Cakewalk SONAR 8.5 Producer Upgrade from SONAR 8 Studio  

Upgrade from Cakewalk's flagship DAW, SONAR 8 Studio, to this full, enhanced SONAR 8.5 Producer software package to hear and see just how much more it brings to your music production.

SONAR 8.5 Producer Music Software
SONAR 8 Producer is a complete music production software that gives you what you need for recording, composing, editing, mixing, and mastering. Get innovations that matter, from exclusive features to ignite creativity and perfect your tracks, to groundbreaking technologies that always keep you in control, all backed by 64-bit audio quality. And SONAR 8 Producer provides go to production tools you want with an excellent collection of virtual instruments, mixing, and mastering effects found in any digital audio workstation.

Now with version 8.5, SONAR continues to innovate on all fronts. New-to-the-series features including beat creation and arrangement tools, a drum instrument loaded with stellar kits and patterns, enhanced audio quantizing, multi-stage effect plug-ins for vocals and percussion, and more combine together to make Cakewalk SONAR the most complete, most professional, and best-sounding DAW to deliver your music productions.

Matrix view
This exciting view in Cakewalk SONAR 8.5 provides a simple and flexible arranging tool for any musician. Its cell-based, non-linear arrangement format makes it excel at groove (beat) creation for contemporary music production. However, its potential use and creative possibilities are well beyond just drum arranging because of how easy it is to use. Getting started is as easy as opening the Matrix View and dragging one or many ACID or REX loops, WAV files, Step Sequencer MIDI patterns, PTN MIDI patterns, or MIDI Groove Clips from the Media Brower or desktop into the Matrix. Upon doing so, an audio track is simultaneously created in SONAR's Track View, routed, and ready for instant playback.

Drag in any number of audio loops from the Media Browser, trigger them to start looping, and then record guitar parts into SONAR. Put entire song sections together by triggering an entire column of cells at a time. Experiment by mixing and matching different sounds and patterns, and then capture the entire Matrix "performance" into the SONAR Track View for further editing and mixing by clicking the Capture button (the icon looks like a roll of film) and rolling the SONAR transport. It's that easy.

Remix a Cakewalk SONAR project by dragging audio clips from the Track View into the Matrix and trigger them with complete control to create a new arrangement. Browse through hundreds of available MIDI patterns and Step Sequencer patterns, drag your favorites into the Matrix, and build up new sonic layers using any virtual instrument loaded in the SONAR Synth Rack.

For electronic and hip-hop music, the Matrix provides a comfortable, trigger-anything-anytime-anyway looping environment, using the four trigger modes and advanced MIDI controls. Beat juggling, one-shots, audio loops, Step Sequencer patterns — the Matrix can handle almost anything you throw at it.

Step Sequencer 2.0
SONAR's integrated Step Sequencer view is known for being one of the most advanced and comprehensive available in any DAW today. SONAR 8.5's Step Sequencer 2.0 takes this power to a new level with the depth of control over sound. Step Sequencer 2.0 was built with 3 goals in mind: to clean up and simplify the workflow and interface, to design a set of useful and powerful per-lane controls, and to provide control over finer per-step adjustments to create an elegant and musical workflow.

To launch and start programming step sequencer patterns — just click the new Step Sequencer button found on the toolbar of any virtual instrument UI and then simply drag and drop patterns from the Media Browser.

The music software's redesigned dynamic controller pane provides simple per-lane controls over swing, time offset, duration, and velocity offset, as well as the timing of the new flam feature. In addition, each lane can be easily routed to any instrument in SONAR's Synth Rack. Drilling down deeper, the controller pane offers per-step audio editing for velocity level, time offset, and the new-to-the-series Probability feature.

This exclusive Per Step Probability feature solves the age-old problem of step-sequenced grooves sounding repetitive by giving users control over the probability that a step will be triggered. Use it to create automatic variations (make some steps only play occasionally) to keep step sequencer patterns sounding fresh.

