CAKEWALK SONAR 6 PE (Windows DAW) - NOW WITH CONCLUSIONS!

[hwhitt]

I too have reverted back to Sonar 5.2 until the issues with 6.x and the Tascam FW-1884 are resolved. The features in Sonar 6 look good, but at this point I'm dependent on the FW-1884 control surface.

[Anderton]

I’ve been waiting on this until 6.2 came out, because I knew there were going to be several enhancements. So, let’s get our, uh, ACT together and check it out.

The scenario: I’m using a Behringer BCF2000 control surface, because hey – it’s cheap, it has moving faders, it fits on my desktop, and it works. The concept behind ACT is that I can use this control surface to control whatever has the focus in Sonar: Effects, synths, mixer, whatever. Let’s see if that’s true.

First of all, I installed the various BCF2000 drivers, and it shows up under Sonar’s MIDI devices as “USB Audio Device.” Fair enough. The first thing you have to do with ACT is create an ACT MIDI controller surface. This involves going Options > Controllers/Surfaces, clicking on the Add New Controller/Surface button (it looks like a little gold star), then choosing the In and Out port. In this case, the only ports I have enabled are for the BCF2000, so they show up under In Port and Out Port as USB Audio Device for each option.

The picture shows what the controller/surfaces dialog box looks like after getting the BCF2000 installed as an ACT controller.

[Anderton]

It’s important to choose the right preset on your controller in order to work properly with ACT. In this particular case, Sonar makes it easy for you.

You need to call up the ACT MIDI Controller window by going Tools > ACT MIDI Controller. A dialog box appears (first picture) and you choose the type of controller you want to use under Presets.

You’ll note that one of the options is Behringer BCF2000 (Custom). What this means is that unlike the standard BCF2000 preset, you can ask Sonar to send sys ex to the BCF2000 and create a preset that’s ideal for ACT. To do this, you click on the Options tab. You’ll see, in the comments field, notes about the BCF2000. Then you just click on the “Send button” (see the second picture), and Sonar sends Sysex to the BCF2000. I sent it into Preset 9, as recommended by the comments, then saved it at the BCF2000.

[Anderton]

In the second picture above, note that there’s an option called “Capture Mode.” You have a choice of “match” or “jump.” With match, the hardware controller needs to match the existing programmed value before it will change. In other words, suppose your fader in Sonar is set to 0.0, and the fader on your controller is at –20. If you move the fader, there will be no change in Sonar’s fader until the hardware controller hits 0.0, at which point the two values “match” so now when you move the fader, Sonar will follow along.

With “Jump” selected, Sonar plays a Van Halen hit. No, not really. What this means is that in the example above, as soon as you move the fader, Sonar will jump immediately to that value (in this case, from 0.0 to –20).

Also note that you can enable this option separately for the bank of 8 rotary controls and the bank of 8 sliders. This is particularly appropriate for the BCF2000, as the rotary controls are “endless encoders” and suitable for controlling synth parameters. Thus, if these are set to match and you want to do something like tweak filter cutoff frequency, you won’t experience any jumps from the existing value to the new value; there will just be a smooth transition.

One reason I mention this is because it seems Sonar defaults to “Match.” So, it’s entirely possible you would move a controller and not see the equivalent parameter change on-screen, therefore thinking there was a problem, instead of making sure the values matched.

[Anderton]

There is a certain amount of intelligence built into the way Sonar handles all this, although it can be a little confusing at first when something makes decisions for you. For example, the very first time I fired up the ACT MIDI controller plug-in, I saw that the pan and volume parameters were available only for four tracks, even though there were eight slots. Eventually it dawned on me that was because the project had only four tracks. Doh! As soon as I inserted more tracks, they showed up until all eight slots were filled.

What happens if you have more than eight tracks? Well, Sonar has a feature called WAI (“Where Am I?”) that places a colored band alongside the tracks that are being controlled. ACT, like apparently the controller industry itself, is very octal centric: 8 channels of control, 8 faders, 8 rotaries, etc. In the first picture, you can see that the WAI strip is green, and in the upper left, to the left of tracks 1-8. Correspondingly, the ACT Controller plug-in shows that rotary controls R1-R8 control pan for T1-T8 (tracks 1-8), and sliders S1-S8 control volume for T1-T8 (the image only shows 6 controls due to size constraints).

