Cakewalk freeware software

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Microsoft is done with Xbox One. N95, KN95, KF94 face masks. Apple pulls Wordle clones. Windows Windows. Most Popular. New Releases. Desktop Enhancements. Networking Software. Trending from CNET. Cakewalk Pyro Free to try. Record, play, and organize your favorite digital music with a complete audio system. Cakewalk Pro Audio Patch Free. Get the latest patch to update from version 9. Cakewalk Project5 Free to try. As such, Sonar is competing for the same ground as applications like Cubase and Samplitude , or on the Mac side, Logic and Performer.

In fact, while finding my way around Sonar , I experienced a couple of disorientating flashbacks to the Samplitude review I wrote for SOS a while ago. This has less to do with any particular similarities between Sonar and Samplitude , I think, than it does with the way in which all the major DAW applications seem to be converging on a common feature set, and on implementations that are at least superficially similar.

After choosing to install the main Sonar 5 application, you're presented with a dialogue box showing the customary End User Licence Agreement, beneath which you're required to tick a couple of boxes, the first acknowledging that you are only permitted to install and use the software on one machine at a time, the second acknowledging that you are not permitted to sell or transfer the software.

You may or may not be happy with these licence terms. If you're not happy with them, you unfortunately have no other option besides not installing the software. Having agreed to the licence, you then have to enter your serial number, which is supplied in the DVD case.

After that, the final hurdle to clear is registration, which must be completed within a day 'grace' period. Registration is easy if your audio computer has an Internet connection, and requires a phone call if it doesn't. As with previous versions of Sonar , customers in the UK can choose whether to buy the US or European version of the package.

The difference is that the US version ships with a full printed manual in English only, while the European version includes only the more basic 'getting started' guide, but in French and German as well as English.

The first time Sonar is started, a dialogue box appears offering to run some diagnostics on your audio hardware and make some default settings. Sonar 5 uses Cakewalk's VST Adapter version 4 of which is included in the bundle to enable VST plug-in support, although it's more closely integrated than in previous versions, and will automatically scan, load and configure any new plug-ins when Sonar is started.

The basics of Sonar are fairly straightforward, and should be more or less familiar to anyone who's worked with a MIDI and audio sequencing package before. Sonar 's Track View shows a list of the MIDI and audio tracks in the project, while an 'inspector' pane displays more details about the currently selected track.

Tracks run horizontally from left to right, and are populated with 'clips', which may be short, single-hit sounds, or extended takes. Groove clips are audio clips which have pitch and tempo data stored in them, as in Sony's Acid , and Sonar can import and export Acid ised WAV files. MIDI events and data are also stored in 'clips', although these are handled slightly differently, for obvious reasons.

The Console View is a window containing the customary graphical representation of a mixing desk, with all the virtual faders, knobs and so on laid out much as you'd expect them to be. It's actually quite possible to mix tracks without ever opening the Console View, as the inspector pane in the Track View provides a pretty complete 'channel strip' for the currently selected track.

Of course, it's sometimes useful to be able to see all your faders at once, and the Console View allows this. Sonar 's a complex application, and at first glance can seem slightly cluttered. Fortunately the detailed and rather weighty printed manual contains several clear, step-by-step tutorials, which help clarify things for the beginner.

Sonar 's user interface perhaps still has a slightly steeper learning curve than other similar applications, but once you've become familiar with where everything is, it begins to seem quite logical. While by no means restricted to loop-based composition, Sonar is very well equipped to deal with looped clips, of both the audio and MIDI variety. If you're familiar with Sony's Acid , you'll feel right at home with Sonar 's handling of loops.

Matching the tempo and pitch of Groove clips is made very easy, and Sonar 's inbuilt tools handle the business of creating or importing Acid ised clips admirably.

Recording MIDI and audio tracks is quick and easy, and the Folder track facilities in the Track View allow you to assemble even quite large and complicated arrangements without creating too confusing a mess. The Console View is reasonably clear and intuitive, although I personally found the controls for the built-in EQ a little fiddlier than they need have been. Overall though, Sonar provides a comfortable environment in which to work.

