal solo computer audio interface.

Even given that, you probably wouldn’t buy this box for its audio alone. You could get a MOTU Traveler, for instance, with FireWire audio, lots of additional analog and digital I/O, more pres, and internal mixing capability. But it’s the other features that make it a contender.

Mixer Operation, Interface Operation

The VS adds to its interface mixing functions and a built-in set of effects. And note that on the mixer side, this isn’t a “software” mixer as you provided by some of the VS’ competition. You get a compact but very functional set of hardware controls that allow the VS to handle mixing functions, even when you’re also using it as an audio interface, and even when you’re in cramped spaces.

On the effects side, the VS includes a dedicated compressor and 3-band EQ for tracks 1-6 (as inserts on 1, 2, 3/4, and 5/6). Via some cleverly economic menus, you can edit parameters for these settings using the toggle buttons above the mixer knobs, in conjunction with three dedicated encoders and the value knob. It’s not hard to get the hang of toggling around, and while you don’t have dedicated controls as you might on a full-blown mixer, functions are rarely more than a button press or two away.

While it’s a bit harder to get to, there’s also a decent-sounding internal reverb included, as well. It has specific sends for each channel (1, 2, 3/4, 5/6) and adjustable send level, though you’re hard-wired to some basic modes (ECHO, ROOM, SMALL HALL, and LARGE HALL).

Quick tip: Hidden in the settings is the ability to route audio to your USB port pre-EQ. (Look for Menu > Utility > To USB > PreEQ.) Generally, recording with in-line EQ is a very bad idea, because there’s no way to go back to the raw audio. With this setting adjusted, you can use EQ for live performance but without impacting your raw tracks if you want to master, say, a live session later on.

The VS-100 can operate both as a standalone mixer – something you’d take to your gig while leaving the laptop at home – and a combination between a mixer and an audio interface. Because of that, its operation is a little different, so let’s actually walk through the signal flow itself.

Navigating Signal Flow

Scenario 1: You’ve got the VS plugged into your computer.

You might plug a guitar into input 1, depressing the Hi-Z switch, and a mic into input 2.. You can then adjust input level on the “SENS” knobs on the front. There’s no dedicated LED level meter, but you do get a level meter on the LED screen on the top of the unit.

Monitoring is a little different than on most audio interfaces. You have two places at which you control the level you hear. The “MAIN MIX” knob controls the level for the mixer – which is also your zero-latency, direct monitor level, the level from your input before it reaches the computer. For the output from your computer, you would adjust the “PLAYBACK” knob.

The advantages of working this way: you can use this as either a traditional interface, or as a mixer – handy with multiple ins plugged in. And you get dedicated knobs for 1, 2, 3/4, 5/6, and (the digital ins) 7/8 for use in mixer mode. You can also feed the main mix out to a PA, so for live performance you can keep a mix going to your audience without carrying along a separate mixer.

Embarassing side note: In my haste, I initially assumed the “PLAYBACK” knob controlled only the flash Wave Recorder. It actually controls playback of your audio interface through the main outs when you’re in USB mode. You’ll, um, want to turn that knob down before you plug in the unit, as the outs are pretty hot. You can imagine what happened to me. Happily, my monitors survived. Oh, PS – Cakewalk actually should have put that in their manual, as there is a prominent warning about the “MAIN MIX” knob, but not “PLAYBACK” – and this is called SONAR V-Studio, so they should expect people will be connecting it to the computer straight away!

Scenario 2: You’ve got the VS operating standalone.

The mixer functions are pretty self-explanatory. In this mode, the Wave Recorder can record from your main mix, it can play back tracks, and it has loop playback. The ins and outs work otherwise as they would in DAW mode, and you still get the built-in effects. The one downside in this mode is that the DAW controls – the shortcut keys, track select buttons, and flying fader – are all basically meaningless. It’s too bad that they couldn’t do some sort of double duty. But it’s still nice to have this box as a mixer and effects unit on the go. There’s even a metronome feature, so it could be a decent box to carry around to rehearsal with you, especially with the built-in Wave Recorder, if you don’t already own such a unit and just want to budget for the VS alone.

Scenario 3: Disaster strikes.

Here’s the best thing about having two modes: try yanking out the USB port while the VS is plugged in. Normally, that’s a very, very bad idea (and it’d be an especially bad idea when using FireWire, as you could theoretically fry your computer or interface). But with the VS, the hardware will automatically switch its routing to the wave recorder, and the mixer will continue operating normally.

In other words, you can have a cable come unplugged or a computer crash and save a gig by keeping sound going on the VS. With WAV playback on the WAV Recorder, you could even switch over to a flash card for backing tracks.

The Control Surface

At its simplest, the control surface gives you just the basics: transport controls, mute/solo, and arm, plus the main feature – a motorized flying fader. Of course, in a lot of situations, that’s exactly what you need for basic recording. In fact, thanks to the fact that the fader is motorized, you may not need other faders, given that most mixing scenarios involve adjusting just one track at a time. (Riding more than one fader can tend to cause you to overcompensate when fine-tuning levels, a bit like oversteering.)

The track select keys toggle tracks. (It doesn’t matter which track is selected in software, even in SONAR.) Using the shift key navigates buses (SONAR only). The value knob can also be used for additional manipulation.

Transport keys can move not only the transport but, using the shift key, from marker to marker.

For those of you who have managed to escape the experience in real production, using motorized faders is a joy. The fader will near-silently shift to whatever setting you choose. I remember using Digidesign’s motorized faders when they first came out and finding the effect almost magical, though in those days the technology was priced as high as a compact car and the faders moved with a little “thump” sound. Happily, technology marches forward.

In ACT (Active Controller Technology) mode, Cakewalk maps its own SONAR software more intelligently. By default, this includes the Value encoder and the three encoders below the LCD, so that if you, say, bring up an instance of one of the included Studio Instruments, software parameters automatically map to those hardware controls. It does make quickly accessing basic settings a little quicker, though if you’re a heavy synth user, this functionality is unlikely to compete with similar and more advanced  “automatic map” controllers and software like Native Instruments’ Kore, Novation’s ReMOTE line with Automap, and M-Audio’s Axiom Pro with HyperControl, or Cakewalk’s own ACT in combination with a range of hardware. There just aren’t enough controls on the VS, by contrast. In a pinch, though, ACT is still useful on the VS, especially if you enable the “DAW Full Asgn” setting in the menu. It automatically maps the mixer knobs for use with ACT, too.

Unlike technologies like HyperControl and Automap, ACT is limited to SONAR, but SONAR users, I think you will find yourself using it at least a little, just because it’s there. My one criticism would be that it’d be great if there were a keyboard shortcut for switching to “Full Assignment” mode without digging through menus. That way, you could easily toggle between using mixer controls for mixing and using them for ACT.

Confused by all these options? Given that all these technologies rely on MIDI, anyway, I think we badly need an open spec that allows you to easily support any host with any hardware, without the fuss. Someone out there adept at Reaper scripting, for instance, I’d love to hack into this.

What if you don’t use SONAR? Mackie Control Support

You can still get basic control with V-Studio using Mackie Control. It’s just as easy to set up: choose Mackie Control as your control surface, then select the V-STUDIO CONTROL port as your input and output. In software like Ableton Live, Apple Logic, Reaper, and others, the VS will automatically map to basic mixing functions. Transport controls work perfectly, the motorized fader jumps to the right level, and mute/solo/arm buttons work. I tried it in a number of apps and had no problem.

There is one catch: because of some of the limitations of Mackie Control, you don’t get to use those extra knobs. While Full Assignment mode remaps all the controls to MIDI and should allow you to manually create your own MIDI maps for your favorite software, it also enables ACT mode. That means that you lose all the functionality of Mackie Control if you turn it on. You can have one or the other, but not both.

It’d be nice to see Cakewalk modify the functionality of Full Assignment mode so that it can coexist with Mackie Control. That way, you could use the rest of the control surface as a MIDI control surface rather than losing the functionality of those controls. It’s a subtle point; as I said, I think people will use the transport and mixer controls far more than synth controls because of their relative convenience. But it would make a nice firmware upgrade.

Speaking of firmware upgrades, make sure you’ve upgraded to at least 1.19 firmware before attempting to use Mackie Control. This release fixed a number of bugs, including one that prevented me from switching to the “OTHER” DAW mode (from SONAR.) Once I updated, though, this performance was seamless.

The Wave Recorder

One of the reasons you might want to drop the VS in your gig bag is that it combines a mixer with a wave recorder in one box, and can replace a computer or a mixer+recorder combination. Pop in an SD card or SDHC card – capacities up to 32GB via SDHC – and you can record the stereo mix of whatever is plugged into the mixer. The Wave Recorder also supports easily-accessible playback, which could make the VS ideal for backing tracks. You could, for instance, use it in its computer interface mode in the studio for production, then load all your tracks onto SD and play them back onstage with the VS running as a mixer. Alternatively, you could record a mixed-down rehearsal or performance and take it home with you.

Like Roland’s mobile recorders, you also get basic marker and looping functionality, which could help you practice or transcribe a tricky portion of a song or create more sophisticated backing arrangements if you were feeling especially ambitious.

True, you could bring along a mobile wave recorder, but the convenience of combining the recorder with mixing functions makes it ideal in cases when a portable stereo recorder is not.

