Fix It In The Mix

Way back in Sonar 3, Cakewalk added its current mixing board GUI. The first versions of Sonar had virtual mixing board that was serviceable, if slightly inflexible. The current board allows the audio to be routed just about anywhere. New busses can easily be created to sum multiple audio channels. In other words, if you have six vocal tracks between your lead and backing vocals, and you'd like them all to have the same effects and use a single fader to alter their volume, they can be summed to their own buss by merely creating a new buss and then toggling each track's audio signal to point to it.

And each of those busses can be compressed with a new plug-in that Sonar 6 adds to the mix, called the VC-64. Its GUI has an absolutely terrific look to it — if it were an actual component made out of brushed metal, you'd glance admiringly at it in your equipment rack — and adds a number of warm vintage-sounding compression functions, as well as somewhat disparate functions such as de-essing and noise gate.

It's great for adding compression to a track, or multiple tracks via one of Sonar's track busses. It also has some presets for mastering, and while it sounds pretty good in that role, it's not going to make me want to stop using Izotope's Ozone plug-in, and its loudness maximization features.

Another intriguing Sonar plug-in is its new AudioSnap feature, which can adjust stretch the tempo of pre-recorded audio. Don't like the tempo of a finished song? Want to take a loosely recorded jam and sync it to a tempo? AudioSnap was designed for both of those scenerios, as Craig Anderton explains here.

Coming Soon: 64-bit PCs With 128-Gig Of RAM

Perhaps the most bleeding edge feature of Sonar 6 is its compatibility with both standard-issue Windows XP Professional, and Windows Professional XP Edition x64 (and its coming Vista equivalent) . While 64-bit computing is currently overkill for most semipro recording aspects, it's gaining in popularity in the pro world, in part because it allows for boatloads of RAM: 128-gigabytes worth (and the potential for a staggering 16-exabites worth) rather than the four gigs that Windows currently tops out at. However, even those (like most of us) who don't have a 64-bit system can employ Sonar's 64-bit mix engine, which provides additional headroom and sonic clarity than its normal 32-bit mode, before the audio is mixed down to the 16-bit world of CDs, or the even lower fidelity of most MP3s.