[ddots-l] Release of CakeTalking for SONAR 7 (Special Pricing Still Available)

Dear All,

Just as most of us at Dancing Dots were leaving for the annual CSUN
Technology and Persons with Disabilities conference in Los Angeles a couple
of weeks ago, we put up an initial release of CakeTalking for SONAR 7 on our
site.  Since that time we have gradually been updating the site and
preparing for an "official" announcement of this long-awaited release.  Now
that CSUN and the Easter holiday is behind us, it's time to spread the word
that CakeTalking for SONAR 7 is here and ready to go!

I have pasted in below the full text of a "What's New" document that comes
with SONAR.  This information should be of interest to both current and
prospective users of CakeTalking and SONAR but it may be a bit daunting for
some who are new to SONAR.  And so I will preface that text with a couple of
paragraphs about SONAR in general and some of the basics of CakeTalking for
SONAR 7.  But first, the business details!

Pricing and Special Offer on CakeTalking Upgrades 

Remember, if you are outside of the U.S., contact your authorized Dancing
Dots dealer if there is one in your country such as Techno-Vision Systems
for the people in the United Kingdom.  We are extending an introductory
offer until April 10 that saves you money on upgrading to CakeTalking for
SONAR 7.  Also remember that you can order your upgrade to SONAR 7 itself
from Dancing Dots for the same price offered by Cakewalk.

$129    Upgrade to CT 7 from CT 5 or 6.  Price increases to $149 after April
10. 

$169    Upgrade to CT 7 from CakeTalking 4 or earlier.  Price increases to
$199 after April 10. 

$289    Cost of a new unit of CakeTalking.  You can order both CakeTalking
and SONAR from Dancing Dots.

Special Pricing on Upgrade to Full Versions of Dimension Pro and Rapture
Soft Synthes 

Some customers have already taken advantage of a limited-time offer from
Cakewalk which Dancing Dots can match.  You can upgrade from Dimension Pro
LE and Rapture Le soft synthes that ship with SONAR 7 to the full versions
for $99 each.  CT 7 gives you access to both the LE and full versions.
However, you must order by March 30 to qualify.  

To Order, go to www.DancingDots.com and follow the "CakeTalking" link.  We
have a small backlog of CakeTalking orders to ship on CD so you may want to
take advantage of the download delivery option.  As always, we will do our
best to process your order as quickly as we can but it may be a couple of
weeks or more before we ship out boxes as we are still compiling our latest
Dancing Dots Products and Demos CD.  

As of this writing, we do not yet have check boxes in place on the
CakeTalking site to give you the option to order the Dimension Pro and
Rapture upgrades as add-ons to your CakeTalking upgrade order.  If you don't
find them there when you go to the CakeTalking page, just call us at
610-783-6692 to order.  This offer is made by Cakewalk Music software to
customers in North America.  Check your local Cakewalk dealer to see if they
will match it.  

Overview of SONAR and CakeTalking 

Note to experienced CakeTalking users: skip to the section entitled "Summary
of What's New with SONAR 7 and CakeTalking for SONAR 7" below.

SONAR from Cakewalk Music Software is mainstream, digital audio workstation
software that converts your PC into a multi-track recording studio complete
with professional-sounding audio effects such as reverb, digital delay, echo
effects and so much more.  The CakeTalking for SONAR product comes with
sophisticated yet very user-friendly scripts that give the JAWS user the
highest possible level of access to the power of SONAR.  A number of
extensive tutorials written primarily for the JAWS user are included in the
form of Word documents and (new with this version) as a standard Windows
help file.

You can record all kinds of instrument sounds by playing on an electronic,
musical keyboard and blend those sounds with those you can record using a
microphone or other audio source.  Revise the results by altering relative
volume and panning, applying effects and mixing down to a two-track stereo
master that can be exported as an mp3, .wav, Windows Media file, etc.  Burn
to CD and offer for sale at your next gig, upload to your website or E-mail
to a friend.  

We have not yet produced an audio presentation for SONAR 7 but you can get a
very good idea of what's possible with this technology by listening to a
detailed presentation on SONAR 6.2 produced by Gordon Kent of Dancing Dots.
Just go to http://www.dancingdots.com/prodesc/CakeTalkingForSONAR.htm and
see the heading labeled:
CakeTalking 6.2 for SONAR 6
 
Summary of What's New with SONAR 7 and CakeTalking for SONAR 7

CakeTalking for SONAR 7 runs under both Windows XP and Vista.  You can now
easily access all CakeTalking functions on a laptop keyboard that does not
have a full-size numpad.  We've added access to cool new software synthes
that ship with SONAR 7.  Soft synthes are pieces of software that behave
like musical synthesizers.  SONAR 7 comes with lite versions of Dimension
Pro and Rapture soft synthes and CakeTalking gives you access to them.  Of
course, if you upgrade to the full versions of these synthes, CakeTalking
gives you access as well.  See special offer above.

