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FWIW the soon-to-be-included Tungsten Classic theme has distinct button backgrounds, rather than the transparent background of the newer themes - it's no where near as flat/2D looking. It's not exactly the same as CbB, but when running the two apps side by side, they look very similar.

Glad to hear it, and hoping for a 'Mercury Classic' version. ;^) I've significantly warmed to the flat look, but would appreciate having a more-3D option. And I'm guessing this will be a big hit with other oldtimers.

Absolutely! As a software dev myself I would really not want this task - tons and tons of effort to produce something that will undoubtedly come in for criticism along the lines of either 'it's not exactly the same as before!' or 'it's basically the same, why have you not spent all that time on adding features!' 😒 Haven't had a play yet myself, but from what I see it's looking good and the inevitable snags are being picked up and being resolved quickly - let's not forget this is still an 'early access' build to get feedback, so there will be improvements to come. Bitmaps can add eye candy, but for many reasons are not how modern UIs are composed . This update is essential to support Sonar going forward. Nice work Bakers!

Kinda surprised this hasn't been posted already; I looked back a few pages and couldn't find it. https://blackoctopus-sound.com/product/sampletank-max-4-v2-2/ Larry will be amused to see that there are 2 prices. For the full license, it's $49.99, but you can crossgrade it from any other IK Multimedia product for only $199.99. 😄

Actually, let me rephrase that. its a crazy price. WHAT’S INSIDE SAMPLETANK 4 MAX V2 Alan Parsons Imperial Grand Alien Harbours Alternate Keys American Acoustic Art Deco Piano Beat Machines Billy Cobham Drums Bionic Drums Brandenburg Piano Cinematic Percussion Circuit Damage Clavitube Electric Grand C70P Electric Piano Bass Elektronika – Chillout Elektronika – Deep House Elektronika – Drum’n’Bass Elektronika – Hardcore Elektronika – Indie Dance Elektronika – Minimal Elektronika – Techno Elektronika – Trance Extraterrestrial Saxophone Fractured Piano Future Synths Hitmaker – EDM Hitmaker – Reggaeton Hitmaker – Synthwave Hitmaker – Trap Hugh Padgham Drums L.A. Confidential London Grooves Malletension Malletopia Miroslav Philharmonik 2 Nanotube Neil Peart Drums NRG Orchestral Percussion Power Up Ring of Doom Salsa Percussion Loops SampleTron 2 Shipwreck Piano Spaceport ’77 Stage 73 Mark V Swarm Syntronik 2 99 Syntronik 2 Blau Syntronik 2 Bully Syntronik 2 CATO Syntronik 2 DCO-X Syntronik 2 Galaxy Syntronik 2 GS-V Syntronik 2 Harpy 260 Syntronik 2 J-60 Syntronik 2 J-8 Syntronik 2 KW-8000 Syntronik 2 M-12 Syntronik 2 M-Poly Syntronik 2 Megawave Syntronik 2 Memory-V Syntronik 2 Minimod Syntronik 2 Modulum Syntronik 2 Noir Syntronik 2 Obie One Syntronik 2 OSC-V Syntronik 2 OXa Syntronik 2 Polymorph Syntronik 2 Pro-V Syntronik 2 Pro-VS Syntronik 2 SAM Syntronik 2 SH-V Syntronik 2 Sorcerer Syntronik 2 String Box Syntronik 2 Syner-V Syntronik 2 Synth-X Syntronik 2 T-03 Syntronik 2 Triptych Syntronik 2 V-80 Syntronik 2 VCF3 Terry Bozzio Drums The Code Volume 1 The Code Volume 2 The Grid The Resonator Vector Vision Wurly Model 120

Hello , here's an instrumental I've just finished up. I'm sharing the melody with a nylon acoustic , cello , and bass guitar. I'm not sure of the genre ?? It's got an Indian feel. I've been on that kick lately. Any suggestions for improvement , crits will be appreciated. Thanks .. mark https://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=14745974

If I have one general objection to the new look, it's that things like that button should be more obviously "lit" or "not lit". I don't think the at-a-glance readability is as good as could be.

Sonar will refuse to install on Windows 7. The new scalable UI relies on Windows API's that are only available in Windows 10 ( version 20H2 I think) and above.

