Cakewalk to Distribute GooverMaker Products in North America

July 23, 1999 -- Cakewalk, the leading provider of music and sound software, has signed a licensing agreement with Italy's IK Multimedia Production to exclusively distribute GrooveMaker and GrooveMaker MAX in North America. GrooveMaker, the loop-based mixing software for creating electronic dance music, is the world's only real-time, random, remixable groove generator. GrooveMaker runs on both Mac and Windows PCs, and can be used as a standalone application or with other Cakewalk software products. The MAX edition includes two additional loop library CD-ROMs for use with GrooveMaker.

"GrooveMaker is a dynamic addition to Cakewalk's set of media creation tools," said Erik Tarkiainen, director of product management, Cakewalk. "Now users have an easy way to create different styles of loop-based electronic music instantly. And GrooveMaker's futuristic interface moves past the limitations of other DJ-mixing software products that use turntable-based interfaces. The look and feel of GrooveMaker is as intriguing as the music it creates."

The GrooveMaker software and accompanying loop library CD-ROM allow any user - with or without musical capability - to create professional electronic music tracks. While other DJ software products exist, GrooveMaker is differentiated in three ways:

A real-time, random remix engine;
A large collection of unique, professional sample loops;
And its techno-influenced user interface.

"GrooveMaker is for anyone who enjoys electronic dance music, and wants the experience of being the DJ at a rave," said Enrico Iori, director of development, IK Multimedia. "The DJ culture has had a huge impact on popular music in Europe and more recently in the U.S.," continued Iori. "With Cakewalk supporting our GrooveMaker product, we will effectively fulfill the growing demand in North America for this innovative DJ mixing software."

Key features of GrooveMaker include:

Real-time mixing allows musical samples to be loaded and mixed "on the spot" without interrupting the groove that is being played;
Users can create electronic music in a range of styles, including Techno, Trance, Dub, Jungle, House, Drum 'n' Bass, and Progressive;
A wide variety of instrument samples provides unlimited variations and styles. Samples include bass, drums, percussion, synthesizers, pads, vocals, and effects. GrooveMaker MAX includes two additional CD loop libraries;
Audio export options allow GrooveMaker projects to be imported into other software products such as Cakewalk Pro Audio™, Home Studio™, and Metro™;
Wave and AIFF file import allows custom sound samples to be added into the GrooveMaker mixing environment;
Virtual Synth Arpeggiator allows users to play live along with any remix. Plus it provides 99 synth sounds, more than 30 presets, and a "smart-notes" feature ensuring users always play in key with the current mix;
V-Mix "Virtual DJ" automatically generates hours of random remixes without repeating the same groove twice. No other DJ mixing software offers this real-time, random mixing capability;
GrooveSequencer module lets users arrange custom grooves into a full-length remix, which can be saved as a final stereo wave file or as eight individual stereo tracks for subsequent mixing;
Mac and PC versions are provided on a single, dual-platform CD-ROM.

Pricing and Availability

Cakewalk GrooveMaker has a manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) of $59 U.S. Cakewalk GrooveMaker MAX has a MSRP of $99 U.S. Both products will ship July 30, 1999.

For more information, visit Cakewalk's web site at www.cakewalk.com. To learn more about GrooveMaker, visit www.groovemaker.com.