There’s one major caveat, however. Playback from the wave recorder and recording of the stereo mix are both possible when the VS is operating in standalone mode. But when it’s connected via USB, each of those functions is defeated – no playback, and no recording. The transport controls are reassigned to become software control surface functions, and the SD card slot becomes useless. That’s too bad, as one of the first things I wanted to do with the VS was to be able to record live sessions without relying on my computer hard disk, recording the same live mix I’d feed to the PA.

I was able to confirm with Cakewalk that Roland is aware of this limitation and investigating possible solutions; it may be technically possible to resolve the issue with a future firmware update. They were not able to confirm at this time when a fix was coming or what form it might take, but I’ll provide updated information if it becomes available.

In the meantime, it can still be useful to have the VS wave recording function, as it does mean you can leave the laptop at home for various recording and practice scenarios.

Driver Support

As with previous Roland/Cakewalk outings like the SONAR Power Studio, the VS-100 comes with extensive documentation on how to tweak driver settings under Windows, and you can expect extremely up-to-date and reliable support for Windows technologies, including the WASAPI adjustments made in Windows Vista. (WASAPI is Windows’ general audio interface for software; it’s supported on the software side by applications like SONAR, but it’s essential that hardware driver implementation be robust in order to acheive proper support under Windows. Translation: Cakewalk gets their drivers right, so Windows works properly and you don’t have to worry about it.)

Installation on Windows winds up being pretty easy. Install the driver disc to get up and running. Install a second disc, and you install a huge suite of plug-ins as well as the special edition SONAR VS software. The bundle installed over my existing Cakewalk SONAR Producer Installation just fine, and then the newly-installed effects became available not only to SONAR VS, but my existing SONAR install, too, as well as all my other VST-compatible DAWs (like Live and Reaper).

The Mac installation winds up being easy, too, however. The Mac version fully supports Core Audio, and I got excellent performance in Logic Studio 9. Logic also mapped easily to Mackie Control.

Bundled Software Gems

The VS Production Pack includes a set of effects and instruments for both Mac and Windows:

• VX-64 Vocal Strip – a combination deesser + “compander” (compressor/expander) + tube-emulating EQ + Doubler + synced Delay. That could have been a bunch of gimmicks. But it winds up being all awesome.
• Native Instruments Guitar Rig LE
• Boost 11 Peak Limiter – actually a pretty decent and relatively transparent limiter
• Channel Tools – a set of channel utilities for enable/disable/swap L/R channels, adjusting stereo and mid-side mode, and adding delay.
• LE versions of Dimension (sampler), Rapture (synth)
• Studio Instruments Bass, Drums, Electric Piano, Strings: all some very lovely-sounding, lovely-looking instruments

Bundling light-edition software with hardware is a popular choice, but the VX-64 is the real stand-out. The set of tools integrate beautifully, there’s a fantastic live spectrograph tool for a view of what you’re doing on each of the modules, there’s a lovely drag-and-drop routing interface, the UI is clear and well laid out, and the whole think sounds utterly wonderful. I don’t think it’d be hyperbolic to say the VX-64 is the best software plug-in Cakewalk has made yet; it just packs in all the goodness you might like for vocals in a single window.

There are enough unique capabilities here that, even if you have a collection of plugs or a DAW with lots in it from a rival maker like Ableton’s Live Suite or Apple’s Logic Studio, you’ll find something useful. The danger to all of this is that there’s a sort of kitchen sink feel to the suite, and it could well overwhelm beginners, but the VS generally feels better suited to intermediate-to-advanced users, anyway.

SONAR VS

The sleeper hit of the whole package is the VS edition of SONAR. Usually I like light editions of DAWs about as much as I like diet soda – it’s just not as sweet as the real thing. But the VS is a pleasant surprise. It feels a bit like GarageBand for grown-ups. One of the complaints about SONAR from non-converts is that its do-everything user interface can feel cluttered, particularly by providing lots of different routes to the same thing. I think that’s a fair criticism, even as I respect what SONAR does.

What’s remarkable about SONAR VS is that it feels like it sacrifices none of the functionality of its big brother, but wraps it into a much cleaner interface. Channel strip pop-ups on the left allow easy access to every parameter. A reduced toolbar icon provides essentials without being overwhelming. There are still some hard-to-read icons, and the software is likely to, again, be a bit complex for beginners. But for users with some experience, there’s a real sense that tools and options have been thoughtfully chosen.

All of this may be overkill for those of you loyal to an existing DAW, but it’s still worth noting the job Cakewalk has done. Of course, the message to Cakewalk should be clear: SONAR itself needs a window layout that’s this clear, either as the default or something you can switch on easily.

Note that you actually don’t need SONAR VS to get any special integration with the V-STUDIO 100 hardware and drivers. Driver setup is the same for SONAR VS as SONAR; it takes a few steps but in either tool, you get excellent driver support, and I don’t think there’s any question that Cakewalk’s support on Windows is exceptional – enough so that Windows really isn’t a hassle.

Conclusions

The VS hardware brings together something I’ve been waiting for in hardware for a long time. It’s beautifully compact, too – but, naturally, that means it also has to make some trade-offs to put together so many elements in one package. It’s simply worth considering if it’s the right set of trade-offs for you.

The good:

• The unit is physically lovely to work with, in terms of its layout and feel.
• The pre’s sound great, and while the audio I/O isn’t as extensive as on some interfaces, it’s practical for a lot of real-world, one-person, mobile producer situations.
• Using the motorized fader is addictive, and works in any Windows/Mac software.
• The control layout winds up being very usable, and it’s nice having compressor/EQ instances within easy reach.
• You get rock-solid Roland audio and MIDI drivers (particularly important on Windows).
• SONAR VS is actually a great little audio package.
• The VX-64 is a real gem for anyone working with vocals, and overall the software bundle is a terrific value.

The mixed:

• The WAV recorder gets defeated when you plug in a USB cable.
• The VS would be more useful as a control surface if you could more easily map the rest of the surface to MIDI – without having to use SONAR and without having to defeat Mackie Control.
• The ACT controls can be a little confusing on such a compact control surface.
• Even with those two great pre’s, the VS probably won’t be your first choice if what you really want is just an audio interface.

Despite some weaknesses, though, to me the VS’ strong points are what can make it a terrific choice. A remarkably compact mixer combined with the flying fader and transport control and the audio I/O you’re most likely to need? That could be enough to sell you, before you add in additional value from some of the software gems that come with it.

At US$699 street, there are cheaper options around, but by the time you add a control surface, a mobile recorder, a mixer, and an audio interface together, it’s a different picture. There are also other control surface-mixer-interfaces out there, but some skimp on audio quality while others lack the VS’ elegant compactness.

The VS still counts as the most control, mixing, and audio functionality I’ve seen in any backpack-friendly box. And as such, for the laptop music production warrior wanting to maximize space and power, it’s part of a handful of essential gear to consider.

Cakewalk V-Studio 100 Minisite

For another review of this unit, check out this post from Boing Boing Gadget’s excellent Rob Beschizza. And Rob takes some really gorgeous photos of the VS, too.
A Weekend with Cakewalk’s SONAR V-Studio 100 [boing boing gadgets]

Sometimes, audio products come in sexy, exciting packages. But sometimes, they simply solve a set of problems. And the products that fit into the latter category can be as beloved (dare I say sexy), if not more so.

Since I first saw a prototype in the fall, I’ve been eagerly awaiting trying out Cakewalk’s V-Studio 100. It immediately resonated with features I wanted to see in hardware. Rather than talk the specs, let’s talk about the kind of problems you might like to solve in your mobile rehearsal, production, and performance rig:

• You want to mix live, but don’t want to carry a mixer. You’ve got a laptop set, but you’re mixing it with other sources – and you want to be able to add live instruments / voices / Nintendo DS / circuit-bent creations to your main output without routing through the computer (which also saves your bacon when the machine crashes / you accidentally overload the CPU in Live)
• You want to record your live sessions. ‘Nuff said. Sure, you have a portable recorder, but then you have to patch it in…
• A lot of the time, you reach for the mouse because a control surface wasn’t convenient. And then there’s the fact that, while keyboards now often have mixer controls, the faders aren’t motorized.
• You want to carry less gear, but you really need an audio mixer and some live effects and some recording and a control surface for your software mix.

And, of course, yours truly has been sort of encouraging all of these problems with talk of Game Boys and iPhones and custom-built Theremins and actually playing live instruments and pushing your Live set to the envelope and … oh yeah, then you want to record the whole thing.

