Roland / News / 2009 / 10

• Oct
• 07

Cakewalk® Announces SONAR ™ 8.5 Producer & SONAR 8.5 Studio Now Available

Cakewalk, the world's leading developer of powerful and easy to use products for music creation and recording, announces a feature packed upgrade for SONAR Producer, the leading choice in digital audio workstations and SONAR Studio the most powerful digital audio workstation in its price range. SONAR 8.5 continues to innovate with new capabilities including enhanced beat creation and arrangement tools, a new drum instrument loaded with stellar kits and patterns, an enhanced audio timing toolset, new multi-stage effect plug-ins for drums and percussion sounds and vocal tracks, engine optimizations and stability improvements,and many additional workflow and technological advances, notably Windows 7 compatibility.

New features and workflow enhancements

• Matrix View—simple and flexible cell-based, non-linear audio and MIDI arranging with live triggering capability.
• Step Sequencer 2.0—the most powerful step sequencing capability in any DAW.
• Integrated Arpeggiator—trigger Arpeggiations on MIDI or instrument tracks with in-depth control over all arp parameters. Includes hundreds of presets.
• Session Drummer 3—latest version of Cakewalk’s virtual instrument for easy and fast creation of drum tracks with a new UI, stellar sounding kits and patterns from top sound designers and drummers, more.
• AudioSnap 2.0—updated audio quantizing and time shifting technology with new look and refinements to all the core controls, significantly improving workflow, plus improved offline rendering.
• Media Browser—the new hub for content access within SONAR; supports multiple formats to preview and import all your loops, grooves, and MIDI patterns; features presets to quickly grab content from your favorite locations.
• PX-64 Percussion Strip—seven-stage processor designed specifically for use with drums and percussion.
• VX-64 Vocal Strip—seven-stage processor optimized for shaping and sculpting vocal tracks.
• Windows 7 Support—tested, ready, and recommended for use.
• Engine optimizations and stability improvements for recording audio, and while looping.
• “Hotswap” audio and MIDI devices, including control surfaces, without restarting SONAR. 
• VST plug-in compatibility improvements. 
• Native REX loop support featured in Track View, Media Browser, and Matrix View. 
• BitBridge XR—run 32-bit plug-ins in 64-bit environments, with memory access now extended up to 128 GB RAM.
• And much more.

Pricing and Availability

SONAR 8.5 is available through the distribution network of Roland. Registered users of SONAR 8.0 Producer or Studio can order their upgrade directly from Cakewalk.com. Registered SONAR 8.0 users can also buy the box version of the upgrade from an authorized Roland dealer. All SONAR V-Studio 700 or SONAR 8.0 users who upgraded after the first of July 2009 are entitled to a free upgrade of Sonar 8.5.

For more information, please visit Cakewalk.com or contact Roland Central Europe - www.rolandce.com.

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