SONAR LE

(Windows 2000/XP)
README.RTF Copyright 2005 Twelve Tone Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cakewalk is a registered trademark, and SONAR is a trademark of Twelve Tone Systems, Inc. This file contains supplemental information on SONAR LE. It was prepared on March 11, 2005.

Contents
Top Issues in SONAR LE............................................................................................................... 2 Windows 2000/XP and SONAR............................................................................................... 2 Backwards Compatibility.......................................................................................................... 2 Bus Solo.................................................................................................................................... 2 Track Interleave and Pre-SONAR LE Projects...................................................................... 2 Pre-Fader Sends and Pre-SONAR LE Projects......................................................................... 3 Keyboard Shortcut For Preview Loop In Loop Construction View......................................3 Keyboard Shortcut For Preview Loop In Loop Explorer View............................................. 3 Keyboard Shortcut For Play Event In Event List View......................................................... 3 Audio Performance Issues.............................................................................................................. 3 DeZippering (Smoothing) When Gapping................................................................................ 3 Disable Automatic Plug-In Delay Compensation (PDC).......................................................... 4 DXis & Look-ahead Processing at High Latencies................................................................. 5 Sampling DXi's and the "Enable Multiprocessing Engine" Audio Option............................... 5 HyperThreading / Multiprocessor Optimization....................................................................... 5 MIDI Prepare Buffer Size and Automation.............................................................................. 5 Improve Responsiveness of Real-Time MFX Plug-Ins............................................................ 5 Confidence Recording Waveform Previews............................................................................. 6 Meter Frame Size...................................................................................................................... 6 Control Surfaces With Jog Wheel............................................................................................. 6 General............................................................................................................................................. 7 Cakewalk External Encoder Config Utility.............................................................................. 7 Track View Widget Reordering................................................................................................ 7 Warning: Input Echo May Cause Feedback Loop.................................................................... 9 Always Display Widgets in Track Header Bar....................................................................... 10 Display Drop Shadow On Clips.............................................................................................. 10 Console View Auto-Resizing.................................................................................................. 10 User Control of Pause During File Save................................................................................. 11

Automatically Sending Controller Resets to DXis................................................................ 11 Upgrading to SONAR from an Earlier Version of a Cakewalk Product................................11 Known Issues................................................................................................................................. 12 QuickTime Issues.................................................................................................................... 12 Audio Metronome Issues........................................................................................................ 12 Enabling Mono on a Bus/Main Will Affect Upstream Meters............................................... 12 Adding MIDI Device May Break Control Surface Support and MIDI Key Bindings...........12 MP3 Files With 256K Bit Rate May Not Play in SONAR LE............................................... 12 Using Cakewalk Kinetic Groove Synth in SONAR LE.......................................................... 13 Importing MPEG 2 Files in SONAR LE................................................................................ 13 Successive Snapshots Do Not Update Envelope Node Values............................................... 13 Staff View Font May Require Reboot After SONAR is Installed.......................................... 13 Can't Print if Staff View is Floating........................................................................................ 13 Muted MIDI Ranges are Not Distinguished Visually............................................................. 13

Top Issues in SONAR LE

Windows 2000/XP and SONAR
To install and run SONAR in Windows 2000, Windows XP Professional and Home Edition, you must be logged in as a user with administrative privileges. To use the product you must be logged in as the same user that installed the program; otherwise, you will not have access to your DirectX effects presets. To install SONAR in Windows 2000, you must have Service Pack 4 (SP4) installed. Please visit http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/downloads/servicepacks/sp4 for information on downloading and installing Windows 2000 SP4.

Backwards Compatibility
SONAR LE can load SONAR 1.x, SONAR 2.x, SONAR 3.x, and SONAR 4.x projects, but projects that are saved in SONAR LE cannot be re-opened in SONAR 1.x or SONAR 2.x. In case you need to open a pre-SONAR LE project in an earlier version of SONAR, it is recommended that you always create a backup copy of the original project before you re-save the project in SONAR LE.

Bus Solo
When a bus is soloed, SONAR will not mute MIDI tracks that are assigned to external MIDI ports. This is intentional, as the external MIDI devices audio output might be fed back to SONAR via an audio track input.