I can’t vouch for whether the V-Studio 100 fulfills all my wishes just yet, because I don’t have the thing here. But while there are inevitable compromises in multi-function designs, the V-Studio 100 is set up in a way that appears to come close to what I think a whole lot of us need as laptop musicians. And despite the Cakewalk name, it’s actually aimed at users of a variety of Mac and Windows tools:

• Control surface with motorized fader: One motorized, touch-sensitive fader, plus 5 rotary encoders, 11 buttons, transport controls; supports Mackie Control and SONAR’s ACT
• Standalone mixer: 8 ins, 6 outs, headphones – mix while in audio interface mode or on its own
• Built-in effects: 4 reverb types, 6 channels of EQ and compression – so you can add effects to instruments / vocals in the box without having to worry about adding latency by routing through the computer
• USB 2.0 audio interface: 8 in + mix / 6 out, 24/96, 2 mic pres with phantom power, Hi-Z guitar in, MIDI I/O, ASIO, WDM, WASAPI, Core Audio support
• SD recording: 2-channel recording to SD cards in both standalone and interface modes, so you can make recordings whenever. SDHC-compliant, so you can add up to 32GB cards – and the 8GB and 16GB cards have been surprisingly cheap.
• Bundled software, including Vocal Strip: The Vocal Strip to me is the star, with vocal-specific processing tools, but there are also specialized Channel Tools, Peak Limiter, and LE versions of Guitar Rig, Dimension, and Rapture, plus an entry-level SONAR for PC

So, it’s a:

• controller
• gig recorder
• practice tool
• audio + MIDI interface
• mixer
• effects box

You can pretty quickly see how much you get into a compact setup. Sure, you could get a single motorized fader as on the FaderPort, and tote a portable mixer, and an audio interface, and a mobile recorder, but having them all in one box is a heck of a lot more convenient – less to buy, less to lug, and less to plug. The SD portion has some of the rehearsal-friendly features people like on Roland’s mobile recorders: markers, looped playback, and even a metronome. Also, the use of Mackie Control means the controller potion could make a nice companion for the likes of Logic or Ableton Live, not just SONAR. There’s not a lot there to control, but just having transport and a fader map correctly is a relief.

Of course, my general excitement aside, what makes this live or die is the way the dividing line is drawn between the standalone and computer-integrated functions. That’ll be top on my list in testing.

Pricing hasn’t been announced, but the price ballpark I heard sounded quite reasonable, so I expect this will turn out to be a pretty good value. I’ll keep you posted. June is currently the planned date.

As you know, my policy is generally not to post press releases, but in this case I think there will be some delay before the same information is available on Cakewalk’s site. In lieu of the link, enjoy (excerpted):

Essential tools for music production in one affordable package
SONAR V-Studio 100 elegantly combines the most essential tools needed by today’s modern music producers and performing musicians in a compact and affordable package.

· High Speed USB 2.0 Audio Interface

· Universal DAW Controller

· Personal Digital Mixer

· SD WAV Recorder

· VS Production Pack suite of virtual instruments and effects (Mac/Win)

· SONAR VS digital audio workstation (Win)

Use SONAR V-Studio 100 with or without a computer

SONAR V-Studio 100 Hardware Features

High Speed USB 2.0 Interface

SONAR V-Studio 100 is a high quality USB 2.0 audio and MIDI interface utilizing world-class Roland engineering design and component technology.

· 8 in + mix / 6 out, 24-bit/96 kHz quality

· 2 mic pre-amps w/phantom Power, hi-z guitar input; MIDI I/O

· ASIO, WDM, WASAPI, Core Audio support

· Compatible with DAWs such as SONAR, Logic, Live, Cubase, and Digital Performer

Universal DAW Controller

SONAR V-Studio 100 is a universal DAW controller that supports all popular digital recording software for Mac/PC via Mackie control protocol, including Logic, Live, Cubase, and Digital Performer. Additionally, V-Studio 100 provides extended control capabilities over SONAR through the implementation of Cakewalk’s Active Controller Technology (ACT).

· 100 mm motorized, touch-sensitive fader

· 5 rotary encoders, 11 buttons and transport control

· Use with any DAW through Mackie Control protocol

· Advanced control of SONAR through Active Controller Technology

Personal Digital Mixer

SONAR V-Studio 100 is an ideal digital mixer for small groups or solo performers who need easy control of few instruments and vocals mics; DJs, MCs, and any electronic musician who needs to mix multiple sound sources. All users can enhance their live sound with the pro-quality on-board effects which offer easy routing and accessibility.

· Ideal for mixing small bands, solo musicians, DJs, home studios

· 8 inputs, 6 outputs plus headphones

· 4 types of reverb and 6 channels of EQ and Compression

Mobile SD Recorder Live Player

SONAR V-Studio 100 can capture that creative moment whenever inspiration strikes by providing high quality digital recording that can be used without being connected to computer. Record directly to the VS-100’s SD-card to capture song ideas, rehearsals, or live performances. Create backing tracks on your DAW of choice and transfer them to the VS-100’s SD-card for playback during live performance (even while recording). Likewise, recorded performances can be easily transferred from the VS-100’s SD-card for additional editing, tracking, and sweetening.

· Record away from your computer

· 2 channel wave recording and playback

· Capture rehearsals and live performances

· Play and record along to backing tracks

· Built-in metronome

· Insert markers during record and playback

· Loop a region for practicing parts or jamming

· Easily transfer audio to and from any computer via USB

SONAR V-Studio 100 Software Features

VS-100 Production Pack (Win/Mac) suite of effects and instruments includes:

VX-64 Vocal Strip is a seven-stage processor designed specifically for shaping and sculpting incredible sounding vocal tracks. Each of the VX-64’s stages have been fine-tuned to be vocal-specific, taking the work out of dialing in an entire chain of vocal processors.  The VX-64 features a new Cakewalk technology that employs phase-coherent, multi-band saturation to avoid unwanted distortion; unique filtering to avoid harsh artifacts at extreme high and low frequencies; and an auto-leveling circuit that prevents the tube saturation from sounding too harsh when high gain transients are processed by it. VX-64 also employs a new de-essing algorithm designed with Cakewalk’s LP64 linear phase effect filtering technology to remove sibilance without creating any frequency smearing.

Processing stages include:

• Input – simulates a tube pre amp
• De-esser – removes sibilance without smearing
• Compander – vocal compressor with an expander to reduce unwanted background noise
• Tube EQ – for adding character ranging from subtle warmth to intense heat to the vocal
• Doubler – advanced doubling effect providing the quality of actual re-tracking
• Delay – preset delays useful for vocal tracks with tempo sync
• Output – provide saturation control with a built in soft-clipping filter
• Order of processor stages is user definable with click & drag reordering

Channel Tools — provides easy and powerful control over individual placement of the left and right channels anywhere in the stereo field. Ideal for adjusting L/R channel placement, gain, pan/width, and phase; also provides a widening or narrowing effect to stereo recordings through adjustments to mid-side gain.

Boost 11 Peak Limiter — gives your tracks radio-ready punch through transparent peak limiting and volume maximization without additional coloring of the source material. Boost 11 employs a "look-ahead" limiter and PDR (Program Dependent Release) to provide professional results with a simple interface.

Native Instruments Guitar Rig 3 LE — built on the latest award-winning guitar amp modeler from Native Instruments; 3 amps and cabinets, 11 effects, tuner, metronome, and over 50 presets.

Dimension LE — a streamlined version of the acclaimed Dimension Pro instrument from Cakewalk. Dimension LE features over 400 sound programs, ranging from bass, organ, and electric piano samples to cutting-edge synth sounds, rhythmic grooves, and a special edition of Garritan Pocket Orchestra.

Rapture LE — is a special version of the award winning Rapture wavetable synthesizer. It includes over 200 programs and hundreds of oscillator shapes. Rapture LE is perfect for performing the modern synthesized sounds igniting today’s pop, dance, and electronic music.

Cakewalk Studio Instruments — a collection of four virtual instruments that provide a fast and easy way to create backing tracks using a photo-realistic, interactive user interface. Instruments include a Drum Kit, Bass Guitar, Electric Piano, and String Section.

SONAR VS digital recording software (PC only) — a special entry level DAW based on the powerful SONAR 8 audio engine but offering a streamlined user interface.

Earlier this fall, we got an inside look at the various Vista optimizations in Cakewalk’s SONAR 8. It was all fairly technical stuff, but odds are you may have been puzzled by a mention of support for custom “MMCSS task profiles.” Don’t worry – the correct response here is, indeed, “say WHA?” These refer to specialized task profiles, or configurations by which Vista determines how to prioritize access to the CPU. It’s not strictly necessary for end users to ever have to touch these. You can theoretically squeeze some additional performance and reliability out of your system by using them with SONAR 8, but that would require knowing how to do so.

Well, you’re in luck. I convinced Noel Borthwick, CTO at Cakewalk, to share his personal MMCSS profile with CDM. This will only work in SONAR 8 for the moment, as far as I know, until another host implements the same feature. Now, don’t get me wrong — it’s not necessary to use this tweak with SONAR 8 and Vista; I’ve been testing SONAR without it with no issue. This is just “because you can.” Here’s how to use it:

From the manual:

The Multimedia Class Scheduler Service (MMCSS) provides Windows multimedia programs, including SONAR, with prioritized access to CPU resources for time-sensitive processing.

By default, SONAR uses the MMCSS task profile named Pro Audio. If desired, you can instruct SONAR to use a custom MMCSS task profile.

To use a custom MMCSS task profile in SONAR

1. Determine the name of the MMCSS task profile that you want to use. MMCSS task profiles are listed in the Windows registry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Multimedia\SystemProfile\Tasks. Ensure that the registry entry exists for the profile you want to use.

2. If you have added any new profiles, reboot your computer to allow the MMCSS service to see the new profiles.

3. On SONAR’s Options menu, select Audio and then click the Advanced tab.

4. Under Configuration Settings, click Edit Config File. The AUD.ini file opens in the default Windows text editor.

5. In AUD.ini, locate the entry called MMCSSTaskKey and set it to the the desired profile name. For example:

MMCSSTaskKey=Pro Audio

6. Save AUD.ini and close the Windows text editor.

7. Click Reload Config Settings to reload the current audio configuration settings from AUD.ini.

SONAR will now use the new task profile for MMCSS.

