Release date: Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Cakewalk® Releases Music Creator™5 Software for the PC

Boston, MA (April 21, 2009) — Cakewalk, the world's leading developer of powerful and easy to use products for music creation and recording, today announces the newest version of its leading home music-making software title, Music Creator.

Music Creator 5 is everything you need to get started making music — and making it quickly — offering a host of new features and a streamlined user interface. Simple recording, editing, mixing, great-sounding instruments, and tons of effects—it's all here in one package...all for less than the price of four CDs at your local retailer.

Music Creator 5 Highlights

• Brand new look and feel makes it easier than ever for anyone to create music
• More effects, instruments and tools — more value — than any other competitive music production package
• Up to 160 total tracks (32 audio and 128 MIDI)
• Professional 24-bit audio quality
• Create backing tracks using the included audio and MIDI loop library — add drums, bass and other instruments easily by clicking and dragging
• Play and record using hundreds of high-quality instrument sounds that are built right into your software studio
• Ten effects to get an "in the studio" sound, including the IK Multimedia™ Amplitude® Guitar Amp Simulator, EQ, Delay, Compressor, Reverb, and more
• Realistic-looking onscreen mixer to seamlessly mix all your audio and MIDI tracks
• Add more instruments and effects with support for VST, DirectX, and ReWire
• Create and print your own sheet music
• Create online music players with your songs to share on the Internet
• Create playlists and burn CDs for fans, family, and friends
• Add sound effects and theme music to your home movies and other digital video files — in formats including QuickTime, Windows Media, and MPEG — before you upload to YouTube, MySpace or Facebook

 New Features

• New, simplified user interface
• Integrated Loop Explorer — now with support for MIDI Loops
• Cakewalk Sound Center — an easy-to-use tool that combines the best sounds from our award-winning professional instruments — exclusive to Music Creator 5
• Active Controller Technology (ACT), to make it easy to control your effects, instruments, and mix from a MIDI keyboard
• Studio Instruments' Drums allows users to make backing tracks fast with a realistic animated interface that looks just like a drum set
• MIDI editing right in the Track View — no need to open separate views
• New Assistants help you create parts and create effects busses for mixing
• IK Multimedia's AmpliTube X-GEAR — a built-in virtual guitar amp, plug directly in to your computer for great sounding guitar parts
• Integrated EQ with an easy-to-understand visual display of settings
• Burn CDs with Music Creator's integrated CD Burner and share your music online with Cakewalk Publisher

Enhanced Interface
The redesigned user interface puts the controls you need at your fingertips. Get started right away and create tracks fast with the new Track Assistant. Plus, the simple new instrument track makes it a breeze to create music with and play virtual instruments.

Integrated Loop Explorer
With the Integrated Loop Explorer, you have one-click access to a wealth of included loops and patterns right in the track view. Select an audio or MIDI loop, instantly hear how it sounds with your project, and then drag-and-drop it into a track. Preview MIDI patterns for any virtual instrument. Plus, with ACID™-format loops and MIDI patterns included from X-Mix, Power FX, and more, you have a virtually endless library of great sounding backing tracks to build your songs.

Play and Create with Virtual Instruments

• Cakewalk Sound Center allows you to easily find the sounds you want. Quickly access 150 different instrument sounds: acoustic and electric guitars, basses, drums, pianos, synths, strings, ethnic sounds, and more. Sound Center is based upon Cakewalk's award-winning, professional Dimension Pro and Rapture synthesizers, but presented with a control set so simple anyone can use it.
• Cakewalk TTS-1 is like having a General MIDI sound module with genuine Roland sounds built into your computer. TTS-1 offers 16 channels and 256 sound programs that cover all the bases.
• Studio Instruments' Drums: load a kit and a pattern, then start jamming. Features a realistic interface that looks just like a real drum kit!

