AB99

I have had good luck in the past speaking to the people at this link: https://realtraps.com/ They may have some good advice for the OP.

Yes - Cakewalk Sonar is different from Cakewalk by Bandlab and Cakewalk Next. And Sonar should also come with the bandlab subscription. I hope this helps you. If you have a bandlab subscription, you should be good to go. The "new" Sonar is awesome. Cheers!

I have no issues with Kontakt.

Bandlab - here is an opportunity! Buy Finale! Then figure out how to incorporate it in Sonar!!!

Another email today with changes to the Finale Announcement: Dear valued Finale customer, Earlier this week, we announced the end of development on Finale. Based on your feedback, we have these important updates to our original announcement: Finale authorization will remain available indefinitely We've heard your concerns. They are valid. We originally announced that it would no longer be possible to reauthorize Finale after August 26th, 2025. But as a result of our community’s feedback, Finale authorization will remain active for the foreseeable future. Please note that future OS changes can still impact your ability to use Finale on new devices. Finale v27 to be included with Dorico Pro Crossgrades We are currently working on a solution for all customers who have purchased or intend to purchase a Dorico Pro crossgrade to be able to download Finale v27. This will ensure that you can export your Finale files using MusicXML 4.0, the most robust version of MusicXML available. Thank you for your patience, we will provide more information soon. We hope these updates will help make your transition to Dorico even easier. We will continue to provide updates about the Finale sunset as more information becomes available. For the latest information and all updates about this change, please refer to this letter from MakeMusic President Greg Dell’Era:

Yes - August 2025 is when it can no longer be authorized on a new install or new machine. Finale was such a pain to learn, perhaps it is time to learn a different program. But it would be nice if another program could read finale files.

Just got an email that Finale is final. Sounds funny but it really is not. For us folks using Finale for a decade or decades, it is super bad news. And buy the way, these products were purchased. Anyone else here affected by this? I assume so.

Note that litle ring next to FX. Anything that can be done to make that more prominent when lit would be great. Thank you.

I would like to see a more prominent contrast for when an effect is on. Not a big issue and I am loving Sonar.

Yay!

Can I fade out the click within Sonar. For instance, if I record myself playing acoustic guitar, can I fade out the click track so it cannot be heard when I am sustaining a final chord or note(s)?

I have noticed this on the last couple of updates. When I update Sonar, it runs and then it freezes. I have to use "end task" in task manager, to close Sonar. Then when I reopen it, the update shows up and all is good. But is there some reason for that freeze after the update? Thank you in advance. (Guessing from the lack of response, this may be something unique to my computer setup.)

I think Sonar crashing is not an issue for the vast majority of users. Ironically, the only time mine freezes, is when there is an update and I apply it. I have to "end the task" after the updating to close it and then reopen it and the update appears be be great. For that matter, I can make MS Word crash, and I hear Microsoft might have more staff!

Thanks tons! That worked.

Thank you. You are correct and, as usual, very helpful. The problem is that when I select a track to be have the PVR view, it automatically selects everything in the PRV. I am not sure how you can see a track in the PRV without having all the notes selected. Anyway, it is sort of a minor pain. Ideally, I would like to select a track in the PRV, and have none of the notes highlighted until I specially highlight a note in the PRV.

I hope I can convey this well. When I am in the piano roll view doing some midi note editing with the smart tool, often if I try to change the length of one note it changes the length of more notes as well. If I click on the view somewhere, I can often get it to only change the note in question with the smart tool. Is there some sort of parameter I can change in preferences or somewhere else, where I can have the default being only changing the length of the one selected note? Thanks in advance! (note - this has been a problem with cakewalk bandlab as well as Sonar - both great products!)

I understand your comment. However, we have not been burned more than once with Bandlab. Instead, it has kept important staff, provided updates, and made it free for a number of years, while the predecessors were charging. And any guarantees by a company are only worth the lifetime of the company. So, the question is what is sustainable for Bandlab and the Sonar/Cakewalk users? I do not think I can say it better than Craig Anderton, but Bandlab gave us a chance, and maybe it is reasonable to give Bandlab a chance to respond here. It is not like Bandlab has said that a perpetual license option is foreclosed. And it would be reasonable if there was a perpetual license, that there be a charge for updates to help pay the continual costs of staff, etc. And perhaps all these comments about concerns for a perpetual license will reach Bandlab. I suspect one of the pieces of the puzzle missing here is whether posts on this forum make it to the decision makers at Bandlab? If they do, great. If they do not, then it would be great to know how and where to convey these concerns.

Here is a killer feature: It does not crash for me with my i9-14900ks and MSI Godlike Max Z790 with latest bios update and opens swiftly. But wait! There's more! ----- It has kept a lot of familiarity with past renditions, so the learning curve is very minor. And it has all the features I need (and a lot more than I need.) And it looks better and better, the more I use it; even before they provide the "themes update" that they said they are working on. I do not have any problem finding what I need to do fairly quickly. And it has great technical staff (the bakers) that respond on this great board. I am sure there are a lot of people that are really happy with Sonar that are not posting. I am confident that the product will get better and better. I am not discounting the concerns of others. They are entitled to those concerns. But I should also be allowed to post that I am quite happy with it and having made that choice, it works better for my life.

What about mp3 at 320kbps. Seems to go up to 20khz.

I believe there is a post by a staff member indicating that they are working on a theme color option for Sonar. That will be great.

Good list. I would add: 1. Financial stability for the product, instead of bouncing from company to company with all its deterimental impacts. 2. Pay for those that work hard on updates, answering questions here, etc.

Nothing is forever. A lifetime warranty is generally for the lifetime of the company. No matter what bandlab says right now, it can change. If bandlab believes that a subscription model keeps Sonar going in a financially sustainable way, so be it. Nothing stops them from changing that later. So I just choose to be grateful that bandlab picked up cakewalk, that it was free for years, that Sonar exists even with a subscription, that the subscription rate is reasonable, that Cakewalk staff and this forum is fabulous, and that people like Craig Anderton are will to add so much free expertise to any of us. Imho, this is way better than having the product bounce around to different companies.

Thank you sjoens. What through me off is that I right click on the other tools and see the properties, so I thought that was the same for the smart tool. So - double click on the smart tool. Still would be nice to have a right click option on the smart tool for consistency.

Thank you, David. Perhaps the "Sonar" people can work on this in an update.

I would love it if when I am using the Smart Tool to change note length and more, if it was possible to create a "right click option" where I could edit the note parameters, Instead, if I right click on it on a particular note, the note is erased. Perhaps the Smart Tool is configurable in a way that I do not know about.