[ddots-l] Re: Dancing Dots Releases Latest and Greatest Accessible Audio Production Software for the Blind: CakeTalking for SONAR Version 8.5 [cross-posted]

  • From: "Phil Muir" <info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 1 Oct 2009 00:58:40 +0100

Ehh Bill, you forgot to mention the limited time offer in your post, smile.
from the page:

http://www.dancingdots.com/prodesc/CakeTalkingOrdering.htm

To upgrade from CakeTalking 8.0, your cost is $69 until November 5

Someone may want to let the good people know this on MIDIMag

Regards, Phil Muir
Accessibility Training
Telephone: US (615) 713-2021
UK+44-1747-821-794
Mobile: UK +44-7968-136-246
E-mail:
info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
URL:
www.accessibilitytraining.co.uk/ <http://www.accessibilitytraining.co.uk/>


-----Original Message-----
From: ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Dancing Dots
Sent: 30 September 2009 23:37
To: 'Dancing Dots'
Subject: [ddots-l] Dancing Dots Releases Latest and Greatest Accessible
Audio Production Software for the Blind: CakeTalking for SONAR Version
8.5 [cross-posted]


Dancing Dots proudly announces that CakeTalking for SONAR 8.5 is here,
bringing an amazingly high level of initial support for SONAR 8.5 which
cakewalk Music Software released only 2 weeks ago.  These scripts also offer
unmatched support for SONAR version 8.3.

CakeTalking's creator, David Pinto, has once again outdone himself with his
magical mix of scripting prowess supported by informative yet entertaining
tutorials.  Everyone from passionate hobbyist to seasoned professional will
find lots of reasons to get with this latest version of CT.

Read on for details on new and improved features as well as upgrade policy
and pricing.  This new version is ready for download right now.  Boxed
orders will be shipping by mid-October.  go to
http://www.dancingdots.com/prodesc/CakeTalkingOrdering.htm or call us at
610-783-6692 Option 1 for sales.  You will also find Upgrade pricing at the
end of this notice.

If you are familiar with SONAR and with CakeTalking, just skip this
paragraph.  But, for anyone reading this notice who has not heard: the
CakeTalking for SONAR scripts and tutorial package from Dancing Dots that
has empowered blind audio producers from all over the world to get the most
out of SONAR since the year 2000.  Cakewalk SONAR converts your PC into a
multi-track, digital audio recording studio! You can record synthetic
instrument sounds from your electronic, MIDI keyboard attached to your PC.
Set SONAR's track source to audio and blend in acoustic sounds using your
microphone connected to your sound card! Mix it all down to two-track stereo
in various popular audio formats such as mp3, .wav or Windows Media. Burn to
CD, E-mail to a friend or upload to your website.  But summing up SONAR and
CakeTalking as I just did is kind of like explaining to someone that a Rolls
Royce can be used to move you from one place to another.  There's so much
more to the story.

New Features

All of the following features are supported in both CakeTalking for SONAR
8.5 and in CakeTalking 8.3 for SONAR 8.3.  SONAR comes in 2 editions:
Producer and Studio edition.  Note that certain features are exclusively
available in SONAR Producer edition such as Session Drummer, Z3TA+
Waveshaping Synthesizer, TruePianos Amber VSTi, and the Roland V-Vocal
Processor.  See our site for a comparison chart of features that shows those
only available in the Producer edition of SONAR.  On the other hand,
CakeTalking itself comes in only one edition which is compatible with both
SONAR Studio and Producer.

If you currently have SONAR 8, you may want to download the SONAR 8.3 update
patch from cakewalk and use it with this new release of CakeTalking.  Or you
can upgrade to SONAR 8.5 and upgrade to CT 8.5 for the latest features.  Any
Customer who has any earlier version of SONAR can update to SONAR 8.5 and
use it with CT 8.5.

What's wonderful about this particular release of CakeTalking is that we
already have an extremely robust set of scripts working with the brand-new
version of SONAR released just 2 weeks ago.  Support is already so good that
we have decided not to ask our friends at cakewalk to supply the earlier
version of SONAR to CakeTalking customers during a transition to version 8.5
as we have done in the past when Cakewalk released a new version of SONAR.

Something else new: Dancing Dots is offering CT 8.5 customers the option to
download at no cost maintenance patches as they become available.  These
would be pre-release versions still undergoing beta testing so all the
customary caveats apply.

If you are currently running SONAR 8.0 and you would rather happily enjoy
the benefits of the past 8 months of development and testing with the 8.3
version of CakeTalking for SONAR 8.3, you can install that version and wait
for a more seasoned version of CT 8.5 to become available.  You will receive
the same no-cost CakeTalking upgrades when you are ready to move up to SONAR
8.5.

