What a Year…!

It’s been quite a year for all of us at Cakewalk. Not only did we build our most stable initial release of SONAR ever and fold in multiple features and workflow updates, but we also built the infrastructure for our new Membership program from the ground up. This framework lets us break out of the monolithic “waterfall” model of annual updates and do smaller but more frequent updates. This is very exciting for developers, because we can be more responsive and update our software without the previous release management overhead. Our users have wanted more frequent updates as well, so this is a major achievement for us.

The SONAR community has already noticed the tangible improvements in the performance and stability of our latest SONAR release. In this article I’ll cover some of the “under the hood” work that went into building the new SONAR. If you’re not familiar with the latest additions, you can get started by reading about all the new features here.

I’d also like to mention that this would not have been possible without your support. All of us at Cakewalk feel very fortunate to have such an active, engaged user base that inspires us to create continued improvements and enhancements. We are very excited about what’s planned for the year ahead, but meanwhile, here’s what we’ve been up to in the past year.

 

Cakewalk Command Center (C3)

Cakewalk Command Center implements and manages a “connected installer” workflow. It communicates with cakewalk.com to access a customers profile so it can identify and install owned products, as well as serve as a convenient launcher and update manager.  Presently, the C3 interface only lists newer “connected products” since those are the only ones it knows how to install and manage.

Although it’s not necessary to use C3 to download, install, and authorize products, it’s by far the simplest way to manage and install newer SONAR versions and updates. Although you can install and authorize products with a manual download and authorization process, we highly recommend installing C3 (it has a very small footprint), even if your computer doesn’t have a permanent internet connection.

The new download/install/authorization mechanism can handle a wide variety of user requirements, even for those who run their DAWs offline.

One-click install

The SONAR installers have been redesigned to be modular and small. One of our design goals was to have a new user go from download to running SONAR in under 5 minutes. As a result, with a moderately fast internet connection you can be up and running with SONAR Platinum literally with the click of the Install button. Gone are the days of waiting for long downloads and attended updates. Another nice touch is you don’t need to enter a serial number and authorization code manually. This is all automated by C3 when you install and run SONAR.

Rollback mechanism

Under the new membership model, features are available to members as soon as they’ve gone through final testing. C3 provides a convenient way to access new features, but also allows rolling back to prior versions.

Audio Engine

Adaptive disk streaming

In earlier versions, with disk-intensive projects additional disk requests (such as ARA disk reads or access to waveform images) could potentially conflict with SONAR’s disk caching requirements and lead to a dropout. This would happen while seeking by large increments on the transport, scrolling the clips view, or by having many coincident ARA regions. The disk streaming code now prioritizes access to SONAR’s disk streaming thread and load balancing, and throttles less time critical I/O requests (such as waveform drawing) to prevent these interruptions and minimize dropouts.

Also, ARA clips are no longer managed by the disk streaming since ARA reads are dynamic, which frees up disk throughput.

Dynamic waveform preview

Dynamic waveform preview generation and access has been optimized for parallel processing. With the new algorithm, very large projects can be loaded and pictures generated without affecting SONAR’s streaming performance. This is great with tracking sessions where you’re recording multiple takes with many simultaneous tracks, because you don’t have to wait for pictures to generate. SONAR automatically scales back wave picture generation when the disk streaming thread needs more disk resources during audio playback.

While testing, I was able to load a 15 GB project file in Platinum and immediately start playback (at low latency) while all waveform images were simultaneously being computed. In prior versions, the audio would have dropped out until all pictures finished computing due to the high disk access workloads.

Looping Improvements

Previously, playing back a looped region in SONAR with input echoed synths active in the project could lead to the tracks getting out of sync over time by a fraction of a buffer. This has been fixed.

Fast preference changes

Opening and closing preferences is now instantaneous as it no longer resets the engine each time. For certain audio interfaces this operation could take several seconds.

ASIO improvements

Recording would fail with ASIO drivers reporting the ASIOSTInt32LSB24 format. Added support for this sample format accommodates some audio interfaces (e.g., the Marian line of audio interfaces).

Gap-free muting for instrument audio tracks

With groups of MIDI and audio tracks associated with a virtual instrument, SONAR no longer mutes the associated MIDI tracks when muting and un-muting synth audio tracks.