It's no looker for sure, but the contrast issue is the biggest problem for me. That and the IK response to the many users asking for this to be improved or adjustable...it's not our UI it's your monitors.... You mean those monitors that seem to display every other software UI just fine IK? Ok then....... They could make it free now and it still wouldn't be worth it.

Like Fleer said, there's a *ton* of content, and some of it is good...even very good. But very little of it (at least in terms of acoustic instruments) matches the level of dedicated libraries. The biggest problem is that actually *using* SampleTank is such a pain in the ***** that I just can't be bothered to fight with the tiny, user-unfriendly GUI. I really like some of the synth libraries, but working with SampleTank takes all the fun out of it for me. If some talented chap/chapess was starting from scratch, strapped for cash, and sufficiently motivated, I'm sure they could make amazing sounding tracks with ST4! But they might lose the will to live before they pulled it off.

Hoping they do the same for Absynth - or perhaps hand the source code over to Rhizomatic / Brian Clevinger if he's interested in evolving it. Although Plasmonic seems to be the focus now.

Keep in mind that those are suggested specs. I've run the early preview quite successfully on my Dell laptop with a 2 core i7-7600U. I do have hyperthreading enabled so it appears in Sonar to have 4 cores. In comparisons, I haven't found it to be any more resource-hungry than CbB, which I have run successfully on a Core 2 Duo system with 4G RAM. It very much depends on what you're doing and how you use it. Obviously, with a Core 2 Quad, you can't can't run a big pile of resource-hungry mixing plug-ins and/or VI's without doing some bouncing and freezing. So, not to worry, if CbB runs fine on your system, Sonar should run fine as well.

https://audioassault.mx/

Well, if you’re a Bach aficionado like me, you’d want to experience his music the way he did.

Here's an obscure one. Well, I remember seeing it peoples' record collections back in the day, but I don't think I'd ever given it a listen until today. I pulled this up after watching an interview with Leland Sklar in which he included No Other by Gene Clark in his list of his five favorite albums he's played on. High praise, given that Lee has played on literally thousands of records that run the gamut from straight-up pop to serious jazz and jazz-rock fusion. Many were huge commercial successes but most are appreciated primarily by music nerds. No Other falls into the latter category. I can see why this album wasn't a hit - there is still no tidy category for it. It's not Country, but has Country influences. It's not exactly Eagles-style Country Rock, although it does feature Timothy B. Schmitt on vocals. It's not folk rock, but Clark's former Byrds bandmate Chris Hillman plays on it. Here's the Wikipedia entry, which links to the impressive pedigrees of all the musicians who contributed to this album. I call it Country Prog. Some great melodic and inventive guitar work (7 guitarists are credited), and of course listening to Sklar is a master class for bass players. Here's a link to the full album. It's all good.

Many thanks John for taking the time to make an extremely useful video. It is much appreciated. My takeaway: Beyond a membership to BandLab (which is not particularly useful to me), there is no good reason, at present, to obtain Sonar unless one wishes to monkey about with GUI issues for months on end while actual music production suffers. Cheers... - Daniel

I made detailed instructions on how to obtain it here

I don't know about its friendliness as far as sampling or working with samples; I can only speak for my use of it as a ROMpler. I've not found it to be any worse than Kontakt Player for that, yet considerably better than Zampler or Halion. "Tiny" UI? On my system each of its UI views scales as big as I could want, larger even (it can be resized to fill the entire screen, and all elements scale with it). Here's what it looks like, although the forum will shrink it somewhat:

Orbital - Lush 3-4 (Warrior Drift Psychick Warriors OV Gaia)

Unquestionably there are better orchestral collections out there, and probably better acoustic pianos, but for the rest....it's an incredible collection of instruments to have access to. I haven't installed any of the acoustic pianos, from Art Deco to Shipwreck, because I already have Meldway Grand in Sound Factory. Similarly, I haven't installed all of the drum stuff. But you only have to want a handful of the instruments in the bundle to make it worth the price. Other than the orchestral libes, the plums for me are SampleTron and Syntronik. Here's my review/comment from VI Control....

I wouldn’t personally by the whole year unless you want to take advantage of the other perks you get with the Bandlab membership. It’s now a music delivery service among other things . I’m going by the month for now until I make up my mind. There’s no need for a new forum or sub forum. Eventually there’ will be no more Cakewalk anyway. So we just carry on. This forum has always answered questions about any version people chose to use. Sonar is just the continuation. They had to start this forum because it was a new company taking over. Not sure if they will add a Next sub forum. Doubt anyone who used Cakewalk would lower their standards that much. It will probably stay on Discord out of harms way.

