Beatscape, a plug-in introduced with Cakewalk SONAR 8 Producer Edition, gives you a way to manipulate loops and samples using a non-threatening interface. The process is simple: you map samples to its 16 onscreen pads and trigger them with MIDI notes. To get the most out of Beatscape, check out the cool tutorial from Electronic Musician, available on emusician.com. Brian Smithers has been around the block with SONAR and other DAWs, and his friendly, easygoing approach makes for a happy learning experience.