If you are already prepared to order this new version, go to
http://www.dancingdots.com/prodesc/CakeTalkingOrdering.htm or call us at
610-783-6692 Option 1 for sales.  You will also find Upgrade pricing at the
close of this announcement.

Now, about those new CakeTalking features:

CakeTalking HELP.
The 400 page CakeTalking Tutorial has been thoroughly updated and greatly
expanded. There are new lessons on setting up your workstation, working with
soft synths, and using the many new features of SONAR. There are also easy
to follow supporting documents that describe how to configure your computer
for optimum performance with JAWS, and how to download and install SONAR
updates.

V-Vocal
V-Vocal is now completely accessible. V-Vocal is an editor that is perfect
for correcting pitch and vibrato in vocal tracks, creating backup vocals
from a lead vocal track, and for shifting the rhythmic placement of words
and syllables within a melodic phrase. It also works just as well with any
monophonic instrument, like a sax or trumpet. V-Vocal can also change the
dynamics and formant of the audio. Formant is the overtone series of audio
that makes it possible to distinguish, for instance, a man singing a note,
and a woman singing the same note. So by adjusting the formant, you can
transpose audio while still retaining the sound signature of the vocalist.
This makes it possible to create harmonizing backup vocals from a lead vocal
track.

SOFT SYNTHS' AND AAA TEMPLATES.
CakeTalking now installs SONAR templates that are designed to get new users
up and going as quickly as possible. The 9 Soft Synth templates allow you to
use your MIDI keyboard to trigger Soft ware synthesizers that reside in your
computer, rather than external MIDI synthesizers. By using software
synthesizers, instead of external synthesizers, the process of configuring
SONAR is simplified. Instead of having to first tinker with external MIDI
keyboard synths and their connections, with these new templates, the user
can immediately begin recording MIDI tracks in SONAR.

Tracks that are devoted to soft synths are now fully supported and
recognized. And you can easily open a soft synth's window by pressing
CONTROL Y while on any column of a track that's assigned to a soft synth.

Loop Construction
CakeTalking now fully supports the Loop Construction View. In this view,
rhythmic audio clips can be converted to groove clips that contains tempo,
beat and pitch information. This allows SONAR to stretch the groove clip so
that it conforms to the tempo and key of any project you import the groove
clip into.

REORDERING MULTIPLE TRACKS.
Ever wanted to put your tracks in a different order. Well, you not only can
move one track at a time to a different position, you can also re order
multiple tracks in one fell swoop. Just type the new numerical order you
wish your tracks to be in, wait a second or 2, and you've got a totally new
track order.

Enhanced Clips Editing
CakeTalking now fully supports SONAR'S new set of features called Enhanced
Clip Editing.  Enhanced Clip Editing allows the user to use simple
keystrokes to manipulate audio clips quickly and efficiently. You can do 3
basic things with Enhanced Clips editing. You can select, fade, and crop any
audio clip.
Cropping, means to trim or expand a selected clip. Cropping is useful when
you want to eliminate some of the audio at the start or end of the clip, or
when you want to expand a clip and restore some of the audio that has been
previously truncated from the clip.  You can crop an audio clip
instantaneously with a simple hotkey, and then immediately audition the
results.
Fading means to gradually increase the start of a clips, or decrease the
volume of the end of a clip.

Nudge Mode.
SONAR'S Nudge mode is now fully supported. With simple hotkeys, you can now
nudge audio clips a little later or earlier in time, thus correcting timing
mistakes. You can also move clips from one track to another, thus making it
easy to assemble a composite track from several other tracks.

Accessible Audio EFFECTS

In addition to almost the entire suite of Sonitus and lexicon Effects, the
following new effects are fully supported.

Vintage Channel 64. VC64 is a multi-function audio processor that includes a
noise gate, de-esser, two compressors and two equalizers.  The noise gate
allows you to gate out noise, and tighten up percussive sounds. The de-esser
can remove prominent s's from vocals, tame over-prominent hi-hats in dance
music drum loops, as well as reduce the 'buzziness' of distorted signals
with lots of highs.

TL 64 Tube leveler. Digital audio recordings can sometimes sound sterile and
lifeless. The TL-64 Tube Leveler plug-in is a preamp/processor that uses
vacuum-tube modeling,  so you can add just the right amount of warm tube
saturation to individual tracks or full mixes.

LP 64 EQ. Cakewalk's 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. With LP 64 E Q  EQ 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. LP 64 EQ is well suited for critical mastering projects

Cakewalk's LP-64 Multiband Compressor. This is a transparent linear phase
multiband compressor plug-in for mixing and mastering purposes. The LP-64
provides five bands of smooth, highly accurate, linear-phase compression and
equalization of audio, with each of the four compressors operating on a
single adjustable frequency band.

