Sonar 2025.07 Feedback

[Jorge Tata Arias]

1 minute ago, Bristol_Jonesey said:

I updated my studio pc to 2025.07 today without a hitch. 

But every time I open Sonar, it asks me to login in order to authorise.

I've done this several times hoping it would "stick", but it doesn't.

I do not leave my pc online all the time, only for downloads & suchlike, never for general browsing.

So, any ideas?

Thanks

Ofline activation on Cakewalk Product center?

[Bristol_Jonesey]

Just now, Jorge Tata Arias said:

Ofline activation on Cakewalk Product center?

But as soon as I log on to the 'net, it authorises itself.

[gmp]

I just found out Themes from previous CbB/SONAR versions are not compatible with the latest Sonar which has a vector based UI instead of bitmaps. Can we adjust the UI, so I can make it looks similar to the Theme I like? I'd assume I'd do this in Preferences / customization / colors. I'm using Mercury color scheme for now. If I view "All colors" and change all the light blues to darker blue, hit ok. Nothing changes that I can see. 

IN that window is "Presets". Do we have any Presets I can try out? I see you can import and export colors

Edited Saturday at 09:34 PM by gmp
mistake

[Colin Nicholls]

1 hour ago, gmp said:

just found out Themes from previous CbB/SONAR versions are not compatible with the latest Sonar which has a vector based UI instead of bitmaps. 

Where have you been?

1 hour ago, gmp said:

Can we adjust the UI, so I can make it looks similar to the Theme I like?

Nope. There's quite a selection of built-in color themes; maybe one of them will take your fancy.

[gmp]

There's are maybe about 10 color schemes. Mercury color scheme is pretty good, i just want to tweak it some like i did when we had a theme editor. Can this be done

[Einstein R]

Hi there everyone..

just had to get this off my chest...I switched to the free version of Sonar and I get the timed upgrade to premium version window for about 13 seconds before actually jumping into Sonar, but I am hoping the bakers will remove the little strip at the top of the views showing Free edition and upgrade to premium since to me it kind of takes away some of the real estate of the views.

Jumping off soap box now...:)

 

[Richter Grimbeek]

13 hours ago, Noel Borthwick said:

There is nothing to fix lol. Torn on show strip colors in preferences.

Thanks, my bad!

[Bristol_Jonesey]

11 hours ago, Bristol_Jonesey said:

But as soon as I log on to the 'net, it authorises itself.

Perhaps I wasn't clear enough.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Start up Sonar
2. Receive message saying "you need to be online in order to authorize"
3. Go online
4. Sonar authorises
5. Switch off internet
6. Close Sonar
7. Open Sonar
8. Back to step 2 and repeat

I'd rather not have to go online every time I open Sonar.

Is there a fix for this?

[ZincT]

Have purchased 1 year's sub now, so no more nag screen for me  👍

I noticed that the performance meter seemed a bit "spiky" with big peaks on different threads. So I tried the experimental  Enable GPU Acceleration option. By the way, is there a config file setting for tweaking cpu usage (there was in CbB)? My CPU is a Ryzen 7 5800x (8 core 16 thread).

On restart the language had changed to Spanish but otherwise the spikes had reduced quite a bit in the performance meter. I changed the language back to English and restarted which did as expected but when I went to the Preferences - Display again I noticed the language was set to Japanese although the language on the display was definitely English! However, English was definitely displayed again after a restart. So, maybe a bug there somewhere.

Also, I thought there was a bug with opening instrument UIs, but in fact it was opening the UIs almost off the bottom of the screen, so I could only just see the title bar of the UI at the bottom of the display.  Is there a setting to change this somewhere? Maybe due to my monitor being 3440 x 1440?  I am also using the scaling which gives a very nice display at 120% and superbly crisp text.

Thanks

Edited Sunday at 10:20 AM by ZincT

[Noel Borthwick]

15 hours ago, Bristol_Jonesey said:

I updated my studio pc to 2025.07 today without a hitch. 

But every time I open Sonar, it asks me to login in order to authorise.

I've done this several times hoping it would "stick", but it doesn't.

I do not leave my pc online all the time, only for downloads & suchlike, never for general browsing.

