Cakewalk Project5 Version 2

Cakewalk has released the next version of their much acclaimed softsynth package, Project5. Myself and dB Masters were also fortunate enough to be able to participate in its beta testing process, which was substantial, and interesting. As well, we had the chance to witness a major software package evolve throughout the test based on our suggestions and bug reports.

This new version brings with it all the usual suspects in terms of available softsynth, including an updated version of their very widely used PSYN softsynth. The user interface has also received a major overhaul which is quite impressive. The usability of this new interface greatly surpasses the previous version of Project5, and actually has a lot of the look and feel of its lower priced cousin, Kinetic.

Installation

I continue to be impressed that Cakewalk has never went the direction of many, involving complicated registration processes and security schemes. The installation is painless, as most any install is any more, entering your serial number along the way and you are up and running. The application doesn't "phone home" to authenticate, no dongles, none of that silly crap. I respect a company that has enough confidence in their products and their user base to keep it simple.

Cakewalk requires at least Windows 2000 with a 1.2 Ghz processor and 512 MB RAM for Project5, but recommends Windows XP with a 2.0+ Ghz processor with a gig of RAM. It will work with any DirectSound, WDM or ASIO sound device and requires 2.5 GB of hard disk space, but again, Cakewalk recommends much more, with 5 GB of hard disk space.

One thing worth noting, and something that seems to be increasingly common in large synth installs today, is that your computer requires a DVD drive, as the installation media is on DVD due to the incredibly large collection of samples that comes along with the package, including the new softsynth, Dimension, which as you will see later, is an outstanding softsynth, and comes packed with a huge supply of sounds.

The Interface

Immediately upon opening it, it reminded me of their lower priced softsynth sequencer, Kinetic. That is good, I like companies that keep consistent looking and acting interfaces between their applications. It makes moving from one to another much easier, and increases productivity when switching much higher.

The top of the screen, beneath the toolbar, is all track view, with a composite view of the entire project, which patterns are in which track and so on. Just to the left of this is the Track Inspector view. This displays the properties of whichever track is currently selected. It shows the ins and outs used, any effects that may be used, the instrument assigned to it, the aux busses and all other pertinent information. You can control just about everything for that track from here. You will also find a per track arpeggiator here as well, more on that in a bit.

Just beneath the track view is a multipurpose window that displays the editor as well as the loops/patterns tab. The editor works much like the piano roll for midi but will also works with audio editing. The 3 modes of the editor are, step mode which is basically like a hardware sequencer letting you create and edit midi on a grid. You can either draw the notes or step record the notes, but no real time recording. Free mode works like the regular piano roll which allows any note length. You can draw notes with the mouse as well as step record and real time recording of midi, and lastly Groove clip mode, my favorite addition. Double click a Groove clip (Acidized clip) in the arrange pane and the editor will become a full on Groove clip editor. This pane can also be floated for those with dual monitors or just dragging it off screen for more working area. There are many other tools to use in this view but I won’t get into them as it would be long winded. Let’s just say they have all you will need to do a complete project from start to finish.

What's new?

Well since were on the control subject and what’s in the main view I'll start here. One of my favorite new additions to P5 is the Groove Matrix. This section starts out hidden between the track pane and the arrange pane. Simply click the button to open it up and you will see a multitude of sections into which you can drop either a midi groove/loop or an audio loop or groove. These can be any length you wish really, but it works great for just dropping in chunks of loops or riffs. At the moment there are 61 panes per track, which should be more then enough when you multiply this by say 20 tracks. That’s 1220 different groove's you can drop in and trigger either by midi or simply by a mouse click. As well they can be automated to trigger anytime during the tune. I found this to be very useful when setting up for a live DJ set, which is what P5 is aimed at as well. And it works very well for a live situation without any hiccups for the most part. It also came in very handy when composing from scratch and needing a place to store alternate takes to a/b against other track's. For composing this Groove Matrix really helped my workflow go smoothly. There’s much more control over the groove matrix as well, including whether it plays together with the current track or mutes the track and plays on it own when activated. I could go on about what you can do with this section but it would be far to long winded for this review.

The Device browser now replaces the patch browser using what are now called device chains. You can still however browse by device/synth but if you are like me and usually start with some very common set-ups the device chains are great. Simply set up a track with the synth and FX you want, even add the arp and set up your i/o port and save that as a device chain. Now you simply call up that device chain from the browser and your all set. For me this works great as I have 100's of different set-up's I might use and I can call them up with one simple click instead of going through many mouse clicks. Again, this has really sped up work flow for me.