Parameter values are now displayed as bars, drawn underneath the steps in the controller pane, making editing per step parameters such as Velocity, Step Offset, Probability, & other MIDI articulations quick and easy.

Session Drummer 3
Session Drummer has been a mainstay in SONAR for easy-and -fast creation of realistic sounding drum tracks. Now, Session Drummer 3 hits the stage with an all new look, sporting a sleek photorealistic 3D drum kit, along with routing improvements, plus 12 new kits and over 700 new patterns added to the selection of high-quality drums sounds and grooves available.

AudioSnap 2
AudioSnap introduced the world to powerful, nondestructive, multitrack control over audio and MIDI timing. Sonar 8.5's AudioSnap 2 provides a refreshing new look and refinements to all the core controls from previous versions, significantly improving workflow. Some of the new-to-the-series features include a simplified UI, dedicated transient tool, a new proportional stretching mode, and multitrack stretch and quantization that maintains accurate phase relationships. Proportional stretching can be used both to correct unwanted timing fluctuations without hard quantizing, and to make smooth and gradual timing adjustments across several transients. Audio fidelity is enhanced with Radius Mix Advance Mode that provides new controls over the phase and pitch of the Izotope Radius timestretching algorithm, for more natural sounding vocals, reed, and brass instruments.

Enhanced fidelity with Radius Mix Advanced mode
The Radius Mix settings includes two new sliders for adjusting pitch coherence and phase coherence. Pitch coherence preserves naturalness of timbre for pitched solo voices, such as human speech, vocals or reed and brass instruments, while avoiding smearing, or phasiness, and the audio artifacts present with the use of traditional vocoders and pitch correction algorithms. The application of higher values of pitch coherence or smoothness produces a higher audio quality output of processed source material, especially, polyphonic material. The phase coherence slider affects the processing of stereo audio and works to preserve the phase relationship between channels.

Media Browser
Cakewalk SONAR 8.5 has an updated and expanded Loop Explorer View. In its new form, Media Browser is the hub for SONAR content. Step Sequencer Patterns, REX Loops, and Project5 MIDI PTN files can all be previewed in Media Browser and easily drag and dropped into any track. As well, video files can be viewed in Media Browser and easily drag and dropped into a Video Thumbnail Track. Users' content folders can be stored and recalled as handy Media Browser presets. The audio software ships with out-of-the-box presets that point directly to Beatscape REX Loops, Session Drummer 3 MIDI Drum Loops, Step Sequencer Patterns, RXP REX Loops, PTN MIDI Patterns, and MIDI Groove Clips.

Integrated Arpeggiator
Each MIDI and Instrument track in SONAR 8.5 now has a built-in arpeggiator which allows you to turn even the simplest of patterns into exciting new sound textures. The SONAR Arpeggiator is a perfect tool for adding variety to any audio or MIDI track such as chord progression that repeats a number of times in a song, or for creating new complimentary parts using other instrument sounds that follow your chord progression. The SONAR Arpeggiator includes hundreds of 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 arpegiation, but also control over mix, channel input, and shape. It includes hundreds of presets.

Engine optimizations and leading technology innovations
Engine Work
A SONAR software update wouldn't be complete without under-the-hood enhancements. Topping the list is the ability to hotswap Audio and MIDI Devices, including Control Surfaces, without restarting SONAR. Audio Interfaces, MIDI Interfaces, and Control Surfaces can now be disconnected and reconnected again while SONAR is running. This is particularly useful for plugging in a new MIDI controller while inspired to lay down a piano 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 has been, and will continue to be, a proponent of open standards in software and hardware. SONAR 8.5 brings a variety of compatibility improvements for VST plug-ins, as well as for Cakewalk's BitBridge technology, which hosts classic 32-bit "x86" VST plug-ins in a 64-bit "x64" environment. SONAR Producer customers can take advantage of the new BitBridgeXR, which automatically hosts up to 32 BitBridge servers, each capable of using up to 4GB of RAM, for a total of 128GB! And last, but not least, SONAR now provides native REX loop support, via the Track View, updated Media Browser, and new Matrix View.