So, any ideas?

Thanks

@Bristol_Jonesey are you signing out after activating? Irrespective of whether you actually stay online or not activation will be retained for the lease period as long as you stay signed in to Sonar. (Sign in is not the same as being online)

 

>>I'd rather not have to go online every time I open Sonar.
>>Is there a fix for this?
Being online is definitely not a requirement. Will need to troubleshoot this with you as to why this is happening. Send me a PM.

[Noel Borthwick]

2 hours ago, ZincT said:

Have purchased 1 year's sub now, so no more nag screen for me  👍

I noticed that the performance meter seemed a bit "spiky" with big peaks on different threads. So I tried the experimental  Enable GPU Acceleration option. By the way, is there a config file setting for tweaking cpu usage (there was in CbB)? My CPU is a Ryzen 7 5800x (8 core 16 thread).

On restart the language had changed to Spanish but otherwise the spikes had reduced quite a bit in the performance meter. I changed the language back to English and restarted which did as expected but when I went to the Preferences - Display again I noticed the language was set to Japanese although the language on the display was definitely English! However, English was definitely displayed again after a restart. So, maybe a bug there somewhere.

Also, I thought there was a bug with opening instrument UIs, but in fact it was opening the UIs almost off the bottom of the screen, so I could only just see the title bar of the UI at the bottom of the display.  Is there a setting to change this somewhere? Maybe due to my monitor being 3440 x 1440?  I am also using the scaling which gives a very nice display at 120% and superbly crisp text.

Thanks

Cheers for getting Premium, you wont be disappointed esp with whats coming later.
Regarding the perf meters, they don’t measure UI load by default but rather audio processing load unless you change the metering options to show global system load.
Some spikyness there is not abnormal, since its impossible to  perfectly balance load on your CPU in a real world project since you may have varying processing or plugin loads on tracks and buses. Turning on Plugin load balancing will help smooth the load  if you have many plugins on each track and arent running at super low latency. 

If you have a recipe for the language change issue, please send me a PM.

[Bahmanyar Afroozeh]

8 hours ago, Bristol_Jonesey said:

Perhaps I wasn't clear enough.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Start up Sonar
2. Receive message saying "you need to be online in order to authorize"
3. Go online
4. Sonar authorises
5. Switch off internet
6. Close Sonar
7. Open Sonar
8. Back to step 2 and repeat

I'd rather not have to go online every time I open Sonar.

Is there a fix for this?

Because of Internet Problems in IRAN I have the same issue and looking for a solution to keep always log on but it seems there is no way.

[John Vere]

Yesterday to try and troubleshoot why I don’t have Drum Replacer in the Free Version I logged out of my account and logged back in using my other account that still has a membership which expires tomorrow. Anyhow Sonar opened and no Nag bar at the top. So was definitely the full version.
Still no Drum Replacer so I closed Sonar and rebooted the computer on the off chance that would help.
When I reopened Sonar I got the Nag screen and the countdown? When it opened there was no nag bar and checking in About it was definitely the paid version. 
Oh well, I closed Sonar and moved on to another app and shut down.
Later that night I booted up and again when I started Sonar I got the nag and countdown. And once again when it opened it was the full version with no nag bar. 
Could this be caused by Cakewalk and the product centre being signed in still with other account? 

 

 

[TiLT 360]

I have been using bandlab and Cakewalk by bandlab for sometime now, i just recently recorded 2 orginal songs and it has taken a long time, then i see that Cakewalk is going away and i have to download SONAR, its free so i did it. Nothing but problems, Then an update and now i cant even load sonar it appears at the bottom right corner of my computer like a qtr screen, i use the mouse to click on the make big square and it wont allow me, in fact i cant do anything, just keeps DINGING when i left click like something is blocking it, so i go back to bandlab and my files are still there but some removed. What is going on? I when sonar comes up in the qtr screen in cornber i cant even X ity out at all, i have to ctrl alt del to bring up task manager and end the taks to get it to go away, i tried uninstalling it reinstalling it, then the update. someone can tell me what the hell to do to get this to happen?? anything. its very stressful cuz of the time i put in on my music

 

[Promidi]

3 hours ago, John Vere said:

Yesterday to try and troubleshoot why I don’t have Drum Replacer in the Free Version

Drum Replacer is present in my Region Effects menu.

