Re: CAKEWALK SONAR HOME STUDIO 4 opinions?

[Jeff Larson <Jeffrey.Larson@Sun.COM>]

The VST/DX adapter bundled with Sonar 4 and below works ok for me,
though I've heard reports that there are plugs it doesn't handle
properly.  At one time it didn't support routing MIDI generated by the
plugin, you could only send MIDI into the plugin.  In those cases
there are several alternative adapters available, one is Directixer at
http://tonewise.com/DirectiXer/.

But the main problem I've had with Sonar is that you can't record
the output of an effect or DXi "live".  Sonar is designed to apply
effects at runtime to a dry signal, if you want to create a track or
file with the effected signal you have to "bounce" the dry track
through the plugin, sending the result to another track.  This can't
be done as you record the dry track, you have to stop and use an
offline process.  The same thing with VSTi instruments, Sonar records a
track of MIDI events and replays it through the instrument every time,
if you want to create an audio track with the output of the instrument
you have to bounce it offline.

Now in theory, the effect or instrument will generate the same output
every time so you don't need to record the "wet" signal.  Keeping it
dry allows you to tinker with the effects without changing the source
track.  But this is a problem for more complicated plugs like, oh say
a looper, that is generating audio in response to both an input signal
and a complex stream of MIDI commands.  Again in theory as long as you
replay exactly the same dry signal and recorded MIDI commands into the
plugin you should get the same result, but in practice that doesn't
always happen.

The only way I'm aware of to address this with Sonar is to host the
plugins in a rewire host such as Bidule, then patch the rewire output
from Bidule into Sonar for recording.

Now, this may have changed in Sonar 5, I haven't had a chance to try
that yet.

Jeff