CakeTalking 7 has an internet update feature that you can run to be certain
that you do have the latest version of the scripts and tutorial.  New User
Verbosity options give you greater control over how much CakeTalking tells
you while you're working.  CakeTalking 7 gives you excellent access to
SONAR's new Step Sequencer, a feature that makes it much easier to quickly
build short sequences for looping, etc.  There are some new hotkeys to
control new features, for example, the DimSolo mode and the new input
monitoring feature that lets you disable input monitoring during playback.
I really like the new, accessible dialog SONAR 7 offers to allow us to burn
CD's of our projects without needing to leave SONAR. 

To summarize, if you liked the features of previous versions of SONAR and
the effortless access delivered by earlier versions of CakeTalking, you will
like SONAR 7 with CakeTalking for SONAR 7 even more if you can imagine that!
And if you're new to all this digital audio workstation business and ready
to jump in, you're going to have a great time too!

What's New In CakeTalking 7 For SONAR 7 in Detail

Table of Contents
1. Using a Laptop Supported.
2. Windows Vista Supported.
3. CakeTalking Internet Update is Now Available.
4. Running Both Sonar 6 and Sonar 7.
5. The Step Sequencer.
6. New PlugIns.
7. New Input Echo Option.
8. Dim Solo Mode.
9. New Hotkeys for Various New Features.
10. Verbosity Control Improvements.
11. CakeTalking Tutorial in Windows Help Format.
12. Various Fixes and Improvements.
13. Non English Windows.
14. Remaining Issues.

Contents

1. Using a Laptop Supported.
1. You can now reliably use a laptop with CakeTalking. You can use the
laptops keyboard, or an external PC keyboard plugged into your laptop. In
either case, JAWS keyboard mode should be set to Desktop. 
2. If you are using a laptop, you should open the User preference dialog,
and find the preference named, "I am using a Desktop computer". Then press
SPACE, until it says "I am using a laptop Computer". When set to Laptop,
certain functions that did not work in previous versions of CakeTalking,
will now work. Also, when set to Laptop mode, and using the jump to track
hotkeys along with the FN key to define the track number, you can then use
the Normal Enter key to execute the jump.
3. Alternatively, for the convenience of those using the laptop's keyboard,
there is another way to jump to tracks, that does not require using the FN
key or the num pad. As in previous versions of CakeTalking, Control+G, will
open a dialog where you can type the name of a track that you wish to jump
to. And now in CT 7, if you hold CONTROL and tap G, twice quickly, you will
open a dialog where you can type the number of a track to go to.

2. Windows Vista Supported.
1. CakeTalking is now compatible with Vista. In CakeTalking's Setup submenu,
found in the Start Menu, you will find a document title, "1SettingsVista."
This document provides all the information you need to make Vista compatible
with CakeTalking, as well as JAWS in general.
2. There are a few remaining issues when using Vista with Sonar and
CakeTalking that have not yet been fixed. They are:
a. In the Event view, sometimes JAWS will not report the columns correctly.
This can usually be fixed with a screen refresh.
b. In the Lexicon Pantheon, when navigating between the knobs, JAWS
sometimes reports a particular knob over and over, even though you're
navigating to another knob.
c. In the Control Surfaces dialog, in the list of inserted Control Surfaces,
the output and Input columns will sometimes not be read correctly.
        
3. CakeTalking Internet Update is now available.
In CakeTalking's sub menu in the Start Menu, you will find an option named,
"CTWebUpdate." If you are connected to the Internet, and you press ENTER on
it, your version of CakeTalking 7 will be checked to see if it's the latest
version. If it is, you will be told so. But if it is not the latest version,
then you will have the option to download the latest version.

4. Running Both Sonar 6 and Sonar 7.
After installing CakeTalking 7 for Sonar 7, CakeTalking 6 for Sonar 6
remains fully functional. So, after installing CakeTalking 7, you can still
work in Sonar 6 if you so desire.

