Noel Borthwick

On 3/11/2024 at 1:11 AM, Hillmy said:

So I would advise not making anything related to Cakewalk/Sonar/Next your main anything or permanently move anything to it. Because IT WILL CHANGE SOON! 

Nothing will change that will break compatibility. Both sonar and next are not beta software. Backstage pass has more to do with the delivery of the software than the software itself.

I can assure you that it is not.

23 hours ago, Will. said:

Make sure to login at www.bandlab.com as well. 

Logging in to bandlab.com is irrelevant. You have to sign in from within CbB. When the Web browser opens sign in there with your bandlab credentials. That's all there is to it.

If it fails then something on the system is blocking it. You can attempt offline with using a different PC if so.

Are you running the app online and signed in? You normally don't get these prompts if so.

Nothing nonsensical about it. It's the requirement for running the free version.

12 hours ago, Morten Saether said:

Thanks for clarifying. The goal is not for Sonar to look just like CbB, although Sonar will feel very familiar if you are used to CbB. The focus is to have a clean modern UI that is scalable, which will have many benefits as the app continues to evolve. We will be able to do lots of slick things with the UI that simply wasn't possible before. The vector graphics have no effect on the overall color scheme.

There are to main differences in the new Tungsten theme:

• There are fewer shades of gray for a cleaner and more streamlined look
• Most buttons have a transparent background in the off position

There is currently no user customization, but we are continuing to refine the themes, and additional themes will be added in the future.

To add to this the “flat” look is intentional. Sonar theming is generally not going for a 3d look on buttons for definition. I suspect thats what you are comparing and finding different. It may take a little getting used to but its not less defined even to my eyes and I’m not young by any stretch of the imagination

10 hours ago, Kevin Walsh said:

I should be more careful with my words. As the project plays, the now marker "freezes" at a point for perhaps half a second rather than tracking smoothly with the current sample. It then jumps to the current sample and freezes there again, and so on. It is continually playing catch up. 

I should also note that I don't notice any stuttering in smaller projects with fewer tracks and no or few virtual instruments.

My display is an LG Ultrawide set to 3440 X 1440 at 85hz refresh rate.

Windows scaling is set to 125%. 

GPU is an AMD Radeon RX580 series.

System is an AMD 3950x-based tower with 64gb of ram and a bunch os Samsung nvme ssd's.

That was a preexisting issue that was also in CbB. In the next update as shown in my video this should be improved a lot.

1 hour ago, John T said:

It's a minor point, but I was a bit surprised to see that the Console Emulator and Concrete Limiter ProChannel modules don't have the new UI style.

Technically they are external to the application since they are plugins. We may get around to refreshing their UI at some point.

5 hours ago, David Baay said:

Yeah, this is not the norm. Sonar is currently no different from CbB in which the Now Cursor animation has always been a bit jittery with 'ghosting' at higher zoom levels, but not "lagging".

Both the now cursor and playback meter responsiveness has been greatly optimized for the next update. Look for it in the next drop. Not only is it smoother, but it is adaptive and will efficiently self throttle to create more UI bandwidth when needed. 

Here is a size by side video comparison showing cbb vs Sonar just playing an empty project. Cbb is on the left. You should be able to see how much smoother Sonar's updates are. I recorded it at 60fps so hopefully it should be easy to see. I recommend downloading the video since it may be jittery over the google photos web viewer. (press shift-D after you click on the video to save it)

https://photos.app.goo.gl/282wMfqgqTAtTCiZ7

1 hour ago, SirWillyDS12 said:

This is happening when there is a difference between what the sample rate that the MOTU is set at and the default sample rate that Sonar is set at during Startup

Exactly. This is a driver issue where a change in sample rate results in the driver broadcasting a disconnect notification to Windows. Probably because they unload and reload the driver. 

2 hours ago, SirWillyDS12 said:

Another bug/issue... Perhaps someone else can duplicate... On the "Start Screen" select "Local Projects"... Then select "All" ... Right after selecting "All" click on a project... Every time I do that Sonar crashes to the desktop... If I wait about 7 seconds for the little spinning circle then it doesn't crash and will open the project... Seems selecting a project needs "disabled" for a few seconds until the list is re-populated..

@SirWillyDS12 I fixed an issue relating to this recently. We'll be releasing a new build next week. Please try it and let me know if it still happens. I was unable to reproduce it here with the latest.

2 hours ago, SirWillyDS12 said:

Here is a screenshot for you... This is what I get every time I re-start Sonar after closing a project... Of-coarse my MOTU has not been disconnected and I do not get this with CbB, only with the new Sonar...

@SirWillyDS12 there is no change in this regard. If you don't see it in cbb you have the option to ” show audio/midi device change notifications" disabled in cbb that's all. It's in preferences, customization, display.

The reason for the notification is the driver is telling windows that it was removed. Not something we can fix. Turn off the notification if it bothers you.

On 3/8/2024 at 11:25 PM, Kevin Walsh said:

UI lags a bit behind playback, not smooth at all. I think I saw mention of this being addressed in an upcoming release.

@Kevin Walsh what are you specifically referring to when you say UI lags behind? Also can you share some info about your displays and windows settings for display resolution and scaling?

4 hours ago, John Vere said:

And I now see that the spectrograph hasn't changed and that the only difference is you can now disable it. In CbB that menu is not available. 

The spectral view was  never available on track or bus strips in prior versions. It was only available in the fly out prochannel eq which meant you could only ever see it on a single track at a time.