This week the free games on Epic Games are Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and The Bridge. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided "Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is a cyberpunk action-RPG where your choices have lasting consequences. You play as Adam Jensen, an augmented covert operative intent on taking down the Illuminati, a shadowy group conspiring for control over humanity’s future." Get it here: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/deus-ex-mankind-divided-4c6370 Free until: March 21 Steam rating: Very Positive / Mostly Positive Steam page (for reviews & more info): https://store.steampowered.com/app/337000/Deus_Ex_Mankind_Divided/ The Bridge "The Bridge is a logic puzzle game that forces the player to reevaluate their preconceptions of physics and perspective. It is Isaac Newton meets M.C. Escher. Manipulate gravity to redefine the ceiling as the floor while venturing through impossible architectures." Get it here: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/the-bridge Free until: March 21 Steam rating: Very Positive Steam page (for reviews & more info): https://store.steampowered.com/app/204240/The_Bridge/ Gameplay video for Deus Ex: Gameplay video for The Bridge:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nlVA_e6WQhw&pp=ygUOc2lndXIgcm9zIGxpdmU%3D oldie but goodie

Great video John ! If only Cakewalk could produce some helpful migration videos like yours ! But, alas, why would they, when they've got you to do it for them free of charge. I'm old enough to remember the days of Brandon and Seth doing the video introductions . . . hopefully, when they officially release it, there will be something video ? Just putting in a good word for you, because I really appreciate what you do on this forum sir !!

I think this sums up the issues with the new Sonar Tungsten theme very well. I don’t mind it not being an exact copy but it should be better, not worse. I hope the themes are not being ‘fashion’ driven. Totally irrelevant for an GUI you are using for music production. We need good contrast between functional blocks, easy to see buttons and knobs, and very legible text. The CbB Skylight GUI does that really well and is the standard to start from in any new Sonar GUI.

The voucher stacked with my already 30% off discounted EDU pricing.

Zooming and checking colors with a picker, it appears to me that this is an artifact of the smoothing algorithm blending the edges of the icon with the background, exacerbated by the fine line used to draw the icon. Even the most distinctly 'orange' pixels appear to be very slightly altered by the surrounding background color. If they were all that pure color (i.e. no smoothing), I don't think there would be a difference, but the icon would be badly pixelated of course.

FWIW.. I run in off external drive. No issues at all. Just make sure you keep the expected folder naming structure. I don't want to sound like an IKM sales rep. But where it's handy for me is it allows me to work on ideas from just one interface. I do more traditional folk, rock music. So having access to al those sampled instruments with some rudimentary t-racks effects interface is handy for me. I don't do much sound design or experimental stuff. Just a lot of arranging and rudimentary orchestration. I recently get into using it for its multi functionality and that sort of opened up some new possibilities. When I start working on a new track, its usually one of the first things I load up.

Thanks, Larry.

That's pretty cool, sounds nice.

Agree with all of this

Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat

Have it & like it. Really depends on your genre taste/what you make, but it can turn any sound into inspiration for a track. Personally got it bc I was interested in the mobile app compatibility, and how easy it is to access recordings. Mostly enjoy low effort needed to do the recording from a phone that’s already in my pocket all day

Hence my example above! EXACTLY what Cocteau Twins did!

The image then becomes embedded into the template file and you can delete the image. Of course, this will be a moot point in short order unless you use Sonar Platinum.

Arbiter TDR it will help to solve what you are talking about

Devon Townsend - Quiet Riot

There's a cmajor audiounit and vst plugins.

real nice tones.jack c

giant sand - A Quiet Remote

beta band - quiet

Important details Requires the FULL version of Native Instruments Kontakt. It will not work in the free Kontakt Player The Try Pack contains (is a try pack of the complete packs) Bunker Strings Vol. 1 - violin - ricochet tremolo Bunker Strings Vol. 1 - viola - drumstick tremolo Bunker Strings Vol. 1 - cello - loud pizz tremolo Bunker Strings Vol. 1 - bass - soft pizz tremolo Bunker Strings Vol. 2 - violin - tremolo bursts normale into sul pont Bunker Strings Vol. 2 - viola - plectrum shorts Bunker Strings Vol. 2 - cello - super sul tasto pulses Bunker Strings Vol. 2 - bass - octave pulses The Harmonium - piano 8' (full functionality) Bunker PERC - 12 select hits + 12 select reverses Intimate Viola "Iremia" - Sustain CS ppp (limited range) Intimate Viola "Iremia" - Bow Pulses Normale (limited range) Intimate Viola "Iremia" - Harmonics CS (limited range) Off-World Vol. 1 - Massive (limited range) Off-World Vol. 2 - Chill Out (full functionality) Off-World Vol. 2 - Evolving Backwards (full functionality) Off-World Vol. 2 - Broken Oscillator (full functionality)

