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Sonar 5: Producer Edition | 
 enlarge | From: CAKEWALK
Category: Software
This item is no longer available
Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 12701
Format: Cd-rom
Platform: Windows Xp
Media: CD-ROM
Operating System: Windows XP
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3
Dimensions (in): 9.5 x 8 x 3.2
Version 5 adds an arsenal of responsive instruments, more effects, and powerful editing tools including RolandA V-Vocala VariPhrase technology. These features are complemented by a double precision floating point engine that delivers dramatic increases in dynamic range. SONARas pristine 64-bit audio engine, seamless and accessible even on 32-bit computers, sets new standards for digital mixing. In addition, SONAR 5 introduces ground-breaking advances in RAM and native processing power on systems running Windows XP x64 Edition.
MPN: 10-CWP52.00-10-C
UPC: 787537956351
EAN: 0787537956351
ASIN: B000BL4W9S
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| Features:
| • | Roland V-Vocal vocal processor | | • | Pentagon I analog synth | | • | RXP REX Player groove box | | • | Perfect Space Convolution Reverb | | • | Lexicon Pantheon Stereo & Surround Reverbs |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Striking the perfect balance between passion and precision, Sonar 5 shatters the limitations found in ordinary digital audio workstations. Offering a complete spectrum of creative technologies, Sonar 5 inspires artistic expression. These technologies are fully integrated within a cutting edge engineering and mixing environment to transform musical dreams into professional finished productions. Sonitus Surround Compressor Multi-format surround mixing SurroundBridge Per-channel EQ Assignable FX controls POW-r dithering MPEX 3 time scaling Video thumbnail track PSYN II subtractive synth, Pentagon I vintage analog synth, Roland GrooveSynth, SFZ SoundFont sampler, RXP REX Player groove box Additional instruments include TTS-1, Cyclone, and DreamStation Perfect Space Convolution Reverb Additional effects include Lexicon Pantheon Reverb, Sonitus - fx Suite (10 effects), many more Updated MIDI FX plug-ins Integrated inline audio and MIDI editing, arranging, and mixing all in one view Envelope automation drawing enhanced with tempo-sync patterns, freehand, more Object-oriented clip-based effects and editing including per-clip effects bin, clip-based effect automation, and more BitBridge enables 32-bit VST effects and instruments in Sonar's 64-bit environment Remove DC offset during recording Dynamic Console View with per-channel EQ and assignable FX controls Freeze for tracks, effects, and synths unloads plug-ins, frees RAM, frozen audio is editable, Quick Unfreeze allows for toggling, more SurroundBridge use your favorite stereo effect plug-ins in surround Advanced step recording Edit and print traditional staff notation Video output to 1394 FireWire devices for high quality viewing with lower CPU and disk usage Sync to and send SMPTE/MTC for scoring external video System Requirements - Windows XP, Intel Pentium 4, 1.3 GHz, 128 MB of RAM, 100 MB of Hard Disk Space, 1024 x
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 Always crashes. October 2, 2007
This is going to be a very quick review. I use this program every day at work, I am an audio engineer. It is quite possibly the worst program I have ever worked with. Any time you call the tech support number you're on hold for at least 20 minutes, they can barely help you, and the manual lacks SERIOUS details.
The programs I make are usually contain 10 to 12 tracks and and range between 8 and 14 minutes. This program crashes on me about 4 times a day without any real reason.
Do yourself a HUGE favor, save up a little more money if you must and buy avid pro tools, or adobe audition because cakewalk is not worth it.
 Excellent... best DAW for Windows, particularly for the price... July 23, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I come to Sonar from Logic Audio and Cubase SL.
Logic, of course, is now Mac only, and my experience with Cubase SL was absolutely horrible on three otherwise solid machines with 3 audio interfaces and 5 midi interfaces. Nothing worked.
After that, Sonar was like a breath of fresh air.
