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Creating Your Own Guitar Tone with TH3 in SONAR

TH3 Cakewalk edition allows for anybody with SONAR to have access to amazing guitar tones. It comes with loads of amps, cabinets, effects and even allows for changing the position of the mic. If you want to do stereo processing of effects to create a stereo delays or parallel processing by mixing two amps together, you can do that as well.

Where to start?

Insert TH3 on to your guitar track and make sure you are using the correct input and have the Input Echo button enabled to hear what is plugged into that input.

A good place to start after inserting TH3 on to your guitar track is to check your level into the plug-in and the tuning of your guitar.

Check your level:

Strum a big chord on your guitar to see how much signal is coming into the plug-in. There should be a healthy amount of signal coming in and no clipping in the red.

Tuning:

Play each string and adjust until you see the tuning pin is in the center for each string.

Auditioning Amps

Open the [Components] section on the right if it is not already open and select the amps category from the list. Once you have that selected, you can then drag in the first amp at the top. You’ll be asked if you want to insert a matching cab, click [YES PLEASE!].

Give it a try! To audition other amps and cabs click the up and down arrows on the top left corner of the amp head or cab. Depending on what you are going for this is where you’ll want to pick out an amp that has some of the characters you are going for.

Here is a list of the included amps in TH3 Cakewalk along with the units they are modeled after.

  • Bassface ’59 – Modeled after the ’59 Fender Bassman
  • Darkface ’65 – Modeled after the ’65 Fender Twin
  • Modern – Modeled after the Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier
  • Overloud Custom Power – Overloud Custom amp
  • Randall T2 – Official model of the Randall T2 head
  • Rock ’64 – Modeled after the Marshall JTM45
  • Rock 900 – Modeled after the Marshall JCM900
  • Slo 88 – Modeled after the Soldano x88r
  • THD Univalve – Official model of the THD Univalve Single- Ended Class A amplifier
  • Top30 – Modeled after the Vox AC30
  • Tweed Deluxe – Modeled after the Fender Tweed Deluxe
  • Bass SuperTube VR – Modeled after the Ampeg SVT-VR

Spice It Up Now

I’m going for a pretty classic tone that is mostly clean with a little bit of grit on it. I picked out the Top30 type head with a matching cab and will add an overdrive going into the amp. Go to the Components section again and select overdrive category. Drag in the TUBE NINE over before the amp. Dial in a some gain to taste using the “Drive” control and give it a whirl.

There are many other effects included with the TH3 Cakewalk edition, here is a compete list of everything you get.

  • TUBE NINE Overdrive
  • FatMuff Fuzz
  • FUZZRACE Fuzz
  • CHR-2 Chorus
  • Digital Delay
  • RSS Compressor
  • ANALOG FLANGER
  • Rich Flanger
  • 9-0′ Phaser
  • AQTX Spring Reverb
  • AmpTrem Tremelo
  • Auto-Wah
  • cry maybe Wah
  • Gate Expander
  • Volume

Mastering Space

Using spacial type effects like reverb and delay are critical in getting many of the classic guitar tones from the past. Here are some good rules to live by when getting started using reverb, delays and other spacey effects.

  1. Use modulation type effects like Chorus, Phasers, and Flangers toward the middle of your chain after distortions & overdrives.
  2. Use Delays after the Modulation type effects.
  3. Place reverbs at the end of your chain.

TH3 Cakewalk edition is included in SONAR Home Studio, Artist, Professional, and Platinum.

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An offer you can’t refuse. Jamstik+ & Sonar Artist BUNDLE with FREE Sounds!

Hey everyone!  Cakewalk & Jamstik+ have teamed up again, this time to bring you the Jamstik+ & Sonar Artist Bundle! In addition, our good friend Craig Anderton released custom presets for Rapture Session as a bonus download included in the bundle. Jamstik+ sound-pack for Rapture Session includes 11 instrument types & all of the presets curated from Rapture Pro multi-sample synth that can be easily mapped to your MIDI controller.  In total we have 30 presets that celebrate the 30th anniversary of Cakewalk Sonar.  Watch the video above to watch me showcase some of the included sounds!

