Colin Nicholls

Interesting. It isn't included in the feature matrix in this post

There is no Theme Editor available for new Sonar, so what is included in the box is what there is, for now.

Default? I don't think so. Only after you've recorded them. See the Inspector with the "Clip Properties" tab selected.

Today I learned! I never use input quantize. Good one, @tparker24

Yeah, that's a [citation needed] if ever there was one

This seems to be a comprehensive list of what is new or changed in Sonar over CbB, but it does not mentioned mastering anywhere. https://help.cakewalk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360002369593-What-s-the-difference-between-Cakewalk-Sonar-and-Cakewalk-by-BandLab

You should probably render a mix from each application and then compare by inverting the phase of one of them - that is the only objective way to identify differences. I don't recall reading or hearing about any engine changes that would affect the sound apart from what I will mention below. If you're hearing a qualitative difference, it pretty much has to be a difference in plugins (plug-in versions?) or choice of sculpting in ProChannel, etc. One difference you might notice is that, under stress, you may get pops, crackles, drop-outs. With an improved multithreading engine or otherwise optimized, you might no longer hear such artifacts. But I suspect that isn't what you're referring to. Always compare applications with no other apps running, eg. don't have a web browser open in the background with the Cakewalk Forum open :-). Browsers can use unpredictable amounts of memory as they cache stuff (by design). So you want to make sure as much of the machines resources are available to CbB or Sonar as possible.

I don't recall seeing anything like that... can you post a screen shot with more context around the button/icon? Is it a toggle? What happens when you push it? What theme are you using? What does it look like in other themes? What do you see in CbB (if you have it) with the same Track Options selected? Do you use surround sound features?

This banner and timeout window are the only feature that the "Free Tier" has, that actually isn't included in the full subscription version 😉 Seriously, if you subscribe to the full version, the banner and timeout will no longer be displayed. That's what you would need to do.

Preferences > Colors

Not at present. The colors do change depending one which theme you select.

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. It's the Internet, I get that. *sigh* The "soft launch" refers to the "Free Tier" which has been available for just over a week or so, I think.

My eyes! The goggles do nothing! Seriously, UI is so subjective isn't it. Personally I think there will be some user customization of color coming to new Sonar at some point, but I don't blame them at all for focusing on other things whilst rebuilding the UI engine from the foundations up.

Klevgrand produce unique and interesting instruments and effects, i'm tempted; but goddam do I already have too many reverb plugs

Themes, obviously 😉

You can only install one copy of Sonar. Whether it is the "Free Tier" or the "Full subscription version" depends on how you are logged in to BandLab. CbB has always been able to be side-by-side installed with Sonar. So you can have CbB + Free Tier Sonar, or CbB + Full Version Sonar, but not all three. That said, the essence of the answer is, yes, you can have all three versions available to you, but only one tier of Sonar at a time.

It's no secret I use several different DAWS. One of them is very good about restoring the Buffer size that I last chose in the application, upon opening. Sonar, however, doesn't seem to do this. It leaves the ASIO buffers (etc) at whatever settings the previous application chose. I have existing projects in Sonar that require large buffers (~1024) for playback. In the Other DAW, however, I have been tracking with low latency and much smaller buffers, and it restores these settings upon opening the app. When I switch back to Sonar, I have to manually go into the Preferences and reset the ASIO buffers back to 1024. It would be nice if Sonar remembered this and restored it for me. Thanks for your consideration. Cheers! (Before trolls show up, I have experience with low-latency tracking in Sonar too - but I'm not currently using it for that.)

I used Claude Sonnet 3.7 with limited results (and it made me feel dirty) before I discovered ConvertWithMoss which is easy and does a brilliant job.

Honestly I thought development was over for that plugin. I've been moving most of my custom instruments to DecentSampler. Good to know it's still a thing. Thanks!

Hi Camero,

Man, that is frustrating! I can see why you'd want to let of some steam; I'd do the same. Probably I'd use more swear words. But here's the thing: Many, many people with many, many different configurations are not experiencing this. For them, Sonar is working fine and in fact, better than CbB ever did. It HAS to be something about your hardware, or your software configuration. Installed any new plugins lately? Any other applications? Trying out other DAWs? What if you create a new empty project in Sonar. No plugs, just raw audio. How does cut-n-paste behave? Add another track or two. Then add virtual instruments. At what point does the problem start to appear? What are your hardware specs? What Audio interface? Driver model? buffer size? Take your project in the video, and save it somewhere else, and start pulling it apart until you isolate the problem. Does the crash happen when you disable the audio engine? What if you change audio from your current I/O interface to, say, Windows internal sound card (if possible). Change driver types. Have you run generic hardware tests on your machine? RAM test? could be a damaged memory chip. All this testing is a pain in the butt, I know. Maybe it would be easier to convert all your projects to a different DAW. God knows it's tempting, I've been there.

It depends where you're coming from. But here's a good place to start learning about what is new:

Not to refute your basic point, which is that contrast between clips and background in the Track View is clearly a pain point and could be improved, but I would encourage more honey, less vinegar.

Jeez you guys are harsh. Having worked in UI I know that there's no pleasing everyone, but cut them some slack. Overall the UI has been steadily improving, and any glitches are soon dealt with. It is OBVIOUS that they care about usability and no-one decided light-grey on white was by design. Report the issues as you see them, I'm sure they will get resolved. Also, it's a small development team and any effort put towards a theme editor to please the <10 people who actually care is not good use of resources. I'd prefer they concentrate on their core features, and I'm one of the <10 people.

Confirmed, I see this in Mercury theme only. Mercury Classic has black buttons with White text/icon and still looks a little strange, but very functional. I'm sure the UX Bakers will be all over this in the next release/patch. I'm a Light Theme user myself and it is much improved in 2025.05, in my opinion.