Here's a list of my favorite things:
Direct support for Acid loops, so quickly putting together a base track takes minutes, and the libraries can be extended inexpensively.
Built in patch, performance and rhythm control for TONS of hardware (Roland XP60, Roland MC307, Roland JV1010, Korg Z1, Yamaha RS7000, and around 100 more) that just worked (I spent over a month trying to scrounge the same thing in Cubase, though Logic audio has these as well.
Solid integration testing of the app with multiple audio/midi interfaces... all of the ones I've tried work perfectly. Logic has this as well.
An unbelievable upgrade path and (in my experience) superior treatment of their customers:
I received an offer for Project5 Version 2 (their loop-based audio application) for $99, Cakewalk z3ta+ for $99 (if you don't know about this synth, check it out), Cakewalk Rapture for $169 (this synth is MAD), Cakewalk Dimension Pro for $99, and a second license for Sonar 5PE for $79!! Mad!!
They also recently released a FREE expansion pack for both Rapture AND Dimension Pro.
Decent set of included instruments and excellent set of included effects. No one but Logic Pro truly excels here, but Sonar pretty close. You should be able to write music from day one, as you have synths, loops, effects, REX files, and REX player, etc. You can, of course, add more to your liking, which most do, but the set you're given isn't IMO prohibitive. The effects are stellar for this price range.
Rewire support. I don't know how I ever lived without this. Sometimes you want to use Project5 or Live and then tack on Sonar later... Rewire gives you that.
It's 64-bit ready... a feature I'm going to start taking advantage of later this week (now that the AMD and Intel chips are dropping price once again).
Direct integration with Sony Sound Forge (if you have it installed). Audio clip edits without leaving the app, auto-updated when you save in Sound Forge. You can switch this to Cool Edit, Audition, Wavelab, etc.
Track folders. They are currently only one level deep, so Cubase wins out here with nested folders of folders, but it's better than none, and a slightly different track arrangement makes it no real issue. Logic has folders, but they are considerably more complicated to use.
Per-clip effects in addition to per track effects, effect sends, and output tracks. Tons of effects processing options.
A truly excellent mixer. Not as good as environment mixers in Logic, but pretty sweet, and fairly configurable.
In the last 7 months, since getting the app, on two machines, I no longer spend time debugging... I just write music. Much better.
Excellent forum, which is where I go for support mostly. I had to call tech support once as well because my spam filter ate my registration code, but they had a new one to me the next day.
No dongle, and no machine-dependent activation, and no random "please insert your CD" nosense.
I'd buy it again in a heartbeat.
 Not upto the mark April 7, 2006
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I agree with ZXC here. He/She has pointed out some important points. Luis may be you should read the review you are commenting upon a bit carefully. I dont understand how removing the spyware like you suggested from ZXC's system would improve the tech support of the company and make a toll free number available. Have you been on dope? BTW let me mention about myself, I am a software veteran, 15 years in the industry, and professional apps is all I work with, and I have a very professional hardware in my box here. I dont think this app (CakeWalk sonar) is yet upto the mark of being put next to the professional apps which exist out there in the market as you mentioned. The user-interface is old style, I remember using the CakeWalk 3 and the most of the UI is still the same old, just repainted with different colors. I agree again with ZXC many things are not intuitive, and I had to lean on the online-forums to get answers myself. Programming the Synths is very sophisticated job if you know the differences in the Synths like the analog synth Vs FM Synths and the documentation which comes with this software does not even talk about programming the Synths which are included with the software like the PSYN, the Roland-GrooveSynth Pentagon and others. May be you are a type of "composer" who makes music from simple acid-loops and canned sounds which are dime-a-dozen sine they all sound same, and never understood the power of synths'. I can see why new users (I m assuming) like ZXC would get frustrated. And just because the app is a professional dosent mean it should be more complicated. It is like saying (example) oh its a sports car so the stick-shift handle is located in the trunk (and we are not going to tell you that either).