Rapture Session’s Interface

First, let’s talk about the user interface for our included soundpack.  Sonar’s integration of Rapture is very straightforward and user-friendly.  For many guitarists, synth apps can be intimidating.  I tend to steer toward apps that have a simplistic design so I can play more, and tweak settings less.

How Does It Sound?

This sound-pack is a Swiss-army knife of sound, including a nice section dedicated to bass guitars.  Most patches have a nice warm tone and some of them even a retro-like quality.  Although these programs have unique attributes that can be modified with the Instrument Editor, they come pre-canned with solid defaults.  If you’re looking to get a bright and crispy synth, I recommend adding an exciter to help out with the super-duper high end.

About The Demo Song

The main chord progression goes from C# minor to A major using the Nashville Guitar with a few tweaked settings in the Instrument Editor.  It’s always exciting to try out new guitar tones with the jamstik.  Traditionally it’s usually hit or miss for MIDI samples of guitars.  These particular offerings fit well with the kind of track I was making.  The Nashville Guitar is essentially based off the “LesPaul” sound included with an octaver on top of it.  This brightens up the melody and helps it stand out.  In this example, I increased the TremSync Dial to get a nice tremolo effect.

I’m a huge chip-tune fan (I actually compose quite a lot of 8-bit music myself)  so naturally, I gravitated towards the PolySynth lead.  This is used on the melodies & solos that are going on in the video.  

Lastly, during the section where I am playing a Kick and Snare there is an arpeggiated pattern being played in the background.  This patch is a fun one called PatternKittens.   This arpeggiated synth lends itself nicely to contribute ambient tones to the tune.  It reminds me of something The Who or a rock band would have incorporated into their music!

List of the 30 bonus sounds:

  • 3 Guitars
  • 2 PolySynths
  • 2 Pads
  • Brass Synth
  • Clav Synth
  • DrumsAcous
  • Electric Piano
  • Harpsi-Synth
  • Organ
  • Pattern Kittens
  • Pattern Soft Steps
  • Piano
  • Sax
  • Sitar
  • Strings
  • Synth Tines

Included Basses:

  • Acoustic Bass
  • 4 Electric Basses
  • 5 Synth Basses

Use Unique Jamstik+ Features

For the soloing on this track, I used a mixture of traditional picking and a feature called “Tap Mode”.  This functionality has been used with other controllers so may not be a foreign concept to you.  Essentially, the jamstik+ when in tap mode, will reward a full velocity note upon fretting the guitar neck without the need for picking.  It’s a fun way to do legato passages and tracks really clean on the piano roll.  For an article explaining more about jamstik+ features click here!

Bluetooth MIDI on Windows 10

The newest versions of Sonar and Windows 10 take advantage of Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy to connect the jamstik+ wirelessly as a MIDI input device.  Make sure to check specs on your PC to ensure compatibility.  If not, we recommend this BLE dongle by Asus.  

For more info check out a previous guest blog-post I did talking about Bluetooth MIDI.  For the full article read more here.

Special offer:  Jamstik+ & SONAR Bundle!

Sonar Artist is a fantastic package that comes with all of the essentials & more.  To celebrate our collaboration, we are offering a bundle for the jamstik & Sonar Artist together for a special price!  Both of these products are great independently, but together they make a powerful team.  Don’t forget.. this plug-in I am demoing comes FREE with the activation codes included in the bundle!

Thanks to hard-working engineers we have Bluetooth MIDI possible in Sonar. This opens new doors for producers and other music creators to have a wireless experience with a cool controller on their PC.  We hope to see what you create!

Remember to tag #jamstik #sonar #cakewalk on your posts!! 

