i bet if Cakewalk put out a multi-core Project 5 v3 x64 and marketed it correctly, that could make the company more hip. they could even change its name if they wanted to

I appreciate the replies with great tips. Please, note that I do not own any other software. My background experience was with Logic back in the day when it was available for PC users. I never even tried a DEMO of Abelton. I just see that more and more people using it and I like to know why. I use Sonar since version 4 and released several music albums in the past, but my experience with it is on the surface. I know enough to get by, and if there is a better ways to do things, I like to hear about it. I do not do music for living. I am a nurse, and recently graduated with advanced nursing degree. If you ever been in a graduate school- the time for any projects is limited to Zero. Last 4 years all I could do was to buy different software synths, install them and dream that I will be able to use them in the near future. Setting up software synths was always easy- been doing it for long time. It was hard when I had to configure Nora arpeggiator to play in to Nexus synth. For some reason all different instances of Nexus were triggered. I have seen it on different occasions before. That was software that developers admitted not testing in Sonar.  
 

Oh, and once you have it working, just save the configuration as a track template, you will never have to do it again. 
Your synths do not output to the master but by default because you did not right click on your master and check "Set Default Bus".
About leaking into other tracks, make sure your instruments don't have MIDI output enabled when they don't need to. Uncheck it when you insert the synth unless you specifically need it.

 
Will it save as track template with specific software synth that was used at that instance or will I be able to open template with different synth? Or will I need to make template for each commonly used synth?
 
Click on Master output? I have to try it when I near my music computer. This is very very useful. Now if I use one most common input- is there a way to set it so that every new track created will have lets say Input 3-4 instead of input 1-2?
 
I do not see what you mean by disabling MIDI output. My Midi output is assigned to software synth or hardware synth. If I disable it, then I would have no sound. In case of arpeggiator, it needs to send notes to Soft Synth in order to be heard. I do not know if some synth have MIDI output inside the plugin or if you referring to the MIDI track output.  
 
FastBiker Boy, thank you for your reply. May I ask, where in the tutorial it talks about using more than one synth at the same time? This is why I dont want the tutorials. This was 15 minutes of my life I will never get back. The way a person configures soft synths is backwards. Nobody makes Midi and Audio track and then open soft synth and try to relate it to those tracks. Soft Synths can be inserted easier by Insert from the top menu. It will automatically create already configured midi and audio tracks. So this tutorial was for beginners from somebody who does not use this function often or does not care.
 
I was referring to playing more than one INPUT at the same time. My band used to have 2 keyboardists and drummer with electronic drum set. We needed to be able to play 2 different hardware keyboards at the same time with the drummer recording MIDI from Roland V-Concert. I dont remember the outcome but it did not work very well. We have tried to select more than one track, but there was some issue with it- I can not remember the details. The video you referred me to has nothing to do with the issue. But thank you for trying to help. I do appreciate it.

The premise of this thread is demeaning to the Cake lads and lasses who, out of interest of not ripping out their customers publicly, can't really defend themselves rigorously. It is obvious that Cakewalk has many talented musicians and programmers on staff based on the quality of the music in the Cakewalk vids, reading the blog posts AND the quality/intricacy of the program. It is not a huge company so to make all of that happen with the minimal staff on hand I highly doubt there are many slouches in the pile.
 
It is one thing to express grief about the program as a paid user so the Bakers can hear and respond to those grievances (and I have done exactly that on more than one occasion). It is completely another to make snide personal remarks about the "talent" or competence of the individuals in their respective fields... especially when apparently you can't even be bothered to do a precursory glance at what these individuals are capabable of.
 
These are living, breathing human beings we are talking about here which I think some people forget.

The best thing about this thread is now I can point to it when I want Cakewalk to include the hardcore locked groove drum loops I've been developing over the years.

FastBiker Boy, thank you for your reply. May I ask, where in the tutorial it talks about using more than one synth at the same time? This is why I dont want the tutorials. This was 15 minutes of my life I will never get back. The way a person configures soft synths is backwards. Nobody makes Midi and Audio track and then open soft synth and try to relate it to those tracks. Soft Synths can be inserted easier by Insert from the top menu. It will automatically create already configured midi and audio tracks. So this tutorial was for beginners from somebody who does not use this function often or does not care.

 
It doesn't show how to set up multiple MIDI input tracks, It doesn't need to. It shows how to assign an input, and assign that track to an output. It also explains the MIDI echo switch. I assumed as you don't know how to set up more than one you should see the basic routing to allow you to set up multiple synths.
 
All you need to do is assign the input, assign the output, and turn on MIDI echo. Repeat that for as many synths and controllers that you want to play across as many tracks as you want. You can either use the same controller to play multiple synths or assign multiple controllers to play multiple synths, the choice is yours. Add in channels for even more possibilities.
 
