Cakewalk Sonar X3 Producer
As well as improving Sonar itself, Cakewalk have brought in some heavy-hitting third-party content. Does X3 have what it takes to tempt buyers away from other recording software?
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As well as improving Sonar itself, Cakewalk have brought in some heavy-hitting third-party content. Does X3 have what it takes to tempt buyers away from other recording software?
As well as creating some excellent new plug-ins and making operational improvements, Cakewalk have been working hard to make Sonar 8 the most CPU-efficient version yet.
The latest version of Cakewalk's flagship sequencer brings it into the world of surround sound, makes it easy to work with folder tracks and multiple takes, and adds one of the most comprehensive Freeze functions available on any DAW.
The new version 5 sees Cakewalk's Sonar becoming a more complete production package than ever, with the addition of new synths, a convolution reverb, 64-bit support and Roland's celebrated Variphrase vocal processing technology.
Another major upgrade for Cakewalk's DAW software adds powerful new features, and provides hands-on control at a touch.
How can you improve a MIDI + Audio sequencer thats already as comprehensive as Sonar? Cakewalk have added some impressive new plug-ins, but theyve also gone back to basics to take MIDI editing to new levels of flexibility.
Cakewalk's latest virtual instrument takes traditional subtractive synthesis as its starting point, but offers a degree of flexibility that is unimaginable in any hardware instrument.
Cakewalk go global, and release a new soft synth.
This month, Martin Walker has some chips and a little sauce, as well as investigating some mysteriously disappearing features in Cubase — Cakewalk Home Studio; Cubase VST.
Cakewalk have strengthened the MIDI side of Sonar 5 considerably, in recognition of the rise of software synths that benefit from enhanced MIDI controllability. We run through some of the new features and suggest how you might want to use them...
Now that Dimension Pro is included with Sonar 8, its time to investigate how to exploit it beyond the usual sample-playback functions.
Brian Heywood ponders some PC problems and waxes lyrical over the forthcoming Soundscape upgrade.
The technology for easily achieving an expensively produced effect when recording guitars is becoming more and more accessible. We take a look at what Sonar has to offer in this department, and examine other tools for creating killer guitar sounds.
If you never venture into Sonar's off-line DSP section, now could be the time to check it out, following Cakewalk's v5 revamp of these useful functions.
Did you know that you can make Sonar fit your working methods like a glove, via its many customisation options? Here's our guide to just a few of the most useful.
With the addition of digital audio, version 4.0 of this popular, PC-based sequencing package isn't so much a cake as a chocolate gateau. Janet Harniman-Cook takes a walk in the Black Forest...