When is Sonar going to have some new toys to play with?

[Cannimagine]

I have been using Cakewalk for decades but got serious when Sonar was released. It was such a great upgrade and much easier to work with. I took the plunge and subscribed to the new Sonar a few months back but haven't seen anything new except the way it looks. The features offered seem to be the same things I already had with Sonar Platinum Producer. I like new toys( instruments and effects) bug fixes are needed but not very exciting. Are there new cool features coming for those of us who bought the top programs and lifetime updates?

[Wookiee]

@Cannimagine unfortunately there is no connection between SONAR Platinum and the new Sonar. Different owners.

[Starship Krupa]

13 hours ago, Cannimagine said:

I like new toys( instruments and effects)

https://kilohearts.com/products/kilohearts_essentials

https://www.meldaproduction.com/MFreeFxBundle

https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/bundles/komplete-start/

https://www.izotope.com/en/products/free-audio-plug-ins.html

https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/products/pa_free_bundle.html

Get those and your new toy box will runneth over.

If that's still not enough, check https://discuss.cakewalk.com/topic/5229-freeware-instruments-thread/

And https://discuss.cakewalk.com/topic/5064-favorite-freeware-fx-thread/

 

[pwalpwal]

back in the day, SONAR was the product, and cakewalk (the company) made deals with 3rd parties to provide some nice toys with each release (every year or so, not the current agile monthly)

today, bandlab ecosphere is the product and Sonar is just a part of that, so any new toys will be a part of the bandlab offering, excluging of course just reworking of some of the old things like the sonitus plugins, which i guess will get a GUI update

Erik's post above has some nice stuff well worth checking out

[Starship Krupa]

2 hours ago, pwalpwal said:

Erik's post above has some nice stuff well worth checking out

And I forgot to mention: all are free licensed.

And speaking of Komplete Start, when I went to that link I noticed a whole bunch of stuff that was added to Kontakt 8 Player that I didn't know about, like Chords Tool, Phrases Tool, and an arpeggiator.

After a somewhat weak start, Native have turned Kontakt Player into a must-have. Of course, many would argue that full Kontakt is a must-have, but I've never seen the need, and Kontakt Player was off-putting when I first tried it (in order to use Sennheiser DrumMic'a).

It comes with a heaping helping of useful instruments, and now these tools.

Music software companies have really embraced the loss-leader concept in the past decade.

[Magic Russ]

On 2/23/2025 at 8:42 AM, pwalpwal said:

back in the day, SONAR was the product, and cakewalk (the company) made deals with 3rd parties to provide some nice toys with each release (every year or so, not the current agile monthly)

today, bandlab ecosphere is the product and Sonar is just a part of that, so any new toys will be a part of the bandlab offering, excluging of course just reworking of some of the old things like the sonitus plugins, which i guess will get a GUI update

Erik's post above has some nice stuff well worth checking out

Most of the 3rd party products they have included have either been reincluded (Overloud), those that haven't I have either gone with the full version or decided I don't need if I haven't forgotten about altogether.

On the other hand, there are a lot of products developed by Cakewalk which were in Platinum era Sonar but don't exist in the new iteration.    I wouldn't mind seeing most of these plugins updated and added back, if only that it will make my life easier the next time I do a clean install.

Even so, there are a handful of features I'd rather see.  First would be some sort of painless method of updating stored instances of Kontakt to the latest versions.  Other hosts can do this.  Second would be some sort of tagged browsing system for track templates and FZ chains.  Third, in most cases I find the containers for FX chains to be an encumbrance and would like to have the ability to drag and drop from the browser without having to extract plugins from the container.

 

[Starship Krupa]

On 2/22/2025 at 12:50 PM, Cannimagine said:

Are there new cool features coming for those of us who bought the top programs and lifetime updates?

Certainly, but they will also be for Sonar users who didn't  buy anything from the old Cakewalk company.

[User 905133]

4 minutes ago, Starship Krupa said:

On 2/22/2025 at 3:50 PM, Cannimagine said:

Are there new cool features coming for those of us who bought the top programs and lifetime updates?

Certainly, but they will also be for Sonar users who didn't  buy anything from the old Cakewalk company.

Gosh, darn! I have been holding out for a sliding scale discount based on how much Loyalists have paid over the decades to all the former makers of Cakewalk software since Cakewalk for MS-DOS!   🤪

[Rickddd]

On 2/23/2025 at 11:55 AM, Starship Krupa said:

Of course, many would argue that full Kontakt is a must-have, but I've never seen the need, and Kontakt Player was off-putting when I first tried it (in order to use Sennheiser DrumMic'a).

 

I've been using Sonar since the before times, and up to last year I never would have plunked down money for the full Kontakt, for the same reasons.  Then... with the help of a friend, I discovered that there is a world of 3rd party instruments that ONLY the full Kontakt will play. Now that I discovered this, it's opened up a new world for me instruments wise.

 

[AB9]

Personally, I want them to focus on stability over toys.

[MIDInco]

18 hours ago, AB9 said:

Personally, I want them to focus on stability over toys.

I strongly agree with this opinion.
Features that feel like "toys" can easily be added with third-party plugins.

In the development of a DAW, I believe that VST instruments and effects should be kept to a minimum.
For example, EQ and compressors can be left to Fabfilter, and if you want to create orchestral music, using Spitfire Audio or Cinematic Studio Series will be sufficient.
For club music, I believe that by using Serum, it is possible to cover nearly all genres.

The most important thing is a stable and robust system that does not crash when introducing plugins or using automation, allowing professionals to use it with confidence.
I think Reaper is a good example of these principles.

Currently, I feel that Sonar is not sufficient in terms of these principles and cannot fulfill its responsibility in a professional environment.

That said, I have become so accustomed to Sonar’s workflow that I will continue using it.
Also, based on the recent updates to Sonar, I believe the developers are working hard and trying to improve the software.