Cakewalk Sonar Home Studio Version 4 Overview

I have watched Cakewalk, in recent years, make some huge strides in the development of the audio tracking software. The Pro Audio series became the SONAR series, while they were always good applications, when it became SONAR, there was a huge change in the application, the GUI and usability improved, the audio quality improved with a lean, new audio engine shortly after the support for ASIO was introduced, their VST adapter came into play. It's just been some huge steps for them in the market.

Cakewalk Home Studio series has always been a trimmed down version of their flagship product at a more affordable price for the home studio owner. However, from looking at the feature set of this newest version, it certainly seems like an app that could satisfy most any home/project studio owner and many semi-pros as well.

Sonar Home Studio Version 4 is a Windows 2000/XP only application that requires a 1ghz CPU with 256MB Ram and 100MB of hard disk space, though Cakewalk recommends at least a 1.4 ghz CPU with 512 MB Ram and a couple gigs of hard disk space for all the softsynth samples and various other samples and loops that come with the application.

Like all current Cakewalk products, the app works with any ASIO, WDM or DirectSound compatible sound card. It also supports DirectX and VST plugins, it also comes bundled with 15 audio plugs and 9 MIDI effects of it's own as well as three softsynths, Dreamstation, Virtual Sound Canvas and Sfz. In addition, Sonar Home Studio is also able integrate ReWire applications such as Kinetic, Project5, Reason, DrumCore and others.

It allows the user to record up to 64 audio tracks and an unlimited number of MIDI tracks with a quality of up to 24-bit/192 kHz sample rate. Many of the more commonly known applications in this price range have a max of 16 bit with varying sample rates.

Interface and Usability

One thing I have to say for Cakewalk is that they have always been at the front of the pack when it comes to usability. Even as their applications get more sophisticated they always re-examine the usability and adjust accordingly. This makes for programs that are easy to get to work with when upgrading to new versions or coming in as a new user.

The other thing they have done is create interfaces that are similar across their product line. Anyone using Sonar Home Studio or Guitar Tracks Pro could easily make the step up to Sonar. In terms of how the applications work and function the migration would be a relatively painless one. While not related to this particular review, the same holds true in going from Kinetic to Project5, the interface is familiar enough to make sense to any user migrating.

Credit is due to Cakewalk for maintaining this sort of design behind their applications.

While I only worked with this app for a short time, I have been a long time Sonar user, so I got to work with it quite quickly. It is very easy and logical to get creating with. Recording audio and MIDI are both very simple. Cakewalk has always had very powerful and easy to use MIDI functionality for as long as I can remember. Since the release of the first version of Sonar the audio engine has been a top performing engine as well with great quality and low latency when working with good sound device drivers. Sonar Home Studio is no different, as the name would indicate, much of the interface design and the technology behind the scenes is directly from the Sonar application so one can expect the same high quality audio recording and the low latency possibilities when working with high quality ASIO or WDM drivers.

Features and Functions

While Sonar Home Studio does do everything you would expect, that being audio and MIDI recording, MIDI step-time sequencing, VST and DirectX plugin and instrument support, support for low-latency ASIO and WDM drivers as well as the old-school DirectSound drivers, it also does much more which one wouldn't typically expect out of such a program.

• It has a video playback window which allows the user to create sound tracks and add sound effects to a project. It supports AVI and MPEG video formats and will export video as well.
• It also has a music notation tool to allow the user to create and print musical scores.
• It allows export of mp3 and WMA audio for easy internet sharing.
• It contains a loop explorer to allow the user to find and use ACID-format loops quickly and easily, and comes bundled with a loop library.
• It comes bundled with a light version of Cakewalk Pyro to burn your music to CD.
• It also comes packed with a collection of tutorials to help you learn and understand the application, and get you up and recording quickly.
• Bundled with a collection of plugins that include chorus, delay, reverb, EQ and others (as stated earlier, 15 in total) it has enough to meet beginner's needs. Can also add any of hundreds of third party plugins with the previously mentioned VST and DirectX support.
• As mentioned earlier, the application packs instruments along with it as well including the Virtual Sound Canvas, Dreamstation and the Sfz SoundFont player. The VST and DirectX support also allows the user to add any third party VSTi or DXi as well.
• The user can use ReWire applications such as Reason, ReBirth, Project5, Kinetic and others with the ReWire support.

As seen in this article, Sonar Home Studio version 4 brings with it a whole batch of new features and functions. This new version can be an ideal choice for the new home studio owner that is on a limited budget but wants to buy a recording application that can help them in the short term, and be a good learning experience for upgrading applications later on.

Sonar Home Studio will easily allow the user to make high quality recordings for a decent price, plus, the way the application operates, the user would easily migrate to a bigger, more powerful application like Sonar, or any of the dozens of other options available.

Sonar Home Studio also comes in an XL version which includes all the features of the standard version, plus more effects and more instruments, including the BoomBox DXi drum machine and Dyad DXI from PowerFX.