CAKEWALK SONAR 6
Jan 1, 2007 12:00 PM, BY BENJAMIN MCFARLANE
In any competitive technological field, there is appropriation of ideas and concepts. In audio and other technology industries, the trend is toward convergence. An idea is seeded and gradually spreads throughout in various manifestations. With Sonar 6 Producer Edition, Cakewalk exemplifies this convergent evolution by incorporating some convenient features of other DAWs while maintaining ground-up design and innovation that in many ways surpasses the others. An already formidable production suite has become even more so.
For example, Sonar 6's new time-stretching function, AudioSnap, allows the user to modify clips by stretching them to alter their tempo and feel. With its Warp function, Ableton Live was the first DAW to employ a similar concept, which made it a choice sequencer for the speed and flexibility of its Warp. Sonar 6's new Session Drummer 2 gives Steinberg Groove Agent a run for its money. Cakewalk has also incorporated a new synth rack and synth-automating tools that allow for some of the ergonomic control that one achieves with Propllerhead Reason Combinator patches.
Besides some borrowed concepts, there is also a raft of new innovations that make a producer's job easier: enhanced MIDI control with Active Controller Technology (ACT), 64-bit VST support, a stand-alone mastering plug-in designed in part by Kjaerhus Audio and several improvements to the interface and menus. Everything in this lengthy list makes this upgrade worth buying.
Installation requires a DVD-ROM drive, and it went smoothly on a small laptop that met the system requirements. Sonar 6 ran successfully during testing. There were a few crashes, but they ceased after installing the 6.0.1 update. An Edirol UA-25 audio interface and an M-Audio Keystation 88es MIDI keyboard connected and ran with Sonar 6 without any trouble.
PERFECT IMPERFECTION
For me, the most enticing of all the new features is the AudioSnap. Like Live's Warp function, the aptly named AudioSnap serves to stretch audio without removing any of its content and without changing its pitch. AudioSnap, however, goes a few steps further. First, it allows you to move your transient marker to any time value without stretching any audio. That means your transient marker doesn't have to occur at a zero crossing point. For example, on a perfect 16th or 32nd note, the transient can go anywhere in between.
That is important because much of the time, it is not desirable to quantize precisely to an eighth or 16th note. A human drummer usually doesn't play exactly on the beat. That is originally why Steinberg equipped its virtual drummer with a Humanizer function. More than that, playing styles frequently call for deliberate imprecision. If you know what “the pocket” is, then you'll know that snapping percussive notes exactly to the beat can destroy the feel of a performance. A funk drummer plays behind the pocket, landing a perfect downbeat but stalling the backbeat just slightly; a jazz drummer may rush the pocket, landing the hi-hat just ahead of the backbeat. That's a big part of why you notice — overtly or subconsciously — the difference between a human performance and an automated one. To address this issue, the groove quantize function in AudioSnap enables audio or MIDI to be quantized to specific types of imprecision, making it possible to preserve and build around these subtle rhythm dynamics of musical performance.
AudioSnap also automatically quantizes the transients of a piece of audio to the nearest 16th notes if desired or, alternatively, to the “Pool,” which in Sonar is the set of transients that govern the rhythm and feel of a song. By adding a set of transients to the Pool from a clip with a good rhythmic feel, you make the feel of that clip a guide to other parts of the track. For any other clip in your song that you want to match up with that feel, you can simply quantize that track to the Pool, and it assumes the feel of the first clip. That way, precision is possible without compromising the rhythm of human performance.
To give AudioSnap a spin, I combined domestic and professional responsibility by setting up a condenser in my kitchen to record washing dishes (I'm not the first one to use kitchenware in Remix, by the way). I set AudioSnap to 16th-note resolution, adjusted the tolerance until most of the transients were marked and hit quantize. I now had something I could tap my feet to, albeit with a few artifacts. If I wanted to take this line of experimentation in the opposite direction, I could undo the quantizing, leave AudioSnap enabled and then add the transients of the dishwashing to the Pool and quantize the rest of my track to that. Yeah, that would probably sound bad, but still, AudioSnap is the only function capable of performing such a feat.