Track Interleave and Pre-SONAR LE Projects

When loading pre-SONAR LE projects in SONAR LE, please be advised that the Track Interleave toggle behaves differently in SONAR LE, which may result in your pre-SONAR LE projects sounding a little differently. In SONAR 3.1.1, the track interleave button implicitly specifies the input interleave of the effects bin. It has no effect on the actual data streamed out of the track bus when no effects are present. In SONAR LE, track interleave button actually specifies how the data is streamed to downstream buses. For example, you can now switch a stereo tracks interleave to mono and it will send mono data from its output (or sends) to all downstream buses. SONAR 3.1.1 doesn't do this - it ignores the track interleave button unless effects are present. This change will potentially make a SONAR 3.1.1 project sound different if it was saved with the interleave button set to mono but no effects were present in the effect bin. If this is an issue, and you need the project to sound the same again, simply set the track interleave button back to the desired state.

Pre-Fader Sends and Pre-SONAR LE Projects

In SONAR 3, track/bus mute and solo affected pre-fader sends. This has changed in SONAR LE, where mute and solo has no effect on pre-fader sends. Please be advised that mixes created in SONAR 3 may sound different in SONAR LE when soloing and muting tracks/buses if pre-fader sends were used.

Keyboard Shortcut For Preview Loop In Loop Construction View

In previous versions of SONAR, the keyboard shortcut for Preview Loop in the Loop Construction view was Shift+Spacebar. Please note that this has changed to Ctrl+Shift+Spacebar in SONAR LE since Shift+Spacebar is now a global command for auditioning the selected data in a project.

Keyboard Shortcut For Preview Loop In Loop Explorer View

In previous versions of SONAR, the keyboard shortcut for Preview Loop in the Loop Explorer view was Shift+Spacebar. Please note that this shortcut has been overridden in SONAR LE by the global Audition command that previews selected data in a project. Use the Key Bindings dialog (Options-Key Bindings) to assign a new keyboard shortcut for Preview Loop in the Loop Explorer View Binding Context.

Keyboard Shortcut For Play Event In Event List View

In previous versions of SONAR, the keyboard shortcut for Play Event in the Loop Explorer view was Shift+Spacebar. Please note that this has changed to Ctrl+Shift+Spacebar in SONAR LE since Shift+Spacebar is now a global command for previewing the selected data.

Audio Performance Issues

The following issues concern improving and troubleshooting audio performance in SONAR.

DeZippering (Smoothing) When Gapping

GapDezipperUsec=<0-1000> (default=500)* In SONAR LE the audio engine will now render a smooth fade in whenever audio playback is interrupted and there is a abrupt transition in gain. The purpose of doing this is to dezipper (smooth out) the gain transition due to the discontinuity. For example, if you click on the time ruler to jump to a new time location during playback, the engine will smoothly render the transition to the new gain level as a fade in. This smoothing also takes place whenever playback gapping occurs. You can control the fade in time via the GapDezipperUsec variable. This new AUD.INI variable is expressed in microseconds per dB and controls the speed of the fade in to the new gain value. ( default = 500 microseconds. i.e the fade will take 500 microseconds per change in dB at the transition point). You may increase or shorten the time of the fade by increasing or decreasing this value. The normal legal value range for this variable is 0 to 1000 microseconds. This variable should be set in the [Wave] section. For example: [Wave] GapDezipperUsec=500 A value of zero turns off dezippering on gapping completely. MixDezipperUsec=<0-1000> (default=50)* This variable is similar to GapDezipperUsec except that it controls how the mixer itself renders abrupt gain transitions due to envelopes in the project. This variable is expressed in microseconds per dB and controls the speed of the fade in to the new gain value (default = 50 microseconds). The normal legal value range for this variable is 0 to 1000 microseconds. This variable should be set in the [Wave] section. For example: [Wave] MixDezipperUsec=50 * IMPORTANT: Changing the value of this variable will affect how envelopes are rendered by the mixer and may cause your mixes to sound slightly different. Setting MixDezipperUsec too

low can cause clicks while rendering abrupt gain changes due to envelopes.

Disable Automatic Plug-In Delay Compensation (PDC)

EnableLiveADCRecalc=<0-1> (default=1) By default, SONAR performs automatic plug-in delay compensation (PDC) after an audio signal routing change. This ensures that the audio is always in sync, but may result in a brief gap during the routing change. This new AUD.INI variable lets you disable automatic plug-in delay compensation, with the caveat that audio may be slightly out of sync during. When set to zero, SONAR will bypass nearly all of the expensive work that needs to get done to recompute plug-in delay compensation after an audio signal routing change. The audio will be slightly out of sync -- imperceptibly if you are running at very low latency -- but there won't be a gap. This variable should be set in the [Wave] section. For example: [Wave] EnableLiveADCRecalc=0 A value of zero turns off PDC during playback. Regardless of how this variable is set, PDC gets recomputed when you stop and restart playback.

