Cakewalk Home Studio 8™ Now Shipping

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January 28, 1999 -- LOS ANGELES - Cakewalk, the leading provider of music and sound software, is now shipping Cakewalk Home Studio 8, a new version of the home recording software for the PC.

Key features new to Cakewalk Home Studio 8 are integrated digital video support, real-time MIDI plug-ins, graphically-based audio mixing, and numerous user interface enhancements that make this version of Cakewalk Home Studio the most user-friendly and intuitive version yet.

Create Soundtracks For Home Videos

New to Home Studio 8 is support for the most popular digital video formats: AVI, QuickTime, and MPEG. Now, users can open video files within Home Studio to modify existing soundtracks or create new ones. When finished, users can save the video and audio as a new AVI file.

"Home Studio users are now beginning to explore the world of desktop video production, much like they did with desktop music and sound recording," said Morten Saether, product manager, Cakewalk. "Home Studio 8 now allows them to bring those technologies together. It's great for enhancing digitized home movies and multimedia presentations."

Real-Time MIDI Plug-Ins

Home Studio 8 now features real-time MIDI FX plug-ins. This feature enables users to patch effects on MIDI tracks non-destructively in real-time, just like real-time audio effects.

The real-time MIDI FX plug-ins included in Home Studio 8 are Quantize, Delay/Echo, and MIDI Event Filter.

Vector-Based Audio Mixing, Other Enhancements

Home Studio 8 includes "vector-based" audio mixing, allowing users to graphically mix tracks by drawing volume and pan envelopes on top of audio waveforms.

Other enhancements include:

A new Patch Browser which allows users to search for and select MIDI patches by simply typing keywords;
Lasso zooming;
Loop and auto-punch markers;
An Event list display filter;
New inspector pop-up menus;
Adjustable meter scales in the Console view;
Metronome toolbar;
Double-click clips to open any editing view;
And a tempo list.

In addition, Home Studio 8 includes eight new on-screen tutorials that cover all the basics that users will need to get the most out of Cakewalk Home Studio.

Pricing and Availability

Cakewalk Home Studio has a manufacturer suggested retail price (MSRP) of $129 U.S. ($99 estimated street price) and will ship January 1999. Customers who purchased Home Studio 7 between January 1, 1999 and January 31, 1999, qualify for a free upgrade to Home Studio 8 and should call 888-CAKEWALK before March 31, 1999 for details. Other registered users can upgrade to the new version for as low as $49 U.S.

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