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I've been using the MIDI Activity Monitor on the taskbar for years with both CbB and with Sonar running with Windows 10 and now Windows 11 and I 've never seen it fail. Not sure what the problem could be; hopefully one of the bakers will respond soon.

Often when working with MIDI and Instruments tracks in Track View and Piano Roll View you end up with two or more tracks whose notes have the same or very similar color. You can easily change the color of the notes (foreground color) in one of the tracks using Track Inspector, but the color will remain unchanged in PRV. If a way could be found to sync the color selected in the Track Inspector with the color of notes in PRV it would make editing, drawing, and arranging notes in PRV much easier.

Local Help/Off-Line Help should always be available as an integral part of Sonar just as it was in CbB and SONAR. For many of us, keeping our DAW or studio computer constantly online causes problems. Additionally, I don't appreciate and don't need the constant reminders, toast messages, that my computer is off-line. BandLab/Cakewalk has not provided a way to turn these off and these unnecessary reminders are a nuisance and a drag on workflow. Please correct this in the next version.

For me it would be Igor Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring). I was awestruck by it the first time I heard it nearly sixty years ago and am still awestruck when I hear it played today.

Jack, Many thanks for your feedback. Sorry for not having checked this post in a while, but the band wanted you to know they greatly appreciate it. Also, I should have mentioned this earlier; Sun's Muse is a strong and active supporter of independent filmmakers. It can often be difficult and quite expensive for independent producers and directors to acquire and pay for the music they need for their soundtrack. If anyone out there is looking for soundtrack music, please let us know ... Sun's Muse license or fee is ridiculously low.

Also listen on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpkOXAq7LYo&list=OLAK5uy_nRHiWHirBYpTnqibnUH7yxfkIuTjtSaMg

Thanks for responding guys. I had accidentally unchecked Big Time when I created the workspace you see in the screenshot and I'm now using that workspace most of the time. Problem solved.

Can someone explain what happened to Big Time in Sonar? It's supposed to be under the Views menu and is mentioned on three different pages of the Sonar Reference Guide (170, 199, and 1812), but I can't find it. Please see screenshot below.

Check out my post on October 10th. Data in the Time field above the track headers and in the Transport module need to be sharper and easier to read. These are areas that you read frequently as you work on a project.

I'm not an expert on the code for Windows, but isn't there a relationship between C++ Redistributables and Windows systems software? If so, would it be helpful to run the systems integrity check, sfc /scannow, every few months or before installing a Sonar update or is it totally unrelated to the redistributables problem?

My first post in the Song section, hope I get everything right. Music for the Dark Parlor is Sun's Muse' first album. They compose primarily ambient music, mostly electronic. I did the mixing and could be considered the producer. Here is the link: https://sunsmuse.hearnow.com The album is also available on CD. Please contact info@leonineproductions.net for more information. l

I enjoyed reading about everyone’s experiences with acoustic pianos. We have and continue to play our Steinway upright that is now about 54 years old. The original felt hammers and dampers are in very good condition, everything works, it still holds its tune, and I had to replace one string when it broke about forty years ago. I am not a good pianist and have never worked as a professional musician, but I love the sound of the instrument. Back in the seventies I had the opportunity to play a Steinway Concert D grand piano. The piano tuner at a local college music department was a friend of mine and after he had finished tuning the instrument for a recital to be held later that evening, he noticed me standing off to the side on the stage and said, “Why don’t you sit down and give it a whirl?” So I did. I didn’t have my sheet music with me so for about 20 minutes I played whatever I could remember—a little Debussy, some Rachmaninoff, a short piece by Scriabin, and a little jazz. It was incredible—not my playing--the sound of the Concert D. It was made for this stuff--think of the opening bars of Rachmaninoff’s 2nd Piano Concerto. When you play a grand piano, the fundamentals of the lower keys are much more prominent (owing to the longer strings used for these notes), and you feel these low frequencies through your fingers and arms, even through your feet as they rest on the floor. My impression was, WOW, this is a REAL piano, everything else I’ve played sounds like a toy. For those who like pianos but haven’t had a chance to play a concert grand, I hope you get the opportunity soon; it’s an extraordinary experience.

