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Setting Up Gobbler in SONAR X3

Setting up in Gobbler in SONAR X3, SONAR X3 Studio, and SONAR X3 Producer is easy. Here is a quick step by step on how to do it.

  • Go to Gobbler’s website and make an account.

https://www.gobbler.com/

  • Make sure to use the code that was given to you when you purchased SONAR X3. This will give you 20GB of additional free storage on their servers.
  • Download the Gobbler app from here:

https://www.gobbler.com/download

  • Once downloaded, install Gobbler.
  • Open up the Gobbler app and sign into your account that you created.

Once this is done simply open up SONAR X3, SONAR X3 Studio, or SONAR X3 Producer and click on the “G” on the Gobbler module in the control bar to turn on Gobbler.

 

If you do not see the Gobbler module then you may have to rearrange your Control Bar.

You can do this by right-clicking on the it and unticking some modules that you don’t use.

Gobbler will probably say (Offscreen).

Why is Gobbler awesome? Check this out this article to find out.

Find out more about Gobbler and SONAR X3 here.

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8 Reasons Why Gobbler Cloud Collaboration Is Awesome for Musicians

Cloud collaboration has become the new standard within today’s music industry. Before this, artists, engineers, and producers would collaborate through the mail and other various delivery systems. Here are 8 reasons why collaborating with Gobbler is awesome for musicians.

1. Saves You Time

Gobbler saves you the time and exhaustion of gathering files, uploading files, and sending files to someone on the other side of country or world. Within SONAR X3, Gobbler acts as a native component right within the control bar so that you don’t even have to export your ideas from the program to send them. Think about the time you spend bouncing your ideas to an audio file, accessing your email, uploading to an FTP site, and then making sure that the person on the other end can gain access to your one idea. That’s time you could have spent creating another great idea.

2. Distance Doesn’t Matter

Let’s say you wanted to collaborate on a track with someone that you met at a festival or a trade show. Your studios are 2500 miles away from one another and your budgets don’t include that kind of airfare for one on one collaboration anytime soon. The beauty of cloud based collaboration is that your idea can be in someone else’s studio almost immediately, regardless of distance. You don’t have to send a package through customs for it to get to another country, or worry about it getting lost in transit. Creativity shouldn’t have that kind of baggage and Gobbler makes sure of that.

3. Easy to Use

One of most important things to note about Gobbler is its ease of use. This service requires minimal setup with very few concepts to get tangled up in. With the service now completely integrated into SONAR, it’s a matter clicking one button and entering the email address of the recipient. It doesn’t get much easier than that.

4. Saves You Money

Something that could be overlooked in a home studio is having a dedicated method for delivering products to your clients. This method should not incur too much spending on your business and should be highly effective. For as little as $4/month, you can send as many files as you like to anyone you want. Situations where you need to deliver upwards of 200GB to someone across the country would involve buying hard drive (plus tax), spending money on the gas to get to the FEDEX shipping store, paying for parking (if you’re in a big city), paying for boxes, shipping, and the handling. All of that would come out to more than $30 – which is what Gobbler offers for 250GB of storage on their servers per month.

5. Worry Less

Integrating a product like Gobbler into SONAR X3 comes with more perks than just collaboration. Within the Gobbler module there’s an auto-backup feature. When activated, Gobbler will automatically save your changes as you work and includes versioning, just in case you ever erase something by mistake. You can work and collaborate on your music with confidence in knowing that Gobbler has you backed up.

6. Collaborative Status Icons

Gobbler’s advanced file transfer window keeps you in-the-know on your projects once they are sent to a recipient. Within this window there are 5 different icons under the status column to look for:
 Closed Envelope. File sent, but unopened.
Open Envelope & Checkmark. File has been downloaded successfully.
Closed Envelope & Green Arrow. File is currently being downloaded..
Exclamation Point.  File sent has failed.
Red X-Mark. Email address is not valid.

