Sonar 2025.08 Feedback

[Jean Corivo]

Print a marker list.

There seems to be a problem with markers in this version. I don't know if this problem is recent, but it is now impossible to print a marker list or export them to PDF format. This is quite useful when composing film music. If this could be fixed quickly, it would be greatly appreciated so that we don't have to redo the spotting session manually.

I checked the manual and indeed it says this on page 432: To display the Markers view, choose Views > Markers. From the Markers view, you can use the File > Print and File > Print Preview commands to print a listing of markers.

Edited August 25 by Jean Corivo

[Promidi]

4 hours ago, Jean Corivo said:

There seems to be a problem with markers in this version

Looks like this function was borked ages ago.

I just tried it in Sonar Platinum, and when Markers list is displayed, Print and Print Preview is greyed out in there  as well.

Maybe drop a note to Sonar support.

https://help.cakewalk.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

[Cognessence]

Hello,

I have been having a problem since the last two updates, which is that projects never remember my zoom settings. I have never had this problem with any version of Cakewalk or Sonar before (have been using Cakewalk since the days of Home Studio 9). Usually, when I'd open an old project, tracks would be sized as I'd last left them in all previous versions of Cakewalk and Cakewalk by Bandlab, and zoom settings would be the same as where I last left them. Now it is always zoomed out, which is very time consuming to deal with upon opening a project every time...

Edited August 26 by RobertLogan

[Promidi]

1 hour ago, RobertLogan said:

Hello,

I have been having a problem since the last two updates, which is that projects never remember my zoom settings.

My projects have always remembered my zoom settings.

My workflow is as follows:

I use a locked screenset and a Workspace where I have configured that workspace not to load Windows Layouts and Screen settings.

If I want to make a change to my screen layout in a given project, I open that project, make the change to my screen positions and zoom levels.
Then quickly unlock, then lock my screenset. 
Then I save my project.

This has always worked for me.

[Igor]

Hello!
This can't really be classified as a "bug", but it has been happening for the last few years with Cakewalk by Bandlab, and now with the new Sonar.  After reinstalling/clean installing the system (Windows), when opening old projects, a not entirely clear phenomenon occurs with some instruments - they do not sound, that is, a signal goes to them, the entire configuration remains unchanged, but there is no sound. At the same time, Cakewalk/Sonar do not show any notifications or warnings, the loading of projects is completely normal. This happened (and happens) with TTS-1, with Kontakt from Native Instruments, with some synthesizers, a couple of times with instruments from Spectrasonics, and today it happened with the Spire synthesizer. If you add the same instrument to the VSTi slot again, and redirect the output from the MIDI track to it, the sound appears and everything starts working normally. Apparently, CbB and Sonar for some reason do not recognize the synth identifier in old projects on a clean system, although the same instrument and the same version are installed. Is there any way to fix this situation so that this does not happen in the future?

[pistolpete]

I never had issues with vsts or synths in CbB. But when I converted over to the new Sonar, it deleted about a dozen vsts, including TTS-1, GroovePlayer, Sonitus effects and a number of others. It took a lot of time and effort to recover them. The GroovePlayer never restored correctly. Although I don't directly use it, somehow it's tied to the metronome, which is now permanently broken. There are now updates and changes to vsts for "core vsts" which are only available if you pay for a subscription. I am very concerned this might break the stable vsts that I have been using for a long time. This seems to me like a risk when any updates are applied now. There are a lot of bugs being reported from others after the switch over. Add to that, the new Sonar software isn't really supported on Windows10, adding driver issues and things breaking for that update too, for those who update OS. It's a lot of instability right now. Hopefully they get things fixed. 

[David Baay]

On 8/25/2025 at 9:06 AM, Ted Raven said:

When starting to play an audio track, the audio engine starts along with the audio playback at mesure 1:01:000 resulting in an audible click noise.

That is not typical and most likely due to some specific plugin that is misbehaving or possibly some other configuration or hardware/firmware/driver issue that needs to be addressed at the source.  And whereas the root cause would likely also affect earlier releases of Sonar and CbB, it doesn't belong in this release-specific feedback thread; you should bring it up in a new thread on the Sonar subforum or report it to Support for troubleshooting assistance. I know of only a few very specific situations in which a project will not start smoothly from 1:01:000, mostly involving the use of hardware synths though I have encountered issues with some VSTs for which other solutions are possible aside from moving the start time to 2:01.

Likewise the suggestion to provide some "pre-roll" or alternative measure-numbering functionality to address bonafide cases where starting playback at 1:01:000 is not viable does not belong here; it belongs in the general Feedback Loop subforum where it has been proposed and discussed before.

