Starship Krupa

Nice. I've had this question in the back of my mind since Sonar came out: do the developers use monitors or monitor settings with greater contrast/vibrance than my poor old Dell and Samsung HD monitors'? The other day I bought a 27" 4K monitor thinking that it might help with my Sonar legibility issues. Unfortunately it didn't.

What happened 5 years ago? CbB came out over 6 years ago. IMO, it improved a great deal over the years, up until the point that development on it stopped. Do you mean that 5 years ago another DAW surpassed it?

I would love to find out how to customize it to be more visible. I would prefer it not to then go missing from time to time. Does it still go missing if you back out your customization(s)? I've never been able to detect any change in "LED state" in the icon, not from the start. The "lights" are just too small. My MIDI chain troubleshooting is to look at a MIDI track's meters to see if Sonar is able to take data in, and then if it's not, then I fire up MIDI-Ox. I find MIDI-Ox' port mapping setup screen to be mostly unfathomable, so I use a "brute forcing the puzzle" approach to setting it up. Once it's set up, MIDI-Ox is a powerful tool.

Edited because misunderstood inquiry.

People actually use this? I've never been able to detect MIDI activity, the thing is just too small. Permanent disability. A longstanding feature request of mine is to move the indicator somewhere within the main UI. Maybe at the bottom or somewhere in the transport module.

Only BandLab know for sure and that information is locked behind a wall of non-disclosure agreements.

You're either not reading my posts or you don't think I'm a grown man.😆

That is great news, if I remember correctly, the 56 is similar to the Pro 40, but with onboard FX? I saw a post on VI Control from a person whose Liquid Saffire 56 had become unusable on his Windows 10 system. When he upgraded his OS to Windows 11, the interface started working again. Reports of Firewire's death on Windows seem to still be premature. I'm not concerned in any case, my Pro 40's can continue to be of value whenever Firewire finally does breathe its last. They should function just as well as an Octopre, and they're already paid for.

Sonar has a nice command that will fit your entire project on the screen horizontally. Ctrl-Alt-F is the default keystroke for it.

Ah, so that was you tearing 'em up. Quite amusing. I had heard that there are still people out there who think they're owed something special by BandLab because they paid Gibson for the SPlat lifetime updates plan 8 years ago. They don't seem to come around here any more. That is, in addition to 7 years of continuous updates, which included a zillion bug fixes and several new features.

Wow, quite the explosion of videos! Cakewalk-oriented video channels ground to a halt after the NuSonar announcement. I know because I search for them from time to time. I guess they were waiting to see what would happen.

Of course there's more to the UI overhaul than that. The new vector-based technology is supposed to be able to handle display scaling better. We already have the resizable Console strip modules, which is great. The new Track Manager is a big improvement over the old one. Theoretically, the vector-based UI should allow for greater customization. If not for the end user, at least for the developers. I hope we see more of that. I'm here to advocate for it. I like the overall look of the new UI. Most of my CbB themes are as flat as I could make them, especially the dark ones. Flat is the current look for computer programs. Computers have been around long enough that programs don't have to look like physical objects. The last big revamp of the SONAR/CbB UI was in the oughts, right? I know that new isn't necessarily better, but It was looking dated to me. I don't like having to switch back to CbB for certain tasks.

"Blame" is a strong word. I like to stay away from figuring out what the devs' priorities are. I want to be able to use NuSonar, and they probably want it to be usable. I'll put it like this: Sonar has multiple areas where legibility and accessibility has been reduced in comparison to its immediate predecessor. I'd like to see this reversed/remedied, especially if/as CbB gets phased out in favor of the free tier of Sonar. Others have concurred, and of course there must be many other users who never post on this forum. NuSonar has been released for some time, and from the start, people have given feedback regarding how the legibility of Sonar is reduced from CbB's and how important it is to restore the features that have been removed from Color Preferences. Some users have stated that if these issues aren't addressed, they'll stick with CbB for as long as they can and then maybe go in search of yet another DAW. So far, things have stayed the same except for some tweaks to the contrast of grid lines in Track View/Clips Pane. While the UI looks slicker overall, there are no areas where legibility has been improved. In most locations, text font size has decreased. Less so button image size, but there are some locations where that's gotten smaller too, such as the note length buttons in Piano Roll view. The underlying UI elements are the same size as they were in CbB, so making the graphics and text labels smaller isn't due to lack of real estate. The text sizes really look like I went down a line on an eye chart. CbB was the last line I could read, and then NuSonar is the next line down where I start to miss letters. In the places where text contrast against its background has changed, it's been reduced, not increased. A relatively small increase to text contrast against the backgrounds would help, though. There are some operations, like comping, where I switch back to CbB even though I otherwise much prefer the look of the NuSonar interface. Comping, clip editing, any work that requires me to use the grid to line things up is much easier and faster in CbB because I can make the lines out better. When I switch back to CbB, my eyes relax, I can read labels again, and I don't have to rely as much on memory and guessing. It's easier and more comfortable to regress to a program whose UI I like less than it is to have to squint and press my face up to the monitor. I'm about to connect with someone on Craig's List who's selling a 4K monitor, which I'm only interested in because it might help me see Sonar better. The HD monitors I already have are perfectly fine for everything else I do with my system. I recently had a comping project with 4 linked drum clips. I started out in NuSonar, to give it a chance, but eventually had to choose between forcing myself and getting the job done. It's still mostly fine for MIDI editing, but I can't make out the note value buttons in PRV any more. I don't mean this to slam the developers, they're good lads who work hard and do good work. The UI revamp is a herculean task and they've actually pulled it off. But if the reason for the reduced legibility is that Sonar is still relatively new, then what better time to provide feedback, before things are set in stone? There's still time to restore the text to its previous sizes. For now, even a couple of color schemes with higher text contrast would help. "High Contrast Light" and "High Contrast Dark?"

