Sonar 2025.06 Feedback

[TracingArcs]

Just want to say thank you. been using Sonar since V2. And was happy with Cakewalk by Bandlab. Installed the new "free tier". No issues. It imported all my settings. Scanned all Vst without problems (incl some 32 bit stuff). And just tested some projects for a release that all imported fine (and seemed quicker to load, but may be my wishful thinking).

The "countdown" in order to use the program seems a small price to pay. And any withheld features don't appear to be a stumbling block. This should put Sonar back near the top for "free" DAW software. If I have any critisicm it is that having worked in Market Research for two decades. The launch could be better focussed and implemented. 

With plans for a new audio PC to be built. I do feel I can stay now. After all decades of familiarity are not to be squandered. Again many thanks to the Bakers and Meng.

[John Faughey]

8 hours ago, TracingArcs said:

Just want to say thank you. been using Sonar since V2. And was happy with Cakewalk by Bandlab. Installed the new "free tier". No issues. It imported all my settings. Scanned all Vst without problems (incl some 32 bit stuff). And just tested some projects for a release that all imported fine (and seemed quicker to load, but may be my wishful thinking).

The "countdown" in order to use the program seems a small price to pay. And any withheld features don't appear to be a stumbling block. This should put Sonar back near the top for "free" DAW software. If I have any critisicm it is that having worked in Market Research for two decades. The launch could be better focussed and implemented. 

With plans for a new audio PC to be built. I do feel I can stay now. After all decades of familiarity are not to be squandered. Again many thanks to the Bakers and Meng.

I have to say in terms of marketing, I am stunned at the lack of any type of presence in the marketplace. It’s such a fantastic DAW, but they don’t want to seem to advertise. I always try and tag projects when I post on Instagram, but the social media sites are always dead.

[Under A Mile]

On 6/20/2025 at 10:33 PM, Under A Mile said:

hi, since 2025.06 when I press play, it takes many seconds before it starts, but when I press stop it happens immediately.

This is on existing projects. I tried a new Basic project and this did not occur and recording was ok there too.

I disabled all FX and it still occurred.

ESI U168T soundcard, Win11.

regards,

Paul

Debugging this : In the project where I first saw the problem, I had a MIDI track with >100 unflattened take lanes - set this to Archive and playback started instantly. Then I began culling the take lanes:  I am pretty sure the delay in starting playback is proportional to the number of MIDI take lanes, as the delay got shorter as I removed more. The instrument happened to be Cakewalk SI Electric Piano.  But I think it will occur with other instruments.

On another project, the delay was maybe only 1sec, and the same thing happened. I also think flattening the comp helped.

But, what I think could be an actual bug, is that when freezing a midi instrument, the number of takes lanes is still affecting the p/b start time. I would have thought that while frozen, the midi events on that track are irrelevant as we are just playing back a bounced audio track?

And I am fairly sure this got worse with 2025.06

 

[Tez]

Project start & end makers work when 1st installed in a project, they appear to save with the project, but...

On reopening the project they DON'T WORK and have to be cleared & re-installed.

[HIBI]

On 6/22/2025 at 3:48 AM, msmcleod said:

Plugin oversampling will be disabled.

I would like to check just to be sure, this does not prevent the plug-ins from upsampling themselves, but only applies to upsampling done by Sonar for plug-ins that do not have upsampling capabilities, correct?

[Jesse Jost]

7 hours ago, HIBI said:

I would like to check just to be sure, this does not prevent the plug-ins from upsampling themselves, but only applies to upsampling done by Sonar for plug-ins that do not have upsampling capabilities, correct?

Correct - this refers only to Sonar's upsampling tool. Any processing behavior within the plugin itself would be unaffected by this restriction. 

[Traveler]

I have an issue with the Browser after the update.  I keep the browser docked and minimized on the right in my templates & projects, and now each time I open a template/project the browser has a weird folder'ish view (1st pic).  I have to expand then minimize it in order to go back to a normal view (video), but this only lasts while the project is open because the normal view isn't saving with the template/project.

However, if I add the Track Manager to the browser then the normal view (without all the folders) will save with template/project without trouble (3rd pic).

Just wanted to report this issue for a future update.

1st pic, Folder'ish view.

Video, to get back to a normal view.

2nd pic, Track Manager added to Browser = Normal view (no folders).

[Noel Borthwick]

On 6/22/2025 at 5:26 AM, TracingArcs said:

If I have any critisicm it is that having worked in Market Research for two decades. The launch could be better focussed and implemented. 

This is initially a soft launch. More formal launch will follow with website updates etc.