This allows continued sending of MIDI data to virtual instruments when muting and unmuting the synth audio track, which allows real-time changes to the audio mute state without loss of MIDI information. Prior to this change, when unmuting in the middle of notes they could be “lost” because note-ons weren’t recieved while the instrument was muted.

The Mute “smart grouping” rules to mute logically related synth tracks are:

• If a MIDI track is muted, mute its associated audio track only if all other sibling MIDI tracks for the associated audio track are muted.
• If a MIDI track is unmuted, unmute its associated audio track

Here are the solo “smart grouping” rules to solo logically related synth tracks:

• If a synth audio track is soloed, solo all its MIDI track siblings
• If a synth audio track is unsoloed, unsolo all its MIDI track siblings, if no related audio tracks are soloed.
• If a MIDI track is soloed, solo its associated audio track
• If a MIDI track is unsoloed, unsolo its associated audio track only if no other sibling MIDI tracks for the associated audio track are soloed.

 

VST Enhancements 

There are various improvements and compatibility updates for VST plug-in handling.

Better support for multi-channel plug-ins. Though there is no surround VST support yet SONAR will now load multichannel plugins in stereo mode.

The VST scanner has improved handling for single component plug-ins.

VST3 MIDI input buses

Just as VST3 plug-ins may be designed to expose audio buses to route audio inputs and outputs to the plug-in, plug-ins may also offer one or more dedicated buses to route MIDI events to and from the plug-in. Every VST instrument supports at least one event input bus to route MIDI input to the plug-in. (If the plug-in supports MIDI out it will additionally expose a MIDI out event bus.)

Audio plug-ins may also choose to expose event input buses if they need control info. Multiple event input buses are similar in concept to multiple hardware MIDI input ports, although they are not implemented similarly

Multiple event input buses may be exposed by VST3 instruments to route more than 16 channels of MIDI data to the plug-in. Besides using a bus to send more than 16 channels of MIDI data, buses provide discrete MIDI inputs for sending control/modulation to a plug-in. Besides instruments, audio plug-ins may also expose one or more event input buses to allow MIDI control of parameters.

The most common instrument that makes use of this feature is Vienna Ensemble Pro 5 from VSL (Vienna Symphonic Library).

Event level bus property

Every MIDI event in SONAR can now target its destination MIDI bus.  This is required because although we do not allow event-level specification of a target bus, multiple MIDI tracks can be routed to the same synth with different destination buses.

Using multiple event buses

Event buses will appear as a submenu of the corresponding MIDI port in the track’s MIDI output picker dropdown. The submenu will show up only if the corresponding plug-in or instrument supports more than one input bus. If only a single bus is present, the submenu will not appear.

Channel Context Info Support

SONAR adds support for new VST3 Channel Context Info interfaces to report track and bus metadata to plug-ins. VST3 plug-ins can now access their parent track metadata (like name and color) as well as document specific information. This was added for richer support of hardware like Softube’s CONSOLE 1 as well as for the next generation of ARA plug-ins. Third party VST3 developers can also make use of this open extension. PreSonus already supports this same interface, and Steinberg will possibly release a very similar extension soon.

Realtime Bounce/Export Improvements

Real-time / audible bounces previously skipped MIDI envelopes and MFX plug-ins. MIDI envelopes and plug-ins will now render like other data types during a real-time bounce.

Drag and Drop Improvements

In earlier versions of SONAR, dragging and dropping an audio clip to the desktop or the browser copied the entire clip audio, ignoring any clip FX, envelopes, or selections.

In the latest version, drag and drop of a selection of audio to the Media Browser or Windows explorer renders only the selected region to the destination, along with any clip-based settings like clip FX and envelopes.

This is very handy for those working on creating sample libraries or loops. Its also a very intuitive and  quick way to get snippets of audio out of a project by dragging selected regions to the desktop.

FX Chains / ProChannel

There have been numerous improvements and fixes for editing FX Chains.

• Support for the new QuickFX format as found in the Anderton CA-X amps collection (Craig, you’re welcome LOL)
• Various bug fixes and stability improvements for loading and saving projects with pro channel FX Chains
• Fixes for cases where prochannel FX Chains settings could be lost with certain plug-ins. 

Audiosnap Reboot

Accurate transient detection is at the heart of AudioSnap. SONAR has brand new transient detection DSP and algorithms that greatly improve transient detection accuracy.

