A more cleaned up GUI in Sonar 8!
Compare Cubase to Sonar:
http://members.shaw.ca/sonar99/SonarvsC4.JPG

ORIGINAL: Rockscientist

This may be one of those things they've already done and I'm just too lazy to dig it up, BUT - I do a lot of guitar doubletracking (a fairly common practice in recording guitars) and it would be great to see a function for treating two recorded parts like that as one. Especially with the advent of re-amping using Amplitube and Guitar Rig and such, I would love a way to really link my multiple takes of the part so they can all run through a single EQ or plugin or volume automation profile (pretty much everything but panning) simultaneously.

the best way to do that is send the guitars you have double tracked to their own group, which would then be able to control that, the group output can then be sent to other groups (e.g. to create an overal guitar mix before sending to the master fader)

for example for 2 different guitars

tracks for 1st double take----> (Guitar Bus 1) ----> guitar submix---->MASTER
tracks for 2nd double take---> (Guitar Bus 2) ----> Guitar submix---->MASTER

hope thats some help, also when you start getting onto double tracking, I've found that folders really do become a massive help for the screen layout and zooming in and out and around :)

*edited because I didn't word it correctly first time

ORIGINAL: Jon Con

the best way to do that is send the guitars you have double tracked to their own group, which would then be able to control that, the group output can then be sent to other groups (e.g. to create an overal guitar mix before sending to the master fader)

for example for 2 different guitars

tracks for 1st double take----> (Guitar Bus 1) ----> guitar submix---->MASTER
tracks for 2nd double take---> (Guitar Bus 2) ----> Guitar submix---->MASTER

hope thats some help, also when you start getting onto double tracking, I've found that folders really do become a massive help for the screen layout and zooming in and out and around :)

That's how I do it as well.

And ya, folders really help keep things organized and manageable as paired tracks start accumulating. Would be nice to have subfolders... so that the folder structure could parallel the bus structure. Would make navigating the project easier and more sensible. (Hmmm... might even be nice to be able to have a bus, or an alias to a bus, in folders too....)

1) Uniformity of controls, procedures and visual on all plug-ins
Ex: Step Sequencer, Session Drumer (both), V-Vocal. They look like they were made by different companies (and probably were!)

2) A Reset Audio Setup button
To avoid having to exit the softawre to update the Audio Options changes

3) Re-include the features to program CAL routines
Like in the old Cakewalk Pro Audio versions - think about how many improvements could have been done by users just with CAL.....

4) Re-include the virtual piano
Like in the old Cakewalk Pro Audio versions - it was a simple way to enter MIDI notes via computer keyboard

5) Less upgrades
Stay more in a version and release updates and plug-ins as needed

Ok I missed only about 2 pages and I can't believe it but I haven't seen:

VARI-SPEED!

I do lots of acoustic instruments and being in tune is so essential in a recording... does nobody who ever used vari-speed miss it like crazy???

After tuning a guitar track to a 36 string harp in Reaper- man that's a life saver! It's really sad that even with how great of a program that Sonar is, it still has lots of disadvantages in the department of simply recording tracks (!) compared to what tape machines used to have. That it doesn't need to have!

Like Vari-speed!

And switchable latency set-ups and auto-ping latency adjustments for tracking and for mixing.

Arming and entering record on the fly.

Tape machine style monitoring.

And rewind or ff just a little- my Tascam US-428 has it and I use it all the time.

Of course plug-ins that would sound like virtual analog tape sound and virtual vintage board sound would be awesome!

Here's a really bizarre Idea that would save a lot of mousing for me-

"Auto Input Detect and Select" on enabled tracks! Just enable learn and hit the track with a signal- auto detect and select.
That'd be sweet! How much time would THAT save when you're doing drums?

Yes and learning and storing sequences of keystrokes into keybindings like "go to marker xx"- "select track xx"- and "insert FX on channel xx"

a latching "auto-play" toggle.

I also wish you had a latching shortcut for "don't change my freakin now time with each click" too!

I mostly miss Vari-Speed. It made basic tracking in tune SOOO much easier! And that's what I do all the time.

Ev


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I haven't read through all of this page. So, I'm sorry if someone has mentioned it, and I'm not a Sonar user, but I do use it from time to time because of my live keyboardist. So, I'm also sorry if Sonar can already do this.

Anyway, as far as I know, no sequencer can do this yet...

It'd be cool to have an option for envelopes to gauge them by percentage instead of cents or decibels. So that, let's say you are using a volume envelope creatively to get a certain effect. Then, when you are mixing later, you decide that you want to change the overall volume of the track. Instead of having to go back and redo the entire volume envelope, it'd be cool if it automatically adjusted it relative to the slight change you make to the fader later. It'd be cool.

there's a couple ways around that envelope thing-

for one, just click the triangle for track select- once the whole track is selected, hit E for envelope tool and then while holding shift click on and drag any spot in the envelope up or down. (wait for the tooltip) You may have to modify any nodes that are at +6 or -infinity or there's no room to drag. (shift keeps you from dragging the envelope left or right.)

or you can just add a EQ or compressor and turn the whole track up or down from there.

HTH-
Ev

Make switching between soft synths as easy as it is in Project 5. NO Synth Rack crap. Just right click on a track and choose "Change instrument". That's it.

the 'setting the now time' thing is ****ed. whenever i clik somewhere it's a new now time.