Are they using Reaper as the DAW? I really like that UI theme! I may just use it because it is better looking than Sonar, LOL!

Good eye! Yup, we recorded it using a Fender Jaguar. In fact, surprisingly it's the first offset guitar we've sampled.

I gave up on thinking I’d ever get any money out of my videos 2 years ago. I looked into what it takes and that’s a huge time suck. I could care less I’m retired. My only reason to make the videos was so I wouldn’t have keep re typing the same answers over and over here on this forum! I looked at what other tutorials were about and saw a lot of inaccuracies and old information. And talking heads that take 4 minutes just self promotion before you get to an actual lesson. If you remove the bs you can say the same things in half the time. But I guess talking heads are what works because if you search for Cakewalk Tutorials I’m on page 2 at the bottom. Last year when I saw this I deleted all my videos! 90 of them! It was thanks to the encouragement from my tiny group of followers I slowly brought them back. 500 subscribers ain’t much but on a local scale that’s actually a lot for someone like me. Making the videos is definitely a nice little hobby that keeps me alert. I like to support this forum and they are something I can easily make to help contribute. A small disappointment has been a lack of interest in them here on the forum. That’s ok. I’m a grumpy old guy and don’t expect anything from the punters. For me the ultimate reward has been that the process has had the side benefit of teaching me a lot more than I ordinarily would have learned about the software. Im really hoping Bandlab will hire a professional person to make proper Tutorials for Sonar now they will have the resources.

@norfolkmastering / @Sal Sorice / @Heinz Hupfer There are a couple of things in the pipeline that should improve the look of Sonar vs CbB. 1. We'll be including a "Tungsten Classic" theme that more closely matches the colours of CbB, and certainly to my eyes has a more preferable contrast to the new Tungsten. 2. We're using a different graphics framework not only for the vector images, but also for drawing text. This is the same framework we're using in Next for cross-platform support. Unfortunately, because it's cross-platform, the text rendering doesn't look as good on 1080P as it did in CbB. We have a plan to fix this and will be addressing it very soon.

@Noel Borthwick Thanks for those clarifications Noel. VERY exciting! Any ETA as to when it will go out of "early access"? I am assuming that it will then be available for purchase. That would be my preference, rather than thru the bandlab membership.

“Don’t quit your day job !” Trouble was I didn’t have a day job! t

Because they won't be able to install the new version on their pc even if they wanted to ? Also, until fairly recently I think it's fair to say that the impression was very much given that users would never be locked out of their older projects- that even if the program/company ceased to exist - something would be done to ensure that scenario wouldn't happen. That doesn't seem to be the case any more so if some people are now feeling a bit nervous about being a Cakewalk user all over again then I can understand that.

Theres a setting in Kontakt you might want to check too. I have had to uncheck this box as described below in addition to changing the zero controllers setting in cakewalk. Here is the info from the NI site- https://support.native-instruments.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003479549-KONTAKT-s-Volume-Resets-When-I-Press-Play-in-my-DAW KONTAKT's Volume Resets When I Press Play in my DAW Symptom - KONTAKT's Instrument volume is reset when you press play or stop in your DAW. Cause - Some DAW's are configured to send MIDI commands CC7 and CC10 when you press play or stop. KONTAKT can be configured to respond to these standardized commands to reset the loaded Instrument's volume. Solution Follow these steps to prevent KONTAKT from reacting your DAW's play / stop commands: Load an instance of KONTAKT in your DAW. Load an Instrument to KONTAKT's Rack. Press the wrench button on the upper left side of your KONTAKT Instrument. Click Instruments Options. In the Controller tab, disable the option Accept Standard Controllers for Volume and Pan. You can alternatively configure your DAW not to send the standard MIDI commands CC7 and CC10 when pressing play or pause. To learn how to do so, please consult your DAW's documentation.