DXis & Look-ahead Processing at High Latencies

Some plug-ins, such as the Sonitus:fx Multiband and other dynamics processors, use a look-ahead buffer mechanism, which results in a short delay being introduced to the output signal when the plug-in is used in real-time. SONARs automatic delay compensation (ADC) takes care of any delays, but you may experience some anomalies when using such a plug-in to process the output of a DXiespecially if SONAR is configured to use a high mixing latency. The symptoms include audio that appears to drop out, and/or missed notes (from the MIDI track that is assigned to the DXi). Again, this is more prone to occur with higher latency settings. This may happen if SONAR doesnt pump ahead enough MIDI data to compensate for ADC. To fix this problem, go to Options-Global-MIDI and increase the Prepare Using [n] Millisecond Buffers value.

Sampling DXi's and the "Enable Multiprocessing Engine" Audio Option

A few DXi's that employ sample playback may click or pop if the multiprocessing audio engine is enabled. At the time of the SONAR LE release we have confirmed that the DS864 DXi and the LiveSynth Pro both have this limitation.

HyperThreading / Multiprocessor Optimization

The audio configuration dialog (Options-Audio) has a checkbox "Enable MultiProcessing Engine" on the Advanced page. This checkbox is only active on multi-processing (or hyper-threaded) machines. When checked, the audio engine will use a dedicated worker thread for each CPU, and optimally distribute mixing and DSP tasks across multiple CPU's. You will notice significant performance benefits on true multi-processor systems with this option enabled.

MIDI Prepare Buffer Size and Automation

If your project contains several track/clip automation envelopes, setting your MIDI playback buffer size too low (in Options-Global-MIDI) can cause audio to crackle if your audio latency is also set very low. This problem will be somewhat worse if you enable multiprocessing in the audio engine. To minimize or eliminate these crackles, please be sure to keep your MIDI playback buffers at or above the default setting of 500 msec.

Improve Responsiveness of Real-Time MFX Plug-Ins

MfxLookAhead=<ticks> (default=960*4) This new TTSSEQ.INI variable defines how much extra MIDI data is sent to MFX plug-ins, so that they have extra room to quantize events into the future. Lower values mean MFX plug-ins can work more "just in time". This variable should be set in the [OPTIONS] section. For example: [OPTIONS] MfxLookAhead=480

Confidence Recording Waveform Previews

WavePreviewSampleFrequency=<1-10> (default=1) By default, waveform previews take a meter sample for each meter frame. The default interval between meter frames is 40 milliseconds. The WavePreviewSampleFrequency CAKEWALK.INI variable lets you specify how frequent samples are taken. The value can be an integer between 1 and 10, and represents the number of frames to sample. It goes in the [Wincake] section of CAKEWALK.INI. For example: [WinCake] WavePreviewSampleFrequency=1 With the default value (1), every meter frame gets written to the history file. With higher values (2-10), frames will be skipped, causing fewer history frames to be written to the history file. Higher values may be desirable if the waveform previews are affecting playback performance.

Meter Frame Size

MeterFrameSizeMS=<10-200> (default=40)* Meters in SONAR show peak (or RMS) values at a given instant in time. The actual peak value displayed by a meter is the highest peak recorded in an interval of time referred to as a "Meter Frame". The default size for a meter frame is 40 milliseconds, which is an accuracy of 25 FPS. The MeterFrameSizeMS AUD.INI variable allows you to change the size of this interval. It goes in the [Wave] section of AUD.INI. For example:
[Wave]

MeterFramSizeMS=40 Setting this value to a lower value will make the meters record peak info for smaller time slices. However this can also increase the metering CPU and memory cost. * = although SONAR doesnt enforce a fixed value range, the recommended range should be between 10 and 200 milliseconds.

Control Surfaces With Jog Wheel

There are two new CAKEWALK.INI variables that control the behavior of using a control surface jog wheel to change SONARs Now time: JogPosTimer=<milliseconds> (default=120) PauseOnJog=<0 or 1> (default=0; off) JogPosTimer is the period of the now time throttle. When a jog message comes in, SONAR sets the transport time immediately but will not set the transport time again for this length of time. During the time, SONAR just remember the latest jog time received. PauseOnJog is the main switch. 1 does a pause and invokes the throttle timer. 0 just sends the now time with no pause and no throttle timer. If 0, the setting of JogPauseTimer is "don't care". This variable should be set in the [Wincake] section. For example: [Wincake] JogPosTimer=120 PauseOnJog=0

General
The following topics cover general issues in SONAR.

