Jerry Gerber

This movement is driven by 6 soft synths, 3 instances of Dune and 3 instances of Zebra. These synths are orchestrated into the orchestral texture using all VSL samples. This piece was composed mostly in Cakewalk for Bandlab and ported over to Sonar for finishing the composition, mixing, recording and mastering. I hope you enjoy listening. I would say the energy is "controlled frenetic". The score is available for those interested. PLAY Jerry https://www.jerrygerber.com

My mistake. The problem is isn't Sonar, the RME UFXII interface has independent submixes for the soft synths and for some reason the new installation of Sonar caused problems with the sound. As soon as I cleared & reset the submixes in TotalMix FX, the problem disappeared. Perhaps because Sonar handles audio (apparently) different from Cakewalk this caused an issue with the audio interface. In any event, it's all resolved now. Thanks for replying! Jerry

My softsynths (Dune & Zebra and probably others) stopped working in Sonar. By "stopped working" I mean the sound comes out of only 1 channel and is full of distortion, very low in volume. At first I thought it was my headphone jack in my RME interface but that's been cleared. When I setup a NEW softsynth track in Sonar it works fine. But any softsynth tracks that were created in Cakewalk for Bandlab are having issues. Am I the first person to recognize this and is there a fix? UPDATE: It turns out that when I use the MAIN Outs for my softsynths (which I do not want to do) the synths play fine. But when I choose another OUTPUT, I get garbled, bad audio. Has this been reported? This is a real drag on my deadlines!!! 2nd UPDATE: I was wrong. The problem is my UFXII audio interface. For some reason, the new installation of Sonar caused an issue with the softsynth submix outputs. I reset the submix in software and now everything is working as expected. Sometimes I forgot how complex these setups we use are, and how many things have to be excluded while troubleshooting. Back to making music!! Thanks, Jerry https://www.jerrygerber.com

I went ahead and installed Sonar with a 1 year subscription. I'm satisfied with the program, it does everything I want it to do. I have one complaint: The color options should be expanded quite a bit. Particularly the event list, I'd like to be able to color code events in my own color choices that are easier on my eyes.. Sonar has been around for a long time and many users are getting up in age. Color options will really help. Please make that a priority! Jerry https://www.jerrygerber.com

Ah! Thanks Bristol and Colin. I missed that little check mark. Much better!

I just subscribed for a year for Sonar. I have no problem supporting a company that produces Cakewalk but PLEASE do something about the ridiculous lack of color options, especially on the track view where every track is the exact same color, other than the small vertical bar on the left side of the track. I don't understand how or why these color options would be downgraded instead of left alone? I see that the color options for audio tracks, midi tracks, etc are still present in Preferences-Customization-Color but they don't do anything! Am I missing something? I much prefer to look at Cakewalk by Bandlab, it's like looking at a beautiful, finished piece of software. With Sonar it looks like a beta version that isn't complete. I am just referring to colors, not the audio/midi/plugin part of the program. Jerry https://www.jerrygerber.com/ https://www.youtube.com/@astromusicvideo

I downloaded the evaluation copy of Sonar. I am not sure if this evaluation copy is the exact same as the free version. In the evaluation copy, there's a screen that makes me wait 15 seconds or so while it's counting down, and there's a banner across the screen, near the top that urges me to become a member. Does the free version also have these "features"? In other words, do I need to do anything to make the evaluation copy not have these irritating annoyances? I will probably subscribe even though I hate the subscription method because I want to support Bandlab for allowing me to use Cakewalk for free for these several years. However, there doesn't seem to be any features in the paid version that I use.

Please add the capacity to change the colors of the events in the Event List, as every other version of Sonar & Cakewalk has had. More color options in general would be a welcome addition, as in the tradition of all past versions of Sonar & Cakewalk. Please fix the bug in the Notation Editor where tied & dotted triplets do not display correctly. Thanks, Jerry

Good question. Does the new Sonar allow for color import as it allows for keybinding import?

When considering to subscribe to Sonar, I discovered in the latest version that color options are much limited, for example changing the color of events in the event list seems to have disappeared. Also, in the notation editor, Sonar still does not display tied and dotted triplets correctly. As far as the colors, are these options going to be returned? As far as the notation editor, will this bug ever be addressed? Thanks, Jerry https://www.jerrygerber.com https://www.youtube.com/@astromusicvideo

Is it still possible to change the colors of PATCH events, CONTROLLER events, etc.. with the latest version of Sonar (2025.06)? Thanks, Jerry

I use Cakewalk exclusively, I've been using it as my sequencer/DAW since 1991. I use Sibelius for scores/parts. I don't play any parts in. I used to do that when I was doing commercial scoring, but I've gotten very fast at using the mouse to enter parts and editing all the needed CCs that I don't bother playing them in. I still play piano though all the time!

Yes, all of the videos are here: https://www.youtube.com/@astromusicvideo

Thanks a lot Treesha! I am glad you enjoyed the music video. Jerry

Thanks Matthew!

Thanks Nigel! Glad you enjoyed it..

Thanks Martin, I'm glad you enjoyed the music video. I've been using the VSL Symphonic Cube for over a decade and will continue to use it until I die. It has so many great samples, quite a few that I haven't even explored deeply yet. I also use: VSL Appassionata Strings, VSL Solo Strings, Vienna Choir, Requiem Professional Choir and East West Choirs (with their word builder software) Jerry

Thanks Steve!

A new astro music video, #13 in an ongoing series.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0B5BNR7zuw Enjoy! Jerry

Thanks Martin!

Thank you for watching & listening Treesha.

An astrophotographic music video featuring the gorgeous astrophotography of Timothy Martin WATCH

I think Martin was right. I forgot to add the volume envelopes to the piece. The dynamics are better now..

Hi Martin, I am pretty sure the dynamics are right for the piece. I'll go back and take a listen to see if I really want to change anything. There are crescendos & decrescendos, I have no idea why you're not hearing them. The movement has a dynamic range of 8.03 dB, which is, I admit, a bit lower than many of my symphonic movements. When I listen to it at a moderately low level, it sounds fine but if i crank it up too loud, it does seem a little flat dynamically. When I master the entire symphony I'll mix this movement at a lower amplitude. The lack of dynamics in the score has nothing to do with the recording, which contains all the dynamics in the MIDI sequence. I don't put dynamics in the score (nobody wrote out dynamics until the 19th century) because there are no players. Same with string bowings and wind/brass breathing marks. If there were players I'd put them in. I know how to do that. But for digitally produced music they're redundant. I wrote a brief article about why I don't put these marks in the score, which irritates a lot of composers who write for live players, but I am not concerned with that tradition: https://www.jerrygerber.com/markings.htm Here's the waveform, you can see it has dynamic range:

This is the slow movement of the new symphony I'm currently working on. It may also become the soundtrack to my next astro music video. It took me quite a while to begin liking this piece as I know the pitfalls of writing an adagio and had to work hard to overcome them. If you want to look at the score, remember to open it in a new tab or it will cut-off the playback of the recording. Jerry https://www.jerrygerber.com/symph13mvt3.htm