After getting familiar with AudioSnap, I used it to correct something musical: a simple mandolin melody. As a drummer, I don't play mandolin particularly well, and composing something on the spot is tough if it requires finger stretching. Without practice, my rhythm faltered and AudioSnap needed to stretch to correct it. While I noticed some artifacts from the stretching, the online stretching algorithm is not the same algorithm used during the export of audio. Sonar 6 uses Izotope Radius stretching algorithms to export the audio. With the Radius solo algorithm set, I tried exporting, and unfortunately the artifacts remained, so experimentation with different algorithms is needed for the best results. By temporarily freezing the track, I could audition the results. My playing wasn't great, but options for manual adjustment of the algorithms would be useful.
Despite this one complaint, AudioSnap works almost flawlessly. Mixing up the mandolin loop with the Groove Quantize function made an otherwise time-consuming process quick. The Groove Quantize menu gives you options for rhythmic feel. You can also add to those options by extracting grooves from clips and saving them. The Pool and Groove Quantize functions are unique and make AudioSnap a perfect tool for adjusting the feel of a track.
VINTAGE GOLD
As an all-in-one mastering plug-in, Sonar 6's VC-64 Vintage Channel is loaded with a noise gate, de-esser, two compressors, 10 routing configurations and two EQs with four filters each. It is designed in part by Kjaerhus Audio and closely resembles its GAC-1 Golden Audio Channel mastering application. VC-64 has 40 mastering presets created by pro engineers. That makes it easier to get to where you're going quickly; someone else already planned what settings would come close to what you'd need in a specific scenario.
To test the VC-64, I imported audio from a yoga instructional CD that I had recently mastered without a gate using the free MDA De-ess, Ableton's Compressor 2 and Sonic Flavours DQ7 equalizer. I imported an unprocessed section of the CD and the processed audio for comparison. I used the VC-64 Fat Vocal preset and made some simple modifications to the compression thresholds and to the EQ frequency and resonance settings to suit the voice of the instructor. Although I liked my original job, I was a little happier with the outcome when using the VC-64. The de-esser worked better, and the vocal-routing configuration allowed parallel equalization and compression. The routing allows much more flexibility than thrown-together plug-in configurations. The compressor also has a few modeling options using both smooth and optical algorithms to subtly alter the compression envelope.
When a plug-in combines multiple components that you already own, it may be valuable only if it combines those elements in unique ways and makes tracks sound good. The VC-64 succeeds on both counts and will be an especially valuable bonus to users with much plug-in power already.
SESSION DRUMMER WITHOUT THE SMELL
As with other drummers, I get intimidated watching workshops with masters such as Stan Getz or Akira Jimbo. I also get a little depressed when I'm outdone by a drum machine. Such is the case with Sonar 6's slick new Session Drummer 2 (SD2) plug-in. SD2 has 11 channel strips marked by a graphic into which corresponding percussion samples can be loaded. There are hundreds of preprogrammed performances by good drummers that can be triggered from MIDI or via software buttons. Judging from the sound, a MIDI drum kit such as a set of Roland V-Drums was used to record the performances into MIDI. With drums or any instrument, it is difficult to get a sample bank and a triggering system that make a performance sound completely lifelike. With SD2, however, that is not the case.
You can audition a drum or cymbal by clicking on the graphic at the top of the channel or by playing the appropriate key on your controller. If you click on the graphic repeatedly from top to bottom, the differences between high- and low-velocity playing will be revealed — a handy user-interface feature. The drums are all multisampled, and the samples sound great. It sounds like there are four or five samples per instrument. That means that velocity dynamics are coupled with the “mechanical dynamics” you hear with live playing. Combined with the prerecorded grooves that come with SD2, it is difficult to distinguish the SD2 from live drumming.