Now look at the second picture. In this, the WAI strip has been dragged down so that the controller now affects tracks 7-14. It could just as easily have been 9-16 or any other contiguous combination of 8 tracks. And look at the rotaries: R1 now affects Track 7, R2 Track 8, R3 Track 9, and so; the same situation applies to the sliders.

However, note that you can use more than one control surface. If I hooked up two BFC2000s, in theory one could control channels 1-8, and the second, 9-16. I plan to give this a try at some point but first things first – when learning something new, I like to nail down the simple stuff first before I get too creative!

[johndefiore]

Hi Craig,

This is a bit off the current topic, but have you tried selecting Process-Transpose, checking the Transpose audio box, then selecting one of the Radius algorithms and trying to apply it to an audio track? For many of us this causes a hard crash with SONAR 6.2, while it worked fine in previous versions. I'm wondering how universal this is. Cakewalk has been pretty silent on the subject in the forums. Since the Raduis algorithms were one of the selling features for the upgrade I'd think they'd want to fix this.

Regards,

John

[Anderton]

SONAR 6: SO, DOES ACT WORK?

 

Right now, I’m happily moving faders and watching tracks sliders move, ditto with the panpots. The buttons work too, but with one puzzling exception: Button B1 and Shift+B1 don’t work. All the other buttons work as advertised. I thought it might be a defective button, but Live responds to B1 and the button of the BFC2000 that Cakewalk designated as the Shift button.

 

I tried a few things to fix this, like including or excluding the button from ACT, trying to have the parameter “re-learn” which button it’s supposed to be, and the like – but no luck. I’m starting to think that there’s something missing in the BFC2000 preset itself and that B1 just isn’t “hooked up” to the software…maybe someone from Cakewalk can comment?

 

While ACT is very deep and there’s a lot we could mention, before moving on to controlling effects you might like to know that the WAI strip also appears along the bottom of Console view (refer to the first picture; the green WAI strip is right at the bottom of channels 1-8), and you can drag it around just like Track view to cover different groups of faders.

 

Another useful feature is that you can shift the controller among fader groups: Track (which we’ve already looked at), Bus (where the faders and pans affect buses), and Main (as expected, the main outs). In the ACT MIDI Controller plug-in there’s a section called Control Group where you can select among these (circled in the red in the second picture), but this is also mapped to button B6 on the BFC2000 (circled in blue). So, you can step through the different groups just by clicking on this button.

 

Okay, on to effects. Remember, the whole thing about ACT is if you call up an effect that Cakewalk has “ACTified,” the hardware controller should work with it too. Let’s see.

[Anderton]

Have you tried selecting Process-Transpose, checking the Transpose audio box, then selecting one of the Radius algorithms and trying to apply it to an audio track? For many of us this causes a hard crash with SONAR 6.2, while it worked fine in previous versions. I'm wondering how universal this is.

 

 

Well, I just tried what you said, and indeed -- hard crash. I pretty much use the Radius for time-stretching so hadn't caught this. I did check the MPEX transposition, that works fine; also the Groove clip transposition works. You might consider using those methods of transposition until a fix comes along.

[Anderton]

I called up the Project5 Tempo Delay because I use it a lot, diddled some knobs on the BFC2000, and – son of a gun, the panel knobs moved too! Cool, Let’s try another one…

I have the Project 5 Compress/Gate in front of me now. It works, but I don’t like the way the controls are mapped; it’s a strange combination of rotaries and sliders that I don’t find particularly intuitive. Look at the first picture: As you can see, R1 and R2 do the attack and release – so far, so good. But the Threshold, Ratio, and Input Gain parameters are controlled by sliders 2, 1, and 4 respectively. I’d prefer just to map all the rotaries across the first eight controls, and the right-most slider for the master level (I’m used to master levels being on the right). So…

You can cause a parameter to respond to different controller with the ACT Learn function. The way this works is simple once you understand it.

First, you click on the ACT control on the effect or the ACT plug-in – it doesn’t matter, they all connect in the same way. Now you move the parameters you want to control, in the order you want to assign them. For example, I moved the three compressor controls, the three gate controls, and level.

