Review: Cakewalk Dimension Pro
Pages: 1, 2

Creating Your Own Sounds

If all Dimension Pro did was play samples and grooves it would be an impressive sample player. However, it also includes synthesis capabilities with filters, envelope generators, low-frequency oscillators (LFOs), effects, and two unique features called the MIDI Matrix and Vector Mixing.

By diving into the various parameters you can gain expressive control of the sound or alter its entire shape. Within each Element, you can select the waveform or sample sound and modify it with a variety of filters. You can also add effects such as delay, distortion, chorus, auto pan, and many others. There are also two global effects that you can apply to all Elements to unify the sound. They include a modulation effect such as chorus, phaser, or "Symphonic" and a hall or room reverb.

Also notice the large Envelope Generator (EG) window near the bottom of the display. Its deceptively simple layout belies the power beneath—you can use 20 EGs at once (up to five in each Element), each with an arbitrary number of segments. Buttons let you route the EGs to control pitch, filter cutoff, resonance, pan, and amplitude.

Fig. 2: The MIDI Matrix opens the door to expressive performance control by routing MIDI Control Change data to just about any parameter.

Expressive Control

The MIDI Matrix (Figure 2) allows you to route any MIDI Control Change to just about any Dimension Pro parameter. For example, several of the sax programs are set up so that aftertouch (keyboard pressure) controls vibrato, whereas I prefer to use the mod wheel. To change that, I simply clicked on the MIDI Matrix icon and changed the MIDI source to CC1. That simple change made the programs much more musically expressive for my purposes.

The Vector Mixer is another powerful performance controller. It's reminiscent of the classic Sequential Circuits Prophet VS and Korg Wavestation synthesizers. Each quadrant represents a different Element and you can mix between these by simply dragging the cross hairs with your mouse. That can be particularly effective with a program such as Dimension's "Frightening Place 1" where moving between quadrants 2 and 3 takes you from tranquility to a scary place—perfect for controlling the mood of a film score.

• Frightening Place (476KB MP3)

Figure 3: The Vector Mixer allows you to mix the sound of the four Elements in real time by click-dragging the cross-hairs with your mouse.

The Competition

Many musicians feel that certain synthesizers have a definable sound. Dimension Pro is more of a chameleon due to its large library of sampled sounds. There are few similarly priced sample libraries or virtual instruments with high quality sounds and as diverse a selection as Dimension Pro offers. (One competitor that offers a similarly wide selection of sounds costs close to $1,000.) In this sense Dimension Pro truly does blow away the competition.

How Does It Really Sound?

Dimension Pro's library includes the entire Garritan Pocket Orchestra, a subset of the acclaimed Garritan Personal Orchestra. (See "Gary Garritan: A Personal Orchestra for Everyone.") You'll find a nicely organized selection of standard instruments such as guitars, basses, drums, pianos, organs, and synths so you'll quickly be able to find what you want. On the other hand, with 1,500 sounds it will take you a long time to go through them all, let alone explore even a fraction of the permutations and combinations.

Standout sounds for me were the "Dimension" sounds and pads, which make great use of the layering architecture by combining disparate Elements. There are three pages of Dimension sounds to choose from, but just playing around with a few will surely inspire your musical imagination.

There are a few areas, such as Brass Sections, where I would have liked to have additional sounds. Surprisingly, there are no brass sections in the Garritan Pocket Orchestra either—not even French Horn or Trombone Ensembles—although conceivably you could build your own out of individual instruments. That omission may be intentional, because Garritan strongly recommends building section sounds by overdubbing individual instrumental performances rather than playing all notes at once on a keyboard, which can produce the dreaded "organ effect." When you play sections one instrument at a time, ensembles will sound more realistic due to the slight variations in playing. Still, pre-made ensembles would be handy for roughing out ideas.

Woodwinds provide both individual and section sounds. There is an English horn in the Ensembles but I also wish there were a English Horn. The beautiful solo clarinet and oboe easily make up for this minor omission, however. Strings are extensively covered in both the Strings category and also within the Garritan Pocket Orchestra, and certainly the selection of orchestral instruments is large enough that you could build some nice orchestrations with just Dimension Pro.

With Dimension Pro's large selection of conventional instruments, synths, Grooves, and the orchestral instruments, this is one huge collection of sounds. Yet, given the number of instruments it contains, it's relatively compact in size, making it particularly useful for anyone traveling with a notebook computer. Dimension Pro's top-notch sounds and ability to create combinations and sound variations make it a very powerful instrument for anyone, whether they're a beginner or a pro.

Gregory Moore has composed soundtracks, commercial underscores, and audio demos for MasterCard, JVC, Sony, TV Tokyo (theme), and many others. He has also done 3D animation, motion graphics, and post production for several clients including Sony.

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