Not Happy With Sonar

[Multifavs]

I used Cakewalk By Bandlab for several years and loved it. But I had to switch to Sonar Free and now I have issues with it. I have to wait for the message wanting me to buy Membership to close before I can use it almost every time. Having multiple projects open at once was something I relied on for some of my work, now it's a paid feature. Sonar is made for computers more powerful than mine, but it works okay except for pieces of my music sometimes going silent when playing.

I'm even less happy about TTS-1 being gone. Now I had to download Sforzando, a soundfont, and a soundbank, and they're not working despite my following all the directions. The new instruments work fine in Sforzando (opened in Sonar), but there's no sound when I try to play my songs in Sonar. On every track, the bank is empty and the instruments are listed as numbers. I wonder if I did something wrong? Even if I do get it to work, my songs won't sound the same anymore...does anyone else have issues with Sonar Free?

[Chaps]

9 minutes ago, Multifavs said:

Having multiple projects open at once was something I relied on for some of my work, now it's a paid feature. 

 

I'm using the Free Sonar and as a test I have four projects loaded right now, so I'm not sure what problem you're having there. Are you clicking Window at the top to see the projects that are loaded?

[Starship Krupa]

1 hour ago, Multifavs said:

I'm even less happy about TTS-1 being gone.

Unfortunately, TTS-1 was a product that belonged to another company. It was beyond the control of BandLab/Cakewalk.

Sonar isn't "made for" computers of any fixed specification other than that they be running Windows 10 or 11. There is a published "recommended" specification, but it's based on the expectation of present day users who expect to be able to run lots of plug-in FX and virtual instruments without having to freeze tracks.

Going silent while playing back tracks is not normal behavior. What are the specs of your system?

[Multifavs]

1 hour ago, Chaps said:

I'm using the Free Sonar and as a test I have four projects loaded right now, so I'm not sure what problem you're having there. Are you clicking Window at the top to see the projects that are loaded?

If I have one project open and then open another, it automatically closes the first one. There's always only one project shown.

 

34 minutes ago, Starship Krupa said:

Unfortunately, TTS-1 was a product that belonged to another company. It was beyond the control of BandLab/Cakewalk.

Sonar isn't "made for" computers of any fixed specification other than that they be running Windows 10 or 11. There is a published "recommended" specification, but it's based on the expectation of present day users who expect to be able to run lots of plug-in FX and virtual instruments without having to freeze tracks.

Going silent while playing back tracks is not normal behavior. What are the specs of your system?

I use a Windows 11 laptop, but it only has half the amount of RAM recommended for Sonar. I would assume that's the reason why my music sometimes goes silent? I don't remember that happening the last few times I used it, but I won't know if it's still happening until I get my soundfont working.

[Chaps]

3 minutes ago, Multifavs said:

If I have one project open and then open another, it automatically closes the first one. There's always only one project shown.

 

The Windows options at the top are Cascade, Tile in Rows, Tile in Columns, and Arrange Icons (Not sure what that one does). Here is what my Sonar looks like with the Tile in Rows option. As you can see there are four different projects open at the same time. You should explore those options.

[Amberwolf]

2 minutes ago, Multifavs said:

If I have one project open and then open another, it automatically closes the first one. There's always only one project shown

AFAICR there is an option in settings for this?

 

2 hours ago, Multifavs said:

 but it works okay except for pieces of my music sometimes going silent when playing.

If it is a periodic silence, it's probably a plugin that has lost it's authorization or isn't working right; many "demo" versions use periodic silences (usually of random duration and event time) to encourage purchase. 

 

Regarding TTS1, if you had it installed on the system, it should still work in Sonar.   (unless you uninstalled whichever program had installed it and uninstalled TTS1 with it). 

 

There is also at least one thread around here for TTS1 explaining how to get it back, though I don't know if the procedure still works or if it's universal. I don't have a link so you'll need to poke around for it. 

[Promidi]

3 hours ago, Multifavs said:

but it works okay except for pieces of my music sometimes going silent when playing.

That looks like one of your plugins has deactivated and gone into demo mode.  Some plugins do that when they become deactivated.

3 hours ago, Multifavs said:

On every track, the bank is empty and the instruments are listed as numbers.

This is probably because TT-S is now gone (at Roland’s request) and the bank information is no longer present.  As I have a multitimbral external synth (SW1000XG) I use an instrument definition file that populates these fields with the correct banks.

3 hours ago, Multifavs said:

Sonar is made for computers more powerful than mine

They say an 8 core is recommended (though not mandatory) because the developers are taking into account CPU hungry plugins. 

I still use a i5 4 core and I can run Sonar fine (PC configured as per signature).  I am careful of my plugin count and CPU hit.
 

3 hours ago, Multifavs said:

Having multiple projects open at once was something I relied on for some of my work

Preferences - File - Advanced (Advanced) > deselect “Allow Only One Open Project at a Time.”

3 hours ago, Multifavs said:

I'm even less happy about TTS-1 being gone

If you have “I used Cakewalk By Bandlab for several years”, leaving CbB installed would have kept TTS-1 installed and usable in Sonar.

I have Sonar, left my previous version of Cakewalk (mine was actually Sonar Platinum, but I still used CbB)  installed and I can still use TTS-1 installed in Sonar.

Did you upgrade CbB to Sonar, keeping your settings or was this a fresh install of Sonar?  From some of the issues you are experiencing, sounds like you did the latter.

When installing Sonar , it is recommended that you keep your previous version installed so as to keep any extras that you might still need access to (which in your case, was TTS-1)

[Starship Krupa]

2 hours ago, Multifavs said:

If I have one project open and then open another, it automatically closes the first one. There's always only one project shown.

Check your Preferences:

2 hours ago, Multifavs said:

I use a Windows 11 laptop, but it only has half the amount of RAM recommended for Sonar.

By this you mean that it has 8GB of RAM? That's enough to run it, the recommended amount is 16GB. If it's new enough to run Windows 11, it's likely capable of installing more than 8GB RAM.

https://help.cakewalk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360021857753-What-are-the-minimum-requirements-for-using-Cakewalk-Sonar