Since I have only limited space, I'll be concentrating on the new features added in Sonar 5 , although there's still plenty that could be said about some of the older features. Sonar 's surround mixing facilities, for instance, are very well implemented. One potential source of confusion around Sonar 5 has to do with its bit features.

Sonar 5 ships in two different versions, both included in the same package. There's a bit Windows application of the kind we're all used to, and a bit version aimed at users running the bit version of Windows XP on a computer with bit processor architecture.

Personally I'm still languishing in the bit Dark Ages, and in all probability so are you. Nevertheless, bit systems are apparently on their way, and the computer industry being what it is, we'll probably all find ourselves having to upgrade eventually. By building a viable bit version now, Cakewalk have ensured both that the application is as future-proof as possible, and that eager 'early adopters' have a strong incentive to either stick with, or defect to, Sonar when making the bit switch.

One of the new features that Cakewalk are keen to advertise in Sonar 5 is their new 'bit double-precision floating-point audio engine' which, confusingly, is available to both the bit and bit applications. In the bit version, bit mixing can be activated by selecting Audio from the Options menu and activating the bit Double Precision Engine tick box in the dialogue box that appears.

The bit audio engine should, in theory, offer a superior signal-to-noise ratio and improved dynamic range. This applies not to recording, where the same 16, 24 and bit options are available, or playback, but exclusively to mixing.

The extra bits of resolution are intended to provide better performance when combining multiple signals and when scaling ie. Theoretically, at least, the improved resolution should provide improved sound quality, but in practice the perceived difference can be very slight.

To be honest, I struggled to find much to distinguish mixes rendered with the bit option enabled from those rendered without. By and large, both sounded equally good to me. People with more sensitive ears and more demanding requirements may be able to discern a more marked difference, however. One final point to bear in mind here is that many of the third-party effects plug-ins inserted at various points in your signal paths will be incapable of handling bit audio.

Fortunately Sonar can tell which plug-ins need to be fed a bit diet, and will make the necessary arrangements for you. One of the user-interface enhancements introduced in Sonar 5 is the new Inline Piano Roll View, which allows MIDI notes and controller data in a track to be viewed and edited directly from within the Track View. Simply choose a MIDI track and click the the 'PRV mode' button, and the clip redraws itself as a miniature piano-roll display containing the data in that track.

When the PRV mode button is activated, a small piano-roll toolbar is displayed, which allows you to choose which kinds of MIDI data are hidden or displayed, and how editing is handled. It's all straightforward, and quite easy to use. A little judicious zooming of the Track View is required to make the data comfortably visible, though, and some Sonar users may decide it's actually quicker and more convenient to double-click a MIDI clip and have it open in the Piano Roll View 'proper', as in Sonar 4.

Still, it's nice to have the choice. With the RXP soft synth, you can take a sliced loop, apply different processing to each slice and trigger the slices independently over MIDI. Another nifty 'workflow' enhancement comes in the form of Sonar 5 's Track Templates feature, which allows you to create templates for recalling groups of track settings. This may not sound very exciting but it can be quite handy.

For example, you might have a favourite combination of distortion and compression plug-ins you like to use for recording lead guitar parts. In this case you could create a 'lead guitar' Track Template, with the desired plug-ins already inserted and the EQ tweaked just as you like it. Then, whenever you want to record a lead guitar take, you can simply go to the Insert menu, select Insert From Track Template and recall your saved template.

Track templates can store information about the track type, the mute, solo or record state of the track, its hardware input and output destination, any buss send settings, effects settings, instrument bank and patch settings and track name.

If you habitually assemble arrangements in a certain way, Track Templates can serve as genuinely useful shortcuts, saving you plenty of mouse-clicks. A simple idea, but nonetheless useful. It's also now possible for real-time effects to be non-destructively applied on a per-clip basis. In other words, you can right-click a clip or clips , choose Insert Effect from the context menu that appears, and create an 'FX bin' for that clip. Clip effects can toggled on and off, and if more than one effect is loaded, you can change their order.

It's also possible to destructively apply clip effects, in which case the real-time clip effects are automatically removed afterwards. Window clutter can be reduced by enabling a new 'tabbed' option which allows any of Sonar 's windows except the Console View to be neatly 'docked' in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen.