Third Take

AudioSnap, a new suite of features in Sonar 6, contains several powerful tools for manipulating the timing of audio. There are two main directions you can take with AudioSnap - snapping the global project tempo to existing audio, and quantizing audio, either to the project grid or other audio. It is this last idea, quantizing audio to other audio, that is the most exciting.

A drum part with timing issues forced me to delve into AudioSnap for the first time. At first, I was frustrated because the results sounded terrible; the natural decay of the cymbals was ruined, and the hats were not closing on the right beat. It was then that I discovered the existence, and importance of, the different AudioSnap algorithms. Read more

Cakewalk announced another update for Sonar - 6.2.1. Go get it.

Important: If you’re running Sonar in 32-bit mode in x64, the update is not available yet. 64-bit mode for x64 is fine.

Cakewalk has released a patch for Sonar with many bugfixes and a few new features. Upgrade to Sonar 6.2.

This came out a few days ago, but I had to finish a project before I upgraded. I couldn’t take a chance that the upgrade would bork the project. I installed it tonight, and so far it seems to be fine. Be sure to read this document before you install, especially if you’re running Windows Vista.

One thing I’m looking forward to is this:

VSTi’s in Synth Rack did not load content data properly unless property page was opened

Hopefully that will solve some of the integration problems between Sonar and EZDrummer.

Back in August, Cakewalk ran a promotion where you could buy Sonar 5 and they would send you a free upgrade to Sonar 6. Well, my upgrade has finally arrived.

Cakewalk released a VST Adapter Patch on 2006-09-29. This upgrades the VST Adapter to version 4.5.3.157. Sonar 6 users don’t need it, since Sonar 6 doesn’t use the adapter.

In August, Cakewalk was running a deal where if you bought or upgraded to Sonar 5, you would get a free upgrade to Sonar 6 when it came out. It’s out now, but I haven’t received my upgrade yet. I did some searching through the Cakewalk forums for information, and found this thread. Some people claim to have already received theirs, and it took no action on their part. I guess I’ll continue to be patient.

Cakewalk has started putting videos on YouTube about Sonar 6. One of the new features is a tool called AudioSnap that lets manipulate the timing of your audio and midi tracks - you can quantize drums to a guitar part, dynamically change your project tempo based on audio, and even change the rhythm and feel of audio tracks.

Today I got an E-MU Xboard 49 MIDI controller keyboard from zzounds. I picked this controller because it has driver support for Windows x64, according to Cakewalk. So far, I’m really impressed with the hardware, but I’m having trouble with the included soft synth.
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This is old news for most people, especially with Sonar 6 on the horizon, but there is a free update from Sonar 5.0.1 to Sonar 5.2. There is an update for XP and an update for XP x64. Be sure to get the right one for your OS.

If you have a MIDI drum track in your Sonar project, you can use a Drum Map to replace the piano keys in Piano Roll View with the names of the drum samples. Here are Drum Maps for Toontrack’s EZ Drummer - both the Standard Kit and the Cocktail Kit.