There are also numerous tweaks to the AudioSnap tools and user interfa, along with some bug fixes:

• Changes to the appearance of AudioSnap-enabled clips

  • Transient Marker “Move” nodes are hidden until hovering over the marker.

  • Transient Markers are a consistent height now rather than representing Velocity/Strength/Confidence which was potentially confusing.

  • The waveform of stretched and compressed segments are now colored differently.

  • Disabled transient markers are shorter and dimmed but behave similarly to enabled markers. They will not have any affect on the audio until they are enabled.

• When enabling AudioSnap on a clip, the track edit filter automatically switches to Transients.

• The new “Clear All Audiosnap Markers” command clears all AudioSnap markers from a selection of clips. To access this command, right-click on the Enable AudioSnap button in the AudioSnap palette. To strip all AudioSnap markers out of a project, select all data in the project and and then run the command.

• Redesigned AudioSnap palette UI. This palette is now accessible via the ALT-A keyboard shortcut.

• Bug fixes for AudioSnap waveform drawing

VocalSync

SONAR Platinum provides an integrated solution for tightening the rhythmic properties of tracks, allowing the user to adapt the timing from one clip (both onsets and decays) to other clips. Vocal sync works by applying varying amounts of time stretching or compression to one signal (called the “Dub”) to make its onsets and decays align in time with another signal (called the “Guide”). You can specify a track as a guide, and apply it to a new selection while leaving the guide track/clips unmodified.

VocalSync uses sophisticated DSP to analyze the guide and dub and automate the time stretching required to sync one vocal to another. VocalSync builds on SONAR’s region effects infrastructure, which allows specifyin multiple VocalSync regions just as you would with Melodyne ARA clips.

VocalSync’s UI is simple and intuitive: access its HUD at any time by pressing Shift-V with the VocalSync clip selected. An innovative hybrid waveform graphicallly displays the amount of syncing by showing a split view of the guide and the dub simultaneously. This makes it easy to see how much guide strength has been applied to the waveform, which is important because the “sweet spot” for synching can be anywhere along the VocalSync’s dial – it doesn’t always follow that turning it up to max gives the best sync.

 

Mix Recall

Mix Recall was born when I was trying to mix a project in SONAR X3 and ended up saving several versions of that mix, but I wasn’t happy with any of them. Many hours later when I wanted to audition the earlier mixes, I had to do a laborious dance of opening each saved project, waiting for it to load, then making notes and going back and forth while trying to find what sounded the best. It was a frustrating experience to wait for long project loads and manually copy/paste effects and settings among projects to arrive at a satisfying final mix. The solution was to figure out a a way to avoid the tedious file management and inability to audition alternate mixes easily – we have comping for audio, why can’t we have something similar to allow you to comp mixes? And so now we do 🙂

Save and recall

Mix Recall allows saving multiple “scenes” of a projects state, all within the same project. It will save all track and bus parameters, automation state as well as effects, synths and envelopes. Then by simply clicking a button you can restore the project state to any previously saved scene. Loading a mix scene restores all affected tracks and buses (but not bus routings, which is beyond the scope of a mix) to the state as recorded in the scene. The restore process is highly optimized and restores just the data required. It’s not simple backup and restore of a scene – you have complete, detailed control over exactly what gets restored. For example thanks to the flexible import filters, you can choose to restore the drums from a specific scene, or just the track FX or track settings.

Resetting projects

Mix Recall is not restricted to just saving and restoring scenes. You can use it as a command to reset the project to a flat state with no fx and all faders reset to unity, clear offset modes, envelopes, FX or even reset just a selection of tracks.

Make a scene

Mix scenes are a subset of a project file and store settings, not audio/MIDI data or clips. This allows rapid saving and loading of scenes (depending on the specific FX or instruments used). While loading a scene is typically quite fast, if you have a lot of plug-ins in your project or CPU-intensive virtual instruments, you can speed up the scene switching process substantially by unchecking the FX box in the Mix Recall preferences. When you do so the recall process will not read this data and it will be much faster.

Batch export of mix scenes

Mix Recall is integrated into the Export Audio process. You can choose to export any of your mix scenes in batch mode by choosing Mix Recall in the source category. This option will run the export audio process in batch mode loading each mix scene and exporting in succession. This is a huge time saver if you want to create multiple mix versions for a client.