TS 64 Transient Shaper. The TS 64 Transient Shaper plug-in provides powerful
control over the dynamics of audio tracks and mixes. TS 64 Transient Shaper
is primarily designed for drums and percussion, but can also be useful on
other percussive sounds, such as guitar and electric piano. Transient refers
to a sudden increase in sound output that occurs for a short period of time.
For example, the attack portion of a drum hit is a transient. Unlike a
typical compressor, TS 64 Transient Shaper lets you shape the audio signal's
attack phase independently of the decay/sustain phase.

Boost 11
The Boost 11 Peak Limiter is a transparent peak limiting and volume
maximizing plug-in for mixing and mastering purposes; it is designed to
reduce peak levels without coloring the sound.

Note that in effects and soft synth dialogs that require you to lock the
mouse on a control before you can change its value, CakeTalking will now
report the current setting of the control, as soon as you lock the mouse.
This is better than the way CT previously acted, where you had to change the
initial value before you could hear a value. So You could never could hear
the initial value.

All reported bugs in the previous version for SONAR 8 have been fixed.

New Features in CakeTalking 8.5 for SONAR 8.5.

In addition to all of the above, you will have access to the following new
features when you install CakeTalking to run with SONAR 8.5.  Remember,
certain CakeTalking features are still under construction.  You will be
eligible for maintenance releases as they become available.  Some new
features may not be documented thoroughly yet in the accompanying tutorial
documents although CT's online help has been enhanced to support you as you
learn.

Session Drummer 3
Session Drummer has been a mainstay in SONAR for easy and fast creation of
realistic sounding drum tracks. Now, Session Drummer 3 hits the stage with
an all new look, sporting a sleek photorealistic 3D drum kit, along with
routing improvements, plus 12 new kits and over 700 new patterns for
additional high quality drums sounds and grooves.

Arpeggiator
Each MIDI and Instrument track in SONAR now has a built-in Arpeggiator which
allows you to turn even the simplest chord progression into exciting new
sound textures. The SONAR Arpeggiator is a perfect tool for adding variety
to any Instrument or MIDI track that repeats a number of times in a song, or
for creating complimentary parts using other instrument sounds that follow
your chord progression. The SONAR Arpeggiator includes hundreds of presets,
patterns, and classic algorithms.

AudioSnap 2.0
The new AudioSnap palette allows you to fix timing problems in audio and
align audio with the project tempo. Compared to its previous incarnation, it
is simpler and more reliable.
MOVE to Next or Prior Transient. You can use the TAB and SHIFT+TAB keys to
jump to audio transients, and MIDI Note events. In SONAR 8.5, TAB to
transients is always available when the transport is idle, and is no longer
dependent on AudioSnap. TAB to transients is now selection-based, which
means tabbing will go to the next/previous transient amongst all selected
clips. If there is no selection, tabbing operates on the current track.

9 NEW EFFECTS Supported. Alias Factor , Classic Phaser,  HF Exciter, Mod
Filter, Multi-voice Chorus/Flanger, Para-Q, Stereo Compressor/Gate, Stereo
Delay, StudioBerb2

Step Sequencer 2.0
SONAR's Step Sequencer view is known for being the most advanced and
comprehensive available in any DAW today.  Step Sequencer 2.0 takes this
power to a new level with increased depth of control over your sequences.
Step Sequencer 2.0 was built with 3 goals in mind: to simplify the interface
for an elegant and musical workflow, to design a set of useful and powerful
per-lane controls, and to provide finer control over per-step adjustments.

N.B.  The new Matrix feature in SONAR 8.5 is not accessible.  We will
continue to consult with the developers of SONAR on ways they might be able
to make it a feature that JAWS can access.  In its present form, access is
not possible.

Upgrade Policy and Pricing for CakeTalking Customers

Anyone who has purchased a new unit of CakeTalking after June 30, 2009, will
receive a no-cost upgrade to CakeTalking 8.5.
Remember, along with your upgrade for CakeTalking, you can order your SONAR
upgrade from Dancing Dots.  It's the most affordable SONAR upgrade we can
remember.  The CakeTalking upgrades are also quite economically priced
especially considering the vastly improved access to existing and new
features like the V-Vocal pitch correction and so much more.  This new
release of CakeTalking will authorize you to run with SONAR 8.5 and with
SONAR 8.3 as well.

Through November 5, 2009, order your upgrade to CakeTalking 8.5 From CT 8.0.
After that date, the price of this upgrade will increase to $99.

$129    From CT 7

$149    From CT 6

$199    From CT 4 or 5

$229 from all earlier versions

Go to http://www.dancingdots.com/prodesc/CakeTalkingOrdering.htm to order
online or call us at 610-783-6692 Option 1 for Sales.

As always, Dancing Dots thanks you for your business and strong support.

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

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