Having real-time feedback on the files you send to your collaborators is one of the most useful benefits to working with Gobbler. These help you understand if something has gone wrong on the other end of your file transfer and is especially useful if your recipient gives you an incorrect email address.

7. Your collaborators don’t need Gobbler to receive your files

You may have taken the plunge into the Gobbler world but some musicians haven’t for various reasons. You can still send your work to other people regardless of them having the service or not. Each recipient will get regular browser based emails with a link to the files that you send them. These links could be private or public. Using the public link will allow anyone with that link to download it. You can send a revision or a mix to your client and then that client can forward that link to the rest of the band. Public links will expire after 7-days or 20 downloads for security purposes.

8. Upgrade before Dec. 31st and you get an additional 20GB of space for 6 months

If you’re looking to get started on your next Single, EP, or Full-Length record then now is a great time to upgrade to SONAR X3. That upgrade gets you 20GB of space on Gobbler’s servers for the next 6 months. That is in addition to the free 5GB available for all SONAR X3 users to use as long as you like. Gobbler will make collaborating easier so that you can stay focused on your creativity.

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SONAR X3 Users: Save 50% off Nomad Factory Plug-ins through Oct. 31st

Nomad Factory

One of the exciting new additions to SONAR X3 Studio & Producer is the Nomad Factory Blue Tubes FX.  These 19 FX recreate the vintage sound you have loved from decades ago.  If you love the Blue Tubes FX, then you need to check out their other bundle packs which are available at the Cakewalk Store for a special price through October 31st.

Nomad Factory: Analog Mastering Tools (Download) $75/£59/€69 (Save 50%)

  • Includes A.M.T Amp Leveling, A.M.T Max Warm, and A.M.T Multi Max multiband peak limiter.

Nomad Factory: Analog Signature Pack (Download)  $99/£79/€89 (Save 50%)

  • Includes the Program Equalizer EQP-4, the Limiting Amplifier LM-662, and the Studio Chanel SC-226.

Complete Bundle: Integral Studio Pack 3 (Download) $299/£239/€269 (Save 50%)

  • This bundle from Nomad Factory contains everything you might ever need to get the best out of SONAR in a professional studio environment.

Visit the Cakewalk Store to save big on other SONAR X3 Extras.

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SONAR X3 Feature Spotlight: Melodyne Essential with ARA integration

Addictive Drums

One of the most talked about features in SONAR X3 has been the new ARA integration. Every version of SONAR X3 now includes ARA Integration which allows you to use Melodyne as if it were part of SONAR X3. In addition, SONAR X3 Studio and Producer also include Melodyne Essential (retail value $99).

While including Melodyne Essential is a huge upgrade in terms of pitch correction, it’s the ARA integration that really takes it over the top. The main benefit of ARA is that it allows SONAR to integrate with plug-ins that can edit and analyze audio, such as Melodyne. ARA greatly improves the workflow when using plugins like Melodyne that do MIDI analysis and pitch and timing correction. Compatible plug-ins can exchange information about the project’s timeline data, including audio clips, tempo, pitch, rhythm and much more, which allows them to behave as if the plug-in was part of SONAR.

In a recent article on CreateDigitalMusic.com, industry expert Peter Kirn stated the obvious: “there’s no other way to say this: Celemony’s Melodyne line of products is just better than any other offering out there.” Kirn later went on to proclaim, “Cakewalk has done more with the SDK for ARA than any other host so far.”

Read the ARA integration article on CreateDigitalMusic.com

Developer Notes: SONAR X3 ARA Integration

SONAR X3 Tip: Easy Audio to MIDI Conversion

SONAR X3 Tip: Make your vocal thicker with Melodyne

SONAR X3 Tip: Drum Replacement with ARA and Addictive Drums

Upgrade to SONAR X3 Producer (includes Melodyne Essential)

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SONAR X3 Quicktip: Drum Replacement with ARA Integration and Addictive Drums (Producer)

Within SONAR X3 converting Audio to MIDI has never been easier thanks to our deep ARA integration. This opens up many doorways for users to convert their mono audio tracks to MIDI. One great use case for this is replacing drums or adding samples to your drum tracks to enhance their sound.

