Jonathan Sasor

We're pleased to introduce early access of the Cakewalk Core plugins, a powerful suite of nine essential track effects designed for high quality and low CPU consumption. Post feedback on these plugins here. This Core suite is compatible with both Next and Sonar and includes the following plugins: Please note that the Cakewalk Core Plugins are only available to users with active BandLab Membership. Core Compressor – a variable-knee compressor with peak limiting for controlling audio dynamics Core Delay – a stereo delay with tempo synchronization and reverb-like features like crossfeed and diffusion Core EQ – a six-band parametric equalizer offering various filter types and manipulation for precise frequency shaping Core Gate – a dynamic gate with side-chain filtering, lookahead, and punch mode to eliminate unwanted noise and enhance transients Core Modulator – combines six time-varying modulation effects like Flanger, Ensemble, and Phaser into one versatile plugin Core Multiband –a 5-band variable-knee compressor with normal and vintage modes, an output limiter, and Transient Controlled Release for smooth compression Core Phase – a phase shifter that applies a constant phase shift for widening the stereo image Core Reverb – a high-quality reverb plugin that emulates sound reflections in a virtual room Core AutoFilter – a versatile filter, dynamically sweeping a resonant bandpass filter based on manual input, tempo synchronization, or an adjustable envelope follower Availability The Core suite (VST3 macOS/Windows) is currently available as add-ons, which you can access from the Updates page of the Start Screen, or via Cakewalk Product Center. These plugins are exclusive to BandLab Membership and can be activated within Next and Sonar, or self-authenticate for use in other DAWs. As this is an early access release, we're eager for your feedback. We have plans for continued development and adding more plugins to the suite, so stay tuned for updates! Important Prerequisite - If you are using Sonar the installer for these plugins require Sonar 2025.08 build 31.08.0.031 or higher. It will not install with earlier builds of Sonar since they do not have full integration capabilities for them. Installed Locations VST3 plugins will be installed in the directory: C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\Cakewalk\Core\ macOS VST3 Core plugin directory: /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/Cakewalk/Core/ Following installation, it may be necessary to rescan plugin directories. Automatic Migration from Sonitus plugins in Sonar The Cakewalk Core suite can automatically migrate all legacy Sonitus plugin when you load your projects. You can enable this in Preferences > VST Settings > VST3 Migration and check "Replace if Possible on Project Load" A toast notification will be displayed after loading projects, to show which plugins were replaced with newer compatible VST3 versions. Clicking the Show button in the notification will show the details for the replaced plugins. Important Notes: Sonar will seamlessly migrate the Cakewalk Core Plugins suite from the old legacy Sonitus plugins at project load time. All settings and automation will be transferred automatically. This migration is one-way, meaning you cannot revert from Core plugins back to Sonitus. Although migration is fully compatible with the old DX plugins, it's highly recommended that you save a backup copy of your project files prior to migrating to the new Core plugins. The automatic migration will not work in prior Cakewalk hosts or other hosts. In CbB or SONAR Platinum you must disable the VST Migration settings before loading old projects containing Sonitus plugins, since it may lead to errors on loading these projects otherwise, since it may lead to errors on loading these projects otherwise and cause plugin settings to be lost. Activation Cakewalk Core Plugins require an active BandLab Membership in order to activate successfully. When using the Core Plugins in Cakewalk Sonar or Next, plugin activation is seamlessly performed via single sign on host authentication. i.e. no extra steps are required other than signing in to your BandLab account from within the DAW. If you are using another DAW, you will need to sign-in to your BandLab account from within the plugin editor UI to authenticate the plugin. These plugins support Single-Sign-On (SSO) authorization, i.e signing in to one of the plugins that are part of the suite will automatically activate the other plugins in the suite. Unactivated plugins will load but will stream silence until you have signed in to your BandLab account from within the DAW or from the plugin itself. The plugins can be used offline once they are activated successfully. As long as you stay signed in to the DAW or plugin, the normal periodic reactivation will be automatically performed in the background. Offline activation is currently not available for the Core Plugins. i.e. You will need to be online for a short period to allow the plugins to activate initially. Once activated the plugins will stay activated for the normal activation lease period. Offline activation capabilities may be added in a future update. Activation banner When running in a non-Cakewalk host a sign-in banner will allow you to sign in and activate the plugin. This workflow is the same as how it works in Cakewalk DAW's When not activated a sign-in banner will be displayed inside the plugin UI and the plugin will stream silence Clicking the banner toggles between expanded and collapsed sizes

There was a fix that went in for this, but if your project was saved previously with the bus strips expanded, that will persist. Try resaving the project. You can check for the fix if you create a new project with the stock Basic template and see how it looks.

Logged, we'll fix this for the next update. Thanks!