And here’s the actual file:

Cakewalk Audio.regbak

As usual, use at your own risk. It’s unwise to make Registry modifications without first backing up your Registry, just in case something goes wrong.

Side note: if you other technical types at other software developers of all the attention we’re giving Noel at Cakewalk, it’s because he plies me with large amounts of alcohol when I’m in Boston. Kidding. Seriously, it’s because Noel has put a lot of time into sharing this stuff. We’re up for bringing any discussion to CDM, so get in touch. If I owned a car and didn’t live in Manhattan, I’d want to know how to work on the engine. I think it’s just as important to know what’s going on under the hood of software. Talk to your PR reps if you have to.

Previously on CDM:

Optimizing for Vista: Inside the Mechanics of SONAR 8 with Cakewalk Engineering

SONAR 8 Preview: Instrument Tracks, Beatscape Instrument, Transient Shaper, Enhanced Performance, Other Goodies

“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.

Control Surface Specs

The “VS-700C” identifier is particularly misleading, as there really hasn’t been anything quite like this exclusively geared for SONAR.

• Nine 100mm, touch-sensitive motorized faders (8 channels + 1 master)
• Tab between fader banks and lock a specific channel. (For reasons known only to the engineers who designed them, some high-end control surfaces won’t lock down one channel as you tab to others, so you can’t, for instance, ride the first fader while making adjustments to the second bank of faders for access to channels 9-16.)
• Transport, X/Y cursor, jog/shuttle controls with scrub and zoom support
• 12 rotary encoders which access EQ, sends, or automatically map to active effects, instruments, and mix parameters. (Now, Mackie Control also does something like this, but the integration appears to be a little deeper and more flexible via Cakewalk’s ACT.)
• Surround control with joystick panner and other dedicated controls
• Access to views, utilities, and custom assignments for dozens of SONAR commands
• T-bar for integration with video, but also assignable to surround front/rear balance and other parameters. There’s actually no reason why a t-bar can’t make a very nice audio control, in fact.
• LCD screens with parameters (2×13) and (7-segment) timecode / time position
• Audio input for easy access, including Hi-Z if you want to plug in your guitar, etc.
• Metering
• Monitor section for controlling stereo, sub, 2-way headphone mix

It’s not unprecedented stuff, but there is a some sophistication and deeper integration you don’t get from controllers like the Mackie Control line. The tradeoff – you don’t get double-duty as you would with a Mackie Control-compatible unit, which you could use in conjunction with other hosts. (I can’t say for sure that you can’t use the VS-700C with other hosts, but it looks like it’d be most useful with SONAR.)

The integration and how it came about to me is a big issue – not only specifically in terms of this product, but because CDM as a website is always most interested in how you control software and design hardware around it. We’ll look at this area in more detail soon.

Audio Interface

Audio is no slouch, either:

• 24-bit, 192 kHz, USB 2.0 with “low-latency” performance
• 20 inputs, 26 outputs; 18/24 simultaneous
• Compression, LF Cut, Pad digital effects on input
• 8 analog ins (XLR + 1/4”), +48v phantom power
• 10 1/4” outs (balanced/unbalanced); XLR main monitor outs
• AES/EBU, S/PDIF, ADAT digital I/O
• MIDI I/O
• External sync
• Front-panel metering (that’s on top of what you get from the control surface, which makes sense as you’d use the latter for monitoring the mix engine in SONAR)

I’m also told by Cakewalk that the A/D and mic pre specs are very good; we’ll go into more specifics soon on that.

What Matters, Who is it For?

There’s a real danger here. Part of the whole value equation of software like SONAR is its flexibility, the fact that you can get software synths and mix-and-match audio I/O and controller hardware to meet your needs. Releasing integrated hardware doesn’t really hurt that; it can simply wind up being upstaged by the software itself. I’ve already heard from Steinberg pitching integration with their hardware products, and Apple pitching integration with Apogee audio hardware. The implication has a tendency to veer toward the “Pro Tools killer” territory. The results just often don’t live up to that, and I suspect part of the reason is that people who choose these software solutions are already used to picking their own gear. And if you read this site regularly, you should be very, very aware that people’s needs differ wildly. It’s not pro versus consumer, it’s countless fundamentally different approaches to the entire music making process.

So, I’d be remiss if I didn’t say it, I’m sure to many SONAR users the existing a la carte approach will be just fine.

That said, I think it’s worth noting that Cakewalk and Roland are being far more audacious than some of their competitors. Whether you want a V-Studio or not, you have to appreciate the sheer dedication to putting the best bits of Cakewalk and Roland into one box. You’re likely to feel strongly about it. Even if you feel ambivalent, I think you’ll feel passionately ambivalent. Forget the Fantom and the V-LINK bits for a second. If they really have nailed the audio and controller integration bits, it’ll find its market.

We’ll be looking at what Cakewalk has done, partly because it could finally lead to smarter integration with hardware. Stay tuned.

Let us know what you think – whether you’re saving up pennies or ignoring it entirely.

Cakewalk SONAR V-Studio Site

On a purely technical level, how does Windows Vista work with a leading pro audio application? A lot of that depends on just how much the developer does to tune their software, and to hook into some of the new audio technologies in the OS.

I wanted to know more about how Cakewalk’s SONAR 8 DAW was specifically optimized for Windows Vista. SONAR 7 was already out in front with support for Vista’s audio plumbing, but SONAR 8 promises quite a bit more. With the help of CTO Noel Borthwick, we were able to go through internal engineering documents and communication and get the full story. (Noel, who has a resume as a Linux programmer as well as leading the top Windows audio developer’s technical efforts, has been very frank in the past about Vista, walking us through changes before launch and real world experiences one year later.)

As Noel puts it, this is “more minute detail than most sane people would care to read,” but that’s just the kind of detail we like. If you just want to know whether your software will work, this is overkill. But for those of you who, like us, are interested in why some things work, this is a good place to start. I also sincerely hope other developers on Windows will start to invest more time in some of these details.

If SONAR 8’s music features are what interest you, see our first look:

SONAR 8 Preview: Instrument Tracks, Beatscape Instrument, Transient Shaper, Enhanced Performance, Other Goodies

I’ll repeat my current recommendation on Windows. If you’ve got a system running XP and you’re happy, I’d stick with it. But I see no reason to avoid SP1, unless you have a specifically incompatible setup, now that SP1 and driver updates have brought some maturity to the platform. I find the new OS more usable and, with the right software and drivers, even more stable. (This is not what I would have said before SP1, especially early after launch.) In fact, this walk-through with Noel demonstrates why, in the case of a SONAR system, you might be happier under Vista, on a point by point basis. I’ll avoid the “versus Mac” or “versus Linux” arguments, as those tend to get more complex and abstract, but there’s some good stuff here for those of you with Windows experience.

And yes, if any developer would like to do a similar tour on the Mac or Linux, I’m all ears. But just in case you think I’m crazy when I say there is some really robust stuff for audio in Vista, now you’ll know just what I mean.

CDM Executive Summary

Okay, here’s the quick run-down.

SONAR 8 involves improved performance optimizations, even relative to previous versions of SONAR. As far as I know, this is unparalleled progress on the Windows platform; few, if any developers are doing this kind of work. That’s not to say you won’t get good performance out of other Windows apps under Vista – certainly, I spend a lot of time in hosts like Ableton Live, Kore, and FL Studio on Vista — just that SONAR is leading here. (Developers out there doing similar work, we’d love to hear from you; developers not doing this kind of work, I hope this can piqué your interest and/or point you in the right direction, and certainly I don’t think anyone on Windows is trying to protect “trade secrets” – the better this stuff works, the better for everyone.)

The upshot of all of this should mean:

• Reduced audio glitches and performance bottlenecks, thanks to improvements to the audio engine itself, as well as the way the software makes use of the kernel (which impacts drivers also using the kernel)
• Smoother peformance in the UI as you zoom, draw, and the like
• More efficient performance, through optimization at the driver level and by better supporting Vista’s new audio API and threading mechanisms
• Better support for both WDM (Windows Driver Model) and ASIO drivers, and better performance at lower latency (that’s always the measure – you can always reduce latency, the question is whether you can maintain reliable audio performance when you do so)
• x64 is now, effectively, ready for prime time latency-wise

Now, here’s Noel to say that in more technically precise terms.

Performance Optimizations

Although every version of SONAR we shipped in the past had some degree of optimization work, SONAR 8 is the first version of SONAR to which we applied the same engineering process to performance optimizations as we do with other more user visible features.

i.e. we established goals, built a specification for the optimizations, split up the work into milestones and tracked the progress of these tasks just as we do for other features. To make testing more deterministic, we devised various internal profiling tools in order to track and measure changes in performance across a variety of hardware platforms on XP as well as Vista.

Systems tested included brand new cutting edge platforms from Intel and AMD as well as earlier generation machines.