Right-click the time ruler, and go to View Options. Uncheck Left/Right Click Sets Now. Then, only clicking in the time ruler will set the Now time.

I dont know about varispeed. But it occurred to me a few months ago that we have this whole digital thing backwards. We shouldnt be emulating analog techniques and sounds. We should be expanding out toolbox by doing stuff that is only possible in digital audio workstations.
That said I'd like to see more nitty gritty digital audio functions. I would like to be able to down or upsample at will. To pitch shift by stretching and compressing, and not in the lame way it does it for clip looping.
For instance, I had a project a few months ago in which I recorded some subway trains. then I changed the project sample rate to 88.2 to pitch them up an octave. Then I recorded some other stuff. Whenever I tried to export the project it would revert back to the 44.1 rate.
I would prefer to be able to brutalize my audio however my muse leads me.
I also wouldnt mind if TTS would either come out with a wave editor, or incorporate more wave editor-ish features in sonar.
And make the automation better.
1 make it more elegant. I shouldnt have to cut and paste several times to make a pan go back and forth on the beat.
2 make the automation envelopes follow edits of tracks
3 give us some automation presets like we have for the pattern brush. you know what I mean right?

Ps now I remember why I never hang out on this forum. It logs me off constantly and randomly.

ORIGINAL: calaverasgrandes

I also wouldnt mind if TTS would either come out with a wave editor, or incorporate more wave editor-ish features in sonar.

I might've posted this before... but I'd rather see TTS/CW put their development resources into refining and modernizing and smoothing the workflow in Sonar, and instead do a deal with Sony or Adobe or whoever to include a discount coupon for a wave editor program for those who want one.

ORIGINAL: Rockscientist

This may be one of those things they've already done and I'm just too lazy to dig it up, BUT - I do a lot of guitar doubletracking (a fairly common practice in recording guitars) and it would be great to see a function for treating two recorded parts like that as one. Especially with the advent of re-amping using Amplitube and Guitar Rig and such, I would love a way to really link my multiple takes of the part so they can all run through a single EQ or plugin or volume automation profile (pretty much everything but panning) simultaneously.

I have been doing this for years in Sonar - just overdub to the same track as the original - you can select "show layers" to view the different waveforms and make edits to the individual takes.

- Chris

Not sure if audiosnap can do this...
Roland V-guitar: have the recorded wave files trigger synths in the correct pitch.

Tape emulation is always, always, always cool. They should trash the track inspector and replace it with a pro graphic of a reel to reel machine (not a cartoonish one, please). The tape pack could be indicative of where you are in the song.

Track view needs to be able to zoom all the way out! 60 minutes of audio, no problem. I want to see it! Steinberg knows whats up!

Still, my main complaints with most things digital is the ease of navigating the GUI when projects get bigger.
Why don't folders work in the bus section?
Why is it such a chore to hide/unhide tracks? (stop/ hide/unhide)
can't they have a row or sidebar, of tiny buttons that jumps you to tracks? (ie: tracks 1-36, busses 1-12 etc...)
Why can't folders work in console view?
When I select a track in console view, why isn't it selected in track view?
How about some real time features? archive/ arm tracks/ enter into record mode. +1!
If they have to, just make each button perform the task of stopping playback, doing the function, then re-enter playback. Save my wrist from having to surf all over the screen. (of course, don't stop playback during recording!)
---edit-- you know, they could probably do this by, say, grabbing a 5-10 second section after the now time when the button is pressed, then converting it to a stereo file and store it in a buffer that plays the 10 second stereo mix while Sonar processes the action of say arm the track. It should be possible anyway.

Locating a track or seeing the file as a whole, sucks in digital.
why not zoom all the way out on the console too!!! I'd love to see my whole project and arrage where the tracks are without scrolling!

I'll throw this out there:
click a toggle key on the keyboard (like say: `), then each number on the keyboard jumps you to the track. 1= track 1, 2=track 2, 32 = track 32. It would require programming that considers the timing of the interval of multiple taps. Of course the lazy ineffective way would be 01=track 1, 02=track 2, of which will be annoying. Why? if its just 1 number then I can do it without looking at the keyboard at all. When I've got to find the 0 key, I might need to take a glance. My point... the more steps it takes to perform a function, my dissapointment grows on a logarithmic scale.

In 1982, the kids with the feather mullets ruled.
Nothing changes with people except their fads.
tape has been around since the beginning of music recording.
it will be around when sonar 8 isn't worth the dvd its released on.

ORIGINAL: 21doors

tape has been around since the beginning of music recording.
it will be around when sonar 8 isn't worth the dvd its released on.

But that's not really so. What's been around since the beginning of recorded music is the need to store and playback sound in the order and at the tempo is was produced.

Tape recording may see some revivals from time to time, just like vinyl does. But over the long run?

Tape was just a linearization of the disk, which was just a flattening of the cylinder, which was just the physical graffiti of sound waves. Technologies are superseded. Eventually even their nostaligic appeal is lost.

When you think about it, multiple horizontal adjacent tape tracks, each with its own set of parts, is an analogue of a musical score, which is an extremely lo-res "recording." Both read left to right at a specified rate.... unless you're playing backwards at a different rate... in which case it STILL happens "left to right" through time. That's probably the only real constant, that it has to happen in time.