CAKEWALK Dimension Pro Virtual Synthesizer Win/Mac

List Price: $250.00 Discount Price: $249.00

Features:

• Synthesizer software combines real instruments with advanced synthesis
• Immense 2 DVD sound library makes it the ideal go-to instrument for musicians
• Deep editing and sound generation capabilities appeal to sound designers
• Wide tonal range; over 1,500 production-ready presets; electronica collection
• Samples of major instruments in a symphony orchestra included

Customer Reviews:

Great Presets [Posted on 2007-03-11]
I bought this along with Sonar PE and love it. The piano sounds are amazing. You seriously can't tell they're not real when played back. The other sound are cool also, except - guitars. But when are guitars ever good on a synth?

Great buy.

Dimension, Pro for "Still in Progress" [Posted on 2007-04-02]
CakeWalk/Sonar is my all time favorite software. As a software engineer I have admired this company for so long. In any other program I can probably find a bug within the first half hour of using it. Cakewalk, on the contrary can be used right out of he box, release after release. It is exceptionally tested and debugged before it reaches de user. Dimension Pro, however is not in the same boat, yet. It needs to mature out of some irritating features. For example: a series of notes for the String patch plays like a nice Glissando in all my synths. In Dimension, it sounds like a stair case with sharp attacks. The Ahh patch individually sounds nice and actually human, in the whole sequence, though, it sounds out of pitch. Also, when a Patch is loaded, Cakewalk does not capture the patch information in the assigned track. But the most irritating omission is the lack of examples or exercises in the user's guide, a multilingual manual with about 100 pages per language. Not enough space to scratch the surface. For the time being, I find that the TTS-1 synth that comes with Sonar Producer 6.00 is a more robust product. But If I had the opportunity to return it, probably I would not, just because knowing Cakewalk, I am confident that eventually they will refine it to the level of the superb SONAR.

My Favorite Synth in Home Studio [Posted on 2007-12-06]
I started with Dimension LE bundled with Cakewalk Home Studio 6 XL, but upgraded to Pro when they ran an upgrade deal. The more I use Dimension, the more I like it... it's now the primary synth in my virtual rack. Free upgrade sound packs and a software update are available on the Cakewalk web site, be sure to download. The grand piano is particularly striking, as are all the string patches in the Garritan Pocket Orchestra; very realistic sounding.

The manual is pretty weak in terms of describing how to create new sounds beyond the presets (there are whole books available on that topic), however the synth is capable of quite an array of sounds and includes a large number of built-in effects that can be chained together. The envelope generation editors allow envelopes to be applied to just about every facet of the sound module; thus using the included analog waveform samples (saw, square, etc.) you can actually make some pretty interesting analog synth-style sounds; check out some of the presets to see how this is done.

So right in the box you get a very nice sampler synth, that also can be programmed like an analog synth using raw waveform samples and the effects/oscillators, capable of stacking up to four samples at once each with separate envelopes and useful effects, that is even capable of firing MIDI sequences/loops as well, with MIDI controller/note mapping any of the settings in the patch... this is pretty much a "work horse" synth.

As a result I find I reach for Dimension as my first choice when adding a virutal synth. It's simply a great, versatile, all-round synth with a huge library of presets (counting the free downloads something like 8 _Gig_ of samples!) and an amazing amount of control to find that perfect sound. The user interface is indeed a bit daunting, so I would probably recommend getting one of the books available on Amazon if you want to dig deeper than the presets (of which counting the free addons must be around 2000 or so presets).

It may not be the perfect sampler synth, or the perfect analog-sound synth, or the perfect loop player... but it does a very decent job of all three of those with a high degree of controllability for the musician, so it's quite a nice "1-stop shop" once you get to know it.

comprehensive, well worth it [Posted on 2008-02-13]
i run this plug in off of sony acid 6 pro, it doesent appear to be a stand alone program so its going to relay on other program. but the program plug in is very nice. there an engine where you can plug in a sound and it maps it to the keyboard controler. with the large library of sounds plus the engine make it unlimited expandability and functionaly. its not overly fancy but it get the dirty work done.

its not perfect but for what it cost and what its does, its a plus. the interfece on the on screen plug in are a little bit covoluted but i suppose over time i'll figure out all the small things.

Good sounds, bad installer [Posted on 2008-09-22]
Here's the bad news first, because this is the first thing you'll notice: The Mac installer does not work. You'll need to download a replacement installer from Cakewalk. Next bad news: The upgraded installer was not compatible with my installation DVDs because a filename had changed. I had to create a symlink as a workaround. All together I spent over two days trying to figure out how to get the online updates working. I'm still not sure that all of the instruments are working. Cakewalk's support wasn't helpful. I came extremely close to returning this as defective.

Days pass before I touch Dimension Pro again. The sound samples are very good. The whole spectrum is covered: classical, pop, rock, metal, silly, and strange. Most instruments are built from real samples processed with modulation, distortion, effects, EQ, and reverb. Virtually any instrument or sound can be built in the same manner. Customizing instrument sounds starts out overwhelming then eases into a fun addiction.

The user interface is very simple but not entirely intuitive. Every word of the brief manual must be read for it to make sense. Even so, some instruments use features never described in the paper manual. Drums are sorely lacking a customized interface. Custom drum kits can be created by editing SFZ control files but for now I'll use Logic's kits.

Dimension Pro is an excellent upgrade to round out the limited instruments bundled with Garage Band or Logic Express. Integration is seamless, if you can get it installed in the first place.

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