[David Baay]

8 hours ago, Igor said:

If you add the same instrument to the VSTi slot again, and redirect the output from the MIDI track to it, the sound appears and everything starts working normally. Apparently, CbB and Sonar for some reason do not recognize the synth identifier in old projects on a clean system, although the same instrument and the same version are installed.

I have never encountered a case of "no sound" that couldn't be resolved by identifying the specific root cause and addressing it directly. Replacing a synth or track is just incidentally addressing the root cause by setting eveything to defaults and re-initializing the synth.

Though there are a truly astounding array of possible causes of "No Sound" that sometimes make the brute-force solution more attractive than taking the time to troubleshoot properly, I will mention one of the the most insidious and confounding possibilities which is that RPN/NRPN messages in third-party MIDI have silenced the synth output which can be addressed by re-loading the synth by the Bypass/Power button in Synth Rack and enabling 'Do Not Intercept NRPNs' in properties and/or deleting them from the MIDI clip using Select > By Filter.

Edited August 26 by David Baay

[Cognessence]

On 8/26/2025 at 3:18 AM, Promidi said:

My projects have always remembered my zoom settings.

My workflow is as follows:

I use a locked screenset and a Workspace where I have configured that workspace not to load Windows Layouts and Screen settings.

If I want to make a change to my screen layout in a given project, I open that project, make the change to my screen positions and zoom levels.
Then quickly unlock, then lock my screenset. 
Then I save my project.

This has always worked for me.

Thank you for sharing.

The thing is, I never had to think about any of this stuff until the last two updates. For many years I'd resize tracks, zoom in and out, and whenever loading a project it'd be wherever I'd last left those view settings.

Suddenly, now, *whenever* I open a project for the first time, it is zoomed entirely out. I then have to re-do it all, every time. Nothing has changed at all in my workflow - this only started with the new updates.

Edited August 28 by RobertLogan

[Noel Borthwick]

Well, you have to think about it enough to find out if you have accidently selected a global workspace.
Workspaces are designed to save zoom settings, window positions and other view visibility settings, so if you are loading a project and the zoom has changed that is the 90% chance that you chose a workspace at install time and didn't realize it. Losing zoom settings in a project isn't problem others are running into.

Make sure "None" is selected here.

[Noel Borthwick]

On 8/26/2025 at 4:14 AM, Igor said:

Hello!
This can't really be classified as a "bug", but it has been happening for the last few years with Cakewalk by Bandlab, and now with the new Sonar.  After reinstalling/clean installing the system (Windows), when opening old projects, a not entirely clear phenomenon occurs with some instruments - they do not sound, that is, a signal goes to them, the entire configuration remains unchanged, but there is no sound. At the same time, Cakewalk/Sonar do not show any notifications or warnings, the loading of projects is completely normal. This happened (and happens) with TTS-1, with Kontakt from Native Instruments, with some synthesizers, a couple of times with instruments from Spectrasonics, and today it happened with the Spire synthesizer. If you add the same instrument to the VSTi slot again, and redirect the output from the MIDI track to it, the sound appears and everything starts working normally. Apparently, CbB and Sonar for some reason do not recognize the synth identifier in old projects on a clean system, although the same instrument and the same version are installed. Is there any way to fix this situation so that this does not happen in the future?

When it happens if you load the project again is it still silent? If so send us the project file and we can at least tell you if its routing related.

[David Baay]

4 hours ago, RobertLogan said:

Suddenly, now, *whenever* I open a project for the first time, it is zoomed entirely out. I then have to re-do it all, every time.

In addition to making sure Worspaces is set to None as Noel suggested (or at least not automatically applied on load which is an option), make sure you haven't locked the current screenset. The layout of a locked screenset, including timeline zoom level, can be changed while working, but will revert to the state it had when locked on save/close/re-open. If it's not locked, the changes save when the project is saved.

[Igor]

2 hours ago, Noel Borthwick said:

When it happens if you load the project again is it still silent?

Thanks for the answer, Noel!
I tried all the methods I could think of, or that were suggested to me: restarted Sonar, restarted the computer, loaded this project (each of these projects) in "safe mode" (by holding down the Shift key), deactivated/activated the VSTi itself in the instrument slot, checked the contents of MIDI tracks for any unaccounted for controllers, but in 99% of cases, I create these projects myself, and except for the modulator, velocity, panning and some specific controllers for controlling specific VSTi, I never add anything else. And in those cases when I work with other people's MIDI projects, I always (!) delete all additional controllers (via the "filter").  Regarding routing - I load some such project, immediately check all the routing, and everything is in order as it should be. Then I try to change the output to some other instrument, then again returned everything back, but the sound does not appear. And immediately after adding the same VSTi, and reassigning the send from this MIDI channel to this new instance of the instrument, the sound immediately appears, and even all the settings and controllers existing in the project are transmitted. 

