SongCraft, even 18 months.. if you break it down it's not 18 months though.. They have a set time to work on aspects (I'm actually surprised the dev team go home at all considering the output yearly) . Then testing etc.

the business side of it with the industry has totally changed the goal posts..e..g. NI do good business selling sound packs with kore, much like many others who offer some sort of player of a description and make the real money on the packs.

they release a sampler.. ok... if it's part of the whole package, you'll get people moaning.. oh it doesn't support xyz format.. or "but my other sampler can do that" (sure it can because you paid far more) . There is a review n a certain mag I just got of a rival product... and well the cons of it "no sampler included" . It's a good suggestion and of course they'll read about it.. but is it "do-able" for the set project budget they have. Some companies I relate to certain things.. cakewalk and it's rivals the actual sequencer.. NI for instruments etc. I dunno how far you go back with samplers, but back in the day some were a proper pig to work with.. (one changed the OS programmers and they were programmers who weren't so clued up on the music side) . I guess it's less like that now with the software versions.... only thing I can compare it to is Heinz beans.. other brands are fine.. but well that's the one everyone sorta associates with beans.hehe

Hey John I think we have the foundation from Rene with his SFZ format. I don't know what instrument they were working on, but it has been over a year since Cakewalk pulled the plug on it. I keep dreaming that it will be a hybrid Roland Fantom Rene super Sampler + Synth.
A guy can dream can't he
But I wonder how many here would buy it or wait to see if Cakewalk throws it in with Sonar 10 or Sonar 11

I remember that. I wonder what happen to it. I don't think I knew what it was but if it was as you say a sampler I am all for it with the proviso of my last post. We can dream together on this on. From a distance.

Its not a sampler its a sample player. Also its a single instrument. I would want a multi voice sampler with at least 16 different channels. Dim Pro is a great value as it is but it can't fulfill the requirements I see as essential in any new sampler.

A few disconnected thoughts on the idea of a new 'Perfect Sampler' from Cakewalk. In no particular order...

If they were going to do something like that, I would think it would first appear as a standalone plugin, the way Dimension Pro and Rapture did. This would let them sell it to the entire production community and not just CW customers.

That would be consistent with the pattern CW has followed over the last several generations of plugins. It would also let them continue the pattern they've followed, more or less, over the last few updates to Sonar: The new plugin comes out; it's marketed as a separate add on for Sonar and all other DAWs; over time, an LE or otherwise limited version is introduced and bundled with Sonar Producer; that eventually trickles down the CW line to Sonar Studio, Home Studio, and so on; until eventually the full 'pro' version of the plugin is bundled with Sonar Producer.

That's roughly what happened with the Sonitus fx, Dimension, and Rapture... maybe others that I'm not recalling atm. This approach helps CW amortize the development of the products, and helps incentivize user upgrade of the main Sonar line.

CW's acquisition of Sonitus and RGC insured that they could always have something in the plugin pipeline to augment the slower development of the DAWs.

Where does Beatscape fit into this? Is that a version of the legendary killer synth that I've read about here on the forum.... that they announced but that never appeared (the story goes something like that... no?)

Beatscape was the topline new feature in Sonar 8, which was otherwise mostly an "under the hood" upgrade of the engine. Beatscape and the other new fx plugins helped round out that package. Dimension Pro also finally went "free" with Sonar 8 Producer. It's worth noting that a known bug in Dim Pro that causes problems at higher sample rates was not fixed for its inclusion in Sonar 8. All this suggests that development of Dim Pro (itself) has essentially stopped. It also says something about the importance to CW of high sample rate users.

And what about Project5, which seems to have been abandoned. Even though it's a DAW in its own right, it too follows the basic pattern of a standalone product that eventually gets discounted and used as an upgrade incentive to the Sonar line (that's how I got P5 last year, when I upgrade to Sonar 7.) Plus P5 was a laboratory where ideas and little goodies could be developed that could be spun out across the CW line. SOMETHING is going to come of the Groove Matrix? It's too cool an idea to just let go.

My intuition is that CW needs to do something big and new for the next version of Sonar, or the one after that. The effort that they've put into Sonar 8 and the tone surrounding it has a feeling of culmination about it. Mating Sonar with the V-Studio console contributes to that feeling.

Getting 8.3 ready must have eaten into their development time for whatever comes next. Will that be in October as usual? Or are we seeing the start of a new development and release cycle?

Where does Beatscape fit into this?

As SongCraft has mentioned, CW have said that Beatscape can expand and grow - depending on customer feedback.

You're probably right about Dimension Pro, though.

ORIGINAL: Marah

What's needed is the ability to have multiple independent instances of Console View, each able to have a different view. That alone would be a good improvement, and I suspect quite an easy one to implement. (PRV already allows multiple independent instances, and it's super useful.)

Also, the ability of each Console View to wrap channel strips into two (or more) rows. And to not require that all strips show the same control sets. And to be able to change the order of the strips independent of thier order in Track View.