The video set up is "backwards" (tracks are inserted and then the synth applied) for a reason. I did it that way to fully explain the routing. Just inserting a synth can hide that from the user. Once you understand the routing, setting up multiple synths is easy.

Anderton
The best thing about this thread is now I can point to it when I want Cakewalk to include the hardcore locked groove drum loops I've been developing over the years.

See, yet another promise.....  

vladasyn
Will it save as track template with specific software synth that was used at that instance or will I be able to open template with different synth? Or will I need to make template for each commonly used synth?
 

Yes, you would have to do it once for the midi plugin (though I don't think it is necessary, as long as the plugin is set to output midi, it's output will show up in your instrument's midi track inputs), then once for each different synth you use, because track templates save everything related to a track (or folder): routings, settings, plugins and effects.
 

vladasyn
Click on Master output? I have to try it when I near my music computer. This is very very useful. Now if I use one most common input- is there a way to set it so that every new track created will have lets say Input 3-4 instead of input 1-2?

 
Not sure what you mean by input, but if you mean your audio interface's audio inputs for recording microphones or hardware synths and such, a way to do it would be to create a track template with input 3-4 selected instead of 1-2. Otherwise Sonar just defaults to the first inputs in the list.
 

vladasyn
I do not see what you mean by disabling MIDI output. My Midi output is assigned to software synth or hardware synth. If I disable it, then I would have no sound. In case of arpeggiator, it needs to send notes to Soft Synth in order to be heard. I do not know if some synth have MIDI output inside the plugin or if you referring to the MIDI track output.

In your synth rack, right click on your instrument, you will see if MIDI output is checked or not. This is not related to the midi track used to control the instrument. It is the MIDI output of the plugin itself. It only needs to be enabled in the case of a midi plugin like your arpeggiator so that the arp's output shows up as an input in your instrument's midi tracks.

Beepster, "Talents" was not a sarcastic remark. This is how we call musicians. I would say, "I am bringing a talent at 2 pm, please, have air-condition on". The blog I was referred to had 2 posts on. If there more, it is great. This is actually friendly suggestion and expression of interest. Is somebody had so much interest to my personality, and said, "Hey, Vlada, why don't you make a profile and post some pictures and experience, so that we know what to expect from your band/project before we invest any money in you", I would be flattered. We just talking and changing topic based on replies. The original title implies an interest. I feel that subscription model requires paying upfront for the features that will be "likely" released in the future, and I like to know more about the team to know what to expect. The same goes for the drug companies. The moment there is announcement that new medication is about to be approved, shares prices go up. If promised great new cures without detailed information, nobody would invest in them. I see that you spend a lot of time on the forum and may be more familiar with internal processes of the company. I have no way to know if it is big or small company, how many people they have, who is the main talent behind all the programing and so on. I like it to be on the page, so that I can come and look any time without following multiple threads or blogs. My personal experience with Sonar is full of horror- may be because I was running it on $4000 XP system for too long, but it was crashing and acting crazy for years. The SP8 was first somewhat stable version for me and even with that- it was crashing at least every 3 days. Now I have I7 3770K with 16 Gb of memory and SSDs, and I still see Sonar crashing at least every 5 sessions. I will take screenshots and post it if you dont believe me. So I deserved my attitude by spending years on fixing this thing, and if somebody tells me that they going to sale me something that not working and I need to have subscription in order to receive a fix to what was sold, this frustrates and discourage me. Sorry.  

All you need to do is assign the input, assign the output, and turn on MIDI echo. Repeat that for as many synths and controllers that you want to play across as many tracks as you want. You can either use the same controller to play multiple synths or assign multiple controllers to play multiple synths, the choice is yours. Add in channels for even more possibilities.

 
My experience is that only *SELECTED* track is audible. There is such a thing as "ACTIVE" track. You can select more than one track but you can not have more than one active track, therefor obly one keyboard can be played at the same time, unless you know how to make it work.

vladasyn
and if somebody tells me that they going to sale me something that not working and I need to have subscription in order to receive a fix to what was sold, this frustrates and discourage me. Sorry.  

This statement is so wrong and it appears it may (partially) be a language barrier. 
 
There is no subscription. The new model is no different than when you bought your current version of SONAR.
 
You will pay your one time (only) fee and get the new SONAR (with it's current set of changes and new features since X3).
 
You will get any updates and fixes posted during the next 12 months.
 
X3 (or any previous version of SONAR) has ended it's cycle. There will be no more updates to it. The same is true after 12 months on the new SONAR. You will no longer receive updates. NOTHING has changed, and so if you accept how any previous version  of SONAR was sold and maintained then you accept the EXACT same terms for the new SONAR.
 
Why is that so hard to understand?