Then, you move the hardware controllers you want to have affect these parameters, again in order. So, I moved rotary knobs 3-8 and the master slider, in that order.

After you’ve chosen your parameters to assign and your controllers, you disable ACT Learn by clicking on the ACT button again. A dialog box comes up (see second picture) that in this case said “7 parameters and 7 controls were touched. Do you want to keep these assignments?” I of course said yes. Okay…now what?

[Anderton]

The ACT MIDI Controller plug-in now shows exactly what I wanted, with Rotaries R1-R8 mapped across the first 8 compressor parameters, and the right-most slider controlling Level. Bingo!

But the sliders still retain their existing assignments. I thought about this for a bit, and figured why not parallel the upper controls with sliders? That way I could vary the parameters with sliders or rotaries, it wouldn’t matter. The only change to make was not assigning the manual trigger, as it didn’t seem all that useful to assign to a slider.

So, I went into ACT Learn again and did the slider assignments. Check out the picture for the final ACT assignments.

[Anderton]

I expected ACT to work with Cakewalk’s effects, but was pleasantly surprised that just about anything I called up had its parameters show up in the ACT MIDI Controller Plug-In: PSP’s Vintage Warmer, Line 6’s Gearbox Gold plug-ins, AmpliTube 2, Waves GTR, AmpliTube, etc. However, some didn’t show up, such as Sony’s Express plug-ins. I thought it might be a DirectX thing, but isotope Ozone showed up, as did some other DirectX Sony plug-ins. Then I called up various instruments, and they all appeared too.

I’m not sure what criteria make a plug-in ACT-friendly or not, but I did run into some where the parameters didn’t show up automatically in the various ACT MIDI Controller cells. For example, this happened with Sony’s reverb that’s bundled with Vegas and Acid. However, it seems as long as the effect or instrument has an ACT button, you can do the move-parameter-values-then-move-rotaries-and-sliders routine, and the parameter names and assignments show up in the cells.

This is looking better and better…I don't know if it's just 6.2 or not, but I'm sure having a much easier time than I was with 6.01.

[Anderton]

Well it's time for dinner, and I also need some time to "digest" what's happening with ACT...it's very deep, and I'm sure I'm missing out on a lot. Hopefully, though, I'm not spreading any misinformation! If I get a chance to post some more observations later tonight I will, otherwise we'll meet back here tomorrow for more.

[Anderton]

Well the chicken is cooking (smothered in lemon, lime, and oregano, I can hardly wait!) so I thought I'd dash off a few thoughts.

First, it seems to me that ACT ties into the automation parameters that are exposed by a plug-in. This would explain why when you open up a particular plug-in, there may be no real logic to the control assignments vs. the available parameters. For example, when I opened up Arturia's Minimoog, all the parameters were there but the filter parameters weren't grouped together. Granted that's easy enough to fix, as I described previously; I also think there may be some way to transfer assignments through XML. I'm a little hazy about that, maybe someone from Cakewalk can chime in, or I'll figure it out myself.

Second, Native Instruments got it right with Kore, where they spent a huge amount of time developing a consistent interface across their product line. That's certainly not the case here, but I question whether the purpose of ACT is to really assign EVERY parameter to a control. It seems to me like the best use of ACT would be to set up a consistent set of controls for the options you use the most. For example, with almost all synths, I'm into tweaking filter cutoff and envelope attack, decay , and release times. It seems one of the best uses of ACT for me would be to assign these to the same knobs for all the soft synths I use.

Third, I was surprised how quickly I adapted to particular button presses and slider assignments. For example, with the BFC2000, button 3 does play and button 2 does stop (I still can't figure out why button 1 doesn't work...oh well). At first that didn't seem intuitive, but within an hour I found myself reaching for those buttons more and more compared to the QWERTY keyboard or mouse. Ditto with signal processor assignments and such: I just keep reaching for those sliders and rotaries.

So I think that to make the best use of ACT, you really have to customize it for your own needs and desires. But the potential is clearly there. What I'd really like to see is the ability for users to exchange ACT "profiles" for various devices; for example, if I come up with some really cool Minimoog implementation that uses all four banks, it would be great if that could be posted somewhere so others could take advantage of that work.