+1

Considering SONAR is used for film score for example and often tracks will multiply, next thing ya' know the project has expanded to 200 tracks ready for mixdown and the client is very impatient *yikes* hehehe!! I definitely see the need for two or more rows in the console view (channel strips) with options to show/hide any particular part of the Chan strip.

ORIGINAL: Marah

A few disconnected thoughts on the idea of a new 'Perfect Sampler' from Cakewalk. In no particular order...

If they were going to do something like that, I would think it would first appear as a standalone plugin, the way Dimension Pro and Rapture did. This would let them sell it to the entire production community and not just CW customers.

That would be consistent with the pattern CW has followed over the last several generations of plugins. It would also let them continue the pattern they've followed, more or less, over the last few updates to Sonar: The new plugin comes out; it's marketed as a separate add on for Sonar and all other DAWs; over time, an LE or otherwise limited version is introduced and bundled with Sonar Producer; that eventually trickles down the CW line to Sonar Studio, Home Studio, and so on; until eventually the full 'pro' version of the plugin is bundled with Sonar Producer.

That's roughly what happened with the Sonitus fx, Dimension, and Rapture... maybe others that I'm not recalling atm. This approach helps CW amortize the development of the products, and helps incentivize user upgrade of the main Sonar line.

CW's acquisition of Sonitus and RGC insured that they could always have something in the plugin pipeline to augment the slower development of the DAWs.

Where does Beatscape fit into this? Is that a version of the legendary killer synth that I've read about here on the forum.... that they announced but that never appeared (the story goes something like that... no?)

Beatscape was the topline new feature in Sonar 8, which was otherwise mostly an "under the hood" upgrade of the engine. Beatscape and the other new fx plugins helped round out that package. Dimension Pro also finally went "free" with Sonar 8 Producer. It's worth noting that a known bug in Dim Pro that causes problems at higher sample rates was not fixed for its inclusion in Sonar 8. All this suggests that development of Dim Pro (itself) has essentially stopped. It also says something about the importance to CW of high sample rate users.

And what about Project5, which seems to have been abandoned. Even though it's a DAW in its own right, it too follows the basic pattern of a standalone product that eventually gets discounted and used as an upgrade incentive to the Sonar line (that's how I got P5 last year, when I upgrade to Sonar 7.) Plus P5 was a laboratory where ideas and little goodies could be developed that could be spun out across the CW line. SOMETHING is going to come of the Groove Matrix? It's too cool an idea to just let go.

My intuition is that CW needs to do something big and new for the next version of Sonar, or the one after that. The effort that they've put into Sonar 8 and the tone surrounding it has a feeling of culmination about it. Mating Sonar with the V-Studio console contributes to that feeling.

Getting 8.3 ready must have eaten into their development time for whatever comes next. Will that be in October as usual? Or are we seeing the start of a new development and release cycle?

Well said, that makes sense!

CW are more than just interested in developing DAW software, they have won various awards for their software synths plugins (Rapture is one good example).

As john reminded everyone Rapture and DemPro are single instruments.

What I imagine the Perfect Sampler being is a 16 or more multi-instrument plugin for not only Vsti and Dxi but also Au and other formats. Capable of loading just about any file format! The Perfect Sampler is like the 'Main Instrument Production Centre' within itself with both easy and advanced sound editing modes, excellent routing, mixer/multiFX's, therefor more than just a sampler, a consolidation of the best from CW softsynths.

Perfect Drummer is similar except it's focus is on one-shot samples with a drum software layout design (5x5 or more Kit Pads) and as a replacement for SD2. Therefor unlike the Perfect Sampler it's GUI focus is on drum software layout and again a consolidation of the best from CW but taken further, a beat creator, Guru/Velocity/Cyclone features, include content for example GrooveSynths drums sand other content additions... focus on more percussion, world/ethnic, FX's and additional acoustic kits with more focus on quality content.

With just these two plugins (Perfect Sampler and Perfect Drummer) give us the possibility to do complete productions. Include optimization options to run on laptops and you have a very powerful portable composition tool, a true All-In-One production with speedy access to all available content on your hard-drive, aiding this is a searchable content browser built-in to the GUI (not a separate popup window or separate file explorer) although that can be used too since CW has implemented that option already.

Now! If CW did do all that! Have options on install (SONAR) to include or not include all those older plugins (softsynths) including install options for content libraries.

I'm still waking up from lack of sleep the night before and before that and.... oh I get it, this is a dream, nothing is real! Strawberry Fields forever

See FR List Updated

ORIGINAL: John

59 playlist is a repeat of play order tracks # 19.

61: Replaceable EQ Section: I don't think this is possible. The EQ in Sonar is hardwired to use the Sonitus EQ.

63: Three Workflow Enhancements:
(1) Eliminate the spitter bars on on the console view and replace them with a tabbed view; tabs on the right or left side. So to look at tracks you click on the "Tracks" tab, to see all busses, click on the "Busses" tab, etc. If seeing the tracks and busses is desired, add "All" tab for tracks and busses,etc. I find myself doing way too much left/right dragging of the splitters. I'm pretty sure I actually suggesting the splitter bars back in my Pro Audio 10 requirements document, but I never realized how awkward they'd be.

