Cakewalk Ships New Versions of Sonar Home Studio 6 and XL

Mar 1, 2007 4:37 PM

           
 

Cakewalk's new versions of Sonar Home Studio 6 and Sonar Home Studio 6 XL offer new features and tools.

Sonar Home Studio 6 ($139) introduces Cakewalk Publisher, a tool that helps you publish and present your music online. Use Cakewalk Publisher to create a customized, streaming music player with playlists of your music that can be directly uploaded from Sonar Home Studio to band Web sites, MySpace pages, and other Web sites.

Sonar Home Studio's other new features include compatibility with Microsoft Windows Vista; a core feature set based on Sonar 6.2; a quick start guide, track presets, project templates, and video tutorials; a new mixing console; 10 new audio effects; Active Controller Technology to control and automate effects, instruments, and mixes from MIDI controllers; the ability to rip from and burn to CD directly from Sonar Home Studio; enhanced automation tools; MIDI input quantize; native and fully integrated support for VST plug-ins; and lastly, the DropZone sampler with an extended library of instrument sounds, including a Drum Pack and Bass Pack.

Sonar Home Studio 6 XL ($209) adds over 1 GB of instrument sounds, as well as the Boost 11 peak limiter, the Session Drummer 2 drum instrument, Dimension LE, and Garritan Pocket Orchestra.

Exclusive to Sonar Home Studio XL, the Boost 11 Peak Limiter provides—you guessed it—peak limiting and volume maximization, which according to the manufacturer, does not color the sound of the source material. Boost 11's "look-ahead" peak detection helps prevent output clipping and PDR (Program Dependent Release) to minimize volume fluctuations and maximize loudness.

Session Drummer 2 includes multisampled drum kits paired with professionally recorded drum and MIDI patterns from Smart Loops. You can build an accompaniment by loading a drum kit and dragging and dropping patterns into your project. You can also play patterns or individual drums from any MIDI controller to perform your own drum tracks. Session Drummer 2 also provides the flexibility of custom drum kits, which can be built by loading individual components on pads (including the your own WAV, AIFF, or OGG format samples) and then adjusting volume, pan, width, and tuning on each drum.

Dimension LE provides multisample rendering, wavetable synthesis, waveguide synthesis, and, REX playback and manipulation; it also includes a DSP library of effects with over 400 sound programs, ranging from bass, organ, and electric piano samples to synth sounds and rhythmic grooves.

This special edition of Garritan Pocket Orchestra expands Dimension LE with orchestral instrument libraries that include strings, brass, woodwinds, keyboards, and percussion sounds.

Sonar Home Studio 6 and Sonar Home Studio 6 XL will be available on March 12, 2007. For details on upgrade options, please visit www.cakewalk.com.