Windows 7 Ready
SONAR 8.5 is ready for Windows 7 right from the get-go. Cakewalk has been testing SONAR 8.5 with Windows 7 Beta and Release Candidates, and is pleased to recommended Windows 7 as a platform for SONAR 8.5. Additionally, SONAR 8.5 was evaluated at an independent Microsoft application compatibility lab and officially passed the rigorous Win7 compatibility testing.

VX-64 Vocal Strip
VX-64 Vocal Strip is a seven-stage processor designed specifically for shaping and sculpting incredible sounding vocal tracks. Each of the VX-64's stages have been fine-tuned to be vocal-specific, taking the work out of loading an entire chain of vocal processors. The VX-64 features a new Cakewalk technology that employs phase-coherent, multi-band saturation to avoid unwanted distortion; unique filtering to avoid harsh artifacts at extreme high and low frequencies; and an auto-leveling circuit that prevents the tube saturation from sounding too harsh when high-gain transients are processed by it. VX-64 also employs a new de-essing algorithm designed with Cakewalk's LP64 linear phase effect filtering technology to remove sibilance without creating any frequency smearing.

The VX-64 includes 64 go-to presets and click and drag reordering of processing stage routing, making it fast and easy to get high-quality vocals in seconds.
Its processing stages include:

•Input: simulates a tube pre amp
•De-esser: removes sibilance without smearing
•Compander: vocal compressor with an expander to reduce unwanted background noise

•Tube EQ: for adding character, ranging from subtle warmth to intense heat to the vocal

•Doubler: advanced doubling effect providing the quality of actual re-tracking

•Delay: preset delays useful for vocal tracks with tempo sync

•Output: provide saturation control with a built in soft-clipping filter

•Order of processor stages is user definable with click & drag reordering
•Input: simulates a tube pre amp

PX-64

PX-64 Percussion Strip is a seven-stage processor designed specifically for use with drums and percussion. 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. Combining transient shaping, compression, expansion, equalization, delay, and tube saturation in one convenient plug-in, the PX-64 Percussion Strip includes 70 go-to presets along with click & drag reordering of processing stage routing, making it fast and easy to enhance any drum or percussion track in seconds.

The PX-64 Percussion Strip signal flow is divided into seven stages, including five effect processer modules that can be re ordered with a simple click & drag operation. Processing stages include:

•Input: The Input/Gain stage simulates a tube pre amp
•Transient Shaper: lets you shape the audio signal's attack phase independently of the decay/sustain phase
•Compressor: Balance the overall signal level and limit the dynamic range
•Expander: Control the dynamic range of the audio signal by using the expander to reduce levels that fall beneath a specified threshold
•Contour EQ: 4-band EQ optimized for drums and percussion usage
•Delay: Adds space and rhythm to the signal; tempo sync to host option
•Output: Output gain stage and specialized saturation control containing a built in soft-clipping filter

Session Drummer 3: drum and percussion sequencer
Dimension Pro: wavetable based synthesizer
TruePianos Amber: Award-winning piano model designed to transparently integrate with your hands and playing style for even more realism
Z3TA+: Waveshaping synthesizer
Rapture LE: LE version based on the award-winning Rapture wavetable synthesizer
Roland TTS-1: 16-channel multi-timbral GM2 instrument
DropZone: Drag-and-drop sampler, REX editor
Pentagon I: warm, retro analog sounds
PSYN II: subtractive synthesizer
Roland GrooveSynth: groove synthesizer
RXP: REX loops/sample player
SFZ: SFZ SoundFont sampler
Beatscape: 16-pad looping/performance instrument
Cyclone: 16-pad groove sampler
DreamStation DXi: Classic Analog modelling