Mix Recall Applications

Mix Recall is a set of tools that has multiple applications.

• Save and recall multiple mixes for the same project, without having to save multiple copies of the project file.

• Worry-free experimentation with different mix ideas without affecting previous mixes. Be confident that you can return to an earlier mix at any time.

• Easily compare different mixes. There’s even a command to toggle between the two most recently used Mix Scenes.

• Create alternative mixes for specific purposes, such as album version, radio edit, a capella, instrumental, temporary headphone mix while recording, etc. Audio and MIDI data in the project is unaffected by Mix Scenes, so edits to audio and MIDI data are preserved across all Mix Scenes.

• Restore a project to a prior mix or a subset of tracks/buses, leaving other tracks unaffected.

• Effortlessly comp together multiple mix scenes to create a final mix that uses parts of other scenes (use the track/bus selection radio item for this).

• Quickly reset the entire project or a subset of tracks/buses to a default flat mix.

• Quickly delete all plug-ins in a project or selection of tracks/buses.

• Remove all envelopes

• Flatten all offset mode values on tracks/buses

• Export all mixes in a single operation.

DSD Import/Export

SONAR now has integrated DSD import and export. DSD support was developed in partnership with our colleagues at TASCAM, who are leaders in this area. It started with a deep presentation from TASCAM‘s engineers, who demonstrated the advantages of this technology. Cakewalk worked closely with TASCAM to integrate their proven DSD conversion technology into SONAR.

DSD (Direct Streaming Digital) is a 1-bit format that captures the audio at very high sample rates in a way that bypasses the part of a PCM (regular) converter that includes pre-designed compromises. By replacing a hardware decision with a software process, the quality of the conversion can be upgraded at will. One typical use is for archiving high resolution masters of recordings. Subjects in blind tests have found that DSD files played through DSD-capable equipment sounds better than equivalent standard PCM files.

Note that today SONAR supports import and export of DSD formats. The DSD data is converted to PCM using TASCAM’s high quality DSD-to-PCM conversion process, so as expected SONAR doesn’t support editing the raw DSD data itself. Depending on interest in that feature we may consider supporting native DSD editing in the future, however editing raw DSD data has limits in a DAW as no plug-ins can handle processing that format.

To play DSD files at their native sample rate, you need DSD-capable playback equipment such as the TASCAM DA-3000. Otherwise SONAR will downsample to the available sample rate. However, users can still export to DSD sample rates without having DSD playback hardware.

Here are some insights about why DSD is a superior format from TASCAM’s Tom Duffy:

• Higher sample rate (although in itself this is not what makes the audio sound better)
• Noise shaping. One-bit audio will sound bad if you do nothing to it, but part of the DSD process does noise shaping to provide a super-low (below -120 dB) noise floor in the traditional 20 to 20 kHz audible range.
• Signals can go over PCM 0 dBFS – that makes it less important to do brick wall limiting during the mastering, allowing for recordings with more dynamic range and/or less distortion.
• Higher processing requirements mean that the equipment is made to a higher standard, and uses better components throughout.

And then there’s PCM’s dirty little secret :

All audio-class PCM A/D converter chips are actually Delta-Sigma samplers with a built-in Delta-Sigma-to-PCM converter. The D-S to PCM converter’s quality depends on its design and complexity, so it’s designed to a price point. Ignoring this section of the chip, and grabbing the data directly at the Delta Sigma sampling point, provides a DSD stream. It then becomes possible to use software to perform the DSD-to-PCM conversion at whatever quality we want – you can even throw the full 64-bit floating point resources of an Intel hex core i7 at it. Neither a  $1 A/D chip nor a $5 A/D chip can match this.

A DSD D/A chip similarly bypasses the internal up-sampling that goes on in a PCM chip, and drives the final output stage directly. It’s definitely a case of less is more.

