Cakewalk Sonar 8.5 Producer - Audio Production Software (Educational Institution Discount - 20 Station Lab Pack)

8.5 New Features

Session Drummer 3

• Photo-realistic drum kit page to load kits, programs, patterns, and tweak mappings
• Dedicated Mixer page for fine tuning kits (12 channels each) with control over volume, pan, width, and tuning controls
• Mix and match kit components: all kit pieces are broken down into individual components for flexibility in creating your drum sounds. Ships with over 200 different drum sounds across 20+ kits
• Drag-and-drop drum components: build kits by dragging any WAV or OGG file from the desktop onto a pad
• Comprehensive collection of presets and MIDI-based loop files to provide a creative jump-start for your drum tracks
• Flexible MIDI pattern playback
• 12 pads/12 outputs
• 10 high-quality kits from the renowned content provider Sonic Reality, ready to play in any track along with 1 coupon for a free download of one Ocean Way Drums kit
• 2 polished kits from Steven Slate Drums, fine tuned and tweaked to sound amazing in any mix
• Genre-defining original samples of the classic Roland TR-707, TR-727, TR-808, and TR-909 drum synthesizers, along with kits from Sequential Circuits Drumtraks and Linn Electronics LinnDrum
• 2 Organic kits from Smart Loops
• Over 700 new MIDI patterns from Steven Slate Drums, Groove Monkee, and Smart Loops
• Over 2.5 GB of drum sample content in all

PX-64 Percussion Strip

• 7-stage processor designed specifically for shaping drum and percussion sounds
• Like the VX-64 Vocal Strip, the PX-64 Percussion Strip employs Cakewalk's exclusive tube saturation algorithms with unique filtering and auto-leveling circuitry technologies
• Combines transient shaping, compression, expansion, equalization, delay, and tube saturation in one convenient plug-in, and includes 70 go-to presets along with click and drag reordering of processing stage routing

Processing stages include:

1. Input - the Input/Gain stage simulates a tube pre amp
2. Transient Shaper - shape the audio signal's attack phase independently of the decay/sustain phase
3. Compressor - balance the overall signal level and limit the dynamic range
4. Expander - control dynamic range by reducing levels that fall beneath a specified threshold
5. Contour EQ - 4-band EQ optimized for drums and percussion
6. Delay - adds space and rhythm to the signal with option to tempo sync to host
7. Output - output gain stage and specialized saturation control with a built in soft-clipping filter

Matrix View

• Simple and flexible cell-based, non-linear audio and MIDI arranging and live triggering tool
• Sync to SONAR Transport/Track View
• One-step capture of Matrix "performances" to Track View for more precise editing and mixing
• Drag-drop any audio (multiple files at once) and MIDI content from the Track View or the Media Browser into the Matrix
• 4 triggering modes with measure, beat, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, 1/64 note resolutions
• Global and Per-Cell modes plat styles for looping and latching (set cells to trigger from the beginning, or offset from SONAR Now Time)
• Flexible Routing - each row routes to a track, multiple rows can be routed to the same track, per row mute and exclusive solo
• Completely MIDI controllable

AudioSnap 2

• AudioSnap Palette presents all commands and options in one easy-to-read toolbar
• Simplified transient marker appearance reduces visual clutter and enhances focus on relevant information
• Transient Tool allows for dragging or snapping of transients without having to worry about inadvertently moving an audio clip - lasso selection allows for grouped transient edits
• The Merge and Lock transients command is great for editing, stretching, and quantizing multi-track drums while keeping audio in phase
• Grouped proportional stretching allows for the easy correction of fluctuations in the tempo of a performance without losing feel
• Tab to Transients available from the Track and Piano Roll Views, follows Audio, Groove, Step Sequencer, and MIDI Groove Clips
• Tempo detection, tempo mapping, and tempo syncing audio. New tempo detection algorithm auto-detects the tempo of all audio in SONAR and the Clip Tempo Map feature allows for easy manual tempo mapping of non-rhythmic, non-constant, or atypical audio
• Enhanced fidelity with Radius Mix Advanced Mode: new Radius Mix settings improve "pitch coherence," which preserves the naturalness of timbre in human speech, vocals, reed and brass instruments

Step Sequencer 2.0

• Add Flam to any step by simply double clicking it (then use the flam time knob to adjust timing)
• Easily load/save patterns from the Options button or drag and drop patterns from the Media Browser
• New Auto-populate feature provides shortcuts to fill a lanes every 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 steps
• Redesigned Controller Pane for per row articulations and controls, including Volume, Pan, Pitch Bend, Mod Wheel, Portamento
• Per step parameter controls for Velocity, Time Offset, Probability, Lane-based MIDI articulations, Filter Cut and Filter Res
• Parameter values are now displayed as bars underneath steps in the controller pane, making editing per step parameters such as Velocity, Step Offset, Probability, and other MIDI articulations quick and easy
• Exclusive Per Step Probability provides control over the probability of how often a step will be triggered. Use it to create automatic variations (make some steps only play occasionally) to keep repetitive patterns sounding fresh
• All this is combined with the functionality from Step Sequencer 1.0 including: Step Recording, the Velocity Multiplier, Fit to Quarters capabilities, and more

Integrated Arpeggiator

• Each MIDI and Instrument track has a built-in Arpeggiator which allows you to turn even the simplest chord progression into exciting new sound textures
• Perfect tool for adding variety to any Instrument or MIDI track that repeats a number of times in a song, or for creating complimentary parts using other instrument sounds that follow your chord progression
• Includes hundreds of presets, patterns, and classic algorithms, and provides not only powerful controls over the rate, octave range, latch, swing, flam, velocity, duration, and pitch offset of the arpeggiation, but also control over mix, channel input, and shape