Hey, this may even possible now and I just don't know it!! In fact, knowing Cakewalk, it probably is but they just haven't really explained it in a way that mere mortals can understand

[muselogic]

Craig, this is an awesome tutorial. Thanks so much as always for doing it.

This is looking better and better…I don't know if it's just 6.2 or not, but I'm sure having a much easier time than I was with 6.01.

That's good to hear. We did a lot of work on ACT between 6.0 and 6.2.

[muselogic]

So I think that to make the best use of ACT, you really have to customize it for your own needs and desires. But the potential is clearly there. What I'd really like to see is the ability for users to exchange ACT "profiles" for various devices; for example, if I come up with some really cool Minimoog implementation that uses all four banks, it would be great if that could be posted somewhere so others could take advantage of that work. Hey, this may even possible now and I just don't know it!! In fact, knowing Cakewalk, it probably is but they just haven't really explained it in a way that mere mortals can understand

Ok - we earned that But yes there IS a way to merge act learnings in fact. On the Controllers/Surfaces dialog, there is an "Import ACT Data" button in the lower right. This will merge the contents of a new XML ACT data file into the main one.

[Anderton]

Very cool, and thanks for the tips! Next question: How do you EXPORT the ACT data so someone else can import it?

[muselogic]

At this time there is no UI to export the parameter mappings for a particular plugin. As a first step, the Import button was used so that we could deliver more ACT mappings as stand-alone file and the data could be merged into your master.

That said, one could share his entire genericpluginparams.xml file with another user. (this is found in Documents and Settings//Application Data/Cakewalk/ACT Data) It's also fairly easy to edit the xml to make a smaller set of plugins to export.

Very cool, and thanks for the tips! Next question: How do you EXPORT the ACT data so someone else can import it?

 

[Anderton]

That said, one could share his entire genericpluginparams.xml file with another user. (this is found in Documents and Settings/ /Application Data/Cakewalk/ACT Data) It's also fairly easy to edit the xml to make a smaller set of plugins to export.

Easy for you, maybe Actually I opened up that file in Notepdad and it does look sorta doable. It looks a lot harder than editing SFZ files, though!

BTW while you're here...any idea why button 1 on the Behringer BCF2000 doesn't do anything? Everything else works as expected in the ACT plug-in, but that button (along with Shift-button) isn't recognized.

[muselogic]

BTW while you're here...any idea why button 1 on the Behringer BCF2000 doesn't do anything? Everything else works as expected in the ACT plug-in, but that button (along with Shift-button) isn't recognized.

Well I'm on "vacation" skiing in NH this week and I left my BCF2000 in my other suitcase When I get back, I'll check this out.

[Anderton]

One of the new features in Version 6.2 is the ability to export and import color schemes. And not a minute too soon: I've been working on a color scheme for my desktop machine, and it was driving me nuts when I went on the road and used Sonar on a laptop machine with a different color scheme.

The way you do this is simple. You go Options > Colors, and click on the Export button. You have the option of exporting the "Current" preset or all presets; if you export all presets, it can take a little while, so be patient.

Anyway, I tried it, and it works. Just for kicks, I've attached the color scheme I'm working on (it's a work in progress). I wanted to go for a very gray, muted kind of look...check it out, and if you improve on it, post a revised version here!

[Anderton]

One of the big features in Sonar 6.2, X-Ray windows, has met with some controversy - reactions range from "cooooool!" to "why are they wasting time on eye candy?" So, which is it?

Actually, as mentioned earlier, the AudioSnap palette has always had a transparency feature (I guess it was their test case). But this is different. What X-Ray does, via a key command, is let you turn certain windows transparent - from totally transparent (they actually disappear) to solid, and anywhere in between. You can also adjust a fade time from standard mode to transparent, and back again, from 10 ms to 2 seconds (I prefer a snappy 100 ms for fade in and fade out). The X-Ray feature affects the following windows:

* AudioSnap palette
* Plug-ins (effects and synths)
* Snap to grid dialog
* Piano roll view (when floated)
* Synth Rack
* Controller/surface plug-ins

So...why bother? Actually, I think a more accurate name for this function would be "dual monitor emulator." One of the reasons for having a dual monitor is so you can place your soft synths and effects on it, and tweak away without obscuring the main sequencer "playing field." With X-Ray windows, you can have your synths and effects sitting right on top of your sequence; make them go away (or at least turn ghostly!) when you want to work with the sequencer, and make them re-appear when you want to tweak soft synth parameters.