Cakewalk External Encoder Config Utility

SONAR LE supports external command-line encoders, such as LAME, Ogg Vorbis, Monkeys

Audio, etc. If an external command-line encoder is installed on your machine, the Cakewalk External Encoder Config utility allows you to add the encoder to SONARs list of available file formats when exporting audio (File-Export-Audio). To use the utility, start SONAR and go to Tools-Cakewalk Ext Encoder Config, then specify the proper settings or the encoder you wish to use.

Track View Widget Reordering

In SONAR LE, it is possible to alter the default order layout of the Controls (Widgets) in the Track view. This requires adding entries to the CAKEWALK.INI file. All non-fixed controls (controls not forced in the track header like Name, Mute, Solo, Record Arm, minimize and maximize) will layout based on these INI keys. You can independently change the order for Audio Tracks, MIDI Tracks, and Buses by putting entries in three different sections: [Audio Widgets], [Midi Widgets], and [Bus Widgets] Each type of strip has a fixed number of widgets. Type of Strip Audio Track MIDI Track Bus Number of Widgets 8 13 8

Each type of strip has different types of widgets on it as well which are identified by name. The following table shows the names of the widgets for each type of strip: Audio Track Volume Pan Trim Input Output Fx Aux Interleave MIDI Track Volume Pan Trim Input Output Fx Bus Volume Pan Contents of Widget Group Volume Slider Pan Slider Trim Slider Input Selector Output Selector Fx Bin Aux Send, Pan, Enable, Pre-Post switch Phase and Interleave switches Input Gain Slider Input Pan Slider MIDI Channel Picker MIDI Program Bank Picker MIDI Patch Picker MIDI Key Offset MIDI Time Offset

Output Fx Aux Interleave Inputgain Inputpan

Channel Bank Patch Key Time

Chorus Reverb How the INI is formatted to reorder widgets A Key-Value pair is defined as: Wn=name

MIDI Chorus ( CC99 ) Slider MIDI Reverb ( CC91 ) Slider

where n is the sort order, and name is the widget group name. The name is not case sensitive. Start with a section name for the type of strip you want to reorder widgets on. It looks like this for Audio Tracks: [Audio Track] Now, add the 8 entries that specify the widget order for Audio Tracks. Here is one example: W0=Volume W1=Pan W2=Interleave W3=Trim W4=FX W5=Aux W6=Output W7=Input Note: the layout order will revert to the hard-wired list if any of these scenarios are true: 1. 2. 3. 4. Any section is missing Any individual key is missing False value or name for a key Duplicate keys

All sections and keys must succeed, or SONAR reverts to the default hard-wired layout order. Example of working widget reordering entries In order to customize the control layout order, you can copy the sections below and paste them into CAKEWALK.INI. The layout below mimics the hard-wired layout. To reverse, for example, the Volume and Pan order, set W0=Pan and W1=Volume. These settings are loaded *ONCE* per strip when the strip is created, so you can for example make a change to the [MIDI Widgets] section and create another MIDI strip with the new layout (you don't have to restart the application), but all MIDI strips will have the same layout the next time you open the project. [Audio Widgets] W0=Volume W1=Pan

W2=Interleave W3=Trim W4=FX W5=Aux W6=Output W7=Input [Midi Widgets] W0=Volume W1=Pan W2=Trim W3=FX w4=Reverb w5=Chorus W6=Channel w7=Bank w8=Patch W9=Output W10=Input w11=Key w12=Time [Bus Widgets] W0=InputGain W1=InputPan W2=Volume W3=Pan W4=Output W5=Aux W6=FX W7=Interleave

Warning: Input Echo May Cause Feedback Loop

Depending on how your studio equipment is connectedand how audio tracks in a SONAR project are routed--keep in mind that Input Echo on audio tracks may introduce feedback loops which can cause damage to your speakers. If your sound card has a "What U Hear" record input, please disable/mute this input before using Input Echo on audio tracks, and if you are using an external mixer, please lower its master volume before proceeding. In case of feedback, choose Transport-Reset.