The loops/ptns (patterns) tab replaces the old patterns bin. Again this is a big help in the work flow of P5. This is part of the same view the Editor is in. Simply click the loops/pstrns tab and you can search you midi/audio loops and patterns in one of 3 different ways. Explore mode works basically like windows explorer, a simple folder hierarchy to search through. Browse mode is a bit more useful with more info to search by. The columns are divided by type which makes it much quicker to find what you’re looking for. The third mode is In Project mode. This simply displays the entire loops/patterns that are in use, or where in use in the project. You can create shortcuts which will then be added to the browser by a simple button click to all your other loops and patterns.

Well one of my favorite new additions is the Arpeggiator. As you probably know, this tool is a must have for those who wish to create intricate lines of notes that would otherwise be impossible to play, or could take hours to create in a sequencer if you have the patience. The arpeggiator can even send parameter automation like volume and pan as well as effects automation for its track. Unlike some software arpeggiators, this one doesn’t choke up when pushed hard and is very suitable for playing live, again a big plus in my book. A nice range of controls keep it interesting. Rate, Octave range (1 - 8), Latch, Swing, Velocity ( adds whatever velocity value you select to the played notes), Gate, Pitch offset, Flam amount, Hold chord mix ( which can be adjusted to allow the held chords note's to sound through the arpeggio), midi channel, and Shape (shapes the direction the notes will be played).

Automation editing in the track view. Now this is another highly improved system in P5. There doesn’t seem to be any ground they left uncovered here. You can automate everything except the kitchen sink from here, and it probably wont be long and you'll get that as well. It’s as simple as clicking on the automation tool icon and the automation track expands into view for all the tracks, including the busses and tempo track. You can open just the tracks by clicking the track automation icon in that track. Then you simply click on the drop down menu in the track and choose from the menu exactly what you want to automate. This includes the synths as well as the output controls, midiFX and any audio FX you set up for that track. All the controls that can be automated are there for you to choose from in one easy drop down menu.

Some major enhancements have been made in the editing sections as well. Transposing tracks is now much easier and affects both the patterns as well as live input which wasn’t available in the old SYN.OPS view. Merging both audio and midi can now be done on the same track but automation that is already there does not get affected by the merge. Splitting either audio or midi clips was something I missed in the original P5, it’s now done right in P5 2. You can also now Shift-Drag a pattern from one track to another and it will remain at its original time. You can also now Ctrl-Alt drag patterns and it will create an independent copy of the original pattern. This works in both the Arrange pane and the Groove Matrix. They also added the ability to slide notes and patterns as well as Velocity scaling which are both essential to tweaking a tune for those finishing touches. Unlinking patterns has now been added to make completely independent copies. Something else that is now a real bonus is showing the wave form or midi notes in the pattern. Tap tempo is a nice addition, and it can work via midi remote control as well.

Track layers is another excellent addition I have found very useful as well. You can now add separate clips of midi or audio into a completely separate layer which appears as another track lane. Each lane has its own mute, solo and arm button separate from the main track but all other control is done by the main track controls. Separate midi lanes however can have their own MFX and program or channel. All lanes or layers of the main track use the same output whether it is main out or an aux out.

P5 version 2 is now not only a Rewire client, it can act as a Rewire host as well. Meaning you can not only integrate P5 into a Rewire host such as Sonar or Cubase, but it can act as a Rewire host for programs such as DrumCore or any other program that can act as a Rewire client.

Some of the new audio features are well thought out as well as needed. Audio recording was a much needed feature to make P5 a high ranked competitor. Audio playback now has no size limit on the clips. Input monitoring has been added for those who like to hear their FX while recording or for playing live with them. Groove clip editing which I touched on before, makes work flow a breeze as you don’t have to leave the project for another app to work out a groove clip (Acidized clip). They can be exported as Acidized clips as well for future use. Per project audio folders is another well liked addition in my book which saves all the project audio to the same folder as the main part of the project.

If your like me and have started to replace some outboard synths with software synths then the Freeze function is something you will like as well in P5. This function basically renders the track and all its FX down temporarily to save on CPU load. An excellent feature for those running minimum system requirements. This can be used not only for software synth tracks, but audio tracks as well. It also give you an advantage of being able to quickly un-freeze the track to make some adjustments if needed and then return it to the freeze state after editing.