David, With regard to annoyance 2, I didn't explain this clearly. I was referring to the pane to the right of the Drum Notes pane where you have the time grid with the colored rectangles representing notes, except in this case they represent beats or hits on the various percussion instruments when you've selected Show Notes with Duration. If you select Session Drummer 2 from the New Drum Map list and Show Note Names, the colored rectangles contain the names of the various drum kit pieces e.g., Bass Drum, Snare, High Conga, etc. When you select Session Drummer 2 Default you get the Drum Note pane on the left, and the rectangular notes on the time grid to the right, but it will not show the names of the kit pieces even when you've checked Show Note Names. My point was if the Bakers could find a way to do this it would make editing the drum beats easier, like it does when you're editing notes in a MIDI track. With problem 3, your solution is a good one, I've done something similar with my Templates folder. I'm grateful to Starship Krupa for bringing the Drum Map feature to everyone's attention in the Forum. I hadn't worked with Drum Maps for more than a year, but I remember the fun I had working with it back when I was using SONAR X3, and I began to get some new ideas for using percussion in some of the compositions I've been working on. That's why I think it's important for the powers that be in Cakewalk to make some improvements here. If the feature is fun to use and fairly easy to learn it will attract more users and new customers.

I’m returning with the results of my “experiments” with the Drum Map feature in Sonar (v. 2024.09, build 105). I’m working with the Session Drummer 2 plug-in that comes with Sonar and tested it in four different templates that I use when composing plus the Sonar Basic template, suggested by David, which I hadn’t used before. In each template I created a simple instrument track for Session Drummer, then going to the Output field on the MIDI console strip selected New Drum Map. The list that appears offers two choices for Session Drummer; I chose Session Drummer 2 Default because this one gives you the Drum Note Pane (white letters on grey background) when you go to Piano Roll View. Once you’ve selected a particular kit in the Program field of Session Drummer and have Input Echo on in the Track header, you can play the various pieces in the drum kit, record what you play, and edit what you’ve recorded—no problem, everything worked fine in all five templates. There are however three annoyances I encountered in every template and every project I created that I wish could be corrected in future versions of Sonar: 1. When you slide the vertical border between the Drum Note Pane and the Note Grid to the left, the names of the kit pieces disappear instead of truncating, so if you see blank lines in the Names column of the Note Pane, slide the border over to the right about three inches and all the names of the various kit pieces should appear. 2. Even though Show Note Names has been checked in PRV, no labels appear on the notes in the note grid whether you go with the rectangular notes that allow you to show duration or the short diamond shaped notes. 3. When you select New Drum Map a very long list of maps appears and it takes quite a while to scroll down the list if you are looking for a map or kit that is near the end of the alphabet. It would be great to have a vertical thumb on this list to enable faster scrolling. Also, rather than calling it New Drum Map, I think Select Drum Map or Drum Map Menu would be a lot easier, particularly for new Sonar users, to understand. Some of these annoyances may have been caused by me setting something up incorrectly or not clicking a on the right item; if so, I apologize for any confusion this caused, but this is what I observed.

David, Thanks for responding and providing additional info. I'll run a few more experiments later on this week and get back to you.

I only worked with Drum Maps on a few experimental projects when I was using CbB, but they did work. I hadn't gotten around to trying Drum Maps in Sonar, but inspired by the lively discussions in this thread, I decided to create a test project using Session Drummer (included in Sonar) and build the project following David's instructions. At Step 2, I found two choices for a Session Drummer Map on the list: Session Drummer 2 and Session Drummer 2 Default. I selected Session Drummer 2 then completed Steps 3 and 4. The names of the various drum kit pieces do appear on the left side of PRV, but it is not the Drum Map pane. You see a plane, white background with the names abbreviated to the point where they are difficult to read and interpret, and there are no columns for Note In, Note Out, Mute, or Solo. Any notes that you record or draw in the PVR grid are named if Show Note Names has been checked and I had no problem editing them. Next, I created a similar project, but selected Session Drummer 2 Default in the Output selector. At Step 4 the Drum Map pane appeared (white letters on a medium grey background), but no instrument names were listed--at first. Scrolling down a way, I discovered one instrument, claves. I widened the column to about two inches and suddenly all the instruments appeared! Unlike Drum Map panes in CbB, the kit instrument names in Sonar are not truncated when the column is narrowed, they disappear(!?) as you slide the vertical border line to the left. The columns for Note In, Note Out, Mute, and Solo are there, but in the PRV grid, notes have no names when Show Note Name has been checked(?). I didn't have any problems with recording, drawing, or editing notes. I agree with others in this thread that the Drum Map feature needs to be more intuitive to work with and generally improved. The two problems mentioned above should be corrected and a thorough explanation of how to create a drum map for both MIDI and Instrument tracks needs to be included in the much-needed Sonar Reference Guide and Off-Line Help which I hope will be coming soon.

