Sonar 2025.07 Feedback

[David Baay]

11 hours ago, msmcleod said:

20 hours ago, Larry T. said:

So, you think my current PC with the I7-4770 CPU at 3.40GHz with only 8GB ram will run a full Sonar install ok?? 

Thanks again 👍

FWIW - I'm running a i7-3770 @ 3.4GHz... I've now got 32GB ram, but was running on 16GB for years.  I'm typically use an ASIO buffer size of 64

Likewise here on a 10-year-old i7 6700k @ 4.0Ghz  with 24GB. It continues to run great for my purposes - admittedly using a generally limited number of synths and FX plugins compared to what some users require.  But running more plugins just requires raising the ASIO buffer. 8GB would already have been considered somewhat marginal even in the Sonar 8 era, but is no more limiting now than it would have been then. If it's possble to double it, that would be advisable.

[Scotto]

~Edit - never mind my remark - Sonars changes are being rolled out too fast and quality is severely lacking.

Edited 12 hours ago by Scotto

[Kevin Mapplebeck]

I have tried several times to install the ProChannel Modules, both from Product Center and the install file. It seems to complete the install but never updates Product Center nor are the modules available  in Sonar.

 

Edited yesterday at 02:38 AM by Kevin Mapplebeck
misspell

[Phil T]

Update - I am opening a support ticket.

Hello. I am just moving to Sonar 2025.05 from CWB latest release, and I have found an issue with the application crashing when I try to load a large project saved with the console view visible. I am able to open the project in the CWB version and if I hide the console with only track view visible and save, then I can open the project in Sonar 2025.06. I am concerned with this crash as the fix was to resave in the legacy CWB version in order to open the project, but saving option will be removed in a few months. I have attached the screen prints and the issue steps. I cannot attach a zipped crash mini dump file as it is too large.   Thank you for your help with this issue. - Phil T

Sonaor 2025-06 crash issue with console view on project open_7-2-2025.pdf

Edited yesterday at 03:50 AM by Philip Thomas
Figured out how to open an issue request

[Phil T]

I do have a comment on the Sonar 2025.06 regarding the slow speed of the playback line to return to start point when pressing stop. It is almost a second delay after stop before the playback line returns to the start location.

[Trevor]

Hello,

I think the flam indicator for step sequencer is missing in Sonar. The screenshot above was taken from Bandlab.  The first note inside the red circle shows two volume levels to indicate that it's being flammed. In Sonar, double clicking the note will still flam it, but the appearance of the note doesn't change so I have no way to keep track of which notes are being flammed without listening to the entire sequence.

Speaking of listening along, it would be great if I could disable the need to follow the cursor during step sequencer playback.  If I'm listening to a 16 or 32 bar loop and I spot something I want to change, I have to stop playback or else the window will scroll along to the next couple beats. Then when I resume playback, it starts over back at the first beat instead of where I stopped it at. I'd like to be able to disable the cursor or just drag it freely across the step sequencer window the same way you do in the arranger view.

[Marcos Gouvea]

On 6/19/2025 at 11:15 AM, Milton Sica said:

Here are some considerations regarding the new version.

I created a new project entirely in Sonar Free using a Cakewalk preset. Everything went very well.

I saved it in SONAR and opened it in Cakewalk. Perfect.

Regarding the interface and features, I still think that Cakewalk Themes are much more attractive, but this is an evolution in view of the new possibilities of the technology embedded in the new application.

......

 

 

I agree.  The former interface seems much more straightforward and clear (and also "attractive", but this is more subjective).  I understand that the new interface follows a more recent design trend, but the previous one felt better organized and visually accessible.

On the other hand, I really like the ability to customize the interface size.

I believe I'll eventually upgrade to the Membership as new improvements and features are added, but offering it as a one-time purchase instead of an annual subscription would make upgrading more appealing.

Edited 20 hours ago by Marcos Gouvea

[Max Arwood]

16 hours ago, Ben Staton said:

Hi @Max Arwood,

Thanks for the report. I'm not seeing this behavior on my multi-monitor PC though, so it may be specific to your particular monitor setup. Please would you let us know how your monitors are configured?


