Cakewalk Sonar X1 -Problem Solved

[Howard Burns]

Hi All,

To those of us still using Sonar X1 and experiencing dreadful sound after "bouncing to tracks" I have found a workaround.

Of course with so many more advanced Cakewalk Programmes released, this issue may have already been corrected. But if you are still using Sonar X1, see below. It's a bit long winded but once you use this method it will get faster.

 

Select all tracks and “bounce to tracks” in Sonar X1 as per manual to make new audio track

Select/solo new audio track and insert another audio track from this track

Select and solo the second new audio track

At the top of Sonar X1 select File then Export then Audio

At the “Look In” box on the new page change it to desktop

Insert “File name” then select “Export”

Your desktop will now show the WAV file (don’t play it, it will sound awful!!)

Now install and open a programme called AUDACITY

Drag the WAV file from your desktop straight into the opened Audacity window

Your file will appear in Audacity as a stereo waveform

At the top of the Audacity control panel select “Select” then “all”

At the top of the Audacity control panel select “Effect” then “Bass and Treble”

You can increase or decrease by 1db steps and preview your selection to taste

Reducing the bass by 1 or 2db will clear the Muddiness of your track

Increasing the treble by 1 to 3db will increase the mid frequency

Increasing the treble by a further 1db will increase the high frequency.

The application of AUDACITY will as near as damn it, sound the same as your Sonar tracks!

To finish, go to File in Audacity and select “Export Audio” then “Export to Computer”  Check the settings for either WAV or MP3 This will now export your file complete with the EQ balance you just set.

You can now send the file to others and they will hear your file like you heard it originally in Sonar x1 - or as near as damn it!!

Hope this helps.

Best Wishes

Howard

 

[David Baay]

9 hours ago, Howard Burns said:

To those of us still using Sonar X1 and experiencing dreadful sound after "bouncing to tracks" I have found a workaround.

Of course with so many more advanced Cakewalk Programmes released, this issue may have already been corrected. But if you are still using Sonar X1, see below. It's a bit long winded but once you use this method it will get faster.

I'm not aware of any such issue with X1. I have little doubt I could render the same project from X1 and the current Sonar, and they would null to perfect silence. If playback of an exported  .WAV file sounds different in some other app through the same interface and monitoring system, either that app is coloring the sound or you're exporting something different from what's being sent to your interface on playback. If you're talking about a change in sound on different hardware in a differnet environment, anything is possible; your mix may not translate well. Bottom line: everything you're doing in Audacity can be done in X1 before export to achieve the same end result.

[sjoens]

I've never encountered an issue exporting from X1 or any SONAR version.  Dithering and/or Radius Pitch Coherence (default is 50%) can play a factor in bouncing and export.

Maybe uploading an audio sample of the "dreadful sound" can help determine the cause. 

[Starship Krupa]

Eeeeeyeah, no, it's not necessary to export your tracks as .WAV files and then mix them down in Audacity. There's nothing wrong with SONAR X1's summing engine.

Where things CAN (and did for me until I figured it out) go wrong with exporting from SONAR/CbB/Sonar is when you decide where you want to take the export from.

I never use the "entire mix" not after some early experiences with "entire mix" not sounding quite right.

Entire Mix is just another term for "render whatever's coming off your hardware outs." So if you happen to have your hardware outs turned down as a volume control for your monitoring system, or if you are using multiple hardware outs, such as speakers and headphones at the same time, you will get unexpected results.

A much better way is to take the export from your Master bus, or better still, create a dedicated Export bus. That way, as long as everything you want to render is coming into that bus, everything you want to render will get rendered.

This is reminding me that I wanted to request better clarification of the Entire Mix term in the Sonar documentation.

The OP may not be running into Entire Mix issues, but if playback from SONAR/CbB/Sonar and render sound different, the program isn't being used correctly. Entire Mix is the most likely culprit, but there can be others, and they need to figure out which one(s) it is.

On 11/25/2025 at 7:23 AM, Howard Burns said:

with so many more advanced Cakewalk Programmes released, this issue may have already been corrected.

With free to use fully functional newer versions of the DAW having been available for the past 8 years, it's quite easy to test this. Grab the latest Cakewalk Sonar, run it in Free Tier mode, load up your X1 project(s) and export to your heart's content. I suspect that there will be no difference, as it's so likely a matter of configuring the export options. You may even find that you prefer modern Cakewalk Sonar Free Tier, there is nothing that X1 will do that it cannot and much more that it can. Going back is always an option.

To the extent that it may have been "corrected," CbB and the current Sonar Premium Tier have a revamped export dialog that may result in better choices being made, but those choices can also be made in the X1 export dialog to the same effect.