Components Included with Sonar
From Sonar
Effect Plug-Ins (Studio and Producer Edition)
Both Studio and Producer editions of SONAR contain a wide variety of effects plugins. These can be inserted in an audio track or on a bus. All of the standard effect types are covered plus a number of more specialised effects.
Sonitus EQ
The Sonitus fx:equalizer is a 6-band parametric equalizer with selectable filter types for each band and frequency response graph. It has a simple to use interface, allowing you to modify the gain, Q and frequency of up to six bands of EQ. In addition to the standard Peak/Dip filter type you can select highpass or lowpass filters and high or low shelving filters. Individual bands can be turned off to conserve CPU.
Sonitus Reverb
The Sonitus fx:reverb is a high-quality reverb plugin which allows adjustment of many parameters, with a graphical display of some of the settings, although it's interface can be confusing for new users. The plugin comes with a small number of presets and can be used either as a track insert or on an aux bus.
Sonitus Compressor
The Sonitus fx:compressor is a variable-knee compressor with built-in peak limiting. It has meters to show the input, gain reduction and output, as well as a graph to show the compressor's response. On top of the usual settings of threshold, attack time, release time and ratio, the Sonitus compressor allows adjustment of the knee and selection between normal and vintage compression. It also features TCR - transient controlled release time to automatically adjust the release time to reduce pumping and breathing.
Sonitus Delay
The Sonitus fx:delay is an advanced stereo delay with tempo sync. It allows left and right channel delays to be specified separately in either absolute time or in terms of beats. The tempo can sync to the host (SONAR) or be entered manually. Feedback and cross-feed can be adjusted, and there are high and low-pass filters which allow the character of the delayed sound to be modified. As well as standard delay usage, this effect can be used to widen a mono track, or to create reverb-like effects.
Sonitus Surround
The Sonitus fx:surround is a surround sound panner with built-in doppler and attenuation rendering for distance and velocity effects, joystick control and graphical path editing. It is primarily designed for those mixing in surround, but is still useful for those working in stereo. Basically, you can define a path that the sound will follow either using the graphical interface or using a joystick. You can specify the amount of time taken to traverse the path. The path can be continuous. You can also switch on the doppler effect - realistically simulating the change in pitch heard as an object moves past the hearer.
Hear an example of the Sonitus fx:surround effect (using the settings in the screenshot above): Media:Sonitus_surround.ogg
Sonitus Gate
The Sonitus fx:gate is a dynamic gate with side-chain filtering and lookahead. It has a wide variety of uses. It can function as a noise gate, which quite simply gates (or blocks) signals whose amplitude lies below a certain threshold, and lets other signals through. This is useful for eliminating background noises, such as hiss or hum, during periods of silence in a recording or performance.
In addition, it also features a tuneable peak Punch mode that makes it possible to add transient punch to frequencies lacking in individual drum sounds, adding greater definition and presence to the gated signal. Using the variable high pass and low pass side chain filters enables you to perform "frequency conscious" gating. The gate can also be switched from Gating to Ducking mode for removal of clicks and pops.
Sonitus Modulator
The Sonitus fx:modulator combines six time-varying modulation effects into one integrated plug-in. The supported modes are Flanger, Ensemble, String Phaser, Phaser 6, Phaser 12 and Tremolo. The flanger features one modulating delay per channel and is an effect often used on guitars. Ensemble has three non-synchronized modulating delays and can produce chorus like effects. The string phaser combines a phaser with a chorus effect and is intended to recreate the sound of analog sweeping synth-strings. There are additionally 6 stage and 12 stage phasers without chorus. Finally the tremolo effect modulates the volume with an LFO, and again is a popular effect used on guitar sounds.
Sonitus Multiband
The Sonitus fx:multiband is a 5 band variable knee compressor with both normal and vintage compression modes and output limiter. A multiband compressor allows you to specify compression settings separately for user-defined frequency bands, rather than one setting across the board. This makes it particularly suited to use on an entire mix, as it behaves like a dynamically adjusting equaliser. The settings for each of the five compressors can be adjusted individually. There is also a limiter included, which introduces a 1.5ms latency if activated, although this should not be a problem when used for mastering.
Sonitus Phase
The Sonitus fx:phase lets you arbitrarily adjust the phase of a sound. Its uses include widening a stereo signal, or converting a mono into a stereo signal. It can also perform basic vocal removal. It is not a phaser effect.
Sonitus WahWah
Cakewalk FxReverb
The Cakewalk DSP-FX StudioVerb is a versatile reverb plugin that can be used on individual tracks or on an aux bus. It allows easy adjustment of a wide variety of parameters (room size, decay time, high frequency roll-off, high-frequency decay, density, pre-delay, motion rate and motion depth) and comes with an extensive list of presets, useful for those getting started with Reverb.
Cakewalk FxChorus
Cakewalk FxDelay
Cakewalk FxEq
Cakewalk FxFlange
Cakewalk FxReverb
Cakewalk Amp Sim
Cakewalk FX2 Tape Sim
Cakewalk SpectraFx
Cakewalk Tuner
Lexicon Pantheon LE
Alien Connections Revalver SE
Effect Plug-Ins (Producer Edition Exclusives)
In addition to the effect plugins included with the Studio edition of SONAR, the Producer edition contains some extra effects.
VC-64 Vintage Channel
New to SONAR 6 producer edition is the VC-64 Vintage Channel - an analog channel strip and dynamics processor. It contains two VCA/Opto mode compressors, and two 4-band parametric EQ's with five filter types. It also has a noise gate with a soft knee and a wide-band de-esser. The internal signal flow can be customised to allow either parallel or serial compression and EQ stages. It makes full use of SONAR's 64 bit mixing engine and operates with zero latency. It includes a wide variety of presets, allowing users to quickly dial in an appropriate sound.
This plugin was developed for Cakewalk by Kjaerhus Audio and uses their Advanced Component Level Modeling (ACLM) algorithms. It is essentially the same plugin as their acclaimed Golden Audio Channel GAC-1 channel strip plugin.
