Cakewalk's Custom Software To Support Roland USB Digital Studio

February 11, 2000 -- Cakewalk announced an agreement with Roland ED Corporation to include a special edition of Cakewalk Home Studio 9 multitrack digital audio and MIDI software with the Roland ED USB Digital Studio U-8.

The Roland U-8 is a new audio and MIDI interface that also provides the user with an eight-track digital recording/mixing control surface and built-in audio DSP effects. The U-8 control surface also allows the user to navigate and select all of Home Studio 9's menu commands without ever touching the PC mouse.

The All-in-one studio hardware simplifies installation by connecting to a computer through its USB port.

"Roland is very pleased to be bundling a special edition of Cakewalk Home Studio 9 with the U-8 in North America," said Naohisa Imazawa, producer, DTM Project Division, Roland Corp. The full integration between Cakewalk's software and Rolandís hardware represents the next revolution in computer-based recording, editing and mixing.

The U-8 premium package also includes powerful GM2/GS MIDI software synthesizer, so everything you need is in one U-8 box. "Home Studio 9 software already provides integrated digital audio and MIDI recording, so combining it with the Roland U-8 is the perfect solution," added Ron Kuper, chief technology officer, Cakewalk. "We've enhanced Home Studio 9 to work seamlessly with the Roland U-8. Combined, the user gets multitrack recording and mixing software, an integrated audio and MIDI interface, DSP-based effects processing, and a powerful hardware control surface all in one package."

Home Studio 9 provides eight tracks of stereo or mono digital audio and up to 256 MIDI tracks. Other features include WavePipe technology for low-latency audio mixing and playback; real-time audio and MIDI effects processing; support for DirectX audio plug-ins; non-linear multitrack editing; audio waveform editing with volume and pan automation; graphical MIDI note editing; integrated notation printing; and a trial-version of the patented Fraunhofer MP3 encoder for delivering music and sound on the Internet. Users of the U-8 edition of Home Studio 9 can also upgrade to Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 software at any time, directly through Cakewalk.

Studio Automation with StudioWare Technology

This special edition of Home Studio 9 "talks" directly to the U-8 control surface using Cakewalk StudioWare technology, which emulates and translates the hardware controls and commands into the equivalent Home Studio software operations. This level of software and hardware integration allows the user to control nearly all of Home Studio 9's functions entirely from the U-8 surface, including transport controls, track arming, jog/shuttle wheel positioning, fader levels, as well as the ability to navigate and select commands from any of Home Studio 9's pull-down menus -- without ever touching the computer mouse.

The U-8 hardware features eight faders that can be used to control recording and mixing operations in Home Studio with tactile precision. It also features 135 on-board DSP multi-effects presets that can be used in real-time on input, while recording. The U-8/Home Studio 9 bundle is designed to get users up and running quickly with minimal learning curve. By simply pressing one of the EZ buttons on the U-8, users access step-by-step, on-screen wizards from within Home Studio 9 that guide the user smoothly through setup, studio configuration, recording, and mixing. Other U-8 hardware features include: 44.1 kHz/16-bit digital audio sample rate, Unbalanced MIC In; 1/4 inch Phone In; 1/4 inch Guitar In; RCA Phono Audio In/Out; and Optical S/P DIF Digital In/Out.

Pricing and Availability The special edition of Cakewalk Home Studio 9 with the Roland U-8 is scheduled to ship in March 2000. The Home Studio 9/U-8 bundle is distributed in North America by Edirol Corporation. Dealers can order The Home Studio 9/U-8 system through ThinKware, San Francisco.

For more information, visit Cakewalk's web site at www.cakewalk.com.