Cakewalk SONAR 3 Producer Edition Review

Have you ever obtained a new piece of gear that was such a large step up from what you had before that you simply couldn’t contain your excitement? Perhaps you lay awake at night, thinking about all the great things you could accomplish with this new device at your disposal-or perhaps you didn’t sleep at all. Maybe you spoke to friends on numerous occasions about this piece of gear, and were only met with confusion and apathy. Nevertheless, it didn’t matter because you understood-and that was enough. Whatever the case, Cakewalk’s latest professional mulitracking package does just this, and more, for me.

Not many years ago, I received Sonar 1 as a gift soon after its release. At the time, this new software was hailed as Cakewalk’s greatest endeavor yet, and promised to compete with ‘the big boys’ like Steinberg’s Cubase VST. It was the first time that I could say I owned a “professional multitrack software studio.” I had fooled around with Pro Audio 9, Cakewalk’s earlier release, and was impressed with Sonar, although I noticed that the somewhat drab interface was still very much the same as before. Nevertheless, it had a relatively easy learning curve and boasted some great features. This program was all about business. The track view was simple and flexible, and everything needed for mixing was right there at your disposal without even opening the console view—which was definitely a good thing (The console view was… well… ugly and clunky, in my opinion).

Fast forward a year or so. Steinberg has released Cubase SX and Cakewalk has brought out Sonar 2. Cubase SX was gold. Wow… Look at that sweet interface. The thing looked and performed like it was right out of the space age. Sonar 2, on the other hand, looked exactly the same as before, and seemed to have minimal improvements for an entire number upgrade. Regardless, Sonar still held what it had by way of advantages, added some important behind-the-scenes improvements (ASIO support, control surface compatibility, etc.) and was the choice of many musicians. Now that the next generation of multitracking software has dawned, Cakewalk has released a completely new and fresh version of Sonar. Is this finally the big step we have been waiting for?

You may notice I’ve been talking a lot about user interfaces. Well, I must admit that I am a graphic design kind of guy-It is one of my other interests. I’m the kind of person who immediately notices when they come out with something like a new Coke can design-You’ll probably see me critiquing it and expressing my feelings to some unintrigued audience who would rather I shut up and drink the soda. So naturally, when I heard about Sonar 3 and surfed over to Cakewalk.com, I was immediately captivated by how much this program had changed. Everything from the logo to the packaging screamed "pro." The beautiful modern blend of blue, green, and black was easy on the eyes… Just like Cubase! Now, I’m not saying you should judge the value of a program by its UI, but, for Sonar, this was the icing on the cake along with all the other great new features. At last, not only did Sonar operate like a pro multitracker; it also looked like a pro multitracker (Especially with the Silver XP theme on). I visited my local Guitar Center for the Cakewalk "Sonar 3 Tour," and quickly snatched up a copy, eagerly awaiting my chance to see this puppy in action.

Everything about the new version impressed me. The setup went flawlessly, and all my old files worked without a hitch. The user’s guide is extensive, understandable and well written. A word of warning, however: This version is a bit more CPU intensive than the older ones. You may have trouble playing projects with a high number of effects plug-ins. Despite this, I find that Sonar 3 is much more streamlined and runs much faster as long as you don’t hit a certain limit. You can easily tell that the audio engine has been significantly improved and background processes are managed better than before. So far, I have yet to experience any random program crashes, a phenomenon quite common in Sonar 1. Anyway, you’re probably sick of my ranting and want to hear about all those great new features! Well, Sonar 3 is jam packed with improvements. I’ll just mention some of the ones that really stand out to me. There are hundreds—I won’t get to them all, but I will try to touch on a few. Of course, I’ve mentioned the great new interface. The track view is now even more flexible and useable than before. Sonar 3 retains all the traits that made Sonar 1 and 2 so great, and adds all the things it lacked. Meters can be arranged vertical or horizontal, FX bins can now be set vertical (So you can actually manage them), tracks may be ordered based on different criteria, you can get peak measurements on all your tracks, and everything is now a nice, soft blue shade, which can also be changed to suit your desired work environment. We now have at our disposal a "Track Inspector", which can is basically a single channel strip that is displayed for whatever track is selected. This is a nice little feature that lets you take better advantage of the new "per-track EQ", which is a common feature that Sonar has always lacked. Any complaint that you may have had with the actual non-destructive track editing and playback in previous versions of Sonar is now fixed. There is a brand new transport bar that can perform almost all the tasks you regularly need to do, which frees up major screen real estate. The entire UI is customizable and flexible, making use of key bindings, color options, wallpaper choices, templates, and layouts.