5. The Step Sequencer.
1. The Step Sequencer is great for creating loop based rhythms and melodic
patterns.  It allows you to create sequences of MIDI notes for the current
midi track's patch or Drum map. The sequences you create are limited to
exactly one bar in length. You can define the length of the pattern. For
instance it could be 2 beats, 3 beats, 4 beats, 5 beats, 16 beats etc. And
you can define the sub division of the beats. For instance the beat could be
subdivided in 2, for eighth notes, 3, for eighth triplets, 4, for sixteenth
notes, 7, 8, 9 etc. 
2. There are 4 panes in the Step sequencer, and you create your sequence in
the Steps pane. The Steps Pane has numerous rows representing each MIDI
note. And across each row, there are step buttons for each sub division of
the beat. So by default you will find 16 step buttons, each representing one
of the sixteen possible rhythmic positions in the pattern of 4 beats. There
will also be 15 tie buttons, that allow you to tie steps together in order
to increase the duration of an enabled step. You create your sequence by
enabling the step buttons. You can enable a step button by pressing ENTER on
it, or by going into Step Sequence record with Control R, and playing your
MIDI keyboard. When enabling a particular step button, the current row's
MIDI note is played. 
3. Just like in the Step Record dialog, when you enable steps in the Step
sequencer, you are not doing it to a click. So you don't have to be
rhythmically accurate when enabling the step buttons. And whenever you want
to, you can playback the sequence, along with the rest of the project, by
pressing the space bar. Or, if you wish to hear just the Step Sequence,
press CONTROL SHIFT SPACE, and a continuous loop of the sequence will keep
playing until you stop with SPACE. By enabling steps, and then playing the
sequence back, you can gradually assemble the desired pattern. If you don't
like the result, you can disable a step, or enable a different step. Then,
once you're satisfied with the sequence, you can even save it as a pattern
so that you can load it into the Step Sequencer of other tracks, or other
projects.
4. The Step Sequencer allows you to do all the things that you can do in the
Step Record dialog. You can enter one note for each step, or several notes
for each step. You can adjust the rhythmic feel in various degrees of Swing,
offset the start times, and edit the velocity of the steps. But, if you are
primarily interested in techno patterns, and loop based patterns, the Step
sequencer has the following advantages over the Step record dialog,
a. In the Step Sequencer, the sequence is limited to a certain length. So
you don't have to be concerned that you are overflowing the length of the
desired loop.
b. In the Step Sequencer window, you can change the enabled steps while
remaining in that view. Whereas in the Step Record dialog, you can only undo
an entry. You cannot re arrange your steps, as you can in the Step
sequencer, because in the Step Record dialog, in order to really edit the
steps created, you would first have to close the Step Record dialog, and
then edit MIDI notes in the Event View. 

6. New PlugIns.
There are quite a few new Plug ins available in Sonar 7 that have been made
accessible, Here's a list of a few of them that have been made accessible.
1. Cakewalk's MIDI Quantize Plug in. on MIDI tracks, when this plug in is
inserted into the FX bin, it allows you to experiment with different
quantize settings in real time.
2. Rapture and Rapture L E. Only Rapture L E comes with Sonar 7. Rapture is
capable of producing rich, hypnotic, and rhythmic basses, leads, and pads,
It's perfect for performing and designing the modern synthesized sounds for
pop, dance, and electronic music. 
3. Dimension Pro, and Dimension L E. Only Dimension L E comes with Sonar 7.
The Dimension L E synth features over 400 sound programs, ranging from real
bass, organ and electric piano samples to cutting-edge synth sounds and
rhythmic grooves. It also includes the special edition of the Garritan
Pocket Orchestra, which has been programmed specifically for Dimension L E
and features orchestral instrument libraries of unrivaled quality that
include strings, brass, woodwinds, keyboards, and percussion sounds.
Dimension L E is powered by Cakewalk's Expression Engine providing several
types of synthesis capabilities including multi-sample rendering, wavetable
synthesis, waveguide synthesis as well as REX playback and manipulation. 
4. Drop Zone. DropZone is a sampling instrument that is also equipped with a
bank of samples, wavetables, REX grooves and multisamples. You can loop
samples and sounds or play them "one shot," triggered by SONAR or your MIDI
controller. DropZone supports Wav, Aiff, Ogg, REX, and SFZ formats.
5. The Z3TA plug in. The Z3TA+ synth is only available in SONAR Producer
Edition. This plug in's parameters are not accessible, but its presets are
accessible. It's an analog-style synthesizer with includes hundreds of
professional presets for lush, warm pads, slowly evolving atmospheres,
searing leads and sparkling FM sounds.
6. The LP 64 E Q real time Equalizer. The LP-64 EQ is a transparent linear
phase equalizer plug-in for mixing and mastering purposes. Unlike
traditional equalizers, LP-64 E Q provides highly accurate control of tonal
balance while maintaining a linear-phase shift at all frequencies,
regardless of the gain settings. Phase-shifting in typical equalizers means
that audio material is shifted in time in a frequency-dependent way.
Alignment of low and high frequencies may have changed with respect to one
another and to the original audio material. In other words, the sound is
literally "pulled apart" in time, often resulting in loss of sonic clarity
and crispness. With LP-64 E Q linear-phase processing, the integrity of your
audio is maintained for all frequencies, at all times--no unintended
coloration, cancellations, comb filtering, or muddy transients. 
7. Boost11. The purpose of the Boost 11 Peak Limiter is to increase loudness
as much as possible while preventing the signal from exceeding the maximum
output level. Boost 11 reduces the volume of the loudest parts (limiting),
while simultaneously increasing the volume of the quiet parts (boosting).
Boost 11 is typically used as the final plug-in on the master output when
mixing and mastering. 