Learn more about the jamstik+ / Sonar Artist Bundle at www.jamstik.com

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Q&A with True Sound Studios

Ryan Wiesner “Weezna” is the owner and operator of True Sound Studios outside of Buffalo, NY. He chooses SONAR Platinum to produce a range of music including Hip Hop, EDM, Pop, and Rock. We discovered Ryan from his YouTube channel and were impressed with his studio and with the videos he’s creating using SONAR. We got him to take a break from his rigorous recording and video creation schedule to talk to us about why he uses SONAR and how he’s integrated it into his hybrid digital / analog productions. Continue reading “Q&A with True Sound Studios”

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SONAR 2017.07 Release: Little Things Mean a Lot

Bus Pane Aim Assist

Aim Assist is a long-time SONAR convenience—it draws a vertical bar across all Tracks to follow the mouse cursor position, while obeying snap settings. With Aim Assist, it’s easy to align edits across tracks.

Until now, Aim Assist only applied to the Tracks Pane. Extending this feature to work in the Bus Pane has been one of our most popular feature requests from customers, and now it’s here in SONAR 2017.07.

Bus Pane Aim Assist
Bus Pane Aim Assist

With more advanced automation and routing, it’s now easy to use Aim Assist to align mix and automation settings visually across all tracks and buses.

Recently Used Plug-ins

We’ve found that SONAR users often have their “go-to” plug-ins that they’re using over and over again. With SONAR 2017.07, we’ve made it easy to insert any of your five most recently used plug-ins anywhere in your project—no other setup necessary, it just works!

Noteworthy Enhancements

Drum Project with 100's of little clips
Drum Project with 100’s of little clips

In projects with thousands of micro-edits—for example, when using AudioSnap and Split Beats to chop and tighten drum tracks—SONAR is now much more responsive.

In our SONAR 2017.05 Update we introduced Ripple Editing, and the SONAR community rejoiced. We’ve continued to make improvements, and in this SONAR 2017.07 release, SONAR is now smarter about working with MIDI data while Ripple Editing. You can learn more about how in the 2017.07 issue of our monthly Tech+Music magazine.

While using the Adaptive Limiter some of our customers noticed a ring modulation effect. Cool sounding? Yes. Intended? No. When using the 64-bit Double Precision Engine along with a 64 sample buffer size in SONAR some plug-ins—including the Adaptive Limiter—would misbehave. This has now been addressed in SONAR 2017.07.

This issue had affected other plug-ins as well and could have caused some users to not be able to use 64-bit Double Precision in SONAR. With this update, we encourage users experiencing this issue to try using the 64-bit Double Precision Engine again. You can find this in Preferences under Driver Settings.

Using Snap and the Smart Grid together is more visually consistent now between the Track View and Piano Roll View, and we have improved the look of grid lines while zooming out of a project—no more confusing beat markers in the Time Ruler or stacked grid lines displaying on top of one another. We now always display the beat in the Time Ruler and the Snap subdivision in the view. This makes it easier to see the relationship between measure, beat, and subdivision while editing. See below for additional changes to this area.

  • Track View, Track View In-line Piano Roll, and Piano Roll View now have consistent behavior when thinning grid lines during zooming in and out
  • Disabling Snap previously created problems with showing triplets and dotted settings, These buttons will now stay lit to better indicate what Grid Lines are being displayed when Snap is Off
  • Disabling Snap previously created problems with showing triplets and dotted settings, These buttons will now stay lit to better indicate what Grid Lines are being displayed when Snap is Off
  • Snap settings could previously become changed unexpectedly if they were altered when Snap was Off
  • The Control Bar’s Smart Grid option is no longer disabled on cancel out of the menu

30th Anniversary Rapture Expansion Pack

Tech+Music (issue 2017.07)

Reviews of the Month: SampleTekk Classic Grand Piano, DSF B3 Tone Wheel organ ● DIY Sampled Piano Mods – Enhance sampled pianos with these simple tweaks ● SONAR Update 2017.07 overview, with news on all the latest enhancements: Bus Pane Aim Assist, Recently Used Plug-Ins list, Clip Edit Speed improvements, MIDI Ripple Editing improvements, multiple fixes and enhancements ● SONAR 101: Understanding Loop Construction ● “You Mix, We Master” – every month, we master a reader-submitted piece of music in SONAR ● 30th Anniversary Rapture Expansion Pack: Freshen up Rapture Pro and Rapture Sessions with 30 free, exciting new sounds from Craig Anderton