They are completely compatible. There's nothing to do except copy them and start using them. I you change your Sonar file location preferences so that Sonar uses the same folder as the CbB templates, you don't even have to copy them.

Clarification: only one app can be assigned to open files with a given extension when the filename or icon is double-clicked in Explorer. NuSonar and CbB can both open .CWP files once you start the program and open projects via the Start Screen or File/Open.

Hmm, so with each big move in the UI, Color Preferences has become less capable of allowing the user to set colors? Disturbing.🤔 Between Theme Editor and Color Preferences, I was able to get CbB to mostly bend to my will, color wise. There were some elements that were impervious to color customization, notably the Browser background. With NuSonar, the Browser background color can now be changed, you just have to be a developer to change it.😆

That's what I thought, that it was a relatively recent feature. Theme Editor was fun while it lasted, but as far as making the DAW sufficient to my needs, not necessary. I don't have to have REAPER or CbB-level control over the program's look to be happy. I need to be able to make out my measure and beat lines, and their colors weren't determined by Theme Editor. It was Color Preferences. Although the interface to the feature is still there, it no longer has any effect on parts of the UI that I want/need to modify in order to make them legible. I can't figure out what elements it even CAN control any more. I have a feeling that Color Preferences dates back a good many Cakewalk/SONAR/Sonar revisions. I'll take a guess and say at least as early as the first X, probably earlier. The dialog has that "party like it's 1999" look about it. One thing that gives me some hope is that among the current fixed color schemes we can get an idea of what screen elements can have different colors. If we're allowed to once again choose our own custom colors, the elements that I'm most interested in tweaking should be tweakable. The aforementioned clip backgrounds and lines, text color in the Browser, various buttons, various backgrounds. As soon as they let us at it I'll be working on my own custom color schemes/themes. I hope that it's just a matter of the devs wanting to rework the Color Preferences dialog panel to match the new Sonar look before we get it back. I didn't realize until I used CbB how much more inspiring a program is when I can set the colors myself.

Indeed. Restoring the text and button image sizes to at least what they were in CbB would be at the top of my list of pressing concerns. Returning a small bit of functionality to the color chooser would be second. Specifically being allowed to adjust the color of my Track View/Clip Pane beat and measure grid lines would help so much. Despite the fun I had with Theme Editor, I could live without one if I were allowed to choose a few important colors. I like the new look overall, but once CbB finally validates no more, my screens are going to start getting nose prints from my comping sessions!😆

Here's another act I would DEFINITELY go see, Trevor Horn touring as The Buggles at age 75 and just bringing it. How can he still be hitting those high notes? Oh right, never had a touring career as a singer except for that one stint with Yes. This is a great performance of one of the best songs on The Age of Plastic. He's a ferocious bass player, while doing lead vocals no less. He's so awesome he gets a pass on the 5-string.

Found my earlier notes/cheat sheet on Workspaces. Here it is with some editing:

Jonesy beat me to it. The D key is all you need. Console or Piano Roll in the multidock and flip back and forth as needed. I use Sonar on a laptop with a 15.6" screen, which is tiny compared to the humongous (3 of them) set of monitors I use on my main workstation. For extra fun, try Shift+D. Workspaces and Screensets are powerful, but they're advanced and require first understanding them and then configuring them. Somewhere on this forum I wrote a guide to understanding Workspaces, I'll see if I can find it....

The most lamented feature that was left out of Sonar is the ability for the user to set custom colors for such things as beat and measure grid lines. The next most is the full Theme Editor, but I understand why they deprecated that. The underpinnings of new Sonar's UI are just so different.

I don't see a topic from you there. Are you sure you posted it in the Feedback forum? I'll look in the Sonar forum....

Sonar Premium is the full-featured version of Cakewalk's flagship DAW. SONAR Platinum was a product whose life ended in late 2017 when Gibson, Cakewalk's parent company, dissolved Cakewalk, Inc. SONAR Platinum came with a great deal of bundled plug-ins. They later sold the Cakewalk intellectual property (not the company, just the intellectual property) to BandLab. BandLab reissued what had been SONAR as "Cakewalk By BandLab." The core program was the same as SONAR Platinum, but did not include most of the bundled software. The DAW got a major UI update and changed its name to Sonar (mixed case). Up until now, Sonar has only been available as part of a paid BandLab membership. This version is now "Sonar Premium" and is still only available as part of the BandLab membership. Sonar Free Tier is Sonar minus a few features (plug-in upsampling, multiple arranger tracks, free sound library). It also has a splash screen on start up that encourages the user to upgrade to the premium version. For most people's uses, it will function as well as Sonar Premium, and better than Cakewalk By BandLab. There are so many free plug-ins around now that bundled software is not as important as it was when SONAR Platinum was still around. I hope this clears things up. I know it's hard to follow.

I ran into the "email with no code" problem when I first tried, but they corrected this. Maybe it's broken again. Have patience, keep trying. So far I haven't been knocked out by it, but I've only run through the presets. A deeper dive is in order. Can't have too many glitch effects in the toolbox, says I.