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Edit Review — Cakewalk Sonar 4

Aug 1, 2005 12:00 PM, By Gary Eskow

New processor-based DAW recognizes VST soft synths and effects, as well as DXi.

If you haven't chosen a digital audio workstation yet, or are considering moving to a new platform, this is a great time to be in the market. The latest generation of hardware-based DAWs (from Pro Tools and competitors) includes products that cross the pricing spectrum. Dual-processor Macs and PCs provide enough horsepower to make host-based systems quite appealing, despite the fact that many software applications do not take full advantage of these systems' capabilities yet.

Cakewalk, a longtime player in the industry on the PC side, recently released Sonar 4, the latest update to its flagship digital audio workstation. The new additions to this program, coupled with its rock-solid performance and generous feature set, make Sonar 4 a must-consider contender if you're looking for a native processor-based DAW.

Installing Sonar 4, and updating to the latest version (4.0.2) via the Internet, on my trusty dual Opteron machine was simple. I was also able to establish connections between Sonar and my RME Fireface 800 interface (a recent addition to my studio that I highly recommend) with the minimum brain activity I bring to early morning work. Sonar 4 also ships with an extremely well-written paper manual.

When you initiate a new project, your first line of inquiry is to make sure that the DAW you're working with recognizes all of your MIDI connections, and Sonar 4 had no problem doing so. I set up a few sequences that used only the few remaining hardware synths I own and then recorded their outputs onto audio tracks. Sonar 4's audio engine sounds very good, but when I moved over to the soft-synth side of the fence I encountered a strange problem that I couldn't eliminate.

One of the important advances in Sonar 4.0 is that it now recognizes VST soft synths and effects, as well as the DXi versions it has always been able to handle. This is important because not all VST instruments and effects are released in the DXi format. As with other applications, you'll have to load both a MIDI and audio track in order to play either a VST or DXi instrument. Doing so was no problem in Sonar. However, when I recorded the output of several instruments into audio tracks and looped them, I repeatedly encountered a troublesome problem. The first note of the track, recorded on the downbeat of bar 1, would not sound on the first loop. But it did play back on all subsequent loops. Cakewalk tech support tells me they have not encountered this problem before. The quality of the recorded output was, however, quite good. When I A/B'ed the original soft synth with the audio track, it was hard to distinguish between the two. The frequency response and stereo imaging were impressive.

Most sequencers these days come with a similar package of MIDI effects, and Sonar 4 is no exception. The quality of the audio effects is more interesting. After recording the output of an Applied Acoustics Ultra-Analog VA-1 soft synth — an outstanding plug-in — I started adding effects. Sonar 4's console is easy to get comfortable with, and it lets you load as many channel inserts as your computer can handle, as well as the sends and returns you'd expect to see on a hardware console.

The effects package receives high marks. My computer has the horsepower to handle a number of effects at low latency, so I piled up a few in series. (Sonar 4 has, by the way, a deft way of handling latency with an internal slider that you adjust to suit the capabilities of your host.) For starters, I conducted a shootout between the Lexicon Pantheon reverb that ships with Sonar and the full version of the highly touted Waves IR-L reverb, which can also be loaded in a lighter, less processor-intensive version. I set up similar ambiences on both and switched between the two. The Pantheon performed admirably. On balance I felt that the IR-L was just a bit warmer and had a slightly wider stereo image, but it was a close call. I'd have no problem using the Lexicon plug-in as one of two primary reverbs during a mixing session. The package of Cakewalk's homegrown effects, which includes another reverb, is also worthy of usage. I was also quite impressed by the way the Sonitus compressor handled my two mix.

Ever since Sonic Foundry released Acid, musicians who use loops have clamored for products that simplify the adjustment of the tempo of audio loops. Sonar 4's Groove Clip functionality deserves high marks in this area. I loaded up a four-bar WAV loop and copied it over several times. After following a set of easy instructions that taught me how to turn this loop into a Groove Clip, I started playing around with tempo. The Groove Clip followed these tempo changes with no problem. Of course, the competition is pretty severe in this area: Ableton Live, for example, lets the user make great changes to the original tempo while introducing very few unpleasant artifacts to the resulting audio. Groove Clip did not perform as well, but moving the tempo around while staying fairly close to the original yielded more than acceptable results.

I prefer to punch in and out in the old-fashioned way, but those of you who do like to work with comp tracks will be pleased with the intelligent way Sonar 4 handles this process. Engaging the application's Track-Show Layers option lets you see all of your takes in separate lanes. From there, it's easy to crop overlapping clips and mute part or all of a track while you audition and construct your final performance.

Even the fastest computers run out of horsepower after a while. One day, the freeze function that all native DAWs now feature may no longer be necessary, but we're not there yet. Sonar 4's freeze works quite well: You can freeze any effects you may have added, as well as the plug-in performance. You can also create clips out of the frozen data, which not all applications allow. The frozen tracks were indistinguishable from the originals to my ears.

Of course, audio post pros have a set of requirements that go beyond those of the musician who isn't working to picture. Sonar 4 plays back SMPTE-encoded video thumbnail clips without problem, and you can easily set up timelines that reflect SMPTE as wells as beats and bars.

Steinberg's Nuendo has a feature that lets the user pull the speed of a video track up or down by 0.1 percent if the imported video track doesn't synch with the audio track. Sonar lacks this type of feature. If most of your work consists of accepting audio from various sources and mixing long-form projects to picture, Sonar 4 might not be a logical choice for you, although this application does let you export video along with audio, something you can't do with Nuendo.

A more reasonable comparison, in terms of functionality and price, would pit Sonar 4 against Steinberg's Cubase SX3. Both applications are aimed primarily at the composer rather than the audio post engineer, with an understanding that a large segment of their target market will be writing music to picture. As of now, I'd say Sonar 4 gives SX3 a solid run for its money. In fairness, I have put together larger projects in SX3 and have been extremely impressed with the sound it produces when several tracks have been assembled. I cannot make a judgment at this time regarding Sonar 4's ability to handle projects of a similar size.

Four or five years ago, many people believed that surround sound mixes would be the de facto standard by this time, but it just hasn't happened yet. Not even all post houses are set up to handle surround mixes. Still, surround mixing for picture is important today and will be even more important in the future, so audio post professionals shopping for a new DAW should weigh the ease and intelligence with which a system handles this functionality. Sonar 4's SurroundBridge helps you manage effects when mixing in surround. For example, if you choose to apply a stereo reverb to your mix, this feature calculates the number of instantiations that are required to pan the effect across the entire 5.1 field and loads them all. It also gives you the ability to link all of the adjustable parameters, which is quite helpful. Sonar 4 users can easily store presets of different surround configurations and export audio to a number of multichannel formats.

All the host-based digital audio workstations on the market today have the features and power that will allow the working musician and audio-for-video professional to do quality work. Sonar 4 clearly fits into this category. Given the generally high quality of most products, at the end of the day, which one you choose depends largely on how it matches the way you like to work. Sonar 4 has many highly usable features and is easy to learn, which makes it a worthy contender for your dollar.

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BOTTOM LINE

Company: Cakewalk Boston; (888) 225-3925
www.cakewalk.com

Product: Sonar 4

Assets: DAW now recognizes VST soft synths and effects, as well as DXi.

Caveats: Might not be optimal for taking audio from multiple sources and mixing long-form projects to picture.

Demographic: Musicians and audio-for-video professionals

Price: $959 (Sonar 4 Producer)

$479 (Sonar 4 Studio)

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Gary Eskow, a contributing editor for Mix magazine, is a freelance composer and journalist who lives in central New Jersey. He can be reached through his website, www.garyeskow.com.

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