Get SONAR 2017.07 Today

Follow this link to learn more about the SONAR 2017.07 update and download today:

SONAR 2017.07 Update

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How Dutch Producer Sander Veeken used SONAR for the new Lange Frans Record

One of the greatest things about working for Cakewalk besides the comradery with colleagues, is the fact that I get to meet and interact with many different SONAR users around the world. I’ve found that from Japan to California and everywhere in between, there are some very talented SONAR users creating music on their own terms.  Since we’ve been part of Gibson we have thankfully had the benefit of a great Entertainment Relations team helping us out with meeting some of these artistic musicians.

Not too long ago on a trip over to Europe, I was introduced through one of the Gibson Entertainment Relations Representatives to a Dutch producer/musician by the name of Sander Veeken who had been visiting our relatively new Amsterdam facility.  The rep had wanted to me to meet Sander because he knew he was a SONAR user, so as you can imagine we had a lot to talk about.  Immediately we started talking about his work and his history with SONAR, but he also mentioned a specific artist he had been working with by the name of Lange Frans.  I had heard of Lange before, but what I didn’t know is how incredibly popular this artist was—I’m talking tens of millions of views popular—on multiple outlets such as YouTube to name one. Continue reading “How Dutch Producer Sander Veeken used SONAR for the new Lange Frans Record”

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Summer of SONAR–Here's the 2017.06 Update

After a burst of innovation from the SONAR team during the last several months–which brought us:

…we’ve focused this SONAR 2017.06 release on user experience– polishing up and refining all the new features we’ve recently delivered. Here are a few highlights:

Continue reading “Summer of SONAR–Here's the 2017.06 Update”

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Cakewalk Kicks off 30th Anniversary with Major SONAR Update & Much More

–SONAR 2017.05 Update release looks to the past, present and future of desktop music production with Ripple Editing, a new Adaptive Limiter and Pen support for MIDI editing–

Let the 30th Anniversary Celebration Begin!

May 2017 marks Cakewalk’s 30th Anniversary, so we’re throwing a year-long party—and everyone’s invited!

We’ve lined up some cool freebies, specials, and surprises you’ll be seeing over the next 12 months, starting with 30 free, expertly crafted presets for the QuadCurve EQ to kickstart your mixing and mastering projects.

What’s more, by popular demand we’re bringing back the eZine, and taking it to the next level as a new publication—Tech+Music. Each month’s issue is packed with news on the latest program updates, as well as tips, product reviews, articles on studio techniques, and more.

This month, our partner spotlight shines on Softube — we’ll introduce you to the Console 1 Mk II, including a giveaway, and we’ll be offering their high-end Tube Tech Classic Channel at a rock-bottom price.

Last, but not least, our giant SONAR 2017.05 Update looks to the past, present and future of desktop music production — featuring Ripple Editing, our new Adaptive Limiter, and Pen support for MIDI editing.

Thank you for your support as we embark on our next 30 years of innovation.

Now let’s dive in to the SONAR 2017.05 Update…

Continue reading “Cakewalk Kicks off 30th Anniversary with Major SONAR Update & Much More”

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Cakewalk and Synchro Arts Announce VocALign ARA Integration with SONAR

Synchro Arts‘ legendary automatic time-alignment software, VocALign Project, now integrates with Cakewalk SONAR via the ARA (Audio Random Access) protocol. Compared to non-ARA DAWs, ARA provides instant access to the host’s audio data—simply drag and drop Guide and Dub audio events into VocALign Project 3, and it edits the Dub audio instantly to match the Guide’s timing.

Cakewalk is currently running a special direct promotion for 20% off VocALign Project 3 until May 31, 2017 in our online store at shop.cakewalk.com.

Continue reading “Cakewalk and Synchro Arts Announce VocALign ARA Integration with SONAR”