I've been working with Sonar for about a month now and have tried several of the new themes, but decided to stick with Classic Mercury as the darker themes make it difficult to see features and details in both clips and console strips. I'm using an HP monitor with 1920 x 1080 resolution and have seen only a slight improvement in sharpness of Sonar over CbB. However, there are several fields of data in the Sonar U.I. that are definitely more difficult to read. In the time block within the Transport Module (Classic Mercury theme) the data appears almost black against a light cyan background. The colors are fine, but the data in the rate/beats per min. field and the data in the beats per measure field is difficult to read and needs a larger, black font. The MIDI Reset symbol is far too faint, please darken and make easier to identify. Also, the font used for the time display on the left, above the track headers is too small and appears slightly fuzzy on my screen. The font used in the original Mercury theme in CbB was larger and sharper. When switching from Clip to Volume automation in Track View, the lighter colors of the notes in a clip become much darker and more difficult to see against the black background of the clip. Notes should retain their light color to be easily seen against the dark background of the clip when switching to automation. In the meters in both track headers and console strips, the colors for background, the green indicator bars, and meter markings are very muted and difficult to read. Giving users the option of changing colors of various data and background fields is not just for esthetics. Making the U.I. more attractive will certainly attract potential customers; however, from a practical standpoint, being able to alter colors it makes data and information much easier to read reducing errors and user fatigue. Please take steps to improve the above-mentioned parts of the U.I., it will make my work easier and potential customers will spot these improvements immediately. It's bound to improve sales/subscriptions.

Thanks so much for sharing this wonderful interview with us, Criag. The growth of electronic music and the genesis of the early synthesizers back in the late fifties, the sixties, and seventies--it was an incredible time. I was lucky to have personally known a couple of these people and some of the students or engineers that worked with them. I'm grateful for being around then, if only as an enthusiastic observer, supporter, and experimenter.

Glenn and Tom, Many thanks for responding. I've taken notes on your suggestions; I know they'll come in handy when make the transition.

I'm planning on making the transition from CbB to Sonar a few weeks from now, but have a few questions. Has a new Reference Guide been published for Sonar or will one be coming soon? What is the best way to preserve and transfer your old Cakewalk Content and Projects to the new Sonar. Does the Cakewalk website offer advice or a video on how to make a good transition such that nothing is lost that you want to keep?

I like the new automation smoothing feature; hope the developers continue to make improvements that make automation easier to use. Also want to wish Mike well and hope to see many more of his excellent videos on the new Sonar.

I prefer to work with my DAW computer offline most of the time. The pop-up ad for Sonar that I experience doesn't interfere with the program in any way; it's just an annoying 19 sec. delay (count-down to Close) every time I initiate CW. Is there any way to prevent the pop-up from recurring while you are working offline?

I received an e-mail today informing me and other subscribers that the August issue of the digital version of Electronic Musician magazine will be the last. The printed form of EM was phased out about a year ago. I was sad to see it go, especially the printed version. I had subscribed to it since the late eighties and it had been my one of my favorite magazines--great articles, interviews with musicians and composers, and excellent reviews of both music-making hardware and software. In its early years, there were often articles on DIY projects; Bob Moog was a contributor and one of the last articles he wrote was "Build the EM Theremin". As I recall, EM had its roots in an earlier periodical called Polyphony that was published by PAiA Electronics. If you remember PAiA synthesizer kits you go back a way. Back in the seventies, DIY projects (some of you may remember Electronotes) and kits were the only way some of us could get started in electronic music. It was exciting and fun to build your own gear, especially when it actually worked, and EM grew out of that tradition. For the future, some of EM's writers may be contributing to a thread at the MusicRadar site, but I'm going to miss EM magazine.

I first experienced the same problem a couple of months ago. I don't often go to the Keyboard Shortcuts page, and this was several months after I updated CbB to v. 2022.11. If I'm moving down the list of pages in Preferences, all of the pages except Keyboard Shortcuts open within less than half a second, but Keyboard Shortcuts takes about six seconds to open. Every function on the page seems to work okay; I can create new shortcuts, bind and unbind keys without any problem. The interesting thing I observed is that once you have opened the Shortcuts page during a CbB session and return to it a second or third time it opens as quickly as the other pages. I don't have any idea of what the cause might be. I did perform a disk defragment a few weeks ago, for routine disk maintenance, and that did seem to reduce the delay by a couple of seconds.

Many thanks, Mark. So, if I'm understanding things correctly both Cakewalk Next and Sonar will run fine on Win. 10.