Sonar 6 information is available now.

[Hybernation]

This new synth rack looks VERY cool. now is it just me, or does it look a litte like "Kore"

[fandango]

It's funny, but I'm really pleased that there's buttons to increment/decrement the current preset. It's something I liked in EnergyXT and it's useful to have it here as well. Previously in Sonar you had to open the dropdown and select the next preset manually.

I wonder what the [READ][WRITE] buttons are for. I'm assuming [READ] is to toggle playback of parameter automation and [WRITE] records automation, but I'm not entirely sure.

[kp]

No, the *marketing* guys at Cakewalk thought it was a new feature because they realise that (in general) users don't understand the technical details. Big difference.

quite the opposite, likely.

You mean you think users understand what goes on under the hood in terms of VST integration in hosts?

Riiiiiight.

[Stupid American Pig]

Im curious as to what plugins people are using that are soo "incompatible" with the cakewalk wrapper? I own/use around 50 vsts and I havent had any problems with it since using the external wrapper with S2. Anybody have a list of these offending plugs? Not starting a flame war here, just curious is all.

[runagate]

50 VSTs!?! Lol.
You have great restraint, SAP.
That is your answer right there.

I remember posting a topic a while back when I brought my nicely-organized CD of freeware VSTs to both Live and Sonar and was perplexed at to why under no circumstances except individually testing each one would the programs do anything but crash in the face of the might of my hundreds of hundreds of VSTs all of which I use all the time - not even including the backlog of about 50 that haven't made it into my permanent set-up of already-tested stuff yet. I mean literally the programs would just hang and have to be killed from the Task Manager every time.

Notably several hosts do *not* do this and it seems an insane flaw in any program that utilizes a lot of .dll from 3rd parties.

[Jason Brian Merrill]

No, the *marketing* guys at Cakewalk thought it was a new feature because they realise that (in general) users don't understand the technical details. Big difference.

quite the opposite, likely.

You mean you think users understand what goes on under the hood in terms of VST integration in hosts?

Riiiiiight.

nah, more likely they realize that a few understood that the vst implementation was crappy and decided to change it

[kp]

I think that shows you really don't understand the technical issues at all, at which point I bow out to save my time and blood pressure.

Yes, there have been flaws in it (eg. lack of mono output for VSTi's), but to say that it's crappy and needed to change and that's why the bullet point is present shows a complete lack of understanding.

[Johnny Cherry]

Hey...some of that features looks pretty impressive. Can Sonar manage external instruments and effects like Cubase can? Is support for hardware any good?

I would also like to know the answer to that my fellow KVRers.

Also whats the multicore support like? I understand if your using 64 bit windows but I don't and I am not planing to anytime soon, does Sonar 5 or Sonar 6 still use both cores if your just using 32bit windows?

I've been looking for a new host for a while now and this looks like it might be it although its a shame cubase 4 hasn't let any real details out yet.

[Jason Brian Merrill]

I think that shows you really don't understand the technical issues at all, at which point I bow out to save my time and blood pressure.

.

your blood pressure is getting involved?

man, you gotta calm down

I think i understand the situation just fine

[djsubject]

[Johnny Cherry]

Also that "AudioSnap" looks really good, kinda like Live's timewarp.

[headquest]

Also whats the multicore support like? I understand if your using 64 bit windows but I don't and I am not planing to anytime soon, does Sonar 5 or Sonar 6 still use both cores if your just using 32bit windows?

I can't answer the part about external MIDI coz I don't use that. But regarding multicore support, it is great. When I switched to my new Core Duo laptop I had Sonar 5 which has the multicore support. The other software I use(d) - Live 5, Tracktion 2 and Audition 2 - do not have full multiprocessor support. I noticed immendiately that I could run Sonar projects twice the size of those on my old lappy (where the demos didn't run!) or using the other software. Live 6 beta11 has multicore cupport too and its the same story - massive improvements in CPU and size of projects.

I think its fair to say that (whatever else people think of Sonar) it is about the most efficient and powerful Windows based music software there is, in terms of being bang up to date with hardware development and even (in the case of the x64 version) ahead of the game. This tight Windows integration is a pretty persuasive reason for any PC based musician to go with Sonar as their software.

[Alan]

I never said "native", you did. I said "pure" as in "honor my directory structure". My only real gripe with the wrapper has always been the lack of ability to organize.

Actually, I didn't originally either, but understood. Whyte Rabbit's SUBSonar works fine for organizing and I think Cakewalk implemented something like this in the new ver. 6 which is about time.

[Alan]

whyterabbit,

I didnt realize you made a utility for sonar... what does it do?

The thing everyone was complaining about, organizes your plugins in subdirectories by brand/folder etc., but I think Sonar 6 has that covered this time around.

[Bill OC]

I'm using one of the Pentium D dual-core space heaters, and Sonar 5 seems to manage the load well.

Can't comment on externals--don't use them anymore.

Regards,

Bill OC