Sonar 2025.06 Feedback

[David Baay]

17 hours ago, Tez said:

only the bounce gets deleted while the "preview" lingers, that can't be right and as I stated "This did not happen  with a single instrument midi track test project so it's not typical behavior" this is an anomalous glitch and the cause is a mystery to me...

Project preview files are handled differently; they need to persist in order for preview to work so they don't require re-saving the project. I'm pretty sure this is working as designed. Also, I did a quick test, closing without saving after bouncing an instrument track with nothing else in a new project, and the  two preview files were created as expectedand persisted after closing both the project and Sonar.

[Tez]

6 hours ago, David Baay said:

I'm pretty sure this is working as designed

You may well be correct,  but try this, create an untitled project & keep it untitled, add an instrument, audio & midi tracks, record some midi & bounce the midi to audio. Check the Audio Data folder that's where untitled audio data is found and you'll see just the bounced track no preview files,  and of course closing the untitled project without saving  gets rid of the bounced track...

Repeat the above but  this time save as a named project  with copy all audio checked and in the new audio folder you'll see just the bounced track no preview files.  Delete the bounced track and re-bounce, save the project & both preview & bounce files appear but so does the previous bounce track which should be deleted. Now that ain't right unless I've made an error, don't think I did.  Meanwhile I'll manually delete the useless preview files   😁

[Amberwolf]

FWIW, I'd rather have it err on the side of caution and keep unnecessary data than ever remove any files I might want to keep for any reason.

 

 

[OeAi]

Can you put the <Free License \\ Get Membership> into menu bar or make it +one more menu
it takes 40px but has no sense
for example you can show it on the start, but slide out after loading project
if you can put it in the default windows bar - it's alright too 

the different way - is to put the spectrum analyzer between those <licn> [..''''',,,;;;;;'''' ] <memb>
with 4-6 strings inside, with ability to make it biger with membership for example
and you can put there instrument names for red dots of whole track - kinda clipping analyzer
can be vertical string - track1 track2 or usual text with pointers

maybe you will be also alright to consider start the <evaluation> window first with logo screen ?
there is only the Cakewalk.Sonar and membership button is shown anyway all the time

For example - when you press - get membership  - this screen features should reappear first
everybody happy
and you can put few more screens to browse there, just with pics of features
maybe linked with manual for prochannel for example

Also for templates - it looses picture from Notes, while it shows it on start screen after saving,
and for that Artist + Name + Picture etc - it should be exported in Audio file tags

And for mp3 for example there are more param keys, than just bitrate,
this can work not only for mp3s so - the export string can be quite sophisticated
-> not availabe - or just as a screen with param switches \ presets
-m s f j -q -X

For some reason - start screen - is not shown on start ( ? because of evaluaton screen ? )
and if it is shown - close app window - is not working

One of the major problems i have - is a difference with realtime and offline render,
even for freezing some instruments . thiis means - some params or preset changes missused

Edited 3 hours ago by OeAi

[Max Arwood]

It seems that recycle plugin windows is stuck on. PLEASE fix this. I can barely work without several plugins open at the same time.

Thanks

[David Baay]

14 hours ago, Tez said:

create an untitled project & keep it untitled, add an instrument, audio & midi tracks, record some midi & bounce the midi to audio. Check the Audio Data folder that's where untitled audio data is found and you'll see just the bounced track no preview files

Preview files are per-project  but do not have the same kind of internal file association and path encoded in the project file as a normal audio file (that's why you can delete them without Sonar complaining when the project is still open). So the only way Sonar 'knows' that a preview file belongs to a particular project is to save it in a dedicated project folder. Therefore it can't/won't write a preview file to the global Audio Data folder.

14 hours ago, Tez said:

Repeat the above but  this time save as a named project  with copy all audio checked and in the new audio folder you'll see just the bounced track no preview files.  Delete the bounced track and re-bounce, save the project & both preview & bounce files appear but so does the previous bounce track which should be deleted.

Sonar never automatically deletes an audio file once a project has been saved with a track referencing it at any point. That's why Clean Audio Folder and CWAF exist. Automatic clean-up only happens if you close a project without saving the session in which the file was created.

Edited 6 hours ago by David Baay

[Bill DeRenzo]

Loyal user for many years (1987) 

New version of sonar with the same problems. Screensets, file locations, bindings. Large screens (42") Same crashes

and 100.00 per year.  Swing and a miss

[Jonathan Sasor]

7 minutes ago, Bill DeRenzo said:

Loyal user for many years (1987) 

New version of sonar with the same problems. Screensets, file locations, bindings. Large screens (42") Same crashes

and 100.00 per year.  Swing and a miss

 

Please provide specifics and fill out the problem report form. 

 

Details on how to capture a dump file can be found here.

 

 

[Noel Borthwick]

1 hour ago, Max Arwood said:

It seems that recycle plugin windows is stuck on. PLEASE fix this. I can barely work without several plugins open at the same time.

Thanks

It works perfectly here. How are you doing it. You have to CTRL-double click to open a plugin if you want it pinned. After that opening other plugin windows will leave that window open.

[Hotel California]

Colour issues, Play List issues, and Project Windows opening in a completely different size and area behind Play List?