My computer is a Custom Jim Roseberry i72600 32gig ram

Video card->NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX56oTI

Monitiors are:

1)primary right Acer AL2616W  ?(display1) 1912x1280 native no scaling

 

2) Secondary Generic PNP monitor (TV) display  1089x1920 native no scaling

For example:
Primary/left/4K/175%  and  Secondary/right/1080p/100%


Also:
1. Which monitor is the main Sonar window on? Primary Acer

2. Which monitor is the Console View on?  Secondary on TV.

3. You mention you don't use the MultiDock, so I assume the Console View is undocked/floating independently, right?

Undocked/Floating yes

4. Does it happen with all plugins, and if not, which plugin (or which vendor's plugins)?

All plugins

If possible, a video would be helpful too. Happy to investigate and fix if we're able to reproduce it here.
If you don’t figure it out I can do a video or you can remote in if you like

Thanks again,
Ben

Edit: Obviously I'm referring to plugins disappearing behind the Console View here, not your other issue re 'pinning/recycling' plugin windows which I'm looking at separately. 
I thought they weren’t opening on separate windows, but they were just hidden behind the console when I close the console had all those plug-ins all over the place lol  Thank you for all the hard work you guys are doing!!

These wind positions worked as expected in all other versions from Sonar x1 thru the sonar prior to this current version. It also worked in all the CbB . I don’t know if screen sets or other settings are causing this. 
Thanks for looking into this.

Max

 

[Ben Staton]

52 minutes ago, Max Arwood said:

1)primary right Acer AL2616W  ?(display1) 1912x1280 native no scaling

2) Secondary Generic PNP monitor (TV) display  1089x1920 native no scaling

Hi Max,

Thanks for the detailed reply. I'm still unable to reproduce it, unfortunately.

When I insert a new plugin, it always appears on top of the Console View. The only exception is if I click on the CV, in which case it briefly moves on top of the plugins, but only for a fraction of a second, after which the plugin windows jump back on top of the CV again (IOW, expected behavior).

Is there any chance you could capture a video, please? Preferably both monitors, but if you're only able to capture one,  then obviously your secondary (TV) monitor with the CV/plugins on it is the one I'm interested in.

Thanks again,
Ben

ps. I forgot to ask - which Windows version do you have (10 or 11)? Also, the monitor resolutions you gave seem... unusual. Did you mean 1920x1200 for the Acer,  and 1080x1920 for the TV (which implies portrait orientation, not landscape)?

Edit: And do you use the 'Disable Floating' option on the CV and/or plugin windows by any chance? I can make it happen if I disable floating on various combinations of CV and/or plugin windows, but I'd recommend against using 'Disable Floating' in general.

[Milton Sica]

Project identification image is not being preserved when saving a project template.

Step by step to replicate in my installation:

1 - I create and save a template containing a project image (Figure 1)

2 - I create a new project using the saved template. (Figure 2)

The image is not preserved in the new project.

Figure 1

Figure 2

[Tim Elmore]

Regarding the issue of plug-ins disappearing under the CV:

Open the Help module. The standard shortcut for this is "y". When the Help module is open, plug-ins that are displayed over CV will stay visible even after you click on CV.

If the Help module is fully closed (not just minimized), then clicking CV will put any plug-ins underneath CV (not visible). To keep them on top, the Help module must be open.

Since I don't want to have the Help module displayed all the time, I save screen space by docking it to the Browser, and then keep the Browser minimized when not needed. This keeps plug-ins visible even after clicking on CV. This costs a small bit of screen space where the Browser is shown as minimized, but it is the only workaround I have found.

[Milton Sica]

Question:
Is it possible to type the path of the destination folder instead of just clicking on the folder icon?

[Matthew Carr]

RESOLVED: Default Driver mode was set to WASAPI on new install, instead of ASIO

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just looking to move over to the new Sonar, ahead of losing activation of CbB

Audio outputs look completely different in Sonar compared to CbB, and I'm totally lost!

I'm using a Behringer XR18 as my audio interface 

in CbB:

 

In Sonar 2025.06

Have I missed something here?

When I go to select an output for a track, I should have 18 tracks to select from

In CbB - makes sense, 18 Mono tracks, 9 Stereo tracks

In Sonar, how would I know how to select channel 17 as the input (or any input >8)

Edited 13 hours ago by Matthew Carr

[benstat]

59 minutes ago, Tim Elmore said:

Regarding the issue of plug-ins disappearing under the CV:

Open the Help module. The standard shortcut for this is "y". When the Help module is open, plug-ins that are displayed over CV will stay visible even after you click on CV.

If the Help module is fully closed (not just minimized), then clicking CV will put any plug-ins underneath CV (not visible). To keep them on top, the Help module must be open.