We're pleased to introduce early access of the Cakewalk Core plugins, a powerful suite of nine essential track effects designed for high quality and low CPU consumption. Post feedback on these plugins here. This Core suite is compatible with both Next and Sonar and includes the following plugins: Please note that the Cakewalk Core Plugins are only available to users with active BandLab Membership. Core Compressor – a variable-knee compressor with peak limiting for controlling audio dynamics Core Delay – a stereo delay with tempo synchronization and reverb-like features like crossfeed and diffusion Core EQ – a six-band parametric equalizer offering various filter types and manipulation for precise frequency shaping Core Gate – a dynamic gate with side-chain filtering, lookahead, and punch mode to eliminate unwanted noise and enhance transients Core Modulator – combines six time-varying modulation effects like Flanger, Ensemble, and Phaser into one versatile plugin Core Multiband –a 5-band variable-knee compressor with normal and vintage modes, an output limiter, and Transient Controlled Release for smooth compression Core Phase – a phase shifter that applies a constant phase shift for widening the stereo image Core Reverb – a high-quality reverb plugin that emulates sound reflections in a virtual room Core AutoFilter – a versatile filter, dynamically sweeping a resonant bandpass filter based on manual input, tempo synchronization, or an adjustable envelope follower Availability The Core suite (VST3 macOS/Windows) is currently available as add-ons, which you can access from the Updates page of the Start Screen, or via Cakewalk Product Center. These plugins are exclusive to BandLab Membership and can be activated within Next and Sonar, or self-authenticate for use in other DAWs. As this is an early access release, we're eager for your feedback. We have plans for continued development and adding more plugins to the suite, so stay tuned for updates! Important Prerequisite - If you are using Sonar the installer for these plugins require Sonar 2025.08 build 31.08.0.031 or higher. It will not install with earlier builds of Sonar since they do not have full integration capabilities for them. Installed Locations VST3 plugins will be installed in the directory: C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\Cakewalk\Core\ macOS VST3 Core plugin directory: /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/Cakewalk/Core/ Following installation, it may be necessary to rescan plugin directories. Automatic Migration from Sonitus plugins in Sonar The Cakewalk Core suite can automatically migrate all legacy Sonitus plugin when you load your projects. You can enable this in Preferences > VST Settings > VST3 Migration and check "Replace if Possible on Project Load" A toast notification will be displayed after loading projects, to show which plugins were replaced with newer compatible VST3 versions. Clicking the Show button in the notification will show the details for the replaced plugins. Important Notes: Sonar will seamlessly migrate the Cakewalk Core Plugins suite from the old legacy Sonitus plugins at project load time. All settings and automation will be transferred automatically. This migration is one-way, meaning you cannot revert from Core plugins back to Sonitus. Although migration is fully compatible with the old DX plugins, it's highly recommended that you save a backup copy of your project files prior to migrating to the new Core plugins. The automatic migration will not work in prior Cakewalk hosts or other hosts. In CbB or SONAR Platinum you must disable the VST Migration settings before loading old projects containing Sonitus plugins, since it may lead to errors on loading these projects otherwise. Activation Cakewalk Core Plugins require an active BandLab Membership in order to activate successfully. When using the Core Plugins in Cakewalk Sonar or Next, plugin activation is seamlessly performed via single sign on host authentication. i.e. no extra steps are required other than signing in to your BandLab account from within the DAW. If you are using another DAW, you will need to sign-in to your BandLab account from within the plugin editor UI to authenticate the plugin. These plugins support Single-Sign-On (SSO) authorization, i.e signing in to one of the plugins that are part of the suite will automatically activate the other plugins in the suite. Unactivated plugins will load but will stream silence until you have signed in to your BandLab account from within the DAW or from the plugin itself. The plugins can be used offline once they are activated successfully. As long as you stay signed in to the DAW or plugin, the normal periodic reactivation will be automatically performed in the background. Offline activation is currently not available for the Core Plugins. i.e. You will need to be online for a short period to allow the plugins to activate initially. Once activated the plugins will stay activated for the normal activation lease period. Offline activation capabilities may be added in a future update. Activation banner When running in a non-Cakewalk host a sign-in banner will allow you to sign in and activate the plugin. This workflow is the same as how it works in Cakewalk DAW's When not activated a sign-in banner will be displayed inside the plugin UI and the plugin will stream silence Clicking the banner toggles between expanded and collapsed sizes

This green line is showing you the selection range. Select the time you want along the ruler and then hit Shift + L The Inspector as a whole can be collapsed with the "i" shortcut. The upper horizontal bars are the splitters for different items that can be displayed in the Track View such as the Arranger and Tempo tracks. These are already collapsed and cannot be further hidden. At the bottom is the collapsed Multidock tab. It's likewise already collapsed. Melodyne 5 works just fine in Sonar. Sonar can use Melodyne's tempo extraction features if you drag an audio clip to the Time Ruler.

Product Center was just updated to now display the local help installer. Please get the latest version of that. It will allow you to download and reinstall the local help if needed.

It doesn't sound like you've installed the Local Help then. Check the Product Updates tab of the Quick Start Screen and install Local Help. Once an update has been installed, it will disappear from the Product Updates tab on next open of the Start Screen.

