Customer Reviews

Cakewalk Synthesizers: From Presets to Power User

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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Let me amend that; if you make music with a DAW Buy "cakewalk synthesizers" now!

First off, I am a guitar player NOT a keyboard player. Oh my father tried to have me trained to play the piano, and I can still play blues solos in the key of C, but I never mastered the keyboard. I own several hardware synths but I have never been able to tweak the presets to create new or more appropriate sounds. Now I can! In "cakewalk synthesizers" Simon Cann walks you through the synthesis process, and has you creating and tweaking sounds right from the get go. The principles and techniques apply to any synth; hardware or software. Each of the synthesizers bundled with Sonar and Project 5 and CakeWalk's new stand-alone synths; Z3TA+, Dimension Pro, Rapture, are covered in great detail. The book alone is well worth the price of admission, but when coupled the downloadable chapters and content, buying this book is a no-brainer. If you make music in the digital world, you need this book! Every guitar player knows that his tone is his signature. Virtual instruments are here to stay and everyone producing music today needs to know how to take control of the tools of the trade. Why sound like everyone else when you can be creating your own signature sounds immediately.

Thanks Simon!

I have needed this book for years. Step by step, thorough instructions that have helped me to really explore the deep possibilities in Cakewalk synths. The accompanying downloads make the value of this book increase exponentially. The section on Z3TA+ is worth the price of admission and then some. Thanks!

This book has a lot of useful information that is very hard to find elsewhere, from the basics of synthesis to descriptions of all the Cakewalk synthesizers. I especially liked the web material that accompanies the book - the extra chapters and pointers to download free tools like Triangle 2 (which I used to learn the basics). I am mostly a beginner at using Sonar and this book was a significant help. My only criticism is that the book is already out of date - e.g. the chapter on Session Drummer 2 says "at the time of this writing, it was so new that only a release candidate version was available" - but Session Drummer 2 has been available for a while (in both Sonar 7 and 6). Also some of the user interfaces to the programs have changed since the book was published.

Learning Sonar is tough (hey, Cakewalk - please have non-engineers review your tutorial material!) - this book is helping.

The book contains a great introduction to "virtual analog" synths which applies regardless of whether its a Cakewalk product or not. Each chapter dives into the depths of a specific Cakewalk synth, many of which are bundled with various Cakewalk products, so this book is like an addendum to the owner's manual. I don't consider myself a synth "tweakhead" so I found this book EXACTLY what I needed! For musicians who like to tweak their synths instead of simply playing the Presets, this is the book that explains what you're doing when you adjust those knobs, dials and sliders. Very nice!

All you need is a host program (Cakewalk's Sonar, Home Studio or Project5 will be fine) and you've already got some of these synths in your software arsenal. You can download some of these synths for free from Cakewalk! I recommend purchasing Dimension Pro. I've been playing around with Z3TA+ and am eyeballing Rapture as well. These are serious studio quality synths, each with a TON of power. This book details how to harness that power and put it to work in your music.

Cakewalk is one of the leading companies in the music technology market. But up until now there has not been a single integrated book that covers all of the Cakewalk synthesizers. At last there is. And an excellent book it is. It is suitable for the beginner who wants to understand what a synthesizer is and how it can be used to the experienced user who wants to understand his or her synthesizer in greater depth. The book goes as far as you are likely to want to go.

This book has been written with the understanding that most people will not have access to all of the synthesizers in the book. So the book begins with a general introduction to the field in general, which is followed by a full page chart showing a list of the various Cakewalk synthesizers and by their feature set tells you what chapters you should be reading.

Conversely, this approach allow allows you to identify which features are important to you and identifies which synthesizers you can use.

A lot of synth/DAW books are published, and 90% of them are just rehashes of the manual published as quickly as possible. The exceptions are few (Kurt Kurasaki's Power Tools for Reason 3.0 jumps to mind) and this superb one.
Simon Cann goes into meticulous detail about many of the synths included with various versions of Sonar, Cakewalk Home Studio and Project5. The book is slightly dated being published in 2006, but if you use Rapture, Dimension, or especially sfz or the sfz format you need to invest in this book before you buy any other. (I have to confess I'm such a nerd that I covered it with clear contact plastic to keep it from wearing out, and keep it next to my bed.)

This book is a rare gem on a topic near and dear to my heart (Since first laying my eyes on an Arp Odyssey), but often not expounded upon with enough detail. Simon Cann, however, has provided a very deep source book for Cakewalk users in general, as well as a detailed guide for comprehending wavetable and sampling synthesis.
I am still slogging through the almost infinite presets which come with Dimension Pro and Rapture, as well as drilling down into creating my own sounds. I highly recommend this book to anyone with the desire to get down and spend some serious time creating their own sounds with the VSTs and AUs of today! If the competition (NI - Arturia -IK) would only provide similar guides, the sonic world could be a greater and more creative place. These plug-ins have become complicated enough to warrant such manuals and I salute Mr. Cann for his efforts!

Great book. Although, could not down load the down loadable chapters. A must for, "Cakewalk Synths Users". Goes into good details about sound designing.