Can it be assumed that you have done a Reset and scan.

Are the Drum Replacer files physically present on your PC?

On mine, there are two folders under Sonar Resources (mine is a custom location)

Here are the Drum Replacer folders are they appear on mine. Yours will be different. However this should help you locate them on your system, if present.

D:\Sonar resources\Drum Replacer  (this has the actual content)
D:\Sonar resources\Cakewalk Shared\Shared Utilities\Internal\Drum Replacer (this has the VST3 file and graphics)

[pedwal wally wally wha]

11 hours ago, John Vere said:

Yesterday to try and troubleshoot why I don’t have Drum Replacer in the Free Version I logged out of my account and logged back in using my other account that still has a membership which expires tomorrow. Anyhow Sonar opened and no Nag bar at the top. So was definitely the full version.
Still no Drum Replacer so I closed Sonar and rebooted the computer on the off chance that would help.
When I reopened Sonar I got the Nag screen and the countdown? When it opened there was no nag bar and checking in About it was definitely the paid version. 
Oh well, I closed Sonar and moved on to another app and shut down.
Later that night I booted up and again when I started Sonar I got the nag and countdown. And once again when it opened it was the full version with no nag bar. 
Could this be caused by Cakewalk and the product centre being signed in still with other account? 

 

 

Have you tried deleting all associated browser cookies? 

[Alexey Batura]

20 hours ago, Noel Borthwick said:

Cheers for getting Premium, you wont be disappointed esp with whats coming later.

I recently tried the new Sonar version and decided to subscribe, and I have to say, the original Sonar feels awesome again! Thank you so much for continuing to develop and improve this great DAW.

As a long-time user (I was on Platinum before, though I skipped the Cakewalk by BandLab phase), I just wanted to share what I’ve always loved most about Sonar: the ProChannel and the mixer.

I own most of the UAD plugins and, of course, a lot of Waves tools. But when it comes to mixing, I always find myself coming back to Sonar and especially to the ProChannel. It’s honestly one of the most inspiring features of the DAW for me. I’m a huge fan!

That’s why I really hope we’ll see new ProChannel modules in the future. I'm not even sure what else could be improved in the DAW itself, it's already incredibly solid, but please please consider adding more ProChannel modules. That would be amazing.

Thanks again for your hard work and for keeping Sonar alive and evolving. It means a lot to us long-time users.

[EvlPlms]

On 7/5/2025 at 2:49 PM, Steve Ennever said:

Console disappears when you click on it. 

Not on every track. Not on the same track every time. Erratic. 

Yes, my Sonar is up to date. 

 

 

 

 

Hi. I found something that may have to do with the problem above. When I use the mixer on a 15" laptop screen (1920 x 1080) an try to add an effect in the pro channel, I just see a small bar instead of the whole view (screenshot 1), like it's collapsed. (Clicking anywhere in the pro channel doesn't help.) When I move this window to a bigger 27" screen, suddenly the whole effect can be seen (screenshot 2) and I can move it back to the small screen without it vanishing. So I've got a workaround at least, but it's not usable without a second screen.

[AB9]

First, I am very happy with Sonar.  Everything important thing I need is there and the ability to record with very low latency is outstanding.

I did notice an issue recently that is not critical, but still an issue.  When I save to one hard drive I get a progress graphic of the saving.  That is great.  But then when I go to save it again to another hard drive, the progress graphic is not there.  It appears that it does save it though.  And any other hard drive after that, the same issue.  I try to save every project to at least 3 hard drives.

Any thoughts as to what may be causing the loss of the progress graphic on additional saves?  Is it a Sonar issue, Windoes issue, something else?   Anyone else noticing this?  Thank you!

[Noel Borthwick]

7 hours ago, Alexey Batura said:

That’s why I really hope we’ll see new ProChannel modules in the future. I'm not even sure what else could be improved in the DAW itself, it's already incredibly solid, but please please consider adding more ProChannel modules. That would be amazing.

New prochannel modules are being considered but we don't have anything to announce just yet.