Within SONAR open up your Kick and Snare tracks.

Add a MIDI track below each audio track that you wish to replace.

Add our new Logical Gate/Expander to both the Kick and Snare and adjust the effect so that instruments are heavily gated and sound like the following:

After this, Freeze both tracks.  This is going to render the Kick and Snare tracks with the gates embedded in the audio tracks.

Next, latency.  Let’s drop the latency to the lowest settings. Go to Edit > Preferences > Driver Settings and set your latency low. This will help with timing.

  • If you are using MME (32bit) set your latency closer to [Safe].
  • If you are using ASIO then select [ASIO Panel] and set your buffer size very low.

Drag and drop your kick and snare tracks to their associated MIDI track. Conversion will occur.

Next up, open the PRV and move your MIDI Clips to the drum you wish to use. You can highlight the entire row of MIDI clips by selecting their associated piano key and transpose them easily by going to Process > Transpose.

Once this is done insert Addictive Drums. Make sure to have the following ticked after selecting Insert > Soft Synth > Addictive Drums:

  • First Synth Audio Output
  • Synth Property Page
  • Recall Assignable Controls
  • Ask This Everytime

Mute the Room and OH microphones within Addictive Drums.  This reduces any additional ambiance.

Workflow Tip: It’s good practice to do this type of replacement section by section at first so that you can get an idea of how it works.

Mix these drums in behind your current mix.

Learn more about ARA Integration, Addictive Drums, and SONAR X3 Producer here.

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SONAR X3 Quicktip: Make Your Voice Thicker (Studio & Producer)

Vocal production can lead to many different types of processing. Sometimes subtle enhancements to your vocals can make all the difference in the final mix.

SONAR X3 Studio and Producer introduces Melodyne Essential as a fully integrated and pitch correction editor.  This easy to use software allows users to access their Melodyne right from the Multi-Dock without needing to perform any special tricks within the software.

One great way to process vocals is to add low end to them without using EQ. Thickening up a vocal can be a tricky task but now with the use of Melodyne you can take advantage of it’s pitch correction abilities.

With the deep integration of ARA technology simply do the following to edit pitch:

  • Insert a vocal track that needs some help in the lower register.

  • Highlight the desired audio region

  • Go to Region FX and highlight Melodyne

  • Melodyne will appear in the Multi-Dock

Minimize the Melodyne Editor for now and do the following in the Track View

  • Highlight your audio track and right-click on the Track Pane

  • Select [Clone] and make sure to enter 2 in the selection for “repetitions”

This will load two tracks with the same Melodyne region enabled.

  • Open up the first region within Melodyne

  • Go to Edit > Select All or simply hit CTRL+A

  • Within Melodyne use the magnifying glass tool to zoom in on one specific blob

  • Within Melodyne go to Edit > Pitch Grid and select No Snap

  • Using the “Main Tool” click and drag the entire selected track down every so slightly

  • Do the same with the second cloned track but in the opposite direction

  • Now pan both tracks somewhat out in width and mix them underneath your main vocal track

  • Apply a Low Pass Filter to both and any other processing you want to experiment with, here I added some saturation to both tracks

The goal here is to create a parallel thickness underneath your track so that your vocal becomes more present in the lower and punchier frequencies.

Try it out, and experiment with more parallel DSP effects and you’ll start down a route of unlimited effects.

Learn more about SONAR X3 here.

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Did You Know SONAR X3 Comes with a Dual Phaser and Chorus?

SONAR X3 Studio and Producer have included the mind-bending Dual Analog Phaser and Dual Analog Chorus units from Nomad Factory.  As you might know both units are time based effects and are variations of delay units. Both types of effects split the signal into two parts and then combine them again after the signal passes through the unit.