Finally, note that editing at “DXD” 384 kHz/24-bit means you can keep the shaped noise in the signal, because there’s nothing audible up there – but the pre-existing shaped noise makes the conversion back to DSD sound better. – Tom Duffy

ARA Improvements

We continue to improve our support for ARA in SONAR. There are numerous design improvements and fixes to ARA under the hood:

• Improvements to ARA memory management. ARA plug-ins on the undo history are now released when the history expires.
• ARA clips are no longer managed by the disk streaming thread, which frees up disk throughput.
• Improve display of clip names for region fx clips
• Improved handling of missing ARA plug-ins
• Dropout reduction when using ARA plug-ins – ARA disk access will not interrupt disk streaming
• Stability improvements with ARA
• Preparation for the next generation of ARA plug-ins

 

User Interface Enhancements / Skylight

 

Multilingual User Interface (MUI)

SONAR is now a Multilingual User interface-compliant application, so the same executable can switch to different languages dynamically without requiring a re-install for the new language resources. This allows running SONAR with a different language setting from Windows. SONAR display its user interface in the language selected in the Cakewalk Command Center.

To set the language, launch Command Center, click the gear icon and change the language to the desired setting. The next time you launch SONAR the user interface will displaythe selected language.

Redesigned modular control bar

SONAR has a brand new modular control bar. The control bar was completely redesigned from the ground up to handle fast and intuitive access to all the commonly used modules. It can handle both high resolution displays as well as smaller laptop displays with its compact mode. Modules can be easily reordered and the entire control bar can be docked top or bottom, floated onscreen, collapsed into compact form or scrolled. There is even a custom module where you can create buttons for your favorite commonly used operations.

Recycle plug-in windows

Plug-in window recycling introduces a new behavior that optionally limits the number of plug-ins visible on screen at a single time. The benefits are no need to manage lots of floating windows, and the new FX Racks’ single-click open behavior results in “switching” plug-in views, rather than additive windows. The plug-in window now also has a pin button on the far right that allows a plug-in window to be in a pinned (i.e., it doesn’t become replaced by a different plug-in window) or unpinned state. Plug-in recycling also affects plug-ins docked in the multi-dock. For most use cases, this results in a smoother workflow however the feature is configurable in preferences, and you can toggle the behavior dynamically by holding the CTRL key while opening plug-ins.

Skylight docking

To dock windows you must now hold down CTRL while dragging windows. This prevents accidental unwanted docking behavior.

Toast Stacking

Multiple toast notifications can be displayed stacked one on top of another, in cases where there are multiple notifications.

Browser enhancements

There are several enhancements to SONAR’s media browser, including improved search functionality and various workflow improvements and fixes.

• Search has been redesigned to allow recursively searching within subfolders. Search results will include all files and folders whose name includes the search term.  A recursive search can be cancelled by pressing ESC.
• Search is much faster now since SONAR automatically avoids crawling system folders and other non-content paths.
• Fixed performance problems with Media Browser. If it was set it to a root level containing lots of folders (like C:\), it would watch the entire hard drive for media changes. This consumed a lot of CPU, made the UI sluggish, and could even potentially cause audio dropouts. However now the “watch folder” process is not recursive, so that even if you set the current folder to C:\, search watches the root folder only for file name changes, not time stamp changes.
• Root level display in the browser no longer shows system folders like control panel etc.
• Search string is now cleared when you switch folders.
• Usability issues with previewing files in browser were addressed. When switching to a different folder the preview is now silenced. Also preview is silenced when doing drag and drop.
• Crash fixes and stability improvements.

 

MIDI Enhancements

There are numerous MIDI improvements in SONAR – more than any other version we have released in recent times. The Piano Roll view has had a huge makeover, along with numerous workflow improvements and bug fixes. You can read about all the new features here.

There is a brand new advanced Pattern Tool that allows “painting” MIDI patterns from any MIDI data in the application. You can pick a MIDI clip from the browser or select a region of MIDI from any clip and paint it.

You can slip-stretch MIDI clips in the Clips View, similar to how you do so on audio clips. There are also numerous MIDI editing improvements to the Piano Roll View.

Improved pedal and CC rendering

The latest version fixes rare cases where a MIDI CC message with a value of zero could be misinterpreted as a note-off message (faulty MIDI status bit check).  This was leading to genuine CCs with a value of 0 (like CC 64 pedal events) being dropped in certain cases, depending on the duration of prior notes.

Fixed problems where CCs in cropped clips were being rendered

Fixed issues with controller search back and CC/pedal events.

Defaults/Keyboard Shortcut Changes

Offset mode is no longer bound to the O key. This led to a lot of accidental switches to offset mode.