[Noel Borthwick]

On 6/22/2025 at 5:35 PM, Under A Mile said:

Debugging this : In the project where I first saw the problem, I had a MIDI track with >100 unflattened take lanes - set this to Archive and playback started instantly. Then I began culling the take lanes:  I am pretty sure the delay in starting playback is proportional to the number of MIDI take lanes, as the delay got shorter as I removed more. The instrument happened to be Cakewalk SI Electric Piano.  But I think it will occur with other instruments.

On another project, the delay was maybe only 1sec, and the same thing happened. I also think flattening the comp helped.

But, what I think could be an actual bug, is that when freezing a midi instrument, the number of takes lanes is still affecting the p/b start time. I would have thought that while frozen, the midi events on that track are irrelevant as we are just playing back a bounced audio track?

And I am fairly sure this got worse with 2025.06

 

Can you share a project that exhibits this?

[David Baay]

On 6/22/2025 at 7:36 PM, Tez said:

Project start & end makers work when 1st installed in a project, they appear to save with the project, but...

On reopening the project they DON'T WORK and have to be cleared & re-installed.

Two possibilities:

1. When you set an End marker, Sonar automatically enables Stop at Project End in Track View options, but that option can later be disabled, and the transport will keep running past the End marker. In that case, you just need to re-enable the option.

2. If you have a loop region that runs beyond the End marker, that will override the End marker and the transport will keep running to the end of the loop. Similarly, if the loop starts before the Start marker, playback will initially start at the marker, but when the end of the loop is reached, the tranport will go all the way back to the start of the loop. In that case, just disable looping.

 

Edited Tuesday at 08:07 PM by David Baay

[Billy86]

Please, please provide additional GUI themes and allow us to create and share themes -- like we've done for years in the past. I can hardly see the new monochrome GUI as it is. Quite frankly, it's awful and made even worse by the fact that we can't change it. Human-GUI interaction is where the whole relationship with tech starts. C'mon bakers. 

[Dao Allegro]

I have downloaded and installed everything proper for the new version of Cakewalk Sonar free. It has been buffering for 2 hours, and the screen looks like this. Why is it taking so long?

[Wookiee]

@Dao Allegro what do you think is missing looks complete to me.

[Under A Mile]

20 hours ago, Noel Borthwick said:

Can you share a project that exhibits this?

Yes, I have spent some time anonymising the track here , but this project still shows the problem.

I removed the audio tracks that were originally there but not removed any fx FWIW.

 I wanted to include a version where the midi  has been frozen to audio but it's too large to attach - you can try freezing else let me know how to send that on.

I think you will find, that if you start removing take lanes, the playback will begin after shorter time the more that you remove. I think also flattening the midi comp will help too.

I hope this helps find a solution.

regards,

Paul

sonarPBdelay-anon.cwz

[Dao Allegro]

@Wookiee I can't use the DAW it has been buffering for many hours. Where my mouse curser normally shows it is a constant buffering circle. The buffering did not show in the screen shot. I can't even close the window without restarting my computer, let alone start a project. In the first post pertaining to my issue I did not say anything about it being incomplete, so I don't know why you asked me that.

Edited yesterday at 12:13 AM by Dao Allegro

[Tez]

9 hours ago, David Baay said:

Two possibilities:

Well, I guess I'm still having teething problems switching from Splat & CbB to Sonar. Regardless thanks so much, the end of project stop option is mostly what I wanted,  I was going to request it, I saw the  rewind option but somehow missed the stop 🙄 

I might find a use for the start & end markers way down the road...

Edited yesterday at 03:45 AM by Tez

[Wookiee]

7 hours ago, Dao Allegro said:

@Wookiee I can't use the DAW it has been buffering for many hours. Where my mouse curser normally shows it is a constant buffering circle. The buffering did not show in the screen shot. I can't even close the window without restarting my computer, let alone start a project. In the first post pertaining to my issue I did not say anything about it being incomplete, so I don't know why you asked me that.

The program has stalled then, kill it off using Task master. You would be better off starting a new thread, as this is a feedback thread.

[Andres Medina]

Track Manager: 

Rewriting a track manager preset does not work.

When retrieving the newly saved preset, it does not update - keep showing the original layout.

[Dao Allegro]

Thanks @Wookiee, may the force be with you! I tried ending the task but im still having the same issue when I open it again. Is there any delays for new users? This is frustrating. Just want to make some music.

Edited yesterday at 04:49 PM by Dao Allegro

[David Baay]

2 hours ago, Andres Medina said:

Rewriting a track manager preset does not work.

When retrieving the newly saved preset, it does not update - keep showing the original layout.

Rather than starting a new project from the template and trying to re-save that over the template, you need to open the template file directly and re-save after modification.  It's always worked this way.

EDIT: Oops, majorly misread that post, though you made it quite clear it was about Track Manager Presets. Carry on.

Edited yesterday at 06:07 PM by David Baay