A serious bug from the earlier days of SONAR is still inherited in the latest Manchester release. It still keeps preventing me from using SONAR for really serious projects with a lot of VST's and more sound modules. The reason for that is that some VST's are requiring that ALL of the computer keyboard strokes are routed to the plugin and not to SONAR as the DAW. Especially when VST's are shown in the foreground this should be no problem at all. SONAR has a special button that should be routing all keyboard strokes when lit, but this does not work. Shortcuts of SONAR itself keep on working whether the button is lit or not.
Why is it that Cubase does not have such button with their VST's and all of the VST's that can use the computer keyboard can use the computer keyboard. So it must be simple! I hope that the programmers of Cakewalk will take the time to fix the ancient problem.
 
Question on this forum: Anyone who knows a good workaround (mine is now using Cubase for serious editting of VST's that require it)?

I had this trouble with U-he plugins, but it was fixed several months ago, by U-he, as I remember.
 
I just tried this, using Manchester and Zebra2 version 2.7.2:
 
Open Save Preset dialog in Zebra2.
Type d. Sonar treated it as a shortcut.
Change Give all Keystrokes to Plug-in to Enabled.
Type d. The letter d appeared in the Save Preset dialog. Sonar didn't react.
 
Are you getting different results from this procedure? Are you using U-he plugins?
 
Mitch I.

The trouble I have is with is with the EMU Emulator 3. I know it is an old one and as a matter of fact the manufacturer EMU does not exist anymore. But for me it still one of the best plugins I have, I use it often.
So for me, like you had with U-he, no upgrade or update of the plugin itself.
 
I still think that Cakewalk has to program something. They claim that hitting the "keyboard" icon does redirect all keyboard input to a plugin. Somehow I do think that they have forgotten something here, because why is it that keyboard input still are addressed to SONAR while having the keyboard icon lit? I have no explanation. Also with other DAWs like Cubase for example the keyboard input is redirect to the active window (the plugin). This is normal windows behaviour, so why on earth should SONAR want do it differently?
 
I hope one time there the clue will be found to this simple question. Anyway at least you also had the problem and that shows that there is a flaw within SONAR that causes this.
 
Geert

Geert Jonkheer
I hope one time there the clue will be found to this simple question. Anyway at least you also had the problem and that shows that there is a flaw within SONAR that causes this.

 
I thought X3 was a fantastic plug-in but it will never be updated. Although Kontakt does not have native import of X3 files, I have read of people getting good results translating .exb format files into Kontakt using Extreme Sample Converter or the Translator 6. Unfortunately at some point it is almost certain you will not be able to use X3 anymore...I don't know of any other option than to start preparing for that now.
 
AFAIK when the U-He issue was fixed, "give all keystrokes to plug-in" works in SONAR with virtually all modern plug-ins. Perhaps the issue relates to SONAR being tied in 100% with Windows functionality regarding things like window focus, whereas cross-platform programs sometimes add layers for specific functionalities...but that's just speculation.