In Sonar you can have simultaneous tracks and buses all showing the spectrum in the console view. It's a completely new feature.

It's not a beta - it has been in  ongoing internal beta for over a year. The feature set is complete now and the app is completely usable hence it's being offered for early access as part of the bandlab membership which is not free. 

8 hours ago, sjoens said:

Spectrum was added to the small EQ screens on CV strips and the PC module.  Before it was exclusive to the flyout.  It is a little glitchy ATM.

@sjoenswhat specifcally is “glitchy”? Perhaps you could submit a bug report from the help menu or include a video showing the problem you are encountering…

21 minutes ago, gustabo said:

Not integrated into the tracks

 

Right, you can't show a third party analyser on all tracks in the console.

20 hours ago, John Vere said:

What is broken is we should be logged in permanently due to the fact we are on this forum. I myself don’t understand why we need to keep re logging  in. 

The forum has absolutely nothing to do with in app sign in. The only thing common is that there is a web page

Sign in provides a handshake with bandlab to get the user credentials per application. This is also required for activation. Similar to how you must sign in to access the online version of bandlab. It's not related at all.

Additionally sign in for Web services relies on tokens that expire periodically for security reasons. Tokens are auto renewed when possible but there are situations where the sign in is necessary. The same happens in all applications that use this sort of protocol. Eg check your typical banking app that uses a web protocol.

6 hours ago, CSistine said:

Tell me, who does not already have a couple of spectrum analyzers? Don't misunderstand me, it's nice, but no reason to jump to Sonar!

 

Since I have found out that the Start Screen slows down starting that much, I have disabled it! ?

Slows down? I've not seen anything like that. It opens pretty much instantly for me when the app starts. Which tab are you opening it with set to? If it defaults to the online library then of course it will take a second to populate but all other tabs are instant for me.

17 hours ago, CSistine said:

So it seems the only real change is the look of Sonar vs. CbB! If you do not have a high resolution monitor/graphics, then this is not worth much!

Also in the list of bug fixes I could almost find nothing that is of interest to me! But YMMV!

That is a gross understatement to say it's a change in look. While there was a lot of thought that went into the redesign both from our graphic artists and product management,  the bulk of the work that went into sonar was a rearchitecture of the UI framework. This was necessary for future work and to support modern displays. It is also much more efficient. In fact in the next update you will visibly see that the time display and meters response is smoother.

Besides the UI there are tons of changes beneath the hood of the app as well as hundreds of bug fixes over a period of a year and a half that we don't list.

If you find nothing of interest that is obviously going to be a subjective opinion any one could have about any software update. It depends on ones use and workflow for the app. There is no way we can could ever satisfy all users likes and needs.

Also this isn't the end of the feature set. There is more coming this year.

14 hours ago, sjoens said:

This may have been a glitch.  Even tho I made it happen 2x earlier today, I can't reproduce it at the moment. 

Keep an eye on it. I run with a mixed config 2K display and 1080P and have never seen the quick start show up like that so far.

14 hours ago, DeeringAmps said:

So is the Sonar “price of admission” the BandLab membership? If so I’ll convert my “3 days free” to a yearly membership.

@Noel Borthwickinquiring minds want to know…

t

If you want to start using Sonar right away, backstage pass (which includes both Sonar, Next as well as other bandlab perks) is the only available option right now. There are plans for other purchase options but there isn't a known timeline just yet.

Today you can get it monthly or get an annual BSP license upfront which is cheaper.

An in app sampler is planned soon. It will be similar to whats in Cakewalk Next (XSampler) so you can check it out there.

On 2/18/2024 at 6:26 AM, charles kasler said:

Thanks, I'm doing just as you said. I right clicked to save as a track template and it takes a long time and then the screen gets more and more faint and finally CBB shuts down. When I reopen, the template has been saved and I can insert it with no problem. I repeated this three or four times with the same result each time

If you don't get a crash logged try capturing a dump from task manager while the app appears hung.

Can you share a project that is in this state?

31 minutes ago, tdehan said:

@Noel Borthwick  I am running 29.09.0.075.

I am very aware that it is common for free apps that have an upgrade path to display such messaging.  However, I am also aware that such messages will either stop displaying after so many times or will have the ability to turn them off.  As I stated, unless we have all been hiding under a rock we are all aware that CbB will be transitioning to a paid product.  With that said, it has also been my understanding that the last final updated version 29.09.0.075 would keep running without further updates...

Hi @tdehan thanks, if you can please send a dump file it will help is figure out why it hangs for you. We'll obviously fix whatever is causing that.
We're also considering throttling the prompt so it won't pop on each launch. As mentioned, this was a first cut that was put in a very long time ago (even before the last release) so it hasn't been refined at all.

I understand your use case of the product and it sucks that you had to experience this problem live. We'll find a solution but please send a dump ASAP since thats the quickest way. You can PM me directly.

>>unless we have all been hiding under a rock we are all aware that CbB will be transitioning
You might be surprised to learn how many live under rocks - we still get people contacting support trying to buy products from 2015 ? 

>>With that said, it has also been my understanding that the last final updated version 29.09.0.075 would keep running without further updates.
It may be updated but not with feature updates. We cannot guarantee that it will keep running indefinitely but certainly during the Sonar transition period. See Jesse's post here - if there is any planned change it will be communicated clearly in advance. Also as mentioned earlier all prior builds of CbB will stop working at some point since they use services that are deprecated.