I'm trying to find a way to alter pitch over time. Typically to bend vocals. I've seen this done easily in Live. But, I can't find anything in Sonar. The loop construction does have a pitch envelope but from my understanding one can't exponentially decay the pitch. I could be wrong here. I have been using Kontakt to load some vocal takes and use the pitch bend function on my controller with some success I suppose. But it's tedious. Any thoughts? ;)

You just need an automatable pitch plugin. SONAR doesn't have one, but there are plenty of them about. It's been awhile, but the last time I did something like that I think I used a freebie called KeroVee.

I have been using Kontakt to load some vocal takes and use the pitch bend function on my controller with some success I suppose.

 
My first choice would be Rapture.  Contrary to popular belief, you can load a song-length .wav as a 'multisample'.  Trigger it with middle C (MIDI Note 60) for at-pitch & unstretched.  You can change that with Key Lo-Hi values and Transpose, or any/all key triggers with Keytrack at 0.  The Envelope Generators (Pitch included) are highly tweakable node-and-segment constructs, with a couple of segment curve options.
 
Dimension Pro is 'optimized' for longer samples, and it does have a unique feature or two [Shift].  But Rapture's Pitch EGs have a much larger range.  There are also Pitch Step Sequencers that can emulate another EG or LFO.  I won't even get into the extensive .sfz scripting options, because all of the above are accessible front panel GUI controls.
 
I've been spoiled by those 'RGC' envelopes.  It amazes me that this kind of control over envelopes with intuitive gestures, mouse clicks and modifiers never made it into Sonar's automation scheme.  If you want to 'alter pitch over time', I can't imagine much that couldn't be configured to perfection inside of Rapture.

Cool. I'll certainly check all that out.  I never messed with Rapture much. I guess now I have a reason to. Kerovee looks like an easy plugin too. Will check them out and see how much success I have with it. Cheers!

Melodyne might do that.... It certainly works the other way around taking off pitch vox and bringing them to the pitch....and you can change the pitch.... so I think that might work too.... I don't know if it automatable but I'm thinking it might just be..... could always be done manually and frozen.

I don't think the Melodye Essentials can do that. The edition that comes with Sonar 3... I mean that's great they give it to us and all but it doesn't do anything other than pitch correction and quantization. It's easy enough to use but is very limited and honestly, it doesn't appear to do anything that V-vocal can't do. I could be mistaken here. I don't know exactly what the full version can and can't do but for 600 bucks it doesn't really matter. 
 
 

Yeah that's the essentials version..... it's pretty limited in what it can do.   Editor is not.
 
Using ME (Melodyne editor)  manually, you can adjust a note anywhere. For example, I have a note that is seriously flat, so I click it and move it to dead on.... but it's still sounding off. So I can now click it and move it by cents up or down for precision or surgical edits.
 
I have never tried to automate it so I can't speak to that aspect of ME. Most all the edits I make are manual and then processed to audio....  In ME there is a drift function that is editable so that you can drift a note from it's position. I have not tried to see if I could intentionally "write" a specific drift into a note to slide it up.... most of the time I'm actually trying to get the drift out of the note..... BUT.... I do know that you can easily augment that existing drift to exaggerate it more.
 
Since this is a vocals issue, I would try to get a good recording of the vocals and have the singer bend the note.... it's just so much easier that way... then use Melodyne to smooth out the kinks in the part.

Well, as terrible of a singer I am, I don't really have much problem singing in key and fairly close to pitch. What you get with M essentials should be good enough for anyone just doing regular vocal work to some degree. I was just interested in doing some vocals that were a bit more robotic. Check out the Skinny Puppy track Illicit off of the new Weapon album. About 3/4 of the way in there is a vocal dive or bend. It definitely doesn't sound organic. I can do something close with Kontakt. Although even with a 12 step pitch bend with the modulation wheel I don't think it's enough. But, I'm going to spend some more time with it and see if I can dial it in better. There is also some cool bit reduction and the such to dirty it up a bit. It just dawned on me that I could try and use the TUNE knob to try and automate. I'm not sure if it has a coarse and or fine function. It might only be a few steps at most in either direction. 

another cool tool to do dives is a free VST called GLITCH.... really cool for hip hop and other styles that use special FX on teh vox.
 
check it out here  http://freevstplugins.blo...010/11/glitch-vst.html