Hi everyone
 
Is it possible to buy pro channel (which is AWESOME) presets that are specific for metal music (guitar, bass, drum & vocal). You see i'm approching the mixing step of my first real (personal) serious project and i would like to have something to compare/start/explore with. I working with Sonar X3 Producer.
 
Thanks

I don't think most FX come w/ genre specific presets, even sets you can buy.  They come w/ sound specific presets.  They are general settings for kinds of instruments, for the most part.  Loud vocals, Soft Female vox, rock guitar, drum buss are the types of presets one usually finds across FX presets.  And even for those, it is "more of a guideline than rule." Even the perfect preset will probably have to have the threshold or gain and make-up tweaked for your specific track, since the preset artist can't possibly know what level you are recording at or out.
 
The Prochannel units are very good and adaptable to most styles of music.  Learning to use them is part of becoming a recording engineer - much like a metal guitarist starts out learning the basic chords.  The bad news is it takes time - you can record a good song easily w/ little practice, making the recording sound great is an art just like writing a good song.  The good news is that as you figure out which of the many techniques and tricks talked about here and elsewhere in the aether work for you, you develop your own ... style or sound.  You develop chops, and it gets quicker (esp. w/ mixing) as you know what works for you and what won't work.
 
If you are starting your recording project there is no reason you can't get a competent recording, even if you are relatively new to the art.  Set up some mics, hit record.  Then line up the tracks and set their levels.  That is about half the job.  Until you do it you won't get better, but if the music itself is good you'll have to try to get in its way.  Or you can pay someone good money to do it for you.  If you are just starting out mixing, just stay away from compressors and even EQ for the most part.  You are more likely to muck things up w/ them than improve the track, just like slapping on some random preset (I know - I've done both of those).  Just use the EQ filters to take out some bottom to clean things up, and maybe take the edge off the top of the spectrum.  Once you get good w/ that start fooling with the mids (but not much - if you need +12 dBs of gain in the mids on a track, there is likely to be something fundamentally wrong elsewhere).
 
@

Part of the reasons why you may not find presets in abundance, is because the recording sessions are never 100% exactly the same. If you look at the Waves CLA Signature Drums plug-in, for example, there's some fundamental "characters" assignable to each type of drum, but that's only a starting point. The plug-in can't predict the sound of the original drum that was tracked. That "sound" can vary wildly, depending on how well the drum was recorded, and even whether it was sampled.
 
Same for guitars using different rigs, there's really no way to get a setting in an FX plug-in to make a Gibson SG played through a Marshall stack to sound the same as an Ibanez or BC Rich through a Laney stack.
 
I totally agree with AT in that you should start with what's in the room and how it sounds through your mics before going after EQ, compression, or other tweaks. The closer the original recording is to the sound you're looking for, the more flexibility you have in mixing. 
 
But go find some tutorials on YouTube for such things. You can at least learn some great tips and tricks to get a typical recorded guitar, drum, or bass, etc. to sound more metal.
 
Above all else, don't follow a trend; set one!

For tutorials i've already bought from groove 3; Mixing with Sonar and EQ explained which are great and i've watched a LOT of tutorials on utube. But since i've always trusted my ear (i'm 51) to evaluate what's sounds good to me or not i've decided to take a step higher in sound engineering knowledge. So since there are already some pro channel presets included with Sonar, i taught getting others could help me just to compare. Maybe they could have work a bit like those of the EZ mix series...i guess i'll still have to rely on my ear....anyway thanks for the reply i appreciate it...a lot...

During the days when SONAR X1 was the most recent version, there used to be free ProChannel presets posted for download, on a site Cakewalk provided . It so happened that users of SONAR X3 and X2 were having problems when using those ProChannel presets designed for SONAR X1, so Cakewalk got rid of the presets available for download.
 
A Cakewalk representative said Cakewalk would be providing a new batch of ProChannel presets that are compatible with SONAR X3 ProChannel sometime early this year. I am waiting for those presets to be made available. Let's hope Cakewalk sees this thread and remembers we are waiting for the ProChannel presets that will be compatible with SONAR X3 Producer. I bought the Cakewalk Prochannel Pack, so I look forward to seeing those presets released. I think they will be useful for me.

Hey thomasabarnes
 You bought the  Prochannel Pack? Is it worth it? I mean i bought stuff that i was kind of disappointed....it's like it's always the next big thing and then you go....mmmmmnnnhhhh......
 

I haven't really fooled around with the modules much, yet. But I did try the CA2A and the Concrete Limiter, and I like them. I already had the expander/gate from a previous purchase, and it's a good gate. I know this is not a technical review of the Cakewalk ProChannel Pack, but I have to say I'm satisfied with the $179 purchase.