SONAR 6 FAQs

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In late September 2006, the much-anticipated SONAR 6 was released. For a variety of reasons, including a very slim manual and sparse documentation, this latest version of our favorite DAW has generated a large number of questions. We address as many of these as we can here, attributing the source if it is a Cakewalk employee. Our goal is for this FAQ to be the definitive source of answers to these questions.


Contents

What's up with the new manual?

It's not very big. But you knew that. Here's the lowdown:

Where are those videos I keep hearing about?

You can download them from Cakewalk's FTP server. As of October 3, they cover ACT, Audio Snap and Session Drummer.


ACT

I'm having trouble with ACT!

Initial reports of SONAR 6's ACT technology show it to be extremely problematic for virtually everyone who has tried to use it. Whatever your current problem is, chances are that others are experiencing it, too. Chances are also that there is as of yet no known solution, workaround or fix.

In theory, ACT should be as easy as 1-2-3:

"The ability to remap plug-in parameters is one of the powerful features of ACT. Simply click the ACT Learn button on the Controllers/Surfaces toolbar, wiggle the parameter(s) you wish to map in the effect/synth property page, wiggle the physical contrl(s), then click the ACT Learn button again to exit learn mode." (SOURCE: Morten Saether, Cakewalk).

Note, however, that ACT is limited to controling whatever paramaters a given plug-in exposes:

"Rapture--and all other effects/synths that expose automatable parameters--can be controlled with ACT. If a synth or effect does not expose automatable parameters, then there is no way for ACT to adjust the plug-in parameters." (SOURCE: Morten Saether, Cakewalk).

But that's just the beginning. As misery loves company, we refer you to the following SONAR Forum threads for specific tales of general ACT dread and gnashing of teeth, along with the occasional happy ending:

Does ACT work with my controller

Not to be overly pessimistic, but... probably not. Numerous user requests for templates for different control surfaces have been made known to Cakewalk in various forum threads. What will come of this is still to be seen. However, a Mackie Control template for ACT is suppossed to be under development. (SOURCE: Morten Saether, Cakewalk).

The following is a list of forum threads discussing the use of ACT with various control surfaces:

Staff (Notation) View

What changes are there in SONAR 6's Staff View?

There are exactly two:

  1. "Added a track list view pane to the staff view, similar to the one in the PRV. Lets you view any number of tracks and set a track active or set its MSR state"
  2. "Select tracks using the PickTracks button in the toolbar"

"Early on in the SONAR 6 development cycle we did look at some notation technology that could have potentially plugged into SONAR as a replacement for the existing Staff View. Unfortunately, it would have meant a step backward in functionality."

(SOURCE: Tom Roussell, Cakewalk

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