We split up this work into the following classes of performance enhancements for SONAR 8:

1. CPU and kernel level optimizations – use less of your CPU to do the same amount of work
2. User Interface optimizations – faster drawing, scrolling, zooming
3. Driver level optimizations – more efficient access to drivers, minimizing driver state transitions
4. Vista OS specific optimizations – Better use of MMCSS thread priorities, support for custom MMCSS task profiles, new WASAPI support
5. Audio engine optimizations – optimize "hotspots" in our bussing, streaming and mixing code

As a result of all these changes, SONAR 8 has the following benefits:

• greatly minimized kernel usage. This helps provide more "kernel bandwidth" to drivers who need it the most. More kernel bandwidth translates into less potential for audio glitches.
• Lower CPU usage – translates to better performance at low latency
• More efficient use of audio drivers – esp with ASIO drivers
• Better performance on Windows Vista esp X64 [64-bit Windows]. Many of the complaints of Vista performance as compared to XP have been solved with SONAR 8. X64 low latency performance should now be on par with X86.
• Faster application launch
• Less flicker in GUI. Track view splitters no longer flicker when resizing.
• More responsive zoom and scroll with large projects. Zooming with wave files now uses 1/2 the RAM with 24-bit or less stereo or mono files used.
• Better meter performance.
• Improved thread scheduling by insuring threads are properly distributed on processors.

Benchmark: Overall benefits of SONAR 8 as compared to SONAR 7

CDM: Will we see these improvements in Project5? What about your instruments, like Rapture and Dimension, running as apps (instead of inside another host)?

Noel: We don’t have any firm plans for P5 at this time. Our “minihosts” for instruments don’t have these enhancements. It’s less relevant since these are far simpler with just a single instrument.

Windows Vista – New WASAPI driver mode

WASAPI (Windows Audio Session API) is the new multimedia API to talk to audio devices in Windows Vista. It represents the first real general purpose audio API from Microsoft in over 15 years, since MME from Windows 3.1.

The primary advantages of WASAPI are:

• Supports a wide variety of audio devices (any device that has a WDM driver should work in WASAPI mode if Windows can use it in exclusive/event mode)
• Provides low latency access to the device in WASAPI exclusive mode. (unlike older Microsoft API’s like MME or DirectSound)
• Model that is the closest to the low level WDM kernel streaming approach, while yet providing a higher level of abstraction for the device.
• Primary audio API for next generation of Windows.

Windows Vista: WaveRT

In WDM mode WaveRT is automatically used internally when SONAR detects a WaveRT capable WDM driver. A [WaveRT] suffix is added to the driver name in this case.

In SONAR 6.2 we first introduced support for Vista-specific WaveRT. Direct WaveRT mode is available in SONAR when you are using WDM as a driver mode and a WaveRT capable device is detected. In Vista SP1, Microsoft made some fundamental changes to WaveRT API’s that return the device sample position,
returning a cyclic position rather than a monotonically increasing position. In SONAR 8 WaveRT support has been updated and enhanced so that it works properly with Vista SP1.

CDM: You talk about using a WaveRT driver. Do you have to do anything to switch to WaveRT?

Noel: You don’t switch to WaveRT. In WDM [Windows Driver Model] mode, there is no choice – if a driver exposes itself as WaveRT, that’s the only mode of communicating with it. The same applies in WASAPI except the difference is that WASAPI itself communicates with the driver in WaveRT mode internally.

CDM: I have to admit, I’m used to working with ASIO. How do I know if a device has a WDM driver?

Noel: Any audio interface that works in Windows itself (i.e. if it shows up as a device in control panel -> sounds and audio devices) HAS to have a WDM driver. Otherwise Windows will not recognise it.

I don’t know of any interface that provides ONLY an ASIO driver. Some provide minimal WDM drivers that aren’t tested very well.

Windows Vista: MMCSS task profile support

The Multimedia Class Scheduler Service (MMCSS) provides Windows multimedia programs, including SONAR, with prioritized access to CPU resources for time-sensitive processing.

By default, SONAR uses the MMCSS task profile named Pro Audio. If desired, you can now instruct SONAR to use a custom user created MMCSS task profile.

CDM: Under what circumstances would you switch task profiles? What profile other than Pro Audio would you want to use?

Noel: You can tweak the MMCSS thread settings via a custom profile. I have a profile I tweaked that works marginally better than Pro Audio. It’s pretty technical stuff – You will have to read this link to get the details.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms684247(VS.85).aspx

Ed.: That’s a very technical explanation of a very technical topic; for more resources –

Mark Russinovich tours the enhanced Vista kernel

MMCSS, the Cliff Notes-style version on Wikipedia

Mark Russinovich on the interaction of MMCSS and networking

Interesting thread on the Cakewalk forum

More Information

You’ll want to see, previously…

Overview of Vista

Adieu, XP; How Vista SP1 is Doing, and Why This OS Generation Has Been So Tough

Vista for Audio, 1 Year Later: Talking OS Plumbing with Cakewalk’s CTO

Vista for Music + Pro Audio: Exclusive Under the Hood with Cakewalk’s CTO

Windows Sound Glitches Explained, Plus Glitches and the Fight-or-Flight Response

Compatibility

Cakewalk Vista Musicians’ Resource Page, Lots of Vista Drivers

Digidesign Talks Latest Windows, Mac Releases, Compatibility, Drivers

M-Audio Responds: Update on Driver Situation, New Drivers

Helpful utilities

12 Free and Cheap Must-Have Music Utilities for Windows

10 Free Non-Musical Windows Software Every Musician Should Use

Cakewalk has revealed what’s new in the latest version of their flagship Windows DAW, SONAR 8 Producer. SONAR remains a popular choice for people on Windows wanting a do-everything, traditional DAW. At the same time, it faces heated-up competition from rivals like Ableton Live and Reaper. SONAR users have been posting wish lists around the Web, so I think it’s safe to say people were hoping for some improvements.

The changes look on-target to me, more so, perhaps, than in any recent SONAR upgrade. There are some much-needed workflow changes, enhanced under-the-hood performance, and new instruments and effects. Getting plug-in additions from Cakewalk is especially nice as, unlike many other vendors (Steinberg, Apple, Ableton, etc., I’m looking at you), Cakewalk’s plugs will work in any host you want once installed.

Especially interesting, there’s a cluster of features that could make people doing electronic production more interested in SONAR again.

What’s Improved

It’s impossible to judge an upgrade on paper, but here are some stand-outs to me:

Improved performance

Cakewalk says they’ve further optimized the audio engine and made all-around performance better in SONAR 8. They tell CDM they’ve specifically targeted Vista for some new optmizations. Regardless of OS, they promise improved performance at low latencies, better VST and ASIO performance, output latency compensation, and smoother, more responsive user interface performance. Also, you can finally change audio devices without a restart.  I hope to have more details on exactly what they’ve done soon.

On the Vista front, Cakewalk is enhancing support for Microsoft’s WASAPI, the new audio API, which is for use with not only WaveRT audio (which works mainly with motherboard and consumer audio cards you’re unlikely to use), but USB and FireWire audio devices. I hope other Windows developers are able to follow here in terms of support for Vista’s new audio technologies.

Instrument tracks

Finally, you can create a single track for working with mono or stereo virtual synths, a feature in some of SONAR’s rivals. SONAR still lets you work with two tracks as in previous versions if you so choose, but I personally find one track much easier. Now, can I add one more thing to the wish list? Multichannel / surround virtual instrument tracks would be the logical next step.

Browse loops and patterns

The Loop Explorer 2.0 lets you browse and preview MIDI groove clips and patterns and drag and drop them into track view. It’s nothing revolutionary – Apple’s Loop Browser comes to mind – but one nice feature is that it’s easy to preview MIDI grooves with virtual instruments, so for people who are primarily working with MIDI snippets, this could be nice.

Easier editing/recording/mixing

There are a lot of little details here. You can now group clips across tracks in addition to takes and such. There’s a feature for assisting in aiming your cursor and lining up tracks. It’s easier to punch in, punch out, arm, unarm, and toggle play and record while the transport is running, and shuttle controls and jogging have been improved and work better with control surfaces. There’s even a feature that can override muting certain tracks and buses when you solo.

QuickTime 7 support

Think H.264, AAC import/export.

Now, onto the plug-ins…

New Instruments, Effects

I’m most excited about Beatscape and Transient Shaper, as I think they could reawaken my interest in using SONAR as part of my personal production workflow – and imagine I may not be alone. Beatscape is a simple but elegantly-designed set of pads for audio loop manipulation and performance, and Transient Shaper is a dynamics processor with an intuitive-looking interface and interesting sonic potential.

Everyone is trying to do beat-based production these days. But Beatscape looks interesting, at least, if for no other reason than it includes a step generator like the one in Cakewalk’s fantastic Rapture soft synth. (The instrument is the work of Cakewalk’s synth architect Rene Ceballos, who designed Rapture.) You can drag and drop audio between SONAR and Beatscape, easily trigger audio from pads, quickly rearrange slices, and then modulate each slice with the step generator. You can also add up to 3 effects inserts per pad (impressive, though the new Drum Rack in Ableton can add even more, even though that’d be insane). Because it’s a Cakewalk plug-in, you could also use this with other hosts, so that means Beatscape could jump between SONAR and something like Ableton Live or FL Studio, with SONAR ready for doing a final song mix. There are also 4GB of “construction kits” loops in REX format.

I really like the simple, efficient combination of the step sequencer, slice view, and MIDI-triggered pads; I actually appreciate that this is more pared-down than the module-laden new Transfuser from Digidesign. It’ll be interesting to try this one out.

