Sonar X3 is out

[SanderXpander]

I know it's not really Korg, but quite a few folks on here seem to use Sonar so I'd share. I installed the Producer edition yesterday and there are some big changes and finally (to me) for the better. I had a hard time switching from 8.5 to the X series but this time they really made it come together.

Some of the new features I like:
- Prochannel is finally becoming a serious tool, the new Quad Curve flyout EQ sounds great, looks great and works great. I used to hate Prochannel EQ because it was tiny on my screen, now it's my new go-to EQ. I also like the new tape sim, in moderation. I hope ProChannel doesn't attempt to replace all VST types, but tape sim and console emulation and EQ seem great applications for it.
- The new comping method, omg, finally! Super super simple and quick. This works GREAT, reminiscent of Logic's comping in 9 but better because you can still make individual edits, including;
- Melodyne. With ARA integration. For those who have ever seen its integration into Studio One, you'll know what it means. For those who are used to V-Vocal, its integration is similar and better in some ways. You just click a click and select "region fx: Melodyne" and it goes automatically. No realtime transfer wait. It follows your project tempo. You can freely copy and paste clips, or trim them etc and Melodyne follows along. Moreover, you can drag any audio clip onto a midi track and Melodyne will automatically convert it to midi for you. You don't have to do anything else for this.
- Addictive Drums included. They are perhaps not the number one choice for most, but definitely a serious contender and unless you already have Superior Drummer or SSD or something, this should be a major upgrade to what you had before. Even if you already do have Superior, it's a joy to work with and really quick to set up an idea, something that used to take me ages in Supeior.

The drawbacks;
- V-Vocal disappeared. You can still use it if you have it from X2 (and you didn't uninstall it) but it is no longer bundled. I wouldn't mind this in the least, having always preferred Melodyne by far, if the included Melodyne wasn't the slightly-too-basic Essential. Melodyne Assistant is really what they should've gone for as it includes the formant tools etc that you expect from V-Vocal. I suspect it was too expensive. You can however follow the regular upgrade path at Celemony as it is a full license for Essential. I caved and got Editor (which also does polyphonic, not really needed if all you want to do is edit vocals) and got a spontaneous nerdgasm watching guitar parts automatically turn into midi parts for synth comping.
- No more R-Mix. Since Cake is being acquired by Gibson I guess they wanted to get rid of their Roland technology. R-Mix was an odd plug in from X2 Producer but it could do some really cool fx. The same rule applies; if you had it from X2 you can still use it.

[Bald Eagle]

Thanks for the review. I'm on X2 Producer right now. When i heard that Cakewalk was being sold I was wondering about Sonar's future so I started to look at other DAW's. But now it looks like I'll upgrade to X3 this weekend.

[SanderXpander]

Oh I forgot to mention, they're bringing out a patch this week that has to do with VST3 plugins not remembering settings. I don't really have many, only my Waves Renaissance bundle and they're available as VST2 too, but just a heads up.

[Sam CA]

- No more R-Mix. Since Cake is being acquired by Gibson I guess they wanted to get rid of their Roland technology. R-Mix was an odd plug in from X2 Producer but it could do some really cool fx. The same rule applies; if you had it from X2 you can still use it.

Was R-mix part of Sonar before? I was under impression that R-mix wasn't a plug in. It was just a standalone software.

[Bald Eagle]

- No more R-Mix. Since Cake is being acquired by Gibson I guess they wanted to get rid of their Roland technology. R-Mix was an odd plug in from X2 Producer but it could do some really cool fx. The same rule applies; if you had it from X2 you can still use it.

Was R-mix part of Sonar before? I was under impression that R-mix wasn't a plug in. It was just a standalone software.

R-Mix is a plug in that was introduced in X2. I hate that Sonar adds something in one version and drops it in the next. They did that with the switch from Guitar Rig to TH2 too.

