Your best shot for a corrected manual is to use the version on the Cakewalk website. Unfortunately the documentation has always lagged the software with some pretty sloppy cut-and-paste edits. It is a shame the tutorials are in the state you describe. I am tempted to warn you against spending time learning about Simple Instrument Tracks but I won't even though they do not seem to be as reliable as the original Cakewalk implementation of separate audio and MIDI tracks for synths.

Well the one nice thing about having Scott's book open alongside the manual is he goes into different stuff. Like now I know that I can split the Simple Instrument Track with a right click. I likely won't be bothering with the SIT stuff but I'm just trying to follow everything to a T so that way I can absorb and tinker with as much as I can along the way. Every step I make I end up poking around all the options a bit to see what's what. It's gonna take me forever to get through the whole manual but hopefully I'll be extremely proficient at the end of it all.

Hopefully. ;-)

Hey Beepster... just wanted to say... glad to hear you're enjoying the book. Thanks for reading it! http://www.garrigus.com/powerbooks.asp

Scott

--
Scott R. Garrigus - http://garrigus.com
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar and Sony Sound Forge Power book series: http://garrigus.com/?PowerBooks
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar ProAudioTutor video tutorial series: http://garrigus.com/?ProAudioTutor
* Publisher of the DigiFreq free music technology newsletter: http://digifreq.com/?DigiFreq
* Publisher of the NewTechReview free consumer technology newsletter: http://newtechreview.com/?NewTechReview

Yup. Looking forward to the X2 edition. Keep up the good work, man. You've saved my sorry arse more times than you can know. ;-)

LOL! Well, that's my ultimate goal... to save everyone's sorry arse and turn them into SONAR experts. 


Scott

--
Scott R. Garrigus - http://garrigus.com
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar and Sony Sound Forge Power book series: http://garrigus.com/?PowerBooks
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar ProAudioTutor video tutorial series: http://garrigus.com/?ProAudioTutor
* Publisher of the DigiFreq free music technology newsletter: http://digifreq.com/?DigiFreq
* Publisher of the NewTechReview free consumer technology newsletter: http://newtechreview.com/?NewTechReview

Personally I think they should get you, Craig and Karl on the manual writing team. Not to say the current team doesn't do a good job especially considering the amount of info they have to cover but the more eyes and brains on it the better.

This stuff is hard to figure out. Still better than the docs on a lot of the other softwares out there though.

Beepster


...Every step I make I end up poking around all the options a bit to see what's what. It's gonna take me forever to get through the whole manual but hopefully I'll be extremely proficient at the end of it all.

I'm also working my way through book, manual, help files and tutorials.  I've come to realize that it's going to take me years to become proficient with everything I've gotten from Cakewalk in the last couple of months.

This has got to be the most complicated musical instrument humankind has ever created.
 

Heh. Yeah it's a lot of work but there is a lot of cross over/repetition. Probably the easiest way is go through the tuts then go through them again and click on the "for more info on..." sections after completing each section. That covers most of the stuff you need to get going. Then ask questions here on the forum when needed and dig through the finer points of the manual and various books/vids. The Sonar University and webinar stuff is pretty darned helpful too.

Slow and steady is my philosophy. Good luck.

Oh and the forum has a massive archive. The search function is broken though so what I do is I google whatever I'm looking for + Cakewalk and I can usually find a few threads relating to what I want. Otherwise I just bug these smart and very patient fellows. ;-)

Okay. This is getting weird. I am REALLY trying my darndest to learn about all this synth stuff but these tuts are crazy. I understand how to insert synths in multiple ways but I'm trying to understand WHAT things mean as I go along. So here is the section about inserting a synth from the Browser.

pg 119

3. Clear all of the check boxes except for Single Track Instrument, Recall Assignable Controls, and Ask This Every Time.


So We've already figured out that Single Inst Track should read SIMPLE Inst Track. Ask This Every Time is straight forward in it's just asking if I want the dialogue to open up every time. I don't know what Recall Assignable Controls means but I guess I can figure that out. What's weirding me out is in the following section it is acting like somehow the process detailed is different when the only thing that has changed is that we are selecting the Synth Property page which AFAIK just means the GUI of the chosen Synth will open up... oh and they fixed the typo from Single to Simple which obviously means nothing... it's just confusing. This section just starts by saying use the main Insert menu instead of the Browser which performs the exact same function so I know that's not different.


pg 126...

4. Select the following options:

• Simple Instrument Track
• Synth Property Page
• Recall Assignable Controls
• Ask This Every Time


A new track is inserted in your project. This track is a combination of the two types of tracks you have learned about in the previous tutorials. It holds MIDI data and accepts a MIDI input, but it outputs the sound of the synth, like an audio track would. The DropZone window may also open. If not, you can open it manually by double-clicking on the track icon.


How is it different? This, as far as I can tell, is the exact same type of track inserted except with a different synth from a different menu and the synths GUI opening.


Am I missing something here?