AudioSnap palette has been changed from A to Alt-A

Importing Broadcast waves at their timestamps is no longer the default. It can be changed in preferences. This is primarily a benefit to those who use sample libraries, where sometimes samples have a start time of 1:00:00:00 hours. Importing them into SONAR caused them to appear out of range of the project.

Miscellaneous 

File | Save Copy As… command

This allows you to save a copy of the file as a new name but continue working on the same project file name. This is different from Save As which switches your current working project to a new file name.

Bug Fixes

The latest version of SONAR has hundreds of bug fixes, many reported directly by users (and a big “thank you” to those who provided bug details and ways to reproduce). Here’s a partial list of the most significant and/or common ones that were fixed.

Piano Roll View

• Projects with PRV open could crash when opening them due a fault in the PRV toolbar
• PRV pane sizes not persisting when saving or switching screensets
• Lasso Selection in PRV and iPRV should not select velocity, can select unexpected notes.
• PRV Velocity lane does not keep selection
• Adjust velocity does not update in real time when controller lane is focused
• Aim assist should follow start/end of note(s) rather than mouse during click-drag. 132500
• Toggling “Show Velocity” does not update correctly when controller pane is visible. 132529
• PRV snap button on state not drawing correctly closed/reopened
• With no events zoom, close and reopen view causes Note and controller pane grids to get out of sync
• Copy or move controllers smears as events are dragged
• Adjusting controllers in PRV pane scrolls at top of view
• Projects Open with PRV Snap collapsed but enabled and resolution status out of sync
• Graphic glitch can occur on notes while scrolling
• Hiding controller pane breaks selection/de-selection (also affected in-line PRV)
• One time crash opening PRV
• Like Controllers on different channels in PRV controller lanes displays on both channels
• Multiple clips with the same controller type should hide or shade ramp of non-selected track
• Same CC number, different channel causes editing issues when not displaying CC lanes
• GUI artifacts at some zoom levels when using note names
• UseForegroundColor=0 doesn’t allow PRV note events to show in user-specified clip background color
• From note, adjust velocity on selection not working
• Drawing in controller pane also draws in Velocity lane
• Show velocity on selected notes only shows all velocity when nothing is selected
• Velocity bar width re-drawing errors when scrolling and on playback
• Velocity bars in controller lane not re-colored/grayed immediately on enable/disable track editing
• Snap controls move left and are duplicated on toggling global snap
• On initial start, sync of controller pane is offset if opened after rewind
• Hide MIDI note velocity keeps coming back on

Lanes

• Zoom not supported for Automation Lanes
• Delete envelope from Lane not clearing lane, re-adding from data picker creates blank auto lanes
• Blank automation lane after adding lanes, closing lanes, picking env. from parent track and exposing lanes again
• Selection corruption after crop in lanes
• Automation lanes do not display properly after switching screensets CWBRN-20226
• Saving project after delete of clip can cause blank or duplicated lanes and assert
• Some Lane Mute buttons are “backwards” after save and reload of project

Staff View

• Extra notes added to MIDI data when lyrics entered in Staff View when lanes are in use
• A projection is displayed on time and pitch locator in Staff View on Japanese OS
• Text for the Staff Properties label is cut off
• Superfluous notes being generated incorrectly when adding lyrics in enclosed project

Region FX

• Region FX clip icon hit test is off
• Region FX can hang when undoing multiple rendered clips

AudioSnap

• Audiosnap inserts many “user” transient markers on quarter-note beats
• Audiosnap detecting false transients on the front silent areas of bounced clips
• AudioSnap inserts superfluous user markers on beats where no audio transient exists

MIDI

• Input Quantize enabled on MIDI/synth tracks causes notes to skip with timeline looped playback.
• Audible bounce ignores MIDI envelopes and MFX
• Audible Bounce does not render MIDI CC Data
• Final CC64=0 sustain pedal up event not copied when non-destructive MIDI editing is disabled
• Picking track in Event List can cause crash.
• MIDI sustain envelope test project crashes SONAR on opening
• Input meter on MIDI tracks not working during record
• Track View MIDI menu does not open
• Fit MIDI Content in regular PRV doesn’t seem to work properly
• MIDI Pedal events not rendering correctly in certain projects
• Importing MIDI file strips CC 91 and CC 93 info
• MIDI note quantize duration is not working on last note in selection
• Unexpected delete behavior with Smart Tool attempting to modify CC events with smart tool

