Cakewalk announces SONAR V-Studio 700

Cakewalk, the world’s leading developer of powerful and easy to use products for music creation and recording, announces SONAR V-Studio 700, the ultimate solution for music production. SONAR V-Studio 700 represents the first and flagship product in the next generation V-Studio line of Cakewalk branded hardware and software solutions. With SONAR V-Studio 700 two great music technology leaders have combined the best of their hardware and software engineering to address the growing needs of modern music professionals.

Roland pioneered the concept of combining hard disk recording with an ergonomic control surface. Now, a new generation of V-Studio builds on its legacy in new and innovative ways—combining Roland’s renowned hardware expertise with the power and flexibility of Cakewalk’s SONAR Producer DAW. SONAR V-Studio 700 addresses the gap between under-powered “budget” solutions and over-priced competitive solutions by offering a compelling, feature-rich music production system that is accessible to a broad range of users. And beyond that, the forward thinking design of SONAR V-Studio 700 addresses the needs of post production professionals by incorporating video and image hardware control functionality.

SONAR V-Studio 700 includes:
* SONAR 8 Producer + the full version of Rapture
* The VS-700C V-Studio Console
* The VS-700R V-Studio I/O
* The Integrated Roland Fantom VS hardware synthesizer
* Direct control of EDIROL video hardware such as the DV-7 line of nonlinear video editors and other hardware with V-Link support

“The original Roland V-Studio and VS products were groundbreaking in that they provided powerful digital recording capabilities to musicians with an easy to use hardware interface,” said Hidekazu Tanaka, President of Roland Corporation “With the advent of PC-based recording, times and musician’s needs have changed, but a few things have stayed the same. Musicians still want something easy to use that offers superior sound. In working with Cakewalk on the next generation V-Studio we wanted to create a recording solution that kept those goals in mind while innovating in new and exciting ways. The integration of video hardware control is one of those ways, deep hardware-based control of PC-based editing is another. We are happy to announce that SONAR V-Studio has met and exceeded those goals. It is the perfect successor to the V-Studio legacy.”

“Over the years, there have been a handful of seminal products in the history of music technology. The original V-Studio was one of them. Each breakthrough product has given musicians control over more aspects of their creative process. First they were able to do their own recording. These days it is normal for musicians to do their own editing, mixing, and mastering. And now more musicians are producing their own video,” commented Greg Hendershott, Founder and CEO of Cakewalk, Inc. “When Roland and Cakewalk started the SONAR V-Studio 700 project, it was with the vision that, if we combined our strengths, we could introduce the next breakthrough product to the world. I believe that years from now, people will look back on SONAR V-Studio 700 as one of those milestones.”

– VS-700C V-Studio Console
The hardware centerpiece is the VS-700C V-Studio Console. Because the VS-700C was designed jointly by Cakewalk and Roland, it offers deeper integration into SONAR’s editing and mixing capabilities than any off the shelf control surface.

The VS-700C sets itself apart from other competitive hardware control surfaces with a dedicated implementation of ACT (Active Controller Technology). ACT dramatically changes the way users interface with SONAR by automatically remapping controls to whatever has the focus.

VS-700C Key Features:
* Nine 100mm touch sensitive, motorized faders arranged in a bank of eight channel strips with a master control section
* Users can tab between fader banks and also lock specific channels offering flexibility in your mixing control
* Access Panel section provides one-button functionality to call up different views and utilities, and allows for custom assignments from over 45 SONAR commands
* Dedicated section of 12 continuous push-button rotary encoders which can be used for EQ, Sends, or ACT control
o When controlling EQ, the knobs edit four stages of parametric EQ gain, frequency, and Q for whichever channel has the focus
o When configured for ACT, encoders automatically remap to control effect, instrument, or mix parameters of whatever view or plug-in has focus within SONAR
* Full featured Transport
* Jog and shuttle wheels and X/Y cursors for project navigation, scrubbing and zoom
* Full surround implementation with Joystick Panner, F/R Balance, LFE Send, and Width controls
* V-Link integration switches VS-700C from controlling SONAR to video and imaging hardware including the Edirol DV-7 line of direct linear video editing systems
* Multifunction T-bar for surround F/R balance, X-Ray, and video hardware control, and other parameters via ACT
* Convenient audio input at the front of the console with switchable Hi-Z setting for recording high impedance sources such as electric guitar
* A 2×13 LCD display that shows track names, parameter values, and markers
* 7 Segment LCD display for time code and now time position
* Responsive metering for each channel and the master section
* Monitor section provides control over the stereo mains, sub mix, and two sets of headphones

– VS-700R V-Studio I/O
The VS-700R V-Studio I/O audio interface was designed to provide the perfect complement to SONAR’s industry leading internal 64-bit audio quality, and to provide extensive I/O options to take advantage of SONAR’s flexible bussing capabilities and integration with external hardware.

Preamps and converters are the gateway to your system, and the VS-Studio 700 includes the very best mic preamps and convertor technology that Roland has to offer. The preamps are also digitally-controlled which lets you adjust preamp gain from the same control surface where you mix, and save gain settings as presets. Being able to recall individual settings for each mic can be a real time-saver during a session.

VS-700R Key Features
* Low-latency USB 2.0 24-bit, 192 kHz audio interface
* 20-inputs/26 outputs (18/24 simultaneous)
* Digital effects on input for compression, LF Cut, and Pad
* Eight analog inputs (XLR or 1/4″ balanced/unbalanced) with +48v phantom power
* Ten 1/4″ balanced/unbalanced outputs
* XLR main monitor outs
* 1/4″ balanced/unbalanced stereo sub outs
* Digital I/O (AES/EBU, S/PDIF, ADAT)
* MIDI I/O
* External sync through two digital options and Wordclock I/O
* Front panel metering to supplement the metering on the VS-700C

– Pricing and availability
The SONAR V-Studio 700 system ships with SONAR 8 Producer, Rapture software synthesizer, the VS-700C V-Studio Console, the VS-700R V-Studio I/O with onboard Fantom VS synth, cables, and user guide.

SONAR V-Studio 700 will be available February 2009 and will be able to be experienced at select music and sound retailers and purchased for around $4000. Cakewalk will be offering existing SONAR 8 Producer customers a $200 rebate on SONAR V-Studio 700.

Sonar V-Studio

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