Surround mixing also opens Sonar up for non-music audio production for video: dialogue, music, sound effects, and Foley tracks could all be assembled in Sonar and then mixed down to a surround mix. As Rowan added in his own first look:

SONAR 4 does not offer video editing capabilities, and let's hope it stays that way. However SONAR 4 does offer a video track, which allows you to display video in real time and see the video in the timeline, similar to other audio / video tools on the market. This makes creating and editing sound for video a snap. SONAR is easily one of the best tools on the market for constructing soundtracks and other sound for video work.

So What Does It Sound Like?

So what does the program sound like? Well, a lot like this, which is a tune I wrote and recorded over a period of about a week on Sonar 3. I played all the guitar parts (the main rhythm track is my Les Paul Custom through an AdrenaLinn sequencer patch; the solo is my Les Paul Standard through an AdrenaLinn Marshall amp simulation), played the bass and keyboard via Reason and my Roland guitar synth, and used a series of Sony's Mick Fleetwood Acid Loops for most of the drum loops.

I sang on the tune originally back in June, but when my friend Jenifer Toksvig, a UK-based playwright and vocalist was visiting the US last month, I jumped at the chance of having her contribute to it, so we simply muted my vocal tracks and created new tracks for her vocals. (One huge benefit to hard disk recording: you get as many tracks as your hard drive and CPU will handle.)

I recorded six passes of her singing the tune (four complete takes up to the guitar solo, two more of the chorus), plus a separate track of ad-libs for the last chorus. I chose the best versions of each line of the song--sometimes cutting bar for bar--occasionally note for note and "comped" them into one track. She only hit that high note in the final chorus once, and it was during one of the previous choruses--so I simply cut and pasted that phrase into the last chorus as the song's climactic moment. (Try doing that on audiotape!)