CAKEWALK KINETIC
Oct 1, 2004 12:00 PM, BY JASON BLUM
If you've ever dreamt of becoming a rock star but thought you'd never make it due to a lack of funds, time or talent, now is a good time to think again. The past few years have seen the release of a bevy of entry-level products that take advantage of today's fast CPUs, and they're aimed squarely at a burgeoning market of hopeful music makers. Programs like Sony Acid, Propellerhead Reason, Apple GarageBand and Image-Line Software Fruityloops are just a few of the music-making tools that promise maximum bang for minimum buck.
Not willing to sit on the sidelines while more and more computer users get the bug to knock out tracks, industry heavyweight Cakewalk has waded into the fray with a brand-new offering, Kinetic. Kinetic features groove-based sequencing and built-in virtual synths for a paltry $119, and it is so simple to use that even your tone-deaf grandmother can crank out block-rockin' beats without breaking a sweat. This simplicity comes at the expense of some of the deeper functions and sonic quality found in professional sequencing programs, but if you're looking for a groove-based sequencer that's fun and easy to use, Kinetic delivers the goods without breaking the bank.
MORE THAN THE SUM OF ITS PARTS
Kinetic's main goal is to provide a quick and easy way to make music with minimum fuss. To that end, the folks at Cakewalk have managed to pack nearly all of Kinetic's features into a single window containing everything you'll need to compose, arrange and mix everything from simple grooves all the way up to complete songs.
Kinetic uses three primary categories of musical elements — Parts, Grooves and Songs — and each has a corresponding window in the user interface. The Part Editor consumes the bulk of Kinetic's interface and provides a detailed view of the patterns and patches used in your music. The light-blue windows to the left offer easy access to Kinetic's vast library of patterns. Simply click on a pattern type, style and name, and the pattern is displayed in the window to the right, where you can use the piano-roll-style editor to modify it to your heart's content. You can then save these modified patterns in Kinetic's library for quick access later on as you're building tracks, creating, over time, a custom library that's tailored to your personal musical style.
Kinetic includes hundreds of preprogrammed MIDI patterns and a healthy library of audio drum loops that can be loaded into patterns and synchronized to the project tempo automatically, so it's simple to grab a pattern and go. Patterns can also be switched in midplayback, so you can scroll through the library as your music is playing and quickly audition new patterns in context.
GET YOUR GROOVE ON
Once you've built up a library of Parts you like, it's time to mix them all together in the Groove Mixer. The Groove Mixer is a simple virtual mixer with 16 stereo channels sporting mute, solo and pan controls. Also present is a digital display for tempo and swing readouts, and a song position counter lets you know exactly where you are in your grooves.
The Groove Mixer is a pretty basic tool until you take a close look at the calculator-style gizmo to the left. This is the Groove Picker, and it is one of the main things that makes working with Kinetic so much fun. Each of the 16 numbered buttons contains a snapshot of the Mixer and the loaded Parts, enabling you to easily switch among Grooves during playback. You can set the Picker to kick off new Grooves on a new measure, at the end of the current Groove or immediately; you can choose which suits your style best. Jamming with the Groove Picker is one the most entertaining elements in Kinetic and offers all sorts of creative potential for remixing your music on the fly.
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
You can have plenty of fun using Kinetic as a live-performance tool, but to create complete tracks, you'll need to use the Song Arranger. The Song Arranger differs from other sequencers in that it offers only a single track: You cannot use the Arranger to play back more than one Groove at a time. This is a bit restricting, but because each Groove can play back as many as 16 Parts, quite a bit of flexibility is still available. You can record Songs live, using the Picker in the Groove Mixer to record a live performance, or you can use the Paint tool to manually place Grooves at specific points in your Song. The Groove Mixer can also be automated from the Song Arranger, offering an additional level of control of elements like Part volume, pan, mute and so on.
Once you've arranged your Grooves into a complete track, you can export the finished product to WAV or MP3 by clicking on the Export Song button to the left of the Arranger window. It's as easy as that — you've just composed, arranged and mixed a track that's ready to rock the house! You can export both Grooves and Songs to WAV or MP3, but keep in mind that the MP3 encoder included with Kinetic is a 30-day trial version, so if you plan to export a lot of MP3s, count on investing an extra 20 bucks to license the encoder.