            And now the most interesting thing - after replacing Spire (in this case) with a new iteration and deleting the old one, after saving new project with new name, now the old project is already loading normally, and Spire sounds normal. It's a pity that I did not leave a saved copy of this project with both iterations so that I could switch between them, I did not think to do so. This is a project for 12/11/2024, I did not change anything in it, I do not know if this can help find the reason if this project does not have an old iteration of Spire, but I will try to open other old projects, maybe there will be something else where some instrument will not play.

In short, I have only one conclusion left: in a clean system, when opening old projects, both Sonar and Cakewalk cannot pick up the some inserted VSTi. It is strange that not all, but some, I indicated them in my first post, although I could have missed 2-3 others.

Genesis One - Fairlight Song. Son.rar

[mgustavo]

Hi, I saw there is a fix related to Console View Splitter width fails to persist on scaled displays, and would like to thank the bakers for this.
However sometimes the issue still occurs, as the splitter goes far left again, over track pane.
Also I believe CV customization, like setting all channel strips to narrow mode will be erased, showing all strips on wide mode, after opening an existing project.
Thanks!

Edited August 28 by mgustavo

[Mal Kilpatrick]

Moved to Cakewalk Core Plugins Feedback

Mal Kilpatrick

Edited August 28 by Mal Kilpatrick

[Noel Borthwick]

Please post plugin feedback in this thread.

 

[Ben Staton]

8 hours ago, mgustavo said:

Hi, I saw there is a fix related to Console View Splitter width fails to persist on scaled displays, and would like to thank the bakers for this.
However sometimes the issue still occurs, as the splitter goes far left again, over track pane.
Also I believe CV customization, like setting all channel strips to narrow mode will be erased, showing all strips on wide mode, after opening an existing project.
Thanks!

Hi,
Note that the fix won't automatically correct any projects that were saved with incorrect track/bus/outs pane widths or wide/narrow strips. It just prevents Sonar from accidentally messing with those things going forward. So if you have a project that was saved that way, you'll need to manually adjust everything to taste and then re-save the project. After that, you should find things stay where you left them.
For example, if I choose Strips > Narrow All Strips, then save the project, the next time I open it all strips are narrow as expected.
Please try adjusting/re-saving and let us know if you still run into any issues (in which case details of your monitor setup - eg. left/primary/4K/175% and right/secondary/1080p/100% - and a video showing saving, closing, and re-loading of a project would be most helpful).
Thanks,
Ben

[Cognessence]

On 8/27/2025 at 7:42 PM, Noel Borthwick said:

Well, you have to think about it enough to find out if you have accidently selected a global workspace.
Workspaces are designed to save zoom settings, window positions and other view visibility settings, so if you are loading a project and the zoom has changed that is the 90% chance that you chose a workspace at install time and didn't realize it. Losing zoom settings in a project isn't problem others are running into.

Make sure "None" is selected here.

Thank you for answering, but I've always used workspaces a certain way without this happening. I have found a workaround from other users who have been having this problem - if I immediately close the project and then re-open it again, all the Zoom settings are what they once were (as had been the case in all memory of Sonar.) Or the same happens if I open another project.

This "collapsed view" issue only happens to the first project I open in a music session. I learned the workaround from other users reporting the issue (though kind of noticed other projects worked fine after the first bit of work in the haze of these deadlines!)

[Jim Stamper]

On 8/26/2025 at 8:57 AM, pistolpete said:

I never had issues with vsts or synths in CbB. But when I converted over to the new Sonar, it deleted about a dozen vsts, including TTS-1, GroovePlayer, Sonitus effects and a number of others. It took a lot of time and effort to recover them. The GroovePlayer never restored correctly. Although I don't directly use it, somehow it's tied to the metronome, which is now permanently broken. There are now updates and changes to vsts for "core vsts" which are only available if you pay for a subscription. I am very concerned this might break the stable vsts that I have been using for a long time. This seems to me like a risk when any updates are applied now. There are a lot of bugs being reported from others after the switch over. Add to that, the new Sonar software isn't really supported on Windows10, adding driver issues and things breaking for that update too, for those who update OS. It's a lot of instability right now. Hopefully they get things fixed. 

Are you using the free version or paid version? I have the paid version on Windows 11 and didn't have any of these problems.  I haven't updated to the new "core vst" version, I'm taking a wait and see position on that ... because I share your concern that the monthly updates can have unintended consequences

Edited August 29 by Jim Stamper

[Gene Martin]

After installing the 2025.08 Build 035 update, I'm seeing the same issues reported in previous posts: Suprisingly high processor usage ( I have 12-core, 24-thread Ryzen 9 & 64gb RAM. never before had an issue with processor usage) Also hearing pops & clicks, the initial workspace page is not saved. Please resolve this.