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:

Then what controllers does ACT support out of the box?

"SONAR 6 ships with three [generic] control surface plug-ins that support ACT." (SOURCE: Morten Saether, Cakewalk).

Do these plug-ins provide full support for the control surfaces?

No. Among other issues...

"Due to their generic design [they] do not know anything about the physical controllers/surfaces that are connected, and therefore cannot write any proprietary messages to LCD displays." (SOURCE: Morten Saether, Cakewalk).

Can I change the order of the plug-in paramaters that are shown?

Yes.

"The 'genericpluginparams.xml' file lists the order in which parameters will be mapped. If you use ACT Learn to re-map a specific plug-in, the new mapping is stored in 'sonaract.xml'." (SOURCE: Morten Saether, Cakewalk).

What are ACT's configuration files and what do they do?

  • sonaract.xml
"The sonaract.xml file stores all custom mappings. [It] stores a list of parameter mappings between specific effect/synth plug-ins and specific controller/surface plug-ins. It allows your custom mappings to be remembered the next time you load an effect/synth, such that specific parameters are always assigned to the same physical buttons/knobs/sliders. SONAR writes to this file when you use the ‘ACT Learn’ mode on the Controller/Surface toolbar." (SOURCE: Morten Saether, Cakewalk).
  • genericpluginparams.xml
"The genericpluginparams.xml file stores a list of all plug-ins that you have inserted in a SONAR project, and contains a list of parameters for each plug-in. It lists the desired controllable parameters in the effect/synth plug-in and the "preferred" type of physical control (knob, switch, or slider)." (SOURCE: Morten Saether, Cakewalk).

What's the difference between MIDI Learn and ACT Learn?

  • MIDI Learn
"Configure the ACT MIDI Controller to respond to the MIDI messages that are transmitted by your hardware MIDI controller or control surface. To enable, click directly on the appropriate “cell” to enable MIDI Learn mode for that control. When you see the “MIDI Learn…” text, wiggle the corresponding physical control on your MIDI controller. Once the ‘ACT MIDI Controller’ plug-in receives a MIDI message from you MIDI controller, it will automatically exit MIDI Learn mode. There is no “cell” for the modifier button, so instead you must click the ‘MIDI Learn…’ button in the bottom right corner. This will enable MIDI Learn mode for the Shift/Modifier button." (SOURCE: Morten Saether, Cakewalk).
  • ACT Learn
"Configure which effect/synth parameter is assigned to which "cell". To enable ACT Learn mode, click the ‘ACT Learn’ button in the Controllers/Surfaces toolbar. Decide which effect/synth parameters you would like to assign to which physical controls. You can map multiple parameters while in ACT Learn mode, but it’s important that you wiggle the on-screen parameters and physical controls in the exact order you wish to map them. So, wiggle one or more parameters in the effect/synth property page, then wiggle the physical controls you wish to assign them to. To exit ACT Learn mode, click the ACT Learn button on the Controllers/Surfaces toolbar once again. A dialog box will pop up confirming how many parameters and controls were touched. Click Yes to accept the assignments, or No to cancel." (SOURCE: Morten Saether, Cakewalk).

What is the logic ACT uses when it works with plug-ins?

Data Binding

  1. "The mapping is designed to use as much info as we have saved in sonaract.xml and degrade gracefully. If we have information for a particular controller/surface about a particular effect/synth plug-in, it will do that exact mapping."
  2. "If there is no info about the effect/synth plug-in for this particular controller/surface, but the plug-in is listed in genericpluginparams.xml, it will map to that as a "starting point" for the user. This mapping will be 'smart' based on the preferred control type listed in genericpluginparams.xml for the plug-in. For instance, the filter cutoff parameter will be mapped to some knob on the surface rather than a switch/button."
  3. "If there is no generic plug-in parameter list for this plug-in in genericpluginparams.xml, SONAR will just dumbly map the first N controls on the controller/surface to the first N parameters on the effect/synth plug-in."
  4. "In all cases, the user is free to reassign mappings and the changes will be saved in sonaract.xml."

Usage

When the app UI focus changes to a plug-in:

  1. "SONAR goes over all controller/surface plug-ins that support ACT (such as ACT MIDI Controller, EDIROL PCR-M30, etc.)."
  2. "SONAR loads up the list of effect/synth plug-ins (by surface CLSID) that that controller/surface knows about."
  3. "If this plug-in exists, SONAR builds the dynamic map exactly as is stored in sonaract.xml. If not, SONAR goes to the 'generic' plug-in parameter list in genericpluginparams.xml, and using the 'preferred' controller type, makes a map of that controller/surface to that effect/synth plug-in."
  4. "If there is no 'generic' plug-in data for this plug-in, SONAR will just map the first N surface parameters to the first N plug-in parameters."
  5. "Each effect/synth plug-in will ultimately be associated with each controller/surface."

(SOURCE: Morten Saether, Cakewalk).

What about changing the paramaters ACT controls in SONAR itself?

Sorry, no dice.

"No, this only applies to plug-in parameters. Host parameters are always displayed in a fixed order in Channel Strip mode, although this may be configurable in the future. You can configure which host parameters are assigned to the sliders and knobs in Multi Channel mode."(SOURCE: Morten Saether, Cakewalk).

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


Are SONAR 6 files backwards compatible with Sonar 5?

"Yes, SONAR 6 files are backwards compatible all the way back to SONAR 3. As long as you don't save projects with 64 bit audio they will open in SONAR 3. To clarify - obviously SONAR 5 won't understand any new features from SONAR 6 such as audio snap and will discard this information when the file is loaded. So if you do save in SONAR 5 make sure you save as a new file name - otherwise the new data will be lost permanently on resave." (SOURCE: Noel Borthwick, Cakewalk).


How does Crash Recovery work?

"Many crashes in DAW software are caused by plug-ins causing 'exceptions'. That's a kind word. Normally when this happens Windows will display an error and the application is terminated, typically resulting in data loss. SONAR 6 now attempts to detect such exceptions before the application is terminated and allows you to save your work. A dialog is displayed which allows you to save a copy of your currently edited project before SONAR shuts down. In most cases you can save a valid project when such a crash occurs. This can save you many hours of lost work in the case of a ill timed crash." (SOURCE: Noel Borthwick, Cakewalk).







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