There are two basic X-Ray options. One affects just the window under your mouse, while the other affects all "X-Ray eligible" windows. The way I have it set up is with transparency at full - in other words, when X-rayed, the windows disappear entirely. This is almost more like another layout function than anything else, actually; I find it incredibly useful. In many magazine reviews, I've complained about how much screen real estate certain plug-ins take up. With X-Ray windows, if I don't want them anymore, I just make them disappear...until I need them again.

So bottom line, I come down on the side of "coool."

[Anderton]

Well…here we are. We’ve covered AudioSnap, how to use the GNX4 control surface for hands-free recording, the VC-64 Vintage Channel, customization options, the new synth rack, Session Drummer 2, ACT, import/export colors, and X-Ray windows. Those are definitely the main features of the Version 6 and the 6.2 updates, but let’s give a quick look at the other new features in Sonar 6. We’ll go down the “What’s new” list and give a brief description of each one.

Soft synth MIDI output support. As far as I can tell, this is mostly to accommodate Groove Agent and its ilk.

Enhanced ReWire. Sonar can now take advantage of all channels offered by a MIDI client.

VST 64-bit support. VST 2.4 allows streaming audio data at 64-bit double-precision, and Sonar can now handle that.

New console view. Not sure if I mentioned this or not…but yes, it’s more streamlined and visually appealing. The functionality remains pretty much as is, with a few new twists.

Large transport redesign. It’s much more like Cubase’s in that you can show and hide transport functions.

Better mouse wheel support. You can use it to zoom in and out of clips, and control knobs and faders in Console and Track view.

And in the “It’s about time” category, the following are finally part of Sonar.

Clip handles. Mouseovers now show hotspots for clip editing and fades.

Absolute time-based clips. Finally – you can lock clips to SMPTE time.

Multiple time ruler. Isn’t it about time you could see, say, SMPTE and M:B:T at the same time? Yup.

Friendly driver names. Now you don’t have to put up with driver names that have a higher character count than the Gettysburg Address.

Lasso selects touched clips. You don’t have to surround a clip, just touch it anywhere to select it with the lasso.

Snap to grid can now snap to multiple resolutions. For example, you can snap to a particular rhythmic interval and/or a clip boundary.

You can record automation while recording audio or MIDI data. You no longer need to do a separate pass for automation. Guitarists using amp sims and pedals may now rejoice.

[Anderton]

There are numerous other small enhancements, but we’ve concentrated more on giving tutorials on the “big features” as the smaller ones are pretty self-explanatory. But the bottom line is how does Sonar stack up?

Pretty darn well, actually. I’ve been using Sonar V6 as my go-to sequencer, and have been extremely happy with it. Although 6.0 had some problems, 6.01 took care of some of the nastiest ones and 6.2 added some features as well as fixed bugs. Unfortunately, it also introduced a few (one of the most repeatable being the “using Radius transpose algorithms causes Sonar to crash) but overall, 6.2 has been extremely stable. AudioSnap and ACT seem a whole lot tighter, and I’ve gone for days at a time doing some pretty heavy sessions without any hiccups.

One of the few aspects I don’t particularly care for is the fluid nature of widgets in Track View, although I suspect that was necessary in order to have tabbed views of different widgets. And as has been noted in Cakewalk’s forums, MIDI could use a bit of an overhaul – not because it has problems, but because it could use a little cosmetic help and deeper editing/filtering features. Still, it’s quite useable and functional, and word on the street is that V7 will spend a little time dealing with MIDI.

I still miss the CAL files and Studio Panels (they exist in vestigial form only), but I can cope…it’s not like Cakewalk said they were dropping support for Acidized files, DirectX, VST, or something truly vital.

