Matthew Carr

Just chiming in with my love for a staff view -it's an essential for me Be nice if it had some love from the bakers, but we've learnt not to hold our breaths lol...

No, I don't use Sonar Playlist anymore - I moved to an external VST host / Playlist editor

Thanks Noel, That certainly seems to be what is happening - can be replicated (at my end) by waiting till Sonar is Offline, then using Sonar without any internet connection. Can you confirm how many days notice there should be before activation is required please? Surprised I missed a notification, but it's possible Ediy for additianl info; 1) The UI also freezes when I try and access the Help menu 2) The computer has an ethernet connection to a router (to support OSC messages to a digital mixer), but no connection to the internet.

Yes, dedicated hardware is always nice, but we have a pretty integrated solution - DAW supplies backing track, click track, midi for control of outboard gear / other software, and DMX lighting. Doing this on hardware would be hard to set up. I don't mind the phone home thing - It just needs to be more transparent so we can tell how long is left to avoid being caught out. Although, I just read this which kind of implies even if you pay for membership, the bakers can bork Sonar until your download/ install a newer version - that is definitely not cool, and certainly a worry for my use case.

I understand the need for Sonar to have to call home and be re-authorised periodically. I'm totally fine with that. However: In CbB you got a warning along the lines of 'X days until activation runs out'. I've now changed over to Sonar (free edition for now), and when we went to our rehearsal space (which doesn't have wifi, or cell signal) the PC often kept at the space complained about needing auth. Which meant I wasn't able to save our recordings. Cue band members being unhappy with me... 😒 We've been rehearsing more than once a week as we have a big (for us, lol) gig coming up.. but there was no warning about the activation being about to run out. Would really appreciate if this warning was brought back in some form.. via a toast or on opening screen, it doesn't matter as long as I can see somewhere how long is left before re auth will be needed. On a more technical note, I think the process of dialling home could be much improved. At present, if Sonar is not activated, it periodically tries to call home. If there's no network connection, this process takes a while (20 seconds maybe) before it fails. During this time, whatever audio is playing will continue, but the UI completely freezes (inc. transport) and often the window will change to show app is not responding. As I say, I understand the need to call home but it seems this could be more elegant 1. Change the call home code to work on a different thread to the UI (so UI doesn't freeze), or 2. Only check when the app is started or closed, rather than every X minutes of operation/

Since 1992?! Guess it's a can of worms considered not worth opening...🤪 Thanks for the clarification though

Have noticed a glitch with the display of long tied notes in the staff view. In section below, there is a simple sequence played over the top of a drone A note. The staff shows this correctly If the staff display is moved so the display starts slightly later in the song , then the tied note is not displayed 🤔 This happens when the staff is scrolling due to playback, or if the scroll bar is manually moved. It's repeatable in other projects, and if I move the display back to the position in first example the tied note is shown correctly. Appears related to the length of the tied note. In example above, the drone note is tied for 30 bars. If I re-create with a drone note of 16 bars, the drone note is displayed. Haven't tracked down an exact point when the glitch kicks in. Probably quite an edge case, but strange. Steps to re-create: 1. Open a new project, add a midi track 2. Add a tied note for 16 bars, plus some other shorter notes in each bar 3. View the track in staff view, and scroll forwards and backwards through the project. The staff view will show the tied note and other notes - expected behaviour 4. Extend the tied note to 30 bars, add some other short notes in each bar 5. Scroll forwards and backwards through the project. The staff view will show the tied note in some scroll positions, but not in others -- unexpected behaviour Example project with tied note of 30 bars attached - scroll towards the end of the song whilst displaying the staff view to see the issue. Staff view glitch.cwp

This latest release has fixed the issue with the Transport delay when I stop playback on a project with Midi tracks, and multiple midi out devices. Great work bakers!

Thanks Noel.. Is this a change specifically made in Sonar? CbB doesn't exhibit the same behaviour. If new to Sonar, would be good if this could be refined a little - I do want my controllers zeroed, but the delay is really irritating. I wasn't experiencing any issues with rapid msgs in CbB, but the delay now makes the whole transport seem 'fragile' for want of a better explanation.. even though the explanation makes sense. Couple of ideas: 1. Introduce a sub-option that enables / disables the new delay behaviour in Sonar. 2. Restrict the zero messages sent to only the ports and channels specified as outputs on tracks in the project, rather than for all channels / ports. This would significantly reduce the number of messages / 1ms delays on projects that have multiple midi ports operating on a single channel

After some fun trying out other interfaces, different driver modes and re-installing Sonar on other systems, all with no effect, I went back to changing settings and I think I've found the root cause. If 'Zero Controllers When Play Stops' is enabled, in the project MIDI section, then the delay occurs. If this option is not checked, there is no delay - the transport returns to start point immediately the stop button is pressed. If the option is enabled, but there are no Midi tracks in the project, then the delay is not present. The behaviour can be replicated by creating a new project with the Basic template (1 audio, 1 midi track) - on my system at least. This is definitely a regression specific to Sonar, as with this option checked in CbB there is no delay. Hopefully this helps in solving the issue!

Tried with a Behringer UMC 404 HD and a BOSS GT001 - easiest things I had lying around that had ASIO The delay persists with both of the other ASIO interfaces. Changing to WASAPI Exclusive, and the delay remains on both these interfaces. This must be something specific to my install, as no one else seems to have this issue. Think the best test I could do now would be to install Sonar on different PC from scratch, and see if this problem persists - that's a tomorrow task though.