 

  • Phaser – When the audio passes through the unit the signal is flipped out of phase and then a LFO-controlled notch filter sweeps through this signal’s frequency spectrum.

  • Chorus – One part of the signal is unaffected and the other is delayed anywhere from 20ms-50ms and then it’s pitch is modulated by a Low Frequency Oscillator

 

The included LFO on both units has Square, Sine, Triangle, and Sawtooth options for even more sound design options. Within the Chorus users have the ability to control each side of the stereo audio signal independently as well as change the different LFO rates.

Check out the destruction done to a simple jazz drum loop. There really are not limits to the sounds that these plugins can produce.

Learn more about these plugins and SONAR X3.

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SONAR X3 Quicktip: Focus the Low end of your Kick and Snare with a Program EQ

Program Equalizers have been around since the 1950’s and in SONAR X3 Studio and Producer users will receive two of these incredibly emulated modules.

Let’s take a look at what the new Program Equalizer EQP-2B can do for our kick drum. You’ll notice that we have the ability to both boost and cut the same frequencies on this EQ. Choose a low frequency from the variable adjustment and then begin increasing the Boost parameter.  Increase it all the way and your kick drum signal will become quite overpowering. Adjust the Attenuate knob and the signal will begin to smooth out and focus your signal a bit better.

For this country kick drum I picked 80Hz for the low end and boosted the signal to it’s ceiling.  Next, I adjusted the Attenuate knob to it’s lowest setting. This effectively sharpens out the boosted signals and gives the signal a unique focus in the lower spectrum. After that, I adjusted for clarity and the end result is very useable.

Moving to the snare, user’s can get the same effect using the PEQ5B.  This has some of the same algorithms as the EQP-2B but with an added EQ section in the bottom of the plugin. At first listen the Snare sounds a bit boxy and grainy in the low and mid-range.

I applied a sharp reduction around 50HZ with the Low Shelving EQ and then another sharp cut around 800Hz.  This seemed to make all the difference. Afterwards, I moved to the upper half of this EQ and applied the same thinking that I did to the Kick but instead I focused the EQ to around 122HZ.  This will allow the snare to get out of the way of the Kick.  Next, boosting and then attenuating the signal seemed to focus the shape of the Snare right where I needed it.

Learn more about these plugins and SONAR X3 here.

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Hidden Gem: The Blue Tubes Stereo Imager [SONAR X3 Studio & Producer]

Now in SONAR X3 Studio and Producer we’ve included a wonderful hidden gem.  The Blue Tube Stereo Imager is a spatial plugin that allows you to widen and narrow out your mixes with a simple slide from left or right.

This type of effect can be useful in situations where you need to A-B mixes quickly in mono.  Some one would say “I can just use the pan pots or stereo interleaved switch” but the beauty of this plugin is that you could use this plugin in both a musical and technical fashion. Continue reading “Hidden Gem: The Blue Tubes Stereo Imager [SONAR X3 Studio & Producer]”

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SONAR X3: Exploring Your New EQs

SONAR X3 comes with an array of brand new EQ plugins. All of them have their own purpose sound and functionality. A great new feature within SONAR X3 is the ProChannel QuadCurve EQ Zoom & Analyzer as well. Using both of these you can truly get an idea of how each one works and how it affects your audio signal.

I’ve sent some pink noise through the new QuadCurve EQ & Zoom’s Analyzer so that you can see how the settings are affecting the full frequency spectrum.

The first one is the British Tone Equalizer. This is a 3-band EQ with a Low Shelving Band, Midrange Band, and a High Shelving Band. All have variable bandwidths.

You can see in the diagram below that, even though this appears to be a rather simple EQ, it’s middle adjustment is perfect for instruments that sit in the mid-range.

Both the high-shelving and low-shelving frequency adjustment are not as complex, but would be ideal for carving out their respective frequencies in both the high and low spectrum.

The Bandaxall EQ is a quickly and easy two band EQ with fixed frequency cut offs. This is perfect for Continue reading “SONAR X3: Exploring Your New EQs”