7. New Input Monitoring Options.
1. Sonar 7 now has the capability to support the conventional Input
Monitoring scheme where when you are in playback, input monitoring will be
temporarily turned off. And then when you go into record during playback,
input monitoring will be turned back on. This scheme is the conventional one
that has been operative since the days of analog tape recorders. 
2. Realize, that with the Input Monitoring button enabled, and you are
stopped, you will still be able to hear your microphone's input. It's only
when you go into playback, that input monitoring is temporarily disabled.  
3. To implement this scheme, all you have to do is check a checkbox in the
General Page of the Global Options dialog. Here's how you do that.
a. Open the Global Options dialog, with Alt+O, then G.
b. In the General page, navigate to the check box named, "Disable Input
Monitoring During Playback".
c. If the Disable Input Monitoring During Playback checkbox is not checked,
then check it with the Space bar. Then press ENTER, to OK the dialog. That's
it. This setting will be saved for future openings of Sonar.
4. In the track pane, there are new hotkeys for input echo.
a. Shift E, says the input echo state for the current track.
b. Shift + double E, moves to the input echo column.
c. Control Shift+E, pressed once, says the current tracks input echo state.
Control Shift+double E, says the input echo state of all tracks.
d. In the define tracks dialog, accessed with Control+D, there is now an
option to turn Input Echo On for multiple tracks. It will open a dialog
where you can type the tracks that you wish to enable input echo.

8. Dim Solo Mode. 
1. Normally when you solo a track or bus, the tracks or buses which are not
soloed, are essentially muted. Dim Solo is a mode in which the non-soloed
audio tracks or buses, are still audible, but at a reduced level. Dim Solo
is useful when you want to focus on a specific track, but you still want to
edit or mix the track in context with the entire mix. This allows you to
hear all tracks while the soloed track stands out from non-soloed tracks.
Dim Solo mode only applies to audio tracks and buses, not MIDI tracks. 
2. To Enable Dim Solo, first solo the track or tracks you want soloed, then
press ALT+S.  To disable it, press ALT+S again.
3. The default attenuation of non soloed tracks is -12 db. But you can
increase or decrease that in the General Tab of Audio Options dialog. Here's
how to set the amount of attenuation.
a. Open the options menu, and press ENTER on Audio. The Audio options dialog
will open.
b. In the General Tab of the Audio options dialog, tab to Dim Solo Gain.
There's 3 radio buttons representing -6dB, -12dB or -18dB. Select the level
you wish, and then OK the dialog. The Dim Solo attenuation setting is saved
with each project

9. New Hotkeys for Various New Features.
1. A new hotkey, Alt F1, will repeat the current CakeTalking tutor message.
This is especially convenient for those who have chosen a User Preference to
not speak the CakeTalking Tutor messages. They can always hear it by
pressing ALT F1.
2. As in previous versions of CakeTalking, pressing Control+G, opens the Go
To Track Via Name dialog. And now, in CakeTalking 7, Control + double G,
opens the Go To Track Via Number dialog. This new function will be valuable
for laptop users that don't have a numpad to use for CT's jump to track
hotkeys.
3. As in previous versions of CakeTalking, on a MIDI track in the track
pane, the letter P pressed once, opens the Track Properties dialog. Now in
CakeTalking 7, Control+ double P, opens the Patch Browser dialog.
4. You can now open the Clips pane for a MIDI track. Among other things,
this makes it possible to open the context menu of MIDI clips. This is
especially useful for opening the context menu of Step Sequencer clips, so
that you can unlink them.
5. Control+M no longer toggles the mute state of selected clips. Control+M
opens the Measure/Beat dialog. And to mute selected clips, use Sonar's
default hotkey of the letter Q.
6. DimSolo. Press ALT+S to toggle Dim Solo off and on.
7. In the Synth rack, the letter D no longer deletes a synth. Instead, use
the Delete key.