 Producer / Composer March 31, 2006
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
Hey ZXC...
I suggest that maybe you should try reading the manual before you use the software..
It seems to me that the problems that you have with the software are pure lack of knowlege.
As you see, this is a professional software...
Also maybe the computer you're using is not working good enough to run professional multimedia apps... simple things like getting your Windows XP system to work good.
Get rid of the spyware you have in your hard drive... and all that stuff that's making your computer act funny... 'cause the problems that you have are completely no sense.
Kills creativity due to problems & missing documentation/tech support. January 22, 2006
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
I purchased this product (Producer edition actually which is this + some software synths) just 2 weeks back. And it is a nightmare when it comes to work in it. Will annoy you about every 20 mins, and if you try to contact the tech support you will not have a toll free number, and will have to wait loooong time to get someone on phone (what happens after that ? I don't know because I could never get someone to pick up the phone.) So check it out on there web site, and read about there tech support policy yourself.
After spending 500 US$ I learned it hard way though.
1) Not a robust product, and doesn't behave in predictable manner in many cases. Like if you add the Session Drummer to the track, and after working for some time, if you closed and came back to the project it won't always play back the drum track at all !!!. I have to do some opening and closing of the session drummer window thinking may be something will reset it and then sometime (at random) it starts again.
2) The user interface needs several improvements. Intuitiveness is strongly missing. You cant guess things most times, and sometimes there are technical bugs and many other time the documentation is missing. For example when I insert a new audio track (by bounce the track feature, which is converting the midi to sound), the track display is simply grayed out. I keep looking for the waveform to get the sense of where the signals are, but it won't show. Turns out that it doesn't refresh by itself, like how you would expect to drop a file in windows explore and then the file should appear in the folder where you dropped it. Here nothing, After getting frustrated, and trying various menu actions and not getting anything, suddenly by chance I move the window size a little bit & then the wave form display suddenly comes up. Duh!!!. It's a bug.
3) No STARS TO DOCUMENTATION. It has a basic book, which does explain the basic tracking features. BUT THE SYNTHS & EFFECTS MANUALS ARE MISSING. The book is a common one for the Studio & Producer edition and lacks almost all the features exclusive in producer addition. The Cyclone grove sampler is blank when I start it. There is like 5 line description each on a total of about 6 pages of documentation which doesn't not tell how to load sound in the Cyclone and use it. I am still searching for a step by step guide to the RXP, SFZ the sampler, and other things. I cant save the modified patch in the GM MIDI1/2 basic synth TTS 1 by my own name, so basically cant save synth with my own parameters.
4) Many other issues, basically out of the box, many things don't work. Like PerfectSpace effect doesn't work in, it wouldn't show the fancy graph like in the brochure but just a dumb empty screen and no effect on the track. I am still working on that one to find what is really missing.
5) Poor QA/Testing behind the product & Disastrous tech support. I felt really sorry for my 500 US$ when I installed there update the 5.01 from there web site. Turns out that all the 4 projects I created in last 2 weeks won't play. I mean totally frozen, no sound, no movement. I tried to uninstall the update pack, found out that they did not include any uninstaller for the update pack. I wanted to call the tech support, turns out !! no toll free number, and I had to wait long time, until I ran out of patience. I called there sales, where they sure have the toll free, and they pick up the phone immediately. And I explained my problem, they took down my number, and said they will call me back, and it has been a week and no reply. Anyway I had to uninstall the complete software and install the 5.0 again (don't try system restore it will give you more probs).
For a 500 US$ software I would expect a tech support which answer phone and at least be toll free. (based on what I know it costs companies less than 50 cents per 10 mins for toll free line).
Many small things which will come in your way when you do day to day work, and drive you nuts and destroy your creative spirit, and make you fight with the technical problems, and missing manuals. Once a while you can resort to forums for answer, but that is not very productive having to learn so many things about the software, synths, settings, etc etc etc.
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