Roland V-Vocal

• Based on Roland VariPhrase technology that allows you to control the tempo and pitch of audio phrases in real time with virtually no degradation in sound quality
• Powerful vocal processing - automatic pitch correction, vibrato, and more
• Adjust the phrasing or timing of vocals
• Control the dynamics of vocals
• Create harmonies by copying vocal clips, then applying V-Vocal pitch shifting to copied audio
• Pitch to MIDI conversion allows you to create new synthesizer parts based on monophonic audio
• Completely non-destructive processing

Engine Optimizations and Technology Innovations

Engine Work

• Audio interfaces, MIDI interfaces and control surfaces can now be disconnected and reconnected again or "hotswapped" while SONAR is running without the need to restart SONAR
• This is particularly useful for plugging in a new MIDI controller while inspired to lay down a new part, or in the event an audio interface needs to be power-cycled
• SONAR 8.5 also includes optimizations and stability improvements for recording audio, and while looping

Open Support

• Cakewalk is a proponent of open standards in software and hardware with SONAR 8.5 bringing a variety of compatibility improvements for VST plug-ins, as well as for Cakewalk's BitBridge technology, which allows for access to classic 32-bit "x86" VST plug-ins in a 64-bit "x64" environment
• BitBridge XR automatically provides up to 32 BitBridge servers, each capable of using up to 4GB of RAM, for a total of 128GB of RAM access for 32-bit plug-ins
• SONAR also now provides native REX loop support, via the Track View, updated Media Browser, and new Matrix View

Windows 7

• Cakewalk recommends Windows 7 as a platform for SONAR 8.5
• Additionally, SONAR 8.5 was evaluated at an independent Microsoft application compatibility laboratory and officially passed the rigorous Win7 compatibility testing

Other New Features

• Convenient Freeze and Archive buttons on each track
• Updated Insert Send Assistant, with matching track gain/pan while creating sends
• Solo Button on all effects plug-in windows, to quickly solo and focus on the track being processed
• Track View grid lines options to present grid lines behind or in front of clips
• Option to automatically lock scrolling during playback when initiating an edit
• The Now Time cursor can be dragged to a new position during playback
• DC Offset meter in the Cakewalk Analyst plug-in
• FX-SONAR 8.5 now includes the Project5 "Half-Rack" Tempo-Sync'd Effects, including the Alias Factor Bit Decimator, Classic Phaser, Compressor/Gate, HF Exciter, Mod Filter, Chorus/Flanger, Para-Q, StudioVerb II and Tempo Delay
• Installation has been simplified with an easy one-click install option that accepts all default settings and locations and installs the entire SONAR application, as well as plug-ins and content data

General

Recording

Allows for recording and editing unlimited tracks of audio and MIDI, even using effects on input

Anytime Record allows for arming and un-arming audio and MIDI tracks, punching in/out, and toggling between play and record, all while transport is running or looping

SONAR's live bounce feature provides for playing and recording virtual synthesizer outputs into audio tracks in real-time

Editing

Audio and MIDI can be edited directly in the track view

Provides comping, editing and take-management tools to achieve the perfect take

Non-destructively fix audio timing, instantly make tempo changes to an entire project, lock multiple tracks to the same groove via AudioSnap, while retaining audio fidelity

Integrated MIDI Step Sequencer, Smart MIDI Tools and other MIDI enhancements for easy MIDI programming and editing

Mixing

Flexible mixing with 31 effects, on-the-fly bussing, vector envelopes, pan laws, configurable meter ballistics and more

New solo mode forces soloing to one track/bus at a time and prevents tracks and buses from being muted when other tracks/buses are soloed

Bus Inputs QuickGroup Command automatically groups all source tracks feeding a selected bus

Mono hardware outputs for easy assignment of tracks and buses to individual hardware outputs, in addition to stereo pairs

Control

Active Controller Technology (ACT) provides total control of virtual instruments, effects and mixing from MIDI controllers and control surfaces

Changing focus makes ACT automatically remaps parameters

Synth Rack delivers control and automation of virtual instruments

Controls from multiple instruments can be grouped together to provide huge control possibilities

Show/Hide tracks can follow either the Track View or Console View

Control surfaces MIDI port assignments retained/stored in SONAR

Real-world VST parameter values are now displayed

Instruments and Effects

Thousands of instruments sounds from Rapture LE, TTS-1 and Groove Synth (with genuine Roland sounds), PSYN-II subtractive synthesizer, Drop Zone and RXP REX samplers and more

Dedicated instrument tracks optimized for mono or stereo virtual synths, simplifying the process of working with virtual instruments

Users can split and combine instrument tracks to/from discrete audio/MIDI tracks

Backing tracks can be created quickly using MIDI groove clips, ACID-format loops and the RXP REX player

Loop Explorer 2.0 view provides browse and preview of audio and MIDI groove clips and patterns

Drag and drop loops and patterns into the track view

MIDI groove clips and patterns can be previewed with the virtual instrument of choice

Sounds and effects can be expanded with native support for VST and DirectX plug-ins and ReWire clients like Project5 and Reason

General

Optimizations includes improved performance at high track counts with low latencies, faster launch time, and the ability to change audio devices without restarting

Score to video with a thumbnail track and output to 1394 FireWire devices

Support for the latest QuickTime 7 codecs, including H.264 and AAC audio

Automatic file naming allows for backing up projects with time/date stamps for easy access to old versions

SONAR can be configured with custom layouts, color schemes and keystrokes from other audio applications

Any Windows-compatible WDM or ASIO audio interface can be used (including Pro Tools HD or M-Box,) along with hardware-based MIDI devices and control surfaces from Roland, Tascam, Mackie and others are easily integrated