The customization features have turned out to be more important than I suspected at first. The colorization is helpful, but being able to arrange plug-ins, layouts, and menus is truly helpful. I don’t know if ACT has “changed my life,” or at least not yet – it’s only with 6.2 that I’ve felt comfortable with it. On the other hand AudioSnap, which I didn’t expect to use that much, has been indispensable for some projects. And Session Drummer 2 is, I feel, underrated; part of that may be due its lack of “accessorization” – there’s not a lot of choice in drum kits and patterns, and I wonder how many people will get into writing SFZ scripts to create their own setups. Or maybe there’s going to be an aftermarket option…Cakewalk has been very good about providing new content for their Rapture and Dimension instruments. In any event, I have created some of my own kits, and found Session Drummer very handy.

I think Sonar is an exceptional program. It does all the usual tape emulation things, but it also does so much more. Having seen it develop since version 1.0, I have to say that Sonar has managed to continuing piling on features while staying true to its original vision – very much like Ableton Live and Sony Acid Pro, which perhaps not coincidentally, are also programs I use quite a bit.

So I think it’s pretty much time for this Pro Review to start winding down. However, I do recognize this is a pretty deep program – so if you feel I’ve missed anything, let me know and I’ll get on it. I suspect this will be a review with a fairly long decay time

[Mr. Ease]

Craig,

Thanks very much for this in depth run through. You have picked up on many things I have missed so far. I am yet to try out AudioSnap again using 6.2. I'm hoping for better results than I had with 6.01!

Did Bob ever get back to you regarding you BCF2000 button problem? If so I would like to hear if it is resolved.

I suspect this will be a review with a fairly long decay time

Please remember that if you want the very longest decay time you must engage the 64 bit processing! :
Thanks again.

[pbognar]

There are numerous other small enhancements, but we’ve concentrated more on giving tutorials on the “big features” as the smaller ones are pretty self-explanatory. But the bottom line is how does Sonar stack up? Pretty darn well, actually. I’ve been using Sonar V6 as my go-to sequencer, and have been extremely happy with it. Although 6.0 had some problems, 6.01 took care of some of the nastiest ones and 6.2 added some features as well as fixed bugs. Unfortunately, it also introduced a few (one of the most repeatable being the “using Radius transpose algorithms causes Sonar to crash) but overall, 6.2 has been extremely stable. AudioSnap and ACT seem a whole lot tighter, and I’ve gone for days at a time doing some pretty heavy sessions without any hiccups. One of the few aspects I don’t particularly care for is the fluid nature of widgets in Track View, although I suspect that was necessary in order to have tabbed views of different widgets. And as has been noted in Cakewalk’s forums, MIDI could use a bit of an overhaul – not because it has problems, but because it could use a little cosmetic help and deeper editing/filtering features. Still, it’s quite useable and functional, and word on the street is that V7 will spend a little time dealing with MIDI. I still miss the CAL files and Studio Panels (they exist in vestigial form only), but I can cope…it’s not like Cakewalk said they were dropping support for Acidized files, DirectX, VST, or something truly vital. The customization features have turned out to be more important than I suspected at first. The colorization is helpful, but being able to arrange plug-ins, layouts, and menus is truly helpful. I don’t know if ACT has “changed my life,” or at least not yet – it’s only with 6.2 that I’ve felt comfortable with it. On the other hand AudioSnap, which I didn’t expect to use that much, has been indispensable for some projects. And Session Drummer 2 is, I feel, underrated; part of that may be due its lack of “accessorization” – there’s not a lot of choice in drum kits and patterns, and I wonder how many people will get into writing SFZ scripts to create their own setups. Or maybe there’s going to be an aftermarket option…Cakewalk has been very good about providing new content for their Rapture and Dimension instruments. In any event, I have created some of my own kits, and found Session Drummer very handy. I think Sonar is an exceptional program. It does all the usual tape emulation things, but it also does so much more. Having seen it develop since version 1.0, I have to say that Sonar has managed to continuing piling on features while staying true to its original vision – very much like Ableton Live and Sony Acid Pro, which perhaps not coincidentally, are also programs I use quite a bit. So I think it’s pretty much time for this Pro Review to start winding down. However, I do recognize this is a pretty deep program – so if you feel I’ve missed anything, let me know and I’ll get on it. I suspect this will be a review with a fairly long decay time

I will put my request in for a review / comparison of the new version 6 of Home Studio XL versus Producer/Studio. It almost appears that for some this might be a better point to get on the "Sonar Love Train" than Studio, for the unintiated... Seems like a lot of bang for the buck.

Pete