Download for local help in Sonar will show on the Product Updates tab of the Start Screen. Just make sure you then set the option to use the local help in the Preferences.

The clips displaying Busy means the waveforms haven't been drawn yet. This could be for a number of reasons. First make sure that your audio device is working properly in the Preferences. If they still don't draw, you can try purging the contents of your Picture Cache folder which will then have Sonar redraw all the wave images on project load. The default location for the Picture Cache is C:\Cakewalk Projects\Picture Cache.

The way Steam forced SONAR Platinum to install creates a bunch of challenges for shared paths due to the limitations of that platform, but any other version of SONAR should generally be fine. I would then re-run the installer for Sonar afterwards to make sure that you then have the correct updated shared components that will get overwritten by the X1 Installer.

It's more that for an app that has web connectivity for a bunch of stuff, as Sonar does, when things related to the back end change, we need to expire older builds because otherwise there will be features in those versions that are broken. @xguitar If there's a particular problem why you're trying to use an older build, please report that.

No issues with using a FaderPort with Mackie Control here. Make sure the ports are set correctly and that you have the appropriate options selected in Record tab of the MIDI section in the Preferences. If there's an issue with your MIDI configuration, you could try regenerating your CTRLSurface.dat and TTSSEQ.ini files in %appdata%\Cakewalk\Sonar by renaming/moving/deleting the old ones.

Not seeing anything unusual for this on our end, we'd need to have a closer look at your actual project file to troubleshoot much further.

Hi all - please use this topic to post feedback specific to the Sonar 2025.08 release. Release-specific feedback is valuable to us, and consolidating it in a single topic is extremely helpful. We request that discussion in this thread be restricted to issues directly concerning this release, to make it easier for us to assist users. For other topics, kindly use the feature request section or create new posts. Off topic messages will be deleted. Thanks in advance!

New in build 31.08.0.035 Various Fixes, optimizations, and usability enhancements [Premium] Integration for new Cakewalk Core Plugins series. These brand new VST3 plugins are intended to replace the old Cakewalk DX plugins. The plugins are deeply integrated into Sonar and seamlessly migrate the plugin and automation settings from projects containing the old Cakewalk Sonitus DX plugins. The new plugins are efficient and designed to be DPI scalable and easily expandable in the future. [Premium] Core plugins now activate automatically using Single-Sign-On (SSO) host authentication. i.e. no extra steps are required to activate the Core plugins other than signing in to your BandLab account from within the DAW. A toast notification is now displayed after loading projects, when missing plugins were detected or if plugins were replaced with newer compatible VST3 versions. Clicking the Show button in the notification will show the plugin details. New dialog to show plugins replaced when they are upgraded to VST3 Optimizations: Improved application startup processing Optimized access to the VST plugin catalog. This speeds up several operations across the application including the following: Application start-up time improvements. Scanning VST plugins Loading and saving projects with many VST plugins Loading project templates and FX Chains. Inserting, deleting and copying plugins Plugin menus Reduced CPU load for meters in the console providing more UI bandwidth. Improved responsiveness when slip editing clips in the clips view during playback. Fixed: Crash when onboarding finishes on first launch. FX Bin shows incorrect state on project reopen Crown displayed when app is has full Membership in Transpose menu Start Screen fails to respond correctly after being launched from Onboarding Start screen doesn't open when a template is set to load at startup Articulations deleted when using transform tool in PRV Dragging vertical scrollbar thumb fails to work properly in large projects Console View Splitter width fails to persist on scaled displays REGRESSION: Workspace no longer loaded on app startup New in build 31.08.0.014 Various Fixes, optimizations, and usability enhancements Drag Import to Track Folder Strip Fixed: File types other than CWP in Quick Start do not have the modified time Many new BandLab projects fail to download Clicking Plugin Parent Menus closes the menu Assigned envelopes no longer bold in menus Track Folder Header labels cut off at 150% scaling Counts in Folder Track header overlap header boundaries Browser Modules fail to persist floating state on project reopen if closed Console View Volume Fails to show Offset "+" Section names are not visible in Arranger Inspector New in build 31.08.0.004 "Control Surface Disabled" toast now fades and includes button to open preferences Color Code Plugin Formats in Plugin Menus Fixed: Browser minimum size is too large Bus Edit Filter changes unexpectedly when changes are made to FX Rack MIDI files are not listed in Start Screen Plugin window opens minimized Drag/Drop copy with "copy as linked clips" no longer copies as linked Track Manager shows as blank on first undock MIDI Automation is delayed when count-in is enabled Italian translation of "Downloading" incorrect. Stuck notes when dragging multiple notes in the Piano Roll View Start Screen increases in size when repeatedly reopened Application is signed out when a BandLab project fails to download Stack overflow reported by user after copy/paste operation File types other than CWP in Quick Start do not have the modified time Please give us feedback on this release. We hope you like it. PS: The easiest way to get the latest version of Sonar is by downloading the Cakewalk Product Center application.