Cakewalk SONAR 8.5 Studio Upgrade from SONAR 1-8 Studio  

If you own Cakewalk SONAR Studio versions 1-8, you've experienced some of the exceptional features that have made it one of the most popular DAWs out there. Now, with this special software upgrade offer, you can get SONAR 8.5 Studio and enjoy the enhancements and additions the Cakewalk team has developed to make your music production software even better than before.

SONAR 8.5 Studio Software Upgrade
SONAR 8 Studio gave 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 Studio software provides the go-to music production tools you want with an excellent collection of virtual instruments, mixing, and mastering effects found in any digital audio workstation.

Now with the version 8.5 software update, SONAR Studio 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, multistage effect plug-ins for vocals and percussion, and more combine together to make SONAR the most complete, most professional, and best-sounding DAW to deliver your audio productions.

Step Sequencer 2.0
Cakewalk SONAR's integrated Step Sequencer view is known for being one of the most advanced and comprehensive available in any DAW today. The Step Sequencer 2.0 in the SONAR 8.5 software upgrade 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 Step Sequencer button found on the toolbar of any virtual instrument UI and then simply drag and drop patterns from the Media Browser.

Cakewalk SONAR 8.5'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 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 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.

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 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 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
SONAR 8.5 Studio upgrade 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 Cakewalk SONAR 8.5 update 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 Cakewalk SONAR 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 8.5. 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. The Cakewalk SONAR 8.5 upgrade 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. Cakewalk SONAR 8.5 upgrade 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 Studio customers can take advantage of the 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 Matrix View.

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