Transient Shaper processes the dynamics of percussive source material – this is one I really want to try out for beat (and other sonic) production. It’s basically a multi-stage, envelope-shaped filter, but thanks to transient detection and some unique shaping capabilities, it has some really intuitive-looking controls and promises “smooth, zipperless output.” It’s again a full VST, so this could come in handy in other hosts, as well.

Also in this release:

TL-64 Tube Leveler is a “line driver/leveling processor” with an analog tube model from Gallo Engineering’s StudioDevil. Think warming and saturation; have to hear this one to believe it, but it’ll be up at the top of my list to hear.

The full version of Dimension Pro is included with 8GB of sounds and the Garritan Pocket Orchestra. Nothing is likely to woo me away from my scripts in Kontakt, but on the other hand, I think this compares very nicely to the inclusion of EXS24 in Logic Studio. I know some people really love the EXS24, but Dimension Pro deserves a look partly because it has built-in waveguide synthesis, and its interface is very friendly. I don’t expect Mac users to switch to Windows, but I’m just sayin’.

Guitar Rig 3 LE is included – not bad, as a number of the more important modules are there. I think this handily beats out the relatively anemic Guitar Amp Pro in Logic Studio, not that that’s saying much; guitarists will probably buy a full guitar product, but for the rest of us having some guitar effects modules is always handy.

TruePianos Amber Module is a selection from the TruePianos VSTi, a virtual piano instrument that’s part sampled, part modeled, part synthesis. I haven’t tried TruePianos yet, so can’t tell you what it means that it’s “designed to blend transparently with the musician’s hands through its unique capabilities of matching to the player’s own playing style.” I’m keen to find out. It’s also supposed to be light on system resources, which tends to be a problem with virtual acoustic pianos.

ChannelTools is an integrated, zero-latency channel interface for adjusting L/R placement, gain, pan/width, sample delay – basically, all of your placement or widening and narrowing can be adjusted through one interface.

This is not a review as I don’t have SONAR 8 in front of me, running on my machine. But I have to say, this makes me interested again in running it. It seems like Cakewalk has ironed out some editing workflows and tweaked performance enough that this could be a very competitive DAW. The competition for myself and a lot of readers, I think, is abandoning traditional DAWs altogether for many tasks. It’s nice to see Cakewalk addressing some of the issues that people care about, while adding goodies that aren’t exclusively tied to the host. (There are technical reasons not to support VSTs, but it still makes a difference that this isn’t just candy to lure you into SONAR that doesn’t work with other software you use.)

I look forward to reviewing it and getting some music made.

Availability: Starts shipping October 2.

Pricing:

US: $499 street; $299 street for the SONAR Studio; upgrades US$99-179 for SONAR 7 (other upgrades available)

Rest of the world: English, German, Spanish, French, Italian; EUR499 suggested street for Producer, EUR299 for Studio; UK GBP349 / 219, also available in October

SONAR 8 Preview Page / Preorders

It was 20 years ago today …

It’s easy to take for granted the mature tools available for music creation, and forget their history and the folks who made them real. While today it’s one of the biggest music software developers in the world, Cakewalk’s first sequencer of the same name started as a college project for a Philosophy major. Cakewalk founder, CEO, and original author of the Cakewalk sequencer Greg Hendershott was that student. For the twentieth anniversary year of the founding of his company (then known as 12 Tone Systems), Greg sat down with me in their Boston headquarters.

This was a personally meaningful meeting for me, as Cakewalk 4.0 for DOS (pictured above) was the first software sequencer I ever used — and remained my favorite some time after going to Windows. In those days, programmer’s names were front-and-center more than they are now, and so Greg’s name popped up every time I sat down to work. Greg also studied with Gary Lee Nelson, who was my first electronic music instructor (albeit for me at a summer camp). Of course, part of the reason it’s meaningful is that I’m far from alone — over 1,000,000 users have used Cakewalk’s software. A look at Cakewalk is also a look at the computer music software industry’s brief but fast-moving development, and the design of the tools that have evolved alongside it.

This winds up being a huge interview — you’ll believe me when I say this is basically a transcript of what Greg said. But it’s also a genuine slice of history, and also a glimpse into what the industry’s next 20 years might be like, so we’ll have at it.

B.C.: Before Cakewalk

It’s your 20th anniversary — that means now’s as good a time as ever to talk about the beginnings of Cakewalk, and where this all came from. Can you take us through some of that history?

So, I was born … no.

I think the natural place to start is that I ended up at Oberlin College. I was technically a philosophy major, but the cool thing about Oberlin is that there’s the college, and then there’s the Conservatory of Music, and they make it pretty easy to cross over. I took a few classes, but mostly electronic music. I was taking several electronic music classes a week, and then trying to put out a philosophy paper.

Who did you work with at Oberlin?

Gary Nelson and Conrad Cummings were the two people. Gary was still doing stuff in APL [programming] language, and he made some extensions that he called MPL. [To program in APL] you have to use this special keyboard; it uses Greek symbols. You can be very succinct and precise when doing vector operations. For music that came in handy, because music was usually an array of notes or pitches or other parameters. But apparently the only people who really use APL are either actuaries, in the insurance industry, and Gary Nelson for music. It was pretty cool, but I think for the average freshman electronic music student, it was a little daunting with the Greek symbols.

What technology were you working with as a student — what were the tools at the time?

What we mostly spent our time on was CP/M [Intel operating system] machines, Osborne computers using Turbo Pascal to do programming. Ed. note: Anders Hejlsberg, the creator of Turbo Pascal, and successor Delphi — in which Fruity Loops was developed — went on to be a chief architect of Microsoft’s C# and .net, so a lot of this stuff is significant down the road.

And the other gear was stuff like, I think when I was there we got the first [Yamaha] DX7 [synthesizer]. That came into the lab, and everyone was really excited — and totally baffled about how to program it, because we were used to the Moog modular kind of synths where you literally had the patch cords around your necks and were making patches by [connecting] cords. So, to figure out FM synthesis was a little tricky. Working with a big modular synth was tactile and interactive. And then you had this small screen.

That’s how I got interested in computers. I was not a math and science guy. In high school, I was much more into English and history. If it wasn’t for music, I doubt I would even have tried to learn how to do software programming. But that made it fun for me. And, of course, over the years I came to be interested in the software engineering part of it for its own sake. But in the beginning, it was the music that made it fun enough to stick with.

So I wrote software. I got out of Oberlin and I procrastinated about getting a real job. I had some temp jobs, and in my spare time I thought I would try to take this software that I had done at Oberlin and really try to start over and write a basic sequencer.

Birth of Cakewalk, and a Five-Person User Base

What was that first experimental sequencer project like, the one you did at Oberlin?

At this point, I don’t even remember. It was kind of maybe crude pieces of what you would need to do a sequencer. It’s kind of fuzzy at this point. I do remember pretty much starting over but using a lot of the concepts. You know, sometimes you write something, and in hindsight, you figure out how to do it much better. But it helps to have done that first one.

So I kind of procrastinated, and thought maybe I could try taking out a small ad and selling a few copies. And I did, and amazingly four or five people saw the ad and called up and ordered. And that was enough to pay for the ad and do another one. It was really honestly a bootstrap. In the beginning, I really kind of backed into it. I had this thing, and it’s fun, and I had enough success to go a little longer, and it took off from there. But in the early days, I’d be writing code and taking tech support calls. I’d be going down to the local UPS place with boxes before they closed at 5:30 each day.

How did you come to name the software Cakewalk?

Right before I placed the ad, literally two days before the deadline, I had picked another name for the program, and I found out it had been used by other software. I think it was something like Opus. So I had this little dictionary of music terms, and I saw Cakewalk. And I thought, wow, that’s nice. It’s a simple English compound word, you know how to spell it, and it has this connotation of ease of use even if you don’t know the musical history.

And what about “12 Tone Systems?” Because who doesn’t like twelve-tone music, I guess, right?

So the name of the company was 12 Tone Systems — because it’s everyone’s favorite, most accessible style of music. [laughs] I thought it was kind of fun. For many years, people would call up and say, “is this Cakewalk?” I decided, instead of correcting people, we’d just change the name of the company to Cakewalk and that’d be simpler.

Early Evolution of Cakewalk, and Long-Lost Competitors

What sorts of things did you have to change for the program to evolve?
I think that the very first versions, behind the scenes was all one track, and all the events were in some big, huge array.

That was the other thing I did when I threw away what I had done in college. I actually did that in C. And remember in those days, too, this was strictly a MIDI sequencer, so it was only transmitting MIDI events to be used with external gear. I think back then I had a Roland MT-32, a Yamaha FP-01, and a Sequential Circuits 6-track. I actually owned a Commodore 64 when I was in college and tried to do some programming with that. I had some weird cartridge from Sequential that you’d plug into your Commodore 64 and it’d talk to your six track.

I think [Cakewalk 4.0] might have been the first version that would work with other MIDI interfaces. In the beginning there was the Roland MPU-401, and it had kind of a smart mode and a dumb mode. Ed.: that’s in fact just what they were called, though not necessarily accurately! The smart mode, you’d give it for example a note and a timestamp and it would transfer that MIDI message at that time. And it had some other features. So in a way it made it easier, but you got locked into certain things, like I think it had 8 tracks I think that it could handle. So Cakewalk for DOS had 256 tracks, and I had to come up with some scheme to take each eight and combine them. And then there started to be other MIDI interfaces that were simply UARTs, simply a serial port without the smart mode chip. And I wanted to try and support those. I think it was version 3 or 4 that I had to go back and rewrite [the software.]

