CakeTV Live: SONAR X2 Webinar

Last week was our fourth installment of CakeTV Live, which we broadcast bi-monthly, live, from Center Staging in Burbank, CA. In this latest episode we showed over 450 live viewers the new features of SONAR X2. In case you missed it, the webinar is now available for viewing on CakeTV (or right from this web page, below).
During the webcast we did our best to cover all of X2's new features like Smart Grid, ProChannel FX Chains, and R-MIX SONAR. However, there were a few new features that we didn’t have time to demo that we think are worth mentioning.

Copying and pasting automation is now possible across all types of tracks and buses, including Instrument Tracks. For example, automation in SONAR X2 can be copied from a track to a bus, a bus to a track, a track to a track, or a bus to a bus. And automation across multiple tracks can be copied and pasted from one section of the song to another, something that is immensely useful when arranging a project.
The benefits of X2's new Smart Tool behavior of left-click + drag = range select quickly becomes apparent when selecting ranges of automation for copying and pasting.
SONAR X2 also brings new automation modes to the party; Overwrite, Touch, and Latch. Overwrite writes automation from the position of the automated control as soon as playback begins. Touch only writes automation while the control is being moved. And Latch only begins writing automation when the control is first moved.
Along with the new modes, Automation Write can now be enabled and disabled on the fly without stopping playback. This is true for entire tracks, individual plugins, or synths.
The metronome can also be turned on and off on the fly in SONAR X2. While routing the metronome to a bus is still handy for volume control and headphone sends, now all that needs to be done to turn the metronome on or off during playback or recording is to reach for the blue metronome buttons in the Control Bar.
The Piano Roll View has also received a good amount of love in X2. Now, each individual controller lane has its own Edit Filter to choose which controller value is displayed on said lane. Additionally, the Smart Tool now free-hand draws via simple left click + drag, rather than the older method which required a double key-command + drag. This should greatly enhance the workflow of those who write and edit a lot of controller data in the PRV.
Scrolling just got a lot easier in SONAR X2. Along with Timeline Zoom comes Timeline Scroll, which in a nutshell allows you to scroll the project left or right by left-clicking and dragging horizontally in the timeline. This is incredibly handy when combined with Timeline Zoom for fast and easy project navigation.
Track and Console View icons now alpha blend, which means their background is transparent. Which means there are no more blocky, ugly, square, gray backgrounds around and behind the icons.
Pre-purchase your upgrade to SONAR X2 today. And if you’re upgrading to SONAR X2 Producer, there’s never been a better time since you’ll get DSF Synphonic Strings HD expansion pack for Dimension Pro free when upgrading before September 30th at the Cakewalk Store.
New to SONAR? Purchase SONAR X1 through October 31st from one of our worldwide retailers and get SONAR X2 for FREE when it becomes available.

Galactic conqueror and wielder of SONAR knowledge.

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SONAR X2 Feature Peek: Smart Grid

Like many of you, we’re all fired up about the upcoming release of SONAR X2. And we’re pretty sure you’d like to know more about what makes it so delicious. So, while the crust browns, allow us to whet your appetite with this Cakewalk Blog series that takes a closer look at the newly refined, ever smarter, SONAR X2.
What’s a snap grid?

One of the most useful features of a DAW is the snap grid. When enabled, a snap grid locks all movement to a defined value. The value can be absolute (e.g. seconds) or musical (e.g. quarter notes) and some programs optionally show grid lines that reflect at least some portion of the grid.
The whole thing makes moving a clip by a beat or a MIDI event by a 64th note much much easier than trying to “eyeball it”. Snap grids are vitally important to almost every DAW user. In most cases, a user relies on the snap grid regularly throughout every session.
But not all snap grids are created equal. Some only offer the most basic snap options and functionality. Some don’t display their state or give the user easy access to the settings. And many are pretty dumb when it comes to anticipating what the user needs from moment to moment.
Considering the importance and near constant use of a snap grid in music production, we thought this was an area where SONAR could increase its level of intelligence and truly shine. Let SONAR think about snap so you don’t have to.
Smart Grid
Changing snap settings is one of those repetitive tasks that, while necessary, suck some of the joy out of creating music.  It would be great if the software were smart enough to know what settings are best and could change settings all by itself. And that’s exactly what Smart Grid does.

You can use SONAR for hours and not worry about changing snap settings. Smart Grid intelligently sets the snap resolution dynamically, based on zoom level. And it can do it independently for the Track View and
the Piano Roll View.
A 128th note grid is not all that helpful when zoomed out and trying to copy a guitar riff from one verse to another. And how many times have you tried to move a 32nd note in a Piano Roll View and realized it won’t move because the snap grid is set to “Measure”?
The cumulative loss is significant, both in time and creative energy.
SONAR X2 automatically sets your snap resolution to a useful setting for the task at hand, and it shows grid lines that dynamically adjust to the intelligent snap settings. You can always see
and feel the next beat, the next measure, and so on.
And speaking of feel
, SONAR X2 lets you customize just how strong the “Snap intensity” is. Think of it like gravity, or magnetism, or falling in a hole. You can even test how the setting feels before committing to it, saving a lot of trial and error and ensuring that it’s dialed in just right.

Set it and go. But keep your options open.
SONAR X2's new Smart Grid lets you set your snap so it’s comfortable for you
. Then you can pretty much forget about snap resolution a lot of the time. Of course on those occasions where Smart Grid just doesn’t “get you”, you can quickly set the grid manually right from the Control Bar’s Snap Module. You can even set an alternative snap configuration with completely different settings, or override snap entirely, with a simple keyboard shortcut. It’s clever and flexible.
Visual feedback and accessibility of the Snap Module has also improved. Move To/By is now a switch directly on the module so it’s quick to toggle and easy to see the current state. Snapping to landmarks is also directly accessible, as are options for triplet and dotted musical values.
Smart Grid is just one of the ways in which SONAR continues to get smarter. Stay tuned for more. For the most up to date information subscribe to the Cakewalk Blog or check out the SONAR X2 page.
And with SONAR X2 on the horizon, Cakewalk is offering customers who purchase SONAR X1 a free copy of SONAR X2. So if you’ve been thinking about switching or upgrading to SONAR, there’s never been a better time.

Prefers his beer dark and his wine red. Specializes in reckless aural insurgency. Never has enough time.

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