 Mixing

• New Mixer — Mixing your tracks has never been easier with our updated mixer that looks and acts just like a real mixing console. Control volume, pan, EQ and more for your mix with an easy interface that makes sense.
• Send Assistant — Add effects sends to your tracks with the click of a button. This is very helpful when you want multiple tracks to all use the same effect — perfect for backing vocals, drums, and layered guitar parts.
• Active Controller Technology (ACT) — Connect a MIDI keyboard to your PC and control your mix, effects, or virtual instruments with its knobs and sliders. ACT automatically configures the controls for whatever view you have open, all you have to focus on is making music.

Effects

• Integrated EQ — Independent EQ on every channel with visual display of settings for easy and intuitive control.
• Powerful Audio Effects — Includes a suite of studio-quality effects to sweeten your tracks and mix. These effects are pristine sounding, easy to use, expandable, and as powerful as more expensive packages.
• IK Multimedia™ AmpliTube®X-GEAR™ — Plug in your guitar or bass and this virtual amp will help you get that pro sound and feel your first time out!

Share your music

• Publisher — Create custom music players and playlists that you can share online.
• CD Burner — Burn your finished tracks and mixes to CD, or archive your projects.
• Notation — Create and edit sheet music. Includes guitar chords, lyrics and tablature. Perfect for making lead sheets for your band, students, choir and others.

Enhanced Help

• Online 'How To' videos — Basic videos help you get started; easy access from the Quick Start menu right within Music Creator.
• Documentation features new "Setup to Playback" introduction to Music Creator, along with three easy tutorials to help get new users making music quickly.

Localization
Music Creator ships with software in English, German, French, Spanish, and Italian, and online help in English, French, and German; in the US, Music Creator includes printed documentation in English, outside the US Music Creator includes printed documentation in English, German, French, Spanish, and Italian depending on the market.

US Pricing and Availability
Cakewalk Music Creator 5 has an estimated street price of $39.99 U.S. In the US, Music Creator 5 is available at select consumer electronics and computer retailers including Best Buy, Staples, Office Depot, Fry's Electronics, J&R Music & Computer World, Micro Center, and Amazon.com. Music Creator 5 is also available direct from Cakewalk.com as a download or boxed version. For more information, visit http://www.cakewalk.com/musiccreator or call 888-CAKEWALK (617-423-9004 outside the U.S.).

Pricing and Availability Outside the US
Music Creator 5 will be available through select consumer electronics retailers throughout the world beginning in April 2009. For more information on Music Creator 5, please visit http://www.cakewalk.com/musiccreator. Local prices may vary, please check with your local Roland or Edirol distributor, or Music Creator retailer for more details.

• Cakewalk (The Americas except Brazil and Canada)
• Edirol Europe (United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Austria)
• Roland Australia
• Roland Brazil
• Roland Canada
• Roland Central Europe (Belgium, France, Netherlands, and Luxembourg)
• Roland East Europe
• Roland Switzerland
• Roland Iberia (Portugal, Spain)
• Roland Scandinavia (Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Russia, and Iceland)

For a complete list of distributors worldwide visit: http://www.cakewalk.com/Dealers/International.asp

About Cakewalk, Inc.
Cakewalk, Inc. is the world's leading developer of powerful, yet easy to use products for music creation and recording:

• Award-winning Digital Audio Workstations and Sequencers
• Integrated Music Hardware and Software Solutions
• Powered Stereo Monitors
• High-quality Digital Audio and MIDI Interfaces
• MIDI Keyboard Controllers
• Innovative Virtual Instruments and Effects
• Entry-level Consumer Products

Millions of musicians around the world choose Cakewalk products to produce audio for the professional music, film, broadcast, and video game industries. These customers include Grammy® and Emmy®-winning producers, composers, sound designers and engineers. We invite you to learn more about our company and products by visiting www.cakewalk.com.

Cakewalk is a registered trademark and the Cakewalk logo and SONARare trademarks of Cakewalk, Inc. Other trademarks mentioned are held by their respective owners. All specifications and appearances are subject to change without notice.