Instruments and FX have some new features as well as some of the old stuff with some improvements to them. for the FX side of things you have all the essentials, Chorus/Flanger, Classic Phaser, Compressor/Gate, Tempo Delay, a new HF exciter, the Modfilter (which I love for saving me time having to route out to my old filter bank), Para-Q, the Cakewalk workhorse Studioverb2, Spectral Transformer (for really wrenching out some odd sound's), the new Alias Factor for some really disgusting and pleasant sound mangling. Alias Factor is really just a sample rate converter gone berzerk, with a low pass filter added for some really way out sound twisting. And the Arpeggiator I mentioned earlier (its worth mentioning again I think).

The instruments are some old and some new or improved as well. The trusty DS864 sampler, a pretty basic tool with a few nice tweaking features for those who can’t leave their samples as are. nPulse Modular drum synth for those vintage electronic drum sounds. I've found this one pretty useful in many projects. Psyn II Virtual Analog synth. This ones been updated and worked over nicely. I liked it before but am growing even more fond of it now. Velocity drum sampler is a very stable companion for excellent for some very intense velocity layered drum samples. I've use it for other bits as well, but mainly as a drum or percussion sampler. Good old Cyclone DXi, a nice Acid compatible groove sampler player with some editing features. I use it for loop playback and as another sampler. But I have to admit I think it will go by the wayside for me with the addition of the Groove Matrix. The Roland Groove synth is an excellent addition here as well. A very nice set of General Midi 2 compatible sounds as well as some other great stuff. A nice quick tool when working out some things you just don’t know were to go with. 9 drum sets make this a great starting point as well.

And the best for last! The new Dimension Sampling synth is in my humble opinion worth the price of the entire software package all on its own. RGC Audio has really outdone themselves this time with this synth. I've come to expect stable performance and excellent sounds for them and this synth does not disappoint. Using samples as its basis of sound generation this is the build of the P5 install. I suggest taking your time when installing and using a separate HD for installing the large sample library. I believe there are expansion packs coming as well to add even more to this awesome instrument. You can create your own samples as well using standard PCM wave files. Aside from the sample playback dimension can also do Wavetable synthesis as well as Physical Modeling (Waveguide) synthesis. This allows dimension to emulate with great detail some very intricate instruments, including some absolutely stunning acoustic instruments. The piano's and guitars are stunning. Dimension runs on 4 individual sound generation components called Elements. Each element has its own player, a per voice DSP stage, lo-fi filter and drive, a global DSP stage and a full set of modulators. These 4 Elements can be used one at a time for evolving soundscapes, or all together for some very complex sounds. I haven’t even scratched the surface of this instrument yet, but it has become in my studio the go to synth for almost all my projects using synth tracks. It is a very deep instrument, but it is also very user friendly and the sound set it ships with is astounding just as they are. RGC has put a lot of work into this piece of software and I for one look forward to a very long relationship with it. I could write an entire article devoted to this wonderful synth, but space here prevents that. and besides this is about P5 anyway, but Dimension is one huge piece of P5 in my eye's.

Well, I will make a few last observations and leave it for now. Besides, all this writing about P5 has got me wanting to get back to making music with it.

In the end the new P5 2 is going to take Cakewalk, and its users, to a new level. I wondered how it might compete on the live scene against the likes of Ableton Live, I have to admit I think they have stepped past Ableton with this app. Not only is it a marvelous synth workstation, but having gone the extra step and set up P5 for a live DJ set I can honestly say this is the bomb. They were really aiming to have a gapless audio engine and they have accomplished that feat. Running this thing hard I really couldn’t get it to skip a beat in live situation. I think it will become a very useful tool for those wanting to add that something extra to a live show using a computer and a couple midi controllers. Simply load up the Groove Matrix and set up some good Device chains and head out to play it live. Or simply sit back in the studio and have at it. Either way P5 is as a complete a synth workstation as you are going to find.

Pros: Excellent set of synths and FX with all the tools you will need to make the best use of the software world.

Cons: I only found one instance of any gapping, and it was honestly an easy work around. When moving the loop point on the time line I could get a very minute gap, but I simply set myself up with a nice break in the Groove Matrix and while adjusting the loop point simply move the loop point and drop it on a beat, the gap is so small and unnoticeable it will never be heard by anyone.