Cakewalk Sonar 8 Producer Review

Mar 1, 2009 12:00 PM, By Allan Metts

           
 

A VENERABLE WORKHOUSE GETS A TUNE-UP AND NEW PLUG-INS

FIG. 1: Sonar’s Channel Tools plug-in lets you position signals anywhere in the stereo field, correct phasing problems, and decode signals from mid-side microphone configurations.

Software can be a tough business. To pay the bills, developers need exciting new offerings each year. If an application is already full of features, though, they run the risk of adding new ones that don't add much value — or, worse, that make the software confusing or cumbersome to use.

Version 8 is one of the most compelling Sonar upgrades in years. Cakewalk has made numerous optimizations to the programming code, enhancing the audio engine's access to your computer's CPU and audio drivers. The result is more effects, more soft synths, and more audio tracks using the same hardware as before, with fewer overloads and other artifacts. Sonar 8 has flashy new features, to be sure, but the flashiest are the Producer edition's new plug-ins.

Start Your Engine

Bonus Material

Better at the Core

Video: Inside Cakewalk SONAR 8

Mix review on SONAR 8 Producer Edition

Video: More on SONAR 8

Video: Cakewalk SONAR 8 Master Class, Part 1

Video: Cakewalk SONAR 8 Master Class, Part 2

Video: Cakewalk SONAR 8 Master Class, Part 3

I noticed Sonar's improved audio engine immediately after installation. I configured my audio card and waited for the “Restart Sonar for the changes to take effect” prompt I've learned to expect from previous versions, but it never came.

I haven't had many complaints with Sonar's audio performance in the past (my projects tend to be well within my hardware's processing limits), but now it has a more solid feel. I no longer see the screen flickering when I resize tracks, and I can switch to other applications with Sonar playing in the background without hearing audio glitches.

Cakewalk paid particular attention to performance on Microsoft Vista (especially the 64-bit version) and implemented support for Windows Audio Session Application Programming Interface (WASAPI). WASAPI is Microsoft's newest audio-driver platform, enabling low-latency performance and high-priority access to the CPU for multimedia applications.

Sonar's improvements aren't confined to the audio engine. Cakewalk enhanced usability, too, and added new features to make your work flow more efficient. (For details, see the online bonus material at emusician.com.)

Rev It Up

Sonar's additions to its already comprehensive suite of effects comprise four new plug-ins. The TL64 Tube Leveler models vacuum-tube circuitry to add warmth and saturation to your recordings. The effect has an oversampling option to reduce aliasing, a low-shelving filter to prevent bass frequencies from overwhelming the effect, and bass compensation for restoring low frequencies postprocessing. I applied TL64 to a digital piano passage that sounded a little thin and electronic and immediately achieved a warmer, more organic sound.

Applied to a stereo signal, the simple but useful Channel Tools plug-in lets you invert either channel's phase, add delay or gain, swap the channels, or place each channel anywhere in the stereo field (see Fig. 1). If extreme left and right are already occupied, you can bring the stereo signal closer to the center. If you're recording with your microphones in a mid-side configuration, Channel Tools provides a decoder for this purpose as well.

FIG. 2: TS64 Transient Shaper provides independent manipulation of the attack and decay portions of percussive material. The effect is excellent for helping your drum tracks stand out in the mix.

Sonar's TS64 Transient Shaper is perhaps the most interesting of the new effects (see Fig. 2). Intended for percussive passages, TS64 can shape the attack portions of each transient separately from the decay portions. The effect is incredibly versatile; I can give my drum tracks more punch and less body (or vice versa). If you find that during mixdown your otherwise-perfect drum takes need to be tighter and crisper in the mix — or if you'd like to make the drums boomier and more spacious — then TS64 is the tool for you. I even made a piano passage sound like it was played in reverse with a bow.

TS64 works by applying gain adjustment curves to three different stages of each transient: the attack, the initial decay, and the tail. Depending on the settings you use, the gain adjustment can be substantial. To make an attack sound crisper, TS64 will spike the gain in the earliest moments of the sound and drop off quickly. To make it fatter, it will boost the initial decay portion for a longer period of time. Because TS64 has to do quite a bit of number crunching on your audio, and it can do that only after it sees what you've played, you won't be able to use it during live tracking. With about 200 ms of latency, TS64 is best suited for mixdown and postproduction.

TS64 furnishes a threshold control for determining which transients get processed and which get left alone (a helpful indicator blinks when the threshold is crossed). A gain control in the last stage of processing lets you restore the processed sound to its original level in the mix. You can also manipulate timbre controls for the initial decay and tail portions, applying additional gain adjustment to the frequencies you choose. So if you want to make that snare drum ring a little longer, but primarily in the high-frequency portions of the sound, you can do that.