10. Verbosity Control Improvements.
In previous versions of CakeTalking, sometimes your User Preferences for
Verbosity were not respected. This is fixed. There are now 3 User
Preferences for controlling how much JAWS Speaks. They are the following.
1. Tutor Messages For the Track View. When navigating through the controls
in the Track Pane, by default JAWS tells you the value of the control, what
type of a control it is, and a tutor message on how to use it. You can
eliminate JAWS from giving the tutor message, and you can also eliminate
both the tutor message, and the message of what type of a control it is. In
the latter case, only the value of the control will be spoken. If you are
set to the User Preference where tutor messages are not spoken, you can
always here the tutor message at will, by pressing ALT+F1.
2. Effects and Soft Synth User preference. This is similar to the user
preference for speaking Tutor messages in the Track view, but it is for
controlling verbosity in plug in windows. When navigating through the
controls in soft synth and effects plug ins, by default JAWS tells you the
value of the control, what type of a control it is, and a tutor message on
how to use it. You can eliminate JAWS from giving the tutor message, and you
can also eliminate both the tutor message and the message of what type of a
control it is. In the latter case, only the value of the control will be
spoken. If you are set to the User Preference where tutor messages are not
spoken, you can always here the tutor message at will, by pressing ALT+F1.
3. General Track View Verbosity. When set to less verbosity, certain
messages are shortened. For instance, when you press F5, to hear the current
position, JAWS normally says something like, Bar 1, beat 1, current
position. But if you've set the user preference to speak with less
verbosity, then JAWS, would just say, Bar 1, beat 1.

11. CakeTalking Tutorial in Windows Help Format.
The CakeTalking tutorial now comes in 3 different forms.
A. In a document with the extension, "DOC". If you have MS Word, then the
document will open in MS Word, and the Table of Contents will be links that
you can click on, in order to move to that subject.
B. In a document with the extension, "RTF". If you do not have MS Word, then
the document will open in WordPad, and the Table of Contents will not be
links. But you can use the Find command to search for subjects.
C. In a file with the extension, "CHM". This will open the tutorial in a
Windows help format, just like the standard Windows Help. There will be a
pane at the left, containing a tree view of the Table of Contents. Press
ENTER on an item, and the subject will be displayed in the pane on the
right. Use F6, to bounce you between the panes.

12. Various Fixes and Improvements.
1. In Sonar's help Program, certain navigation hotkeys were not working.
They have been fixed. Here are the hotkeys that have been restored to their
default functionality.  Page up and page down. Control + Page up and
Control+ Page down. Control+ up arrow, and Control + Down Arrow.
2. The problem of the large Transport sometimes opening by mistake has been
eliminated.
3. In the Input Quantize dialog, the save preset and delete preset buttons
are now spoken.
4. In the Key Bindings dialog, when you're arrowing through the list of
hotkeys, both the key and the function that is triggered by the key is
spoken. That function will also be spoken when using the find keystroke
dialog, accessed with ALT+L.
5. In the Event manager Dialog, accessed from the Event View by pressing the
letter V, there are 3 buttons that are similarly named All/None. Now, when
navigating to them, JAWS will tell you which group of checkboxes each button
controls. And when you press SPACE on the button, JAWS will tell you if
you've unchecked or checked that particular group of checkboxes.
6. The Insert Tracks dialog accessed via the Insert menu, allows you to
insert multiple Audio or Midi tracks. But the fields were confusing, because
JAWS was not reporting which fields were for audio tracks, and which fields
were for MIDI tracks. This is corrected.
7. In the Export Audio Dialog, the save preset and delete preset controls
have been labeled.
8. When navigating in dialogs, JAWS would sometimes speak a control twice.
This is fixed.
9. In the ACT Control Surface Dialog, 8 of the 16 button fields were not
accessible. They are now accessible.
10. When you're using a control surface to move the transport to different
positions, the MBT was being spoken incorrectly when the bar was less than
10. This is fixed


13. Non English Windows.
a. In Non English Windows when in a plug in's window, quite a few button
states were failing to read correctly. This is fixed.
b. For users of non English Windows, after installing CakeTalking 7, it's
necessary to reset your preference for non English Windows in the User
Preference dialog.

14. Remaining Issues.
JAWS 9 in the Event View sometimes does not report the columns correctly.
This can usually be fixed with a screen refresh.

End of What's New

Regards,
Bill 

Bill McCann 
Founder and President of Dancing Dots since 1992
www.DancingDots.com
Tel: [001] 610-783-6692

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