At the time, you were really one of the first major sequencing programs to be available for DOS, correct?
There was a company called Voyetra that had a program called Sequencer Plus. And Roger Powell had a very pattern-based kind of sequencer. Right out of college, there was no way I could pay $500 for Sequencer Plus. So that’s part of why I started to write my own software. I think my motivation back then was to make something that was easy to use, and maybe a little bit more affordable. I was influenced a lot by a company called Borland, and back then they had … Turbo Pascal among other products. They had this whole philosophy, they would make the software affordable, they would not use any copy protection, which was pretty unusual back then, and that kind of basic business model or approach to software really appealed to me, so I borrowed a lot of that in Cakewalk.

Design, Then and Now

I remember having a really strong impression of Cakewalk 4.0 for DOS’ original design, and its simplicity and elegance. Now, obviously, in terms of capabilities and technological evolution, SONAR or anything of this generation is very different from an early DOS program. But I certainly have some of the experience of that original Cakewalk in SONAR. What — if anything — from Cakewalk’s first versions carries into the products today?

My design philosophy for the early Cakewalk software was to make simple things simple and to have more complicated things require a little more effort. So anything that you’d be doing frequently, like selecting tracks or wanting to record on a track, I tried to keep that very up-front in the user interface — a single keystroke — and things that were a little less frequent I’d tried to have buried in a dialog box or away from view. I think that’s one thing that we’ve tried to keep up, although that [gets] more challenging as you have more and more functionality and more features to the software. But I think that’s one principle we try to follow: keep the simple things simple and hide the complexity.

I think today SONAR still does a really good job of that, given the incredible amount of things you can do, especially compared to Cakewalk for DOS. The surface area of the application — plus all of the windows and dialogs — is so much bigger than in the early days. But you do have the choice of how you want to present that surface area to the user. So I think that’s one point where you have some ability to deal with the complexity and decide how to present that to people. The basic approach to the track view to some extent has a lot of the same characteristics of the very early version, but with many more options. And, of course, today we have track folders and all sorts of other options. But the basic keystrokes for moving around the tracks and quickly recording one have pretty much survived from the early days. The basic views, the track view, the piano roll view, obviously continued. Some of them combined, so you don’t have to go to a totally different view to edit controller data or work with notes.

But it really has grown an amazing amount. It was just MIDI, there was no digital audio, there was no graphical music notation — it was a program for DOS, so it was all text, or little blocks for graphical-like things that weren’t really graphics. Obviously that’s been a huge change.

It’s funny to think, too, how these platforms have survived. 20 years ago was before Pro Tools, but if you look at the leading DAWs now, we have Logic that was Notator, Cubase, Performer (now Digital Performer)…
I think it’s easy for me to forget how many programs there were back then. There was the Atari platform and the Amiga platform. And on all four of those platforms [with Mac and PC/DOS] there were three or four pretty good options for people. But it was just too much to sustain over time. So eventually four platforms was just too many, and things started to really boil down to Macintosh and Windows. And on those platforms there are only so many companies — choices at any one time that can capture people’s attention and keep going.

How do you account for Cakewalk’s ability to succeed over that period?
I think we worked hard, but we were also lucky, and we had a lot of great customers who continued to give us feedback. I think in terms of secrets of my success — or our success, probably the single biggest one was we were really trying to listen to customers and take their feedback and their wish list, and really roll things into the next version quickly. Sometimes it’s as simple as listening to your customers, and they tell you what they need and what they want, and you go do it. And a lot of it is really that simple.

But at times, companies for various reasons have difficulty doing that. And it is a little tricky, because sometimes customers tell you they want something, but you shouldn’t take them too literally. So if you take what they’re asking for and do it in a slightly different way, you might be able to satisfy ten different requests that are really variations on the same theme. And sometimes [you'll introduce] things that haven’t even occurred to them yet. There are these discontinuous innovations that you won’t find out from customers. So I think you really need to season that — maybe it’s 80% listening to the customers, and 10% thinking of the things that haven’t even occurred to them, and 10% reinterpreting what they’re asking for. But I really think 80% is listening and doing as much of what people want as possible.

But some observers might disagree with you on that. There’s a lot of talk in design — software design, Web design — about trying to do less, about saying no. Ed.: Since I talked to Greg, I got to ask Ableton co-founder Gerhard Behles about some of these challenges; it’s interesting to hear different takes on this, and we’ll have that soon. -PK
My theory is, a lot of products start off — like Cakewalk for DOS version 1.0 — or maybe Ableton Live version 1.0 — in the beginning, it’s extremely focused and they can only do a few things. But the few things they do, they do very well. And it attracts people who only want to do those things, and for them, it’s perfect — it has everything they need and nothing they don’t need getting in the way.

But over time, as you try to listen to customers and try to accommodate their requests, the product becomes the union and the sum total of all the requests you’ve received over the years. If you could hit the fast forward button, go out five or ten versions, it won’t be that original, really simple — perfect-for-some-people — product that it started off as. I think some companies are able to do a better job of taming that complexity and not letting it get out of control. But it’s pretty hard after 10, 15, 20 years of adding feature requests. That’s a real challenge.

How has perception of Cakewalk evolved, particularly as you’ve expanded the feature set in this way, and had to contend with complexity and change?
I think for Cakewalk there was a period where people knew that we made software that was easy to use, but I don’t think we got credit for being as innovative as we actually were. At times I felt kind of bad for our software engineers (This was the part where I wasn’t writing code any more.) I felt like they’re creating these really amazing things, but we’re not getting credit for it. People might recognize a product like Cubase or Logic as being very innovative, but we had done the same thing two years before. So it seemed like we were maybe a little invisible with the power user community.

That was part of the motivation of doing SONAR. The later era of what was called Cakewalk Pro Audio, 6, 7, 8, 9, I think particularly then we felt that people are recognizing that our product was easy to use, but they were saying, if you’re a real power user, you don’t want to use Cakewalk, you want to use Cubase. After I while that gets to you a little bit. I think that’s changed; [we're] making sure people realize the power user features that we have. Of course, the irony is, as we did that, there’s a group of people looking at Ableton Live saying, wow, this is really cool, it’s really easy to use, it doesn’t have all these features in SONAR or Logic. I think the moral of the story is, there’s not one type of customer, and not one type of product that’s right for everyone. You need to pick your vision, and that may change over time, and may evolve. You’re not going to please everyone all of the time, and that’s fine.

As you say that, it really seems that the market today is more about differentiation, focusing on different approaches instead of just more features — sometimes even intentionally doing less. There was a period, particularly in the 90s, when it seemed to me at least it was more about one-upping features, to the point where programs began to look more like one another; do you have a sense of that, as well?
In particular, my perception was that Logic and Cubase were locked in this feature war, and if one product added a feature then the other one had to. Over time, that’s going to tend to make the products look more like each other, although Logic and Cubase have different feels, but in terms of feature set, they get more and more similar over time. As [we've been discussing], I think some people start off at a certain point in their personal experience using music technology — maybe if you’re just getting started, Cakewalk DOS 1.0 is perfect. But as your needs evolve, the product evolves with you. Other people just getting started, maybe that later version is a little daunting to them.

So I think there’s always a role for new products to come out that are not trying to have every feature the power user might want. Whether that’s Ableton Live or Reason or Project5, there definitely has been a trend in recent years to kind of take out a clean sheet of paper and say, how would we design it today? Which is not to say that Logic and Cubase and SONAR are bad, but they definitely [represent] a certain philosophy of how things should work. For a lot of people that’s perfect, but it’s not the only way. So I think it’s really fun and refreshing to see people take out the clean sheet of paper.

I think as the technology changes, it definitely makes sense, every five years or so to take out that clean sheet of paper. You may discover you’ll still do things pretty much the way things have been done. And sometimes you may realize we could really make things simpler or different.

Were there times when you did a clean sheet, or “reboot”, of Cakewalk’s software? SONAR, I suppose was a kind of reboot, right?
Behind the scenes, pieces of the engine, going from Pro Audio 9 to SONAR 1 there were still huge tracts of code behind the scenes that were basically the same. But we definitely took out a clean sheet of paper with the user interface, and behind the scenes pretty big chunks of the engine and code did change significantly to support other technology. For us, coming from DOS to the first Windows versions was a pretty big change. That was an opportunity to rethink some of the feature set and user interface. And then going from those Windows versions of Cakewalk Pro Audio to SONAR was another opportunity. And then doing Project5 was another opportunity.

Thoughts on Piracy

Cakewalk has managed to grow and remain healthy over the last 20 years. But what sorts of challenges have you — and the industry — had to face?
Piracy continues to be a problem for a lot of software companies. And it’s a problem for Cakewalk, as well. Different companies take different approaches. We have tended not to use any copy protection or copy prevention technology, except maybe the most basic serial number [authentication] — nothing like software activation or dongles. And my thinking behind that is that many of those systems get cracked pretty quickly anyway. And they do cost something to add, and they cost tech support issues, and some inconvenience for customers. I’m always concerned about those systems that won’t really prevent the theft, and all they’ll do is make things a little tougher for the people who are paying for the software.

But that doesn’t mean we like people to copy the software. It really comes down to the culture around intellectual property, and establishing your relationship with customers that is about more than just them buying the product, where they can get good support, there is a good community, a good forum for them to interact with you and other customers. So I think if people are buying into a long-term relationship, that’s part of the key to dealing with that issue. And I notice customers really tend to think that way.