Yes. I use AZController and Cakewalk Generic Surface As a test, I removed the control surfaces from the Preferences Dialog, restarted Sonar, and the delay persists Short vid to try and show the issue 20250716-1959-49.7176132.mp4

Thanks for taking the time to respond to this Noel I'm using an Behringer XR18 as my audio interface, ASIO Driver The same settings/hardware are used for CbB and I don't get the delay. I've compared screen by screen between Sonar and CbB and they have the same settings, with the exception of Offline Render using Elastique Efficient in Sonar vs Elastique Pro in CbB. I deleted the Aud.Ini file (%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Cakewalk\Sonar) and restarted Sonar to recreate it, but the delay remains - the new aud.ini is attached Comparing the Aud.ini files between Sonar (%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Cakewalk\Sonar) , and CbB (%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Cakewalk\Cakewalk Core) the only differences are for the offline rendering and some settings which look like they have been added/deprecated between the two versions I'm a bit stuck now, so any advice gratefully received! AUD.INI

Sorry, brain fade....😒 The delay is around half a second, so 500ms The Fade on stop is set to 0 - perhaps there is another setting that could cause this behaviour? Seems plausible given behaviour is not present in my instance of CbB on same PC Disabling FX has no effect - this behaviour occurs even in an empty project (e.g. start Sonar, select create Basic project)

Sorry, brain fade 😒... around 500ms

Does anyone else find that the Stop button on the transport (or by pressing spacebar) is now really quite laggy? Playback starts instantly, but after pressing stop icon (or spacebar) a) Playback stops instantly b) The green play icon remains green, the stop icon remains grey c) There is a delay of around 50ms. During this time it's possible to click on the start button again, but playback doesn't start until the delay reaches an end. d) After the delay finishes, it's possible to press play again and playback starts immediately. This means if I'm using spacebar to review a hit or short section of playback pressing spacebar works the first time with immediate playback. But after pressing spacebar to stop playback, I can't immediately press the spacebar to listen again - the delay kicks in. No-one else is reporting this, so maybe it's specific to me - if anyone sees the same, pls chime in and will raise as bug. Behaviour is the same for the pause button. Using latest version of Sonar (build 84) with an XR18 interface in ASIO mode with a buffer of 128 samples (changing buffer size has no effect on this transport delay) EDIT 1: Tested this on same project / hardware in CbB , and there is no delay when stopping playback. EDIT 2: Tested this on same project / hardware in Sonar (31.06.0.048) , and there is a delay

Updated to latest version, and the scrolling select now works as expected. Great job Bakers! 😁

A difference in behaviour from CbB, which seems like a bug - apologies if this is not new to 2025.06, this is the first time I've really used new Sonar 1. Click and hold on the timeline to begin a selection 2. Hold and drag mouse pointer off the far right of screen In Cbb, this would advance the selection end, and the waveforms displayed in the track view would scroll in sync with the end of the selection In Sonar, the selection end is advanced, but the waveforms only refresh their display once either a) the mouse is released or b) the mouse pointer is moved back to the left to be on screen. This makes it very difficult to fluently select ranges longer than what is currently displayed on screen as you can't see the waveforms for the current end selection point.

That sounds like the reason - I didn't migrate, and probably had CbB open, which although the driver is multi client, may have meant Sonar then defaulted to WASAPI.

Could the membership icon be moved up a line, so it doesn't take a whole line of screen real estate? e.g.

RESOLVED: Default Driver mode was set to WASAPI on new install, instead of ASIO ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Just looking to move over to the new Sonar, ahead of losing activation of CbB Audio outputs look completely different in Sonar compared to CbB, and I'm totally lost! I'm using a Behringer XR18 as my audio interface in CbB: In Sonar 2025.06 Have I missed something here? When I go to select an output for a track, I should have 18 tracks to select from In CbB - makes sense, 18 Mono tracks, 9 Stereo tracks In Sonar, how would I know how to select channel 17 as the input (or any input >8)

Yes, can record (and playback) on all 18 channels - with pretty good latency as well. Not sure what problems you're having with ASIO, but i'd suggest getting rid of ASIO4All as it's just adding something you don't need and may well be causing problems. Once gone, install the latest XR18 ASIO driver from the Behringer site and you should be good to go.

Anyone seen this before? Seems like an edge case bug Occurred when trying to save changes to an existing project No problems when saving the same project file usually.. just when trying to save changes after this session of edits, I started getting the error when saving: One change from normal was that I disconnected / reconnected an audio interface not being used in the project whilst it was open. (UMC ASIO Driver in the list below) Resolved the error by de-selecting all the audio input / output devices being used in the project (X-AIR ASIO Driver [X] in list below) After doing that, the save worked ok without the error dialog. Cheers, Matt Windows 11, latest CbB

Using a modern laptop can be a minefield - there is a tendency from manufacturers to add BIOS level code that hampers performance in order to manage the thermals. No 1 check would be that the laptop you are interested in passes a latencyMon test. Generally that means finding someone on a music forum who has the same laptop and has run the test successfully, or sourcing the laptop from somewhere where it can be sent back without any quibbles - so you can test it yourself when it arrives. No idea about cakewalk running on an ARM laptop, but that would involve a lot of emulation, which given how finely tuned Cakewalk is for x86 I can't think that would be a good idea. This guide is good for optimising a PC for music production: https://gigperformer.com/docs/ultimate-guide-to-optimize-windows-for-stage/index.html

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!