PLAY NICE
Kinetic is perfectly happy running on a PC without any sort of external control — you can accomplish everything from creating a simple Groove to developing a complete Song using nothing more than a keyboard and a mouse. This is a convenient feature, but the real fun begins when you plug in a MIDI controller and start working Kinetic like a real performance instrument. Controlling Kinetic's array of knobs and sliders with MIDI devices is easy. Just right-click on any item on the interface to bring up a MIDI assignment dialog in which you can map MIDI controllers to a number of destinations in Kinetic manually or automatically by clicking on a Learn button and moving the desired control on your MIDI device. You can also play Kinetic's built-in synthesizers simply by connecting an external MIDI keyboard.
If there's one thing that places Kinetic firmly in the prosumer category, it's ReWire compatibility. ReWire is a communications format that allows Kinetic to pipe its audio output into compatible applications such as Steinberg Cubase or Cakewalk's own Sonar. Many pro sequencers lack any sort of step-style drum-programming interface, and Kinetic can easily fill this gap when ReWired into those applications. Additionally, ReWire compatibility means that Kinetic works great as a live-performance tool when coupled with a program like Ableton Live.
SOUND QUALITY
The Kinetic package includes two built-in synthesizers: the Roland GrooveSynth and Cakewalk's own PSYN. There's a lot of talk on the back of the box about how great the Roland sounds are, but quite frankly, they just don't sound all that beefy or robust when stacked up against professional-grade VST plug-ins. I thought that the GrooveSynth was somewhat disappointing; patches like strings and pianos suffer from fairly obvious loop points that impart an undesirable pulsing sound to sustained notes, and the synth's overall sound was a bit thin. I was able to minimize this by slathering the patches with Kinetic's built-in effects, but with today's technology and the Roland name on the line, I expected more.
The real star in Kinetic's arsenal is the PSYN. This analog-modeling synth offers fat, chunky bass and clean, sharp leads. If I were Cakewalk, I'd be talking this baby up on the back of the box — it sounds full and rich compared to the Roland modules and comes with a wide assortment of patches, from Moog Minimoog — style basses to lush, warm pads. The PSYN picks up where the Roland sounds leave off and offers plenty of quality sound to round out your mix.
Kinetic does include a standard array of quality effects to add a bit of sparkle to the stock synth sounds. The eight effects are pulled from Cakewalk's Project5 software and include EQ, Delay, Reverb, Mod Filter and more. Kinetic can also use third-party DX plug-ins, and VST effects can be used if you invest in a third-party DX-to-VST wrapper. You can automate all of these effects using MIDI controllers and the Part Editor.
FEEL THE ENERGY
Kinetic is a fun product with a lot of potential for budding producers who'd like to try their hands at making tracks but don't have the urge to shell out hundreds or thousands of dollars on high-end gear (only to find it collecting dust after a few months). The program's feature set and low retail price speak volumes about Kinetic's target audience: beginners who are looking for a quick and inexpensive way to test the waters of their musical genius.
Music professionals may find a place in their kit for Kinetic as a scratch pad for quickly banging out ideas and toying with grooves, but heavy users will likely find Kinetic's limitations too confining for extended use. With only 16 mixer tracks, one MIDI input device and no facilities for using VST instruments, pro users would be best advised to look into less-restrictive programs like Reason or Project5. But if the well of your creativity is deeper than your pocketbook and you don't need the advanced features offered by more expensive professional programs, Kinetic is a great way to dive into the world of dance and hip-hop music production.
Product Summary
CAKEWALK
KINETIC > $119
Pros: Inexpensive. Fun and easy to use. ReWire support. Quality PSYN synth included. Flexible pattern editor. Quality audio loops included.
Cons: Lacks advanced features like busing and multitrack arrangement. No support for VST instruments. Limited to 16 tracks. MP3 encoder costs extra.
Contact: tel. (888) 225-3925; Web www.cakewalk.com
System Requirements
Intel-compatible/800; 256 MB RAM; Windows 2000/XP; Windows-compatible soundcard
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