Plug-Ins

• Resize docked plug-in can cause the view to not paint correctly
• “Give All Keystrokes To Plugin” doesn’t work with some plugins CWBRN-11527
• Changing screen sets with a docked plug-in can cause the MultiDock to not draw correctly with VST3 plug-ins (Izotope/Fabfilter)
• Kush Audio’s Pusher does not draw correctly when system font is 125% or higher
• Resize waves plug-in can draw incorrectly when drawn outside the SONAR window (Dorrough Meter) Crash using Voxengo and UAD plug-ins in the same FX bin
• Kush Pusher VST sizing issue
• VSTs with negative unique ID not scanned properly (eg VB303)
• Crashes when FabFilter plugins are inserted into surround buses
• Melda MDynamicEQ plugin resetting at playback

FX Chains and ProChannel

• FX Chain, custom fader cap graphics not saved with preset
• FX chain knob positions not preserving settings  when set to 100%
• Enclosed FX Chain preset draws knob in the wrong place
• Closing enclosed project containing FX chains causes problems
• When Reaktor or Sausage Fattener is inside a ProChannel FXChain, FX settings zeroing when playback starts
• Interleave button does not update PC-FX Chain stereo/mono indicator in console view.
• ProChannel plug-ins installed into subfolders are not scanned early enough causing normal template to report missing plug-ins

Control Bar

• Control Bar mouse wheel scroll fails if PRV is open
• Fast forward/rewind buttons become stuck
• Right-clicking transport Record button fails to bring up Record Options in Preferences
• Transport mis-aligned on drag

Graphics/Redraws

• Cannot adjust track controls in TV if Win text size is above 100%
• Preferences Window opens partly off screen when opening from collapsed ACT module
• Zooming or scrolling in projects with tempo changes could cause incorrect wave drawing
• Kush Audio’s Pusher does not draw correctly when system font is 125% or higher
• Resize waves plug-in can draw incorrectly when drawn outside the SONAR window (Dorrough Meter)
• Track Folders enlarge unexpectedly after enabling/disabling Auto Track Zoom CWBRN-29571
• Large audio projects cause audio dropout while generating waveform pix
• Sound on Sound stereo comp clip drawing error – overlap drawn as mono
• MultiDock resetting small size state after full screen expand/ collapse

Browser

• Media Browser could crash while playback after auditioning a file with Loop Preview off
• Media browser preview doesn’t play at selected synth preview output
• Lasso Select in browser puts focused file in a rename state

Help

• Failed to launch help with F1 when multidock is floating and has focus.
• Cannot launch VX-64 help
• French/German/Spanish versions – MFX plugin help appears in English in SONAR Studio
• V-Vocal help ID is shared with Melodyne

Loops

• Looping with input echoed synth active in the project leads to the tracks getting out of sync over time
• Loop range does not update correctly when changing time signatures
• Loop Construction view Play button should ignore timeline loop points
• Problems when locking a groove clip after a split

Crashes

• Editing step sequencer velocities causes crash
• Orphaned envelopes cause crash on selection
• Splitting and dragging step-sequenced clip crashes SONAR
• Cloning a Simple Instrument Track could crash
• Fixed various crash on exit scenarios as reported by customer fault reporter cases
• Deleting stereo buses from console causes feedback loop and crashes with some routing configurations
• Crashes or asserts when selecting entire automation envelope with CTRL-A and deleting with delete key

Miscellaneous

• Scanned Failed / Existing not working properly for Manual or Start Up scan types
• Assigning a mono output checks all three left/right/stereo options in the listbox
• Unable to create/open new file after “A Playlist is already open” prompt – CWBRN-25749
• Preferences configuration file does not allow setting of a negative number for DropoutMsec
• Inserting a bus from console bus strip context menu changes the default bus
• Recording fails with ASIO drivers that report ASIOSTInt32LSB24  format
• Project compatibility message for surround sound projects cut off
• DropZone fails to load all programs in the “05-Grooves” folder on x64 OS.
• Edit cut listed as blank space in undo history
• Magnetic Strength setting doesn’t work
• Shift+ drag to constrain clip not working horizontally

 

Check out the SONAR Comparison Chart for a full feature list and choose the right version for you.