(2) Likewise, eliminate the splitter bar on the track view that seperates tracks from busses and replace it with a tab view; tabs on the right or left. If seeing the tracks and busses is desired for editing (likely) reasons, add "All" tab for tracks and busses.

(3) One could still retain the splitter capability in for editing reasons, even with the tabs. IOW, make it work like a MS application where you can add a splitter bar anywhere and then remove it when you are done. [Eric Peterson]

These things are already there in Sonar as far as I understand this.

24: Aim Assist should work in the bus pane as well as the track pane:
(Self explanatory). Not really why?

44: Envelope Lanes: Only as an option

###: Leaner, More Resource Efficient and More Rock Solid DAW(s): This seems to contradict all of the wanted features.LOL

Thanks John, Yes! I see that duplicate entry and other points you picked up on. I will edit the list but can't change the numbering since previous posts point to a #(number) on that list.

It gets a little confusing for me as the list grows and the way some ideas are explained.

The leaner part of my post is there so if someone comes along and says.... oh but I don't care about anymore FR I just want it to be leaner and more efficient without adding more features, and I want them to fix the bugs because the latency is 50ms when using my Zigatel Zapper SoundCard *joke* OK! I will remove that part since CW will most likely continue to improve on SONAR's performance, efficiency, optimizations (under the hood tweaks)...... read on....

I do have a FR not specifically for SONAR.PE but for a stripped down version of SONAR.PE that is basically a very lean DAW without all the plugins/content although a lighter (optimized) version of an Vsti (multi-instrument plugin) for sketching ideas but includes the same GUI and all the great editing features (midi and audio editing including AS) specifically designed to run on portable systems such as mini-Laptops (NetBooks) therefor being very lean edition (not to be confused with SONAR LE, GT or HomeStudio because they don't include those extra editing features such as ASnap or VVocal)

I just want something with fur.

My first request

I would like a optional way to set tools only by one view. Some of the tools are not necessary in the PRV view, well for me at least. Stuff like scrub, microscope and a few others. Of course you can customize the toolbar and take out what you don't need and put in what you do need, but then that would also change them in the track view and other places, where the old tools could possibly been needed and the new ones don't. I only have one monitor and like more than 2 rows of tools kinda makes the workspace feel crowded, and makes more work minimizing and changing tools around.

My second request

This is simple. A way to rename your midi controllers. I have 3 controllers that are not supported in sonars list. Its very confusing when I go to select one of them and they all say Act Midi Controller - 1, 2 or 3. To prevent confusion on what originally was named have like a tool tip when highlighted so you can see the actual name. I know about the color code thing but we only get 4 to choose from.

My third request.

I'm sure I'm not the only one that finds this very annoying. When you go into loop explorer and you hit auto. It keeps repeating over and over. The option clicked is auto, not auto + loop so why should it behave that way? I know its called loop explorer but not only loops are used when selecting audio from there. Its a pain when trying to find something like a good snare, when your trying to just click them to preview but then you have it rapidly repeating.

My fourth request.

Can we please do something with the plugin manager? It always winds up mysteriously losing plugins in sonar that show up in the manager but not in fx bin. Also every since sonar 6 I could never get my custom menu layouts to show up. I get my plugins by bundles but I'm under 500. That would be very convenient for me to have my fx organized. There's sevel ppl from what I see around the forum that have had these two issues with the plugin manager for a long time.

I only came in here to do to request two initially but stuff that's been getting to me kept coming to mind lol. On another note im very happy with sonar especially with the last update.

I think your idea is a very doable thing and it would add to the user base. Lean and mean just the basics and a few neat low CPU plugin instruments. Running off a USB stick that CW provides that way it could not be copied or transferred to another PC. It could come with Sonar PE as a bonus. It would work just as Sonar does and with the same keystrokes. GUI would be the same except for unneeded things for basic work. It would record audio and MIDI the same as Sonar PE. Projects would transfer over to Sonar PE with great ease.

The more I think about the better it is. Great idea Song, really!

I don't think this has been mentioned yet, but an improved score/notation editor would also be a big plus. I remember there was a bit of dissapointment when sonar 8 came out because they hadn't had time to improve on the notation editor. Would be good if sonar 9 rectified this.

A nice feature would be when you buy a program and you chose the download ,instead of the disk that you can download the program the same day. Or at least have a disclaimer saying that our downloads are buggy and you may not get to use your program until you contact support and wait on hold or email them and wait a few days to a week.
What happened to Cakewalk???

ORIGINAL: Desperate Dan

Another long overdue improvement is a Text Search in Softsynths - Like Patch finder in Hardware patch lists but specifically for things like Dimension Pro which now has over a thousand Patches and you can't remember everyone and their group that they are in?

Think I know what you mean.... Patch-Search within CW SoftSynths such as Dimension.Pro along with options for type of search (categories, type of sound), and as you type the first few letters it immediately starts to compile the Search Result List along with further options for Audio-Preview > and Load +

It would be nice if an expanded-view or tab/view within Dimension.Pro (not a separate popup window) be added for this feature you've suggested.