[SanderXpander]

I think it has to do in this case with the switch away from Roland as both R-Mix and V-Vocal are Roland tech. You can still use them if you just keep your old installs, there is very little reason to delete them anyway as they hardly take up any space (most stuff is in "shared folders" which are also used by new installs). I still have V-Vocal, R-Mix and even Guitar Rig.

There's an offer from Melodyne until the 16th of this month where you get upgrades to the bigger versions for half money. That means upgrade to Editor for 150 and to Assistant for 50. Amazing deal, between that and Addictive Drums Sonar already more than paid for itself.

[Sam CA]

- No more R-Mix. Since Cake is being acquired by Gibson I guess they wanted to get rid of their Roland technology. R-Mix was an odd plug in from X2 Producer but it could do some really cool fx. The same rule applies; if you had it from X2 you can still use it.

Was R-mix part of Sonar before? I was under impression that R-mix wasn't a plug in. It was just a standalone software.

R-Mix is a plug in that was introduced in X2. I hate that Sonar adds something in one version and drops it in the next. They did that with the switch from Guitar Rig to TH2 too.

The same exact version?

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ ... Qgod62YAlA

[SanderXpander]

No an adaptation. The isolation fx are there but not the pitch and time stretch functions. There are other tools within Sonar for that. It also doesn't do wav recording because Sonar already does that. Otherwise it's exactly the same. Sonar has a reputation of buying and then including licenses of good third party stuff, though indeed sometimes they are dropped after one or two versions. Like R-Mix, although that will still work in newer Sonar Producer versions as long as you originally bought it with X2.

E.g. X3 includes things like Addictive Drums, Melodyne Essential, Lounge Lizard Session version and the Nomad BlueTubes bundle. AD and Melodyne can be used in any other DAW.

[Sam CA]

No an adaptation. The isolation fx are there but not the pitch and time stretch functions. There are other tools within Sonar for that. It also doesn't do wav recording because Sonar already does that. Otherwise it's exactly the same. Sonar has a reputation of buying and then including licenses of good third party stuff, though indeed sometimes they are dropped after one or two versions. Like R-Mix, although that will still work in newer Sonar Producer versions as long as you originally bought it with X2.

E.g. X3 includes things like Addictive Drums, Melodyne Essential, Lounge Lizard Session version and the Nomad BlueTubes bundle. AD and Melodyne can be used in any other DAW.

oh ok. Too bad the standalone version of R-mix can not be used as a plug in. I use it a lot for writing scores based on stereo mixes....It helps a lot especially with poor mixes.

[SanderXpander]

You can still buy X2 Producer and then the upgrade to X3 Producer

[Slovenec]

So Gibson have acuired Cakewalk! WOOOOPPPSSSS! Remember what they did to Opcode and their fabulous Studio Vision Pro and Vision DSP DAWs???? What a shame! And why would a guitar company want to buy out someone like Cakewalk anyway?

Hopefully this want mean the demise of Cakewalk like what happened to Opcode back in the day! I'm disappointed that Cakewalk haven't made Dimension Pro and Rapture 64 bit AU and AAX compatible yet. Come on Cakewalk!

[SanderXpander]

I never thought either plug was really worth that much attention. They serve as bread and butter filling for me but would you really need them in ProTools 11 or Logic X? They've worked great as 64 bit VSTs for years. I guess they didn't feel inclined to do more work just because Logic decided to drop VST support.

I also hope the Gibson move doesn't mean something bad, but honestly so far X3 has been a ton better than X1 and X2.

[Bald Eagle]

And why would a guitar company want to buy out someone like Cakewalk anyway?

Because they are expanding and want to be more than just a guitar company.

Hopefully this want mean the demise of Cakewalk like what happened to Opcode back in the day!

This is a definite concern

[mikemolloyuk]

Im having hassle upgrading to X2 producer from the X1 version..!

[SanderXpander]

How so? I always just install each new version and leave the old one where it is.