Cakewalk was real happy to participate in One Stop Shop last weekend in Pheonix, AZ
Sha Money & Cakewalk’s Carl Jacobson
One Stop Shop is an event that was put together by Sha Money. Sha Money is the founder and President of G-Unit, he also produced and managed 50-cent for his breakout album among many other things.
Over the years he’s done a number of high profile work, and he’s considered one of the most respected men in hip hop. One Stop Shop is an event that he puts on to help educate aspiring producers about their craft and the music business. Sha views it as his way to give back to the music community and to help shape its future in a positive way. We at Cakewalk, support thaat mission and were very honored to be invited to the show.
What really impressed me about the event, was the attendees. Every single one was serious about music production, focused on what they were trying to do, and they were there to learn.
A 24k Gold Plated Neko Running SONAR LE...your cost $24,000
We had a demonstration area in the Microsoft room, which also featured Open Labs (who debuted a 24 karat gold neko), a filming area for Crossfader.com, a zune demonstration area, and an x-box set up where people could chill and play Rock Band and other games. Our demo area featured two, PC Audio Labs based stations. One featured speakers to give more formal walkthroughs of SONAR, and another station with headphones to allow attendees to play with our instruments.
The PC Audio Labs machines really rocked the whole show. We love using them because they really know what they’re doing and we can always count on their machines to run flawlessly at tradeshows, plus we know that if someone buys one based on seeing it at one of our events, we can feel safe that the customer will get great customer service.
The Technology Panel
Cakewalk’s Carl Jacobson (that’s me writing the blog) participated in the Technology Panel, which was hosted by Arif Gursel from Microsoft. Other people on the panel included Chamillionaire, Johnny Juice from Public Enemy, Punch, Broadway, DJ Hapa from KTLA & The Scratch Academy, Victor from Open Labs, Gregory from PC Audio Labs, and an individual from AllHipHop.com. When Johnny Juice announced who he was, and that he was a member of the original Bomb Squad, he received a standing ovation from a number of people in the audience.
The dialog in the panel was truly helpful, and many people told us that it was the best panel of the event. Multiple people commented that they usually hear such a bad rap about technology and how it affects the music industry, but for the first time they experienced a talk that was technology positive in regards to the future of music, and the panel opened their eyes to what was possible for them today. There will hopefully be a video of the Panel online soon.
With Lyric from The Bad Girl’s Club
Microsoft also hosted a VIP Reception each night, where most of the panelists hung out between dinner and the afterparty each day.
Sha Money is a man with tremendous respect and credibility in the Hip Hop community, and he made a point to personally bring by every major artist that he brought in for the panels. As he introduced these individuals to me, he talked about what groundbreaking things we were doing with SONAR, the instruments, and especially the Proteus packs. What a class act.
Cakewalk’s Zac Kenney & Carl Jacobson Flank Toomp and a friend
DJ Toomp mentioned that he is producing tracks for Mariah Carey’s next album. His first break was "Just don’t Give a F**K" for Eminem. He then went on to produce XZibit, and then worked with Dre on 2001 and is now working with Dre on his next album.
With Punch & Johnny Juice
Punch recently did Tony Yayo’s big album "So Seductive". He was on the Technology Panel with Juice and I, and we were really impressed with the high level of advice he was giving. I didn’t know too much about him before the show, but it’s no wonder he’s got a lot of advice to give, he’s had a pretty amazing career. Check out this profile on Punch that I found online.
While we were out there, Greg Butler filmed an interview with me for PC Audio Lab’s website. The topics covered were the history of Cakewalk, the nature of the Roland/Cakewalk relationship, customer service, support, creativity, x64 vs 64-bit, multicore computing, the benefits of Vista, etc. I think it went really well. Hopefully this will be online soon.
Anyway, the show went really well, and we were proud to be part of the experience.