FAST AND EASY
Sonar 6 also comes with a number of new features that speed up the workflow and enable producers to work quicker and more efficiently. The most significant of these changes is Active Controller Technology (ACT), which provides enhanced support for mapping controls within Sonar 6 to the MIDI controls of connected devices. There are enormous advantages to this technology, the main one being that once you have programmed the knobs and sliders of one plug-in with your MIDI controller, ACT remembers these settings and applies them to other uses of that controller. In other words, you don't need to set up a MIDI learn every time you use it. In conjunction with ACT is a Where Am I display, which lets you know what tracks and instruments are currently controlled by your MIDI controller. ACT can control the parameters for your console, track, synth or effect plug-in, and once the settings are in place, they're set for good.
One of the best new innovations with respect to speed and convenience is the synth-rack view. That enables you to alter and automate the parameters of different synths and effects that exist on separate tracks in the sequencer from one location. One of the most convenient things about the rack view is the Assign Controls button, which functions like a MIDI learn key. Opening a Cakewalk Rapture synth, I went through and changed some of the controls. Once I closed it, Sonar asked me if I wanted to assign the changed controls to knobs on the synth rack.
Finally, the new, large transport also offers several convenient functions. My favorite is the markers module, which has 12 numbers that correspond to points along the time ruler, where there are landmarks in your project that you might need to work on again. You can insert markers by pressing F11 anywhere along the time ruler. You can then name the markers, and the names appear when you mouse over the marker module buttons in the large transport.
That is only the tip of the iceberg of the vastly improved convenience and flexibility in Sonar 6. With enhanced ReWire, enhanced staff view and new automation controls, there is much more that exemplifies Sonar's capability and convenience.
MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE
Musicians using Sonar 6 in the studio will eventually discover all the ways the menus, toolbars and graphics mesh with their workflow. After some time, certain functions may prove to be unnecessary at certain stages of production. For that reason, Sonar 6 comes with many options for customizing all aspects of the program. The Menu Editor enables you to hide commands that are seldom used and reorder those that are used often. Some commands can also be renamed. Additionally, there's an option to create submenus within existing menus if you want a certain set of commands to be grouped together. There is always the option to revert to the default menu layout or, if you prefer, that of Sonar 5. In any program, the more keyboard shortcuts you know, the faster and easier it is to use.
The toolbars, console and track views, as well as the VST plug-in folders, can all be organized similarly. If, for example, you're working with 25 tracks and 15 of them require no further tweaking, you can hide them. There is also a VST plug-in manager that enables you to categorize your plug-ins as you like.
NO LOVE WITHOUT THE LABOR
I've used Sonar for some professional purposes, but I'm more familiar with Cubase and Live. While there's plenty of confluence, some of the habits that I've learned from the other programs made it difficult for me to adapt to Sonar's interface. I scored Sonar 6 as a little less user friendly than Cubase and Live based on my unscientific-yet-effective negative point system. A program gets a point every time I curse trying to figure it out, and the one with the most points loses. Take that for whatever it's worth.
To be fair, anything with as much to offer in one package as Sonar 6 Producer Edition is bound to get a little hairy at times. Cakewalk has a formidable array of features to organize here. Despite the trepidation I experienced at times, Cakewalk has done a terrific job of making this vast phalanx of features interact seamlessly. If, after learning the program, you find that it isn't downright convenient, you have the option of customizing it.
There are simply too many new features in Sonar 6 to cover in depth here; however, this is to the advantage of any Sonar user who chooses to make the leap to this comprehensive update. One of the industry's biggest and best DAWs just got a whole lot bigger and better.
CAKEWALK
SONAR 6 PRODUCER EDITION> $619
Pros: Redesigned, customizable interface. ACT MIDI controller technology. New Synth Racks. AudioSnap rhythmic tool. VC-64 and Session Drummer 2 plug-ins. Reasonable price.
Cons: Not quite as user friendly for beginners as some other DAWs.
Contact: www.cakewalk.com
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
PC: Pentium 4/1.3 GHz or AMD Athlon XP 1500; 256 MB RAM; Windows XP
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