1. The image is the playlist of the Sonar by Bandlab (Previous version). All looks fine, and the Project that loads, loads correctly in size and area placed in window. Now look at #2 image.
2.  The image is of the NEW Sonar Playlist. Notice the top of playlist menu. Menu Buttons are cutoff and hard to press onto. Also look at the Project Window. See how it's really small hiding most of the project area, and behind the Playlist.
3. Customization/Colors: Notice that the text are all scrunched up and impossible to read.
4. Playback and recording area does not change once you change and save what you want on or off. (Sorry no image for that)

Edited 5 hours ago by Hotel California

[Jonathan Sasor]

8 minutes ago, Hotel California said:

3. Customization/Colors: Notice that the text are all scrunched up and impossible to read.

Please provide specifics as to what version of Windows you're running and what the display scaling is set to. 

[Max Arwood]

1 hour ago, Noel Borthwick said:

It works perfectly here. How are you doing it. You have to CTRL-double click to open a plugin if you want it pinned. After that opening other plugin windows will leave that window open.

When recycle is on plugins just use the same window. With it off I could single click on 2 plugins and the would have  separate windows no pinning needed. This was in Cakewalk  and Sonar no ctrl and no double click required. I’m going to go check it in Cakewalk. 

[Larry T.]

Question:

CWBB has worked great for me the last three years. I have an I7-4770 CPU at 3.40GHz with only 8GB ram.

If I download and install the Free Tier can my PC run it? TIA.

[Jonathan Sasor]

8 minutes ago, Larry T. said:

Question:

CWBB has worked great for me the last three years. I have an I7-4770 CPU at 3.40GHz with only 8GB ram.

If I download and install the Free Tier can my PC run it? TIA.

Generally speaking, yes. If you've been running CbB without issue, Sonar should be okay. 

[Noel Borthwick]

36 minutes ago, Larry T. said:

Question:

CWBB has worked great for me the last three years. I have an I7-4770 CPU at 3.40GHz with only 8GB ram.

If I download and install the Free Tier can my PC run it? TIA.

It will run a lot better! Sonar has massive optimizations compared to CbB especially when running at lower latencies. I tested workloads that would completely glitch out in Cbb but played clean in Sonar.

[Larry T.]

6 minutes ago, Noel Borthwick said:

It will run a lot better! Sonar has massive optimizations compared to CbB especially when running at lower latencies. I tested workloads that would completely glitch out in Cbb but played clean in Sonar.

Thanks so much Noel. My plan is to download the Free Tier, get a new PC with 64GB ram and a Graphics card in a few months and then upgrade to Sonar. Appreciate all the free years! 

[Noel Borthwick]

1 hour ago, Max Arwood said:

When recycle is on plugins just use the same window. With it off I could single click on 2 plugins and the would have  separate windows no pinning needed. This was in Cakewalk  and Sonar no ctrl and no double click required. I’m going to go check it in Cakewalk. 

Its working exactly that way here. None of us can reproduce any issue. Recycle off means auto pinning so any new plugin windows will be pinned. This is exactly how it has worked before. No changes to this area. I suspect you are misunderstanding the feature or its project specific. Post a video. 

[Noel Borthwick]

1 hour ago, Larry T. said:

Thanks so much Noel. My plan is to download the Free Tier, get a new PC with 64GB ram and a Graphics card in a few months and then upgrade to Sonar. Appreciate all the free years! 

Sounds good. Note that the current upgrade promo is the lowest its ever been so it may not be around when you do upgrade

[Noel Borthwick]

9 hours ago, OeAi said:

Can you put the <Free License \\ Get Membership> into menu bar or make it +one more menu
it takes 40px but has no sense
for example you can show it on the start, but slide out after loading project
if you can put it in the default windows bar - it's alright too 

the different way - is to put the spectrum analyzer between those <licn> [..''''',,,;;;;;'''' ] <memb>
with 4-6 strings inside, with ability to make it biger with membership for example
and you can put there instrument names for red dots of whole track - kinda clipping analyzer
can be vertical string - track1 track2 or usual text with pointers

maybe you will be also alright to consider start the <evaluation> window first with logo screen ?
there is only the Cakewalk.Sonar and membership button is shown anyway all the time

For example - when you press - get membership  - this screen features should reappear first
everybody happy
and you can put few more screens to browse there, just with pics of features
maybe linked with manual for prochannel for example

Also for templates - it looses picture from Notes, while it shows it on start screen after saving,
and for that Artist + Name + Picture etc - it should be exported in Audio file tags

And for mp3 for example there are more param keys, than just bitrate,
this can work not only for mp3s so - the export string can be quite sophisticated
-> not availabe - or just as a screen with param switches \ presets
-m s f j -q -X

For some reason - start screen - is not shown on start ( ? because of evaluaton screen ? )
and if it is shown - close app window - is not working

One of the major problems i have - is a difference with realtime and offline render,
even for freezing some instruments . thiis means - some params or preset changes missused

If you have feature requests post it in the appropriate feature requests section. Obviously feature requests for the free version aren't prioritized

[Noel Borthwick]

On 6/29/2025 at 7:47 PM, Tez said:

Once again thanks for the explanation, but closing the project without saving should get rid of all bounce generated files,  only the bounce gets deleted while the "preview" lingers, that can't be right and as I stated "This did not happen  with a single instrument midi track test project so it's not typical behavior" this is an anomalous glitch and the cause is a mystery to me...

Please keep this thread specific to issues related to this release. As others have explained generated files are not deleted by design because they can be reused or shared by other elements or even used as part of undoing an operation. Its normal operation of the program. Use Clean audio folder periodically.