The console view, which has long been criticized, is now equally flexible and easy on the eyes. Channel strips can now be sized between normal and thin, and you can select which parameters you want to see on the entire console. Each track can now have 4 effects parameters set up to correspond with effect plug-ins in the effects bin. This way you don’t even have to open up a plug-in to change its settings—A nice, creative new feature. All parameters within Sonar are now compatible with real-time automation. Just arm for automation and drag the parameter as you record. All parameters are also adjustable via midi and usb controllers with the click of the right mouse button. The bussing system of Sonar 3 is one of the more notable and welcome improvements. You can now create and delete busses whenever you feel like it. There is no longer any need to specify how many you want before you create the project. They can be used either as subgroups or aux buses, and the routing possibilities are practically endless. I personally find the subgroups to be an indispensable feature when working with projects that have many tracks and the need for multiple effects instances. This can save CPU power and make adjusting levels much easier. There are also separate channels shown for every output pair of your sound interface, a feature that makes creating a separate headphone mix a practical option if necessary.

One feature that really caught my attention immediately was "confidence recording." This single audio recording feature alone was enough to sell me on the product. With confidence recording, you can now see the waveform being drawn on a track as you record it—without any perceptible delay! I was also surprised to note that, even while recording 4 tracks simultaneously, confidence recording did not cause any dropout or slowdown. Cakewalk has successfully implemented this feature so that it draws smoothly and works flawlessly. It is truly fantastic to be able to see what, exactly, you are recording while you are recording it. Input monitoring has also been improved and can be turned on and off for each individual track. With input monitoring, it is possible to hear the effect of a plug-in while you are recording a track. This could clearly come in handy for adding some reverb in a vocalist’s headphones, or some distortion to a guitar being recorded direct.

The last thing I would like to mention about Sonar 3 is the great selection of plug-ins it comes packaged with. The Lexicon Pantheon Reverb, the regular Cakewalk effects suites, and the Ultrafunk Sonitus FX plug-ins packaged together with Sonar 3 for only $500 is an incredible deal. I am especially impressed with the UltraFunk Sonitus Suite, which comes with Reverb, Delay, Multiband Compression, Single-Band Compression, Phase, and Surround Panner, to name a few. I particularly pleased with the Sonitus dynamics processors, which are very flexible and transparent. Still, one of the biggest updates for Sonar 3 is its support for VST effects. Sonar 3 comes with a built-in wrapper that is installed and then sits transparent in the background. Rather than opening up the wrapper as a separate plug-in and then opening the VST effect from there, you simply select your VST effect from the same menu that you select your DirectX effects from. It is seamlessly integrated into the program and works flawlessly. This is definitely one of the smartest moves Cakewalk could have made.

To say I've barely scratched the surface of what Sonar 3 is capable of would be an understatement. I’ve spent this review focusing on audio features (I am sort of clueless when it comes to working with MIDI), but the MIDI features are also improved as well. I still have a lot to discover about the program, myself, but the basics are not hard to learn. The program still lacks surround sound capabilities, but Cakewalk’s next update should deal with this and the few other features that Sonar lacks. I hope I’ve provided you with a good overview of Cakewalk’s latest offering, and I encourage you to do some more research if you are still skeptical. Sonar 3 is a must have upgrade for previous Cakewalk customers, and one of the best multitracker options available. Give it a try—You might just not be able to contain your excitement ;)

Check out Cakewalk’s website for more information, http://www.cakewalk.com, or, purchase it at Musician's Friend.