No dongle is still excellent.

Plus I've just hooked up an electric kit, put it into the MIDI of the MOTU 8Pre, done the basic routing and IT JUST WORKS. Then when you get all that silly midi fly poo stuff, you just drag it into Step Sequencer and you can edit as easy as you like.... ridiculously good.

Disclaimer: the ease of this has possibly existed for a while but I've just discovered it (due to need) with 8.5.

Did have a crash using the scrub tool on the MCU though... suspect that driver is getting a bit tired now under W7/64bit...maybe?

Sonar 8.5 just works....

my favorite thing about 8.5  hopefully will be the 8.52 update.  i miss my linear eq.  i hope it works... other than that it's business as usual.  thanks for the awesome software.  and i hope you guys are working on dedicated hardware cards to so i can stop worrying about that ever annoying CPU usage wall.

Not really a new feature, really, it's just really stable on my system.  I care more about stability/workflow than new major features.

Definitely the matrix view, altho it needs a lot of work still...

Hot plug unplug of midi devices!
I have an USB Midi controller and on older versions of Sonar I always forget to turn on the keyboard and only discovered this after loading huge projects that take several minutes to load. Now I can also put the computer in sleep mode and resume my work quickly because Sonar detects the keyboard when it is reconnected.

vocal and drum processors are both very good

my least favourite is audiosnap 2.0 which seems to have taken a backward step!!!

I love the direct select (Alt + Click,drag) functionality...not sure when it came into the picture.  I came to SONAR because of VC64 and still love that plugin a lot.  Also the many key bindings and the customisable PRV tool...

I like the VX-64 a lot and I'd have to say bitbridge 2.0 is what sold me on the new version, but I think really my FAVORITE new feature is having the archive buttons right there on the track strip.  With the way I work and the number of extra audio bits that are just laying around, it really makes the experience much nicer to just be able to click that on and off w/o doing the whole right-click-menu thing.  Meryy Christmas, y'all!

What's Your Favorite Feature in SONAR 8.5?

without trying to sound pompous. My favorite feature is myself. Im the best feature for sonar. soanr is only as good as its user
 
Cj

Hot USB swap; subdued colour scheme and improved browser capability.

About a month ago I wrote in here that there are so many features in Sonar that I may never use them all in my lifetime. Shortly after writing that, I decided to commit to trying/learning the new tools and techniques, and I have to say... The more I learn the more I am blown away.

I've been on Cake/Sonar user since Cakewalk ... 3, perhaps?  All that time has helped me create some habits for how to do certain things, which may or may not be the most efficient given all of the new tools.  Take comping for example.  I've been cutting up comp tracks and muting entire clips, entirely unaware of the mute tool or for however long it's been there.  What a great feature, and it's probably been there for years!

The Step Sequencer 2 is awesome; I've been programming my loops in the Piano View since the dawn of time (it seems) and the SS2 is significantly faster, especially with drawing velocities.  Despite my seeming affection for the Piano View, I haven't used the PRV much because of limited screen real-estate, but the zoom tools pretty much negate that concern now.

Aim Assist! - What can I say?  This is a magnificent tool.

Over the years I've collected a mountain of effects because, let's face it, the first generation Cake effects were... less than they are today.  Oh, how the landscape has changed! The effects that are bundled in Sonar PE are really quite fantastic these days.  The Vocal Strip in particular is a very welcome addition and is going to make vocal processing - especially doubling - significantly easier.

Sidechaining - hey, what I can I say but "THANK YOU CAKE"!

My point - to anyone who might be reading this and be an old-timer like me - is simply to recommend that you get in there and experiment with every feature you can try.  There is so much in this product already that I can't imagine where they're going next, but I bet it's going to be amazing!

Kate Watt [Cakewalk
]

Hello Everyone!
 
Now that SONAR 8.5's been on the market for a few months, we want to know... "What's your favorite feature?"
One of the new beat creation and arrangement tools - Matrix view, Step Sequencer, Arpeggiator?
One of the new multi-stage effect plug-ins for percussion and vocal tracks - PX-64 and VX-64?
Windows 7 compatibility?

Let us know your thoughts here.

We appreciate your feedback,
Kate

there is a new vocal exercise available... it's called the Kate Watt from cakewalk... just say that ten times before tracking.  if you can do that your laughing...lol

I actually am using it on WinXP 64 and the performance is so superior to 8.0 that I can hardly believe it is the same product! My project used to take up to 2 minutes to load, now does it in about 30 seconds max!
VST detection is much better for 32 or 64 bit versions, performance is flawless and I couldn't be happier with the product.
 
Kudos to the boys and girls in development!
 
Now..if we can just get the registration thing figured out on the user account part...
 
:))

So many good features, but definitely one of my favs is:
 
The ability to Freeze a track and NOT freeze the FX.   This is a major deal.
 
So often I end up making changes to the EQ or FX and if the track is frozen with FX frozen, I have to first unfreeze, etc.
 
So this was a wonderful addition.
 

I like that I can just click on the "A" icon and it will archive the track to reduce issues with recording tracks.  It use to take two steps.  Now just one.
Not sure this started with 8.5.  But I just noticed it the other day and I love it. 
 
The vocal plugin in awesome. 
 
Keep up the great work!