Since I don't want to have the Help module displayed all the time, I save screen space by docking it to the Browser, and then keep the Browser minimized when not needed. This keeps plug-ins visible even after clicking on CV. This costs a small bit of screen space where the Browser is shown as minimized, but it is the only workaround I have found.

That's it!!! 👏🙏
Nice detective work @Tim Elmore. I can reproduce it now, and will look into a fix right away.
Many thanks,
Ben

[Matthew Carr]

Could the membership icon be moved up a line, so it doesn't take a whole line of screen real estate?

e.g.

 

[David Baay]

22 minutes ago, Matthew Carr said:

In Sonar, how would I know how to select channel 17 as the input (or any input >8)

 

The CbB screenshot is showing "X-AIR ASIO Driver" while the Sonar screenshot is not showing "ASIO". Possibly you have the drive mode set to WDM or WASAPI...?

 

[Noel Borthwick]

1 hour ago, Matthew Carr said:

RESOLVED: Default Driver mode was set to WASAPI on new install, instead of ASIO

Hi by chance did you choose to not migrate settings when going from CbB to Sonar? If so that might explain why it went to WASAPI. However typically default to ASIO unless its not available. If your device was offline when you installed it may have gone to WASAPI.

[Noel Borthwick]

1 hour ago, Tim Elmore said:

Regarding the issue of plug-ins disappearing under the CV:

Open the Help module. The standard shortcut for this is "y". When the Help module is open, plug-ins that are displayed over CV will stay visible even after you click on CV.

If the Help module is fully closed (not just minimized), then clicking CV will put any plug-ins underneath CV (not visible). To keep them on top, the Help module must be open.

Since I don't want to have the Help module displayed all the time, I save screen space by docking it to the Browser, and then keep the Browser minimized when not needed. This keeps plug-ins visible even after clicking on CV. This costs a small bit of screen space where the Browser is shown as minimized, but it is the only workaround I have found.

Great observation! Fix for this is coming in next update.

[Scotto]

This is more to do with Cakewalk Sonar 2025.06 than CbB and at this point I am happier in CbB than in Sonar but CbB will end 8/1/2025 so its go time or bail time one or the other.
For the record, I really wish they would go with one name or the other, Cakewalk or Sonar, preferably Cakewalk as I have used Cakewalk since version 5 back in the 90's when you had to put a wave file in the first beat of a measure, then chase to its tempo or use a stripe track on tape.
Then of course, Cakewalk Pro Audio 6 came out properly marrying MIDI and audio together.

This is only a partial list of issues I have with Cakewalk and or Cakewalk Sonar (using ASIO here):

1. Instability, if you stop, undo and start recording again too quickly, the application will crash
2. Ghost VST windows in my alt tab menu after being closed (not so bad if they are docked and saved in a view)
3. Freezing synths becomes unavailable on occasion until closing and reopening a file
4. Mix recall numbering doesn't properly reset to Mix 1 when saving back down to a template file
   1. Remains whatever number was next to be used in the dialog regardless of mix files or any other factor
5. MIDI Key+ parameter cannot be set arbitrarily but only by sliding
   1. When remote from another machine at my drum kit, this becomes a nightmare if I have to make a change due to lag (and that ain't due to my network, which doesn't matter anyway, this setting should be adjustable without only adjusting a GUI slider)
6. Notes missing on first beat of measures in Staff view but clearly visible in the Event Viewer
7. Simple Copy and Paste functionality has serious bugs with regard to selection of track and time
8. Shift scroll zooming in Track View does not remain focused to play head and I cannot seem to find a setting to make this any better
9. New Track Manager
   1. Window does not play ball properly with GUI left and right docking features like other docked window dialogs
      1. Not an issue if docked on bottom which is where I keep it now in views
      2. Close it and save your view, its game over, the window will migrate itself back to the left typically and cause havoc on the other docked dialogs
   2. Buggy, bell and whistle functionality but you cannot click a folder and deselect those tracks back into view
   3. Requires click and drag on the eye icons but you have to click one at a time very slowly to select tracks back into view in a singular fashion (folder issue expands from here into folders being viewable without any tracks)

Edited 11 hours ago by Scotto

[Matthew Carr]

40 minutes ago, Noel Borthwick said:

Hi by chance did you choose to not migrate settings when going from CbB to Sonar? If so that might explain why it went to WASAPI. However typically default to ASIO unless its not available. If your device was offline when you installed it may have gone to WASAPI.

That sounds like the reason - I didn't migrate, and probably had CbB open, which although the driver is multi client, may have meant Sonar then defaulted to WASAPI.