For example, I notice some Cubase customers got upset with Steinberg when they suddenly took out DirectX support in an update. I think many of the customers weren’t even using DirectX; it was the sudden nature of it. And why it bothered them is, as a customer you do have this long-term relationship, you’ve invested a lot in how to learn the software, and you want that company to be around and do good things for you. And I think that’s why sometimes people get personally offended if there’s a change like that, that’s something unexpected or unfair. And not to pick on Steinberg — all of us at some time make a mistake like that or do something that we don’t realize how it’ll be received by people. But I think my point is that it is a long-term relationship, and it’s not just about buying a box that has a disc in it.

Do you have a sense of how many people are pirating your software, what the impact is?
I know people sometimes come up with statistics like that. I’m honestly not sure how; it seems like a tricky thing to measure. If you’re using our software, you should pay for it. But I also know what it’s like to be right out of college and feel like I don’t have a lot of money to buy something. I also remember trading CDs — well, actually cassette tapes — with people in college. A year later or three years later I was going on to buy those albums that initially we had traded. I have a little sympathy or empathy with people who casually try something but then go out to buy it — although we do have an official, fully-featured trial version, so there is that very legal way to do it. But I try not to get personally too bent out shape about someone trying something out for a few days.

Looking Forward: Future Technologies, Growth

We’ve talked mostly about the past, but what about, say, the next 20 years? Do you think there’s more potential for growth in music software and creation?
There’s sort of a hierarchy of interest or commitment to music creation. There are a lot of people who have a very casual interest in playing around with making their own music, or putting beats together, or rearranging loops, and I think that can be potentially a pretty big group of people. But the interest and commitment is probably fairly short-term. And from there you kind of go up to increasing levels of enthusiasm to full-time, professionals or full-time amateurs who do this for many, many years. And so I think realistically the number of really committed people is always going to be a certain percentage of the population. That’s my personal theory — but I think that’s also a function of the particular situation of the country and where it is with its economic development. So I think there are at least 2 billion people where that percentage is pretty low today, but ten, twenty years from now will probably be bigger. So I think, from that point of view, the absolute number of people who will be interested in these more committed levels of music creation will definitely grow. But maybe that’s a little longer term — I don’t think it’s 50 years from now, I think it’s [happening already.]

What about growth around the world — will Cakewalk be a part of that? Will there be more homegrown efforts, more bootstrapped Cakewalks in other parts of the world?
I think there probably will be homegrown efforts — actually, I kind of hope so. Not to harp on the piracy issue again, but to the extent a country has its own software industry, that tends to impact the country in general in terms of piracy. Not to pick on Russia, but maybe today Russia is not the best country [in terms of] software piracy. But they have a growing IT industry or software development industry. To the extent that grows, I think that has a good effect on the culture. So I think having home-grown companies is a good thing. We go to a lot of work to localize our software into different languages. SONAR is available in French, German, Spanish, and Japanese. We haven’t done a Chinese language, but I expect at some point we will do that, also.

Another way to deal with this issue is to realize that probably the predominant way you’re going to sell software is part of a package that includes hardware. So sometimes certain cultures don’t value software except as a freebie add-on for hardware, so you can work with that by creating hardware/software solutions. And that’s where our partnership with Roland can be helpful. It’s not the main reason, but it’s kind of one side of that.

What about the Web; how do you see the Web impacting music software, in terms of actually browser delivery or Internet-rich applications?
It’s a really interesting concept — for example, in theory, and I think in practice in a couple of cases already, you could take a music creation application and deliver it as sort of the Web 2.0 application you use from your browser, much as you can do Google Documents instead of Microsoft Word or Excel. I think that’s really interesting, and maybe in future that will be more practical. I think some of the benefits of doing that with text documents and spreadsheets are not necessarily as relevant for music creation. Collaboration can be a big part of music creation, but it’s not the same factor doing spreadhseets or word documents. I think, too, even though the big thing of software synthesis, software effects, people have a lot of gear — so, okay, you have the software running in the web browser, but what about the rest of your studio connections? That also affects the collaboration and portability a little bit. So I can definitely imagine it all working that way, and maybe someday it will. I think, though, it’s more of the dancing bear stage, where the amazing thing is that the bear dances at all, you don’t care that it dances well. But that will probably change.

Splice is cool, Jump Cut for videos is also cool. We were talking before about increasing levels of interest — maybe for that kind of customer, that’s the best way to reach them, or the way they want to interact with things, through a Web-based application. But I think the other element is that — Google Docs, and so on — there’s also a different business model involved.

At the same time, there’s also this trend with Boot Camp and Parallels where maybe — I don’t have any inside information — but I can also imagine three or four or five years from now, many people will be running both Windows and OS X. How they’ll do it, and with what level of explicit support from Apple or Microsoft, I don’t know how that will turn out. But it seems that that’s something people are already doing. Parallels of course is the coolest version on paper, because you can be running them at the same time. On the other hand, I know people on both Mac and Windows who dedicate a machine to be a DAW, and they don’t want a lot of other things running — and they remind me of gamers. A lot of gamers will reboot into a certain configuration to play a game. So I wonder, is it all that horrible to reboot using Boot Camp to run Windows and run SONAR. So I think at this point, that’s all a little bit new, and it tends to be those who are really technology enthusiasts who are playing that. But maybe a platform won’t be as important five years from now as it is today.

That said, it seems the relationship with Microsoft and Windows has been important for Cakewalk, right?
We’ve focused on the Windows platform ever since Windows 3.1, and DOS before that. We really know it top to bottom. We know how to get things done technically; we have good contacts at Microsoft. It’s something we do really well and we want to keep doing. When it comes to music creation tools like SONAR, I think we’re going to continue to focus on the Windows platform. Realistically, porting SONAR to any other platform would be not a very smart business decision because it would take a long time, and what’s at the other end of that tunnel when you come out a few years later? But, when it comes to instruments, for example, as we expanded into doing instruments, right from the start we’ve made things cross-platform. And we love developing for OS X as well as Windows, and we’re committed to doing that. It’s not kind of a religious issue for us, it’s more the practical reality of when it comes to creation and DAW tools, we can do an amazing job on Windows. We can do things that are really solid, very reliable, high performance, and we’ll keep doing that and when it comes to instruments, we’ll obviously be bi-platform.

Do you ever think about what Cakewalk might look like, 20 years from now? (The fortieth anniversary of Cakewalk!) Or how music technology in general might progress that far out?
More in the kind of speculative, casual interest way. I think in music technology — in most technology — looking even five years out is really a long time. So you do it kind of for fun, or to think broadly about what you should do … that’s good. But to get into any detail that gets pretty sketchy pretty quickly.

I think some of the basic metaphors in applications for music creation will be the same — concepts like tracks for example are pretty fundamental. I think how you interact with some of those may be different. A couple of years ago, I know Apple just “invented” multi-touch technology, but a couple of years ago when I saw the other people who invented that I thought that was a really cool thing, and there are companies already implementing that for music. So to be able to grab objects and manipulate them directly and not have to use a mouse is one thing we’ll see more of in the future.

There’s one holy grail left in music technology, too, which is polyphonic pitch detection. I still have this crazy dream that you should be able to take an audio file or a CD and have the software analyze it and do the amazing thing the human brain does which is know that okay these frequencies go together, these don’t. These are one distinct musical entity, they’re not just harmonics — how we actually do that is pretty incredible, and we do it automatically. If a computer could do that, or do bigger pieces of that, I think it’d be really interesting. That would enable a lot of applications, not just remixing but all sorts of interesting applications. Maybe it’s fundamentally impossible to do a hundred percent, but we’re just so far from a hundred percent — to get even close to that would be remarkable.

Thanks, Greg. And here’s to the next twenty years.

We’ll continue to talk to the people behind the tools we use — the creation of music software hasn’t been nearly as well documented as, say, the creation of vintage hardware. So stay tuned! -PK

Other Faces of Cakewalk

I got a behind-the-scenes tour of Cakewalk HQ when I did this interview in August (hence, SONAR 6, though SONAR 7 product art was being finalized by graphics at the time). Many of the music DSP folks are outside Boston, but there’s a huge support, quality assurance, and engineering effort in Boston — not just the marketing and business stuff. You very rarely get to see the faces behind a lot of your software — something I hope we remedy here on CDM in the future, to try to get the creator-user communication more direct. Here are just a few of those folks I ran into.

Jamie O’Connell, Principal Software Engineer.
Jamie is also the co-creator and primary developer of MIDI-OX and MIDI Yoke, which I’d rank as the most important utilities for Windows music, hands down. You don’t have them and you’re a PC user? Go get them right now.

Scott Stepenuck Sr. SQA Engineer (Software Quality Assurance).
Cakewalk really is a dual-platform house. Most cubicles have side-by-side Mac and Windows machines, and by the time I visited at the beginning of August, all the Macs were running Leopard. They also have big, messy piles of documentation and gear, which is I think the sign of good development and quality assurance. (I’m, erm, using my own desk as part of the measure of that.)

Chad Beckwith, Product Manager Flagship Instruments.
Chad manages all of Cakewalk’s top-of-the-line soft synths. We got a chance to chat about tips and tricks with Rapture — expect more on that soon. He also gets the best toys: