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So I'm playing with the new Sonar


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I noticed I could download the new Sonar from the Cakewalk site. I can't save since I can't activate it but I have loaded projects and started poking around.

It's very Interesting - and encouraging.

1. Enhanced display scaling is interesting.

2. Paid for 3 day activation so I could save (not that I need to)

Edited by Terry Kelley
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  • Terry Kelley changed the title to So I'm playing with the new Sonar

Thanks for the heads up.  

I loaded a heavy project and no issues.  Very smooth assumption of all my Cakewalk configs, display layout on my 4 monitors was identical to Cakewalk.

I'll have to do more exploring tomorrow.

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4 hours ago, Terry Kelley said:

I noticed I could download the new Sonar from the Cakewalk site. I can't save since I can't activate it but I have loaded projects and started poking around.

It's very Interesting - and encouraging.

1. Enhanced display scaling is interesting.

2. Paid for 3 day activation so I could save (not that I need to)

So I downloaded and installed the "Backstage Pass Setup"... A few issue right out of the gate... First, every time I start the new Sonar I get the dialog box that my Audio interface has been disconnected from my system, it hasn't been... So I have to click No to keep the current settings... Second, the plugin manager would not open but would show up in task manager... End task and try again, same thing, but now Sonar disappeared from task manager... Had to restart task manager... Third, Bit Bridge would not load 32 bit plugins... So I had to set Sonar to "Run as Administrator"... That took care of plugin manager and bit bridge but not the audio interface disconnect...

Then next was the new UI... Unless I'm missing something there is no way to reset to the beginning of the project\song from the transport, thank god for keyboard short cuts... And the song position bar is missing from the transport, so I can't drag it to a position in the song... My custom track colors are now just a little colored bar at the very bottom of the console, not so easy to distinguish all the different tracks... And I didn't care much for any of the available color schemes, these old eyes can barely read any of the text in the control bar... I use a custom theme that I'm quite fond of and is easy to read the control bar...

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5 hours ago, SirWillyDS12 said:

Unless I'm missing something there is no way to reset to the beginning of the project\song from the transport, thank god for keyboard short cuts... And the song position bar is missing from the transport, so I can't drag it to a position in the song

You just need to switch to the large transport. I only use the small one and do all navigation with shortcuts.

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On 3/4/2024 at 5:52 PM, SirWillyDS12 said:

I didn't care much for any of the available color schemes

Additional color themes will be added in the future.  Try changing some or all of the "colors".  I changed all of them to green and nothing happened.  > Colors are DOA but hopefully a work in progress. You can change Track View clips and a few other tidbits in COLORS,  but... WARNING: There's no default preset to revert back to if you do change them.  So Export a color set before changing.

They now have a good opportunity to return all the COLORS we had with Sonar 8 and prior.

On 3/4/2024 at 5:52 PM, SirWillyDS12 said:

My custom track colors are now just a little colored bar at the very bottom of the console

Just like earlier versions, click the box next to Show strip colors in the COLORS > Track Strips section.

Control Bar no longer slides to navigate hidden modules.  It now collapses modules if needed to crowd everyone into the visible frame - not really a fan of this.  Right-click & select Resize All Modules > Large to invoke arrows.

> Currently no drag & drop to Track View... <- Yesterday I could not do this.  Today it works. :S

> Inspector CBP dropdown menu now works w/o cutting off entries in large lists like Yamaha XG.  All menus are updated. - NICE!

> Quick Groups in Track View still broken - When using Inspector to change Inputs & OutputsOccasionally only some of the selected tracks change.  QG works when changing within Track View itself.

> Something goofy with Console FX Assignable Controls top box.
cv-asncc.png.b3f4c740e01d1ba61fbef7d112a13500.png

Edited for Clarity and anyone else who's confused. :D

Edited by sjoens
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15 hours ago, Terry Kelley said:

User 905133

Why confused? Scroll to the bottom of the Sonar page and you'll see DOWNLOAD. Hopefully you can handle it from there.

In part because you didn't provide the web page you used, and the only Cakewalk Sonar pages I found that had a download link was for a Back Stage Pass file as @SirWillyDS12 stated several hours later.  It was unclear from your post if that's the link you had in mind.

10 hours ago, SirWillyDS12 said:

So I downloaded and installed the "Backstage Pass Setup" . . . .

I hope this clarifies why I used the confused emoji for your post.

Edited by User 905133
another edit in the interest of clarity; changed a few words in the interest of clarity
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Just now, DeeringAmps said:

@sjoens
user 905133 removed it. 
 

t

In the interest of clarity, I removed it yesterday before I saw @Terry Kelley's reply once I found the Back Stage Pass link / file by clicking on the "NOW AVAILABLE THROUGH BACK STAGE PASS" link.  I did not keep track of the time intervals between posting the emoji, realizing that @Terry Kelley might have been referring to the Back Stage Pass version, and removing the emoji.  

If someone wants to make an issue of it, I suppose Windows kept track of the time stamps and if so, I might be able to provide find those details.  😜   

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BTW, I saw there's also a Back Stage Pass version of Cakewalk Next.  I mention that in case some of you might want to test drive the new Cakewalk Exchange Format.  Since the initial posts and discussions starting when the two new products were announced, I wondered if Next would be convenient for my workflow as a tool to develop ideas to be developed more fully in Sonar. 

Just mentioning this in case others might want to test a similar workflow that involves using both products.

Edited by User 905133
removed a duplicate word ("might")
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I installed Next in November. I can’t get much done with it because they still haven’t fixed the few bugs I reported. Auto punch in places the new material in wrong place. PRV is unusable in it current state. Too many issues to list. Most are glitchy GUI. 

All I can do is compared it to Sonar Home Studio which used to sell for $40. Next needs a lot more happening for it to even come close. 

It does show you what might be in store for Sonar if there’s a chance of them adding the Sampler and stem separation later.  
One thing I also noticed is it freezes/ slows down if you open it with any other music related apps running. That’s still broken. 

They have the exchange format file which I guess I could test now but what I’ve been doing is I start a Next project which is just like Cakewalk with a audio folder in the project folder. I then start a Cakewalk project and save it to the same project folder. They will share the audio folder. Then I can drag and drop tracks created in Next directly into Cakewalk from the Browser. 

For me right now Next is just a tool to create things I can’t do in Cakewalk.

I also just bought Band in a Box and use it the same way. Drag and drop directly from project to project. 
 

Edited by John Vere
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"backstage pass"? marketing are going wild!

"Paid for 3 day activation"? i remember the days when a whole album could be recorded in 3 days haha

"user 905133 removed it."? are we allowed to remove other users' emojis now?

are you guys posting in the correct forum? 🤔

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so it says: "Will installing Cakewalk Sonar overwrite Cakewalk by BandLab?

No, the two applications install to different locations on your file system, so they can coexist on your computer."

does this mean the "shared utilities" folder hive is no longer shared, or does it still use that one location?

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