Always Display Widgets in Track Header Bar

TVWidgetsStickInHeader=<0 or 1> (default=0) By default, Track view controls (widgets) will only appear in the track header bar if the track is minimized and there is enough room to display at least one control.

SONAR LE has a CAKEWALK.INI variable that allows you to always display controls in the track header bars, regardless of whether a tracks are minimized or not. It goes in the [Wincake] section of CAKEWALK.INI. For example: [Wincake] TVWidgetsStickInHeader=1 When TRUE (value=1) widgets stay in the header bar regardless of the height of a track. Note: the following controls will never appear in the track header bar: Send widgets, Meters, and Vertical FX Bin.

Display Drop Shadow On Clips

ShowClipShadow=<0 or 1> (default=0) By default, a drop shadow is not displayed on clips in the Track view. This is different from previous versions of SONAR. SONAR LE has a CAKEWALK.INI variable that allows you to always display a drop shadow on clips. It goes in the [Wincake] section of CAKEWALK.INI. For example: [Wincake] ShowClipShadow=1 When TRUE (value=1) clips display a small drop shadow.

Console View Auto-Resizing

By default, the Console view will automatically resize itself vertically as modules are shown or hidden. If you prefer, you can keep the Console view from automatically resizing by holding down the Shift key as you click on a modules Show/Hide toggle (leftmost pane in the Console view). This will preserve the current Console view size without resizing the view to fit all visible modules.

User Control of Pause During File Save

PauseDuringSave=<0 or 1> (default=0) By default, when saving a project file during playback, SONAR saves the file asynchronously while playback continues. While this is not a problem with most projects, complex projects under high CPU load conditions (particularly while running under low latency) may take longer to save than if the transport was not playing. The new CAKEWALK.INI variable PauseDuringSave changes the default behavior and pauses playback temporarily for the duration of the file save. This allows the file save to proceed as fast as possible before playback resumes.

PauseDuringSave should be set in the [WINCAKE] section of CAKEWALK.INI. Legal Values are: 0 (default): file is saved asynchronously while playback continues. The save operation may take longer than if the transport was not playing. 1: playback is paused for the duration of the file save operation. This allows the file save to proceed as fast as possible, resuming playback when completed. For example: [WINCAKE] PauseDuringSave=1

Automatically Sending Controller Resets to DXis

SendResetsToSoftSynths=<0 or 1> (default=0) This new TTSSEQ.INI variable controls (globally) whether SONAR sends MIDI controller resets to DXis. This variable should be set in the [OPTIONS] section. Legal values are: 0 (default): Resets are not sent to DXis 1: SONAR will send MIDI controller resets to DXis. This is what SONAR already does for hardware synths. For example: [OPTIONS] SendResetsToSoftSynths=1 If you are freezing synth tracks that have MIDI controller messages, setting this variable to TRUE (1) will ensure that synths will have their MIDI controllers reset before a freeze operation.

Upgrading to SONAR from an Earlier Version of a Cakewalk Product

SONAR SETUP does not overwrite your existing MASTER.INS file. That file contains the instrument definitions that SONAR loads every time it starts. SETUP installs new .INS files for each supported manufacturer. These files contain the latest complete set of available instrument definitions. To learn how to import any of these .INS files, see the online Help topic titled "Importing Instrument Definitions.

Known Issues
The following topics cover known issues in SONAR that may be addressed in the future.

QuickTime Issues
In order to import QuickTime files in SONAR LE, you must install both the filter AND QuickTime. Below are some other known QuickTime issues: QuickTime Import requires version 6.5.1 or higher of the QuickTime Player to be installed.

Audio Metronome Issues

The default audio metronome sounds are 44.1kHz samples. This may result in a pop when playback or record is started and stopped when using audio hardware that use a native sample rate of 48kHz (such as SB Live!). This is an artifact of the internal sample rate conversion that the audio hardware performs. Note: this is not an issue if your SONAR projects use the 48kHz sample rate.

Enabling Mono on a Bus/Main Will Affect Upstream Meters

If you make a bus or main out mono by toggling its Mono/Stereo switch, any upstream meters that is, meters on any tracks or buses that are assigned to the mono bus/main out--from the bus/main out will also display as mono. Note: this only affects the meter display, not any audio that is bounced or exported.

Adding MIDI Device May Break Control Surface Support and MIDI Key Bindings
When adding a new MIDI Device in Options-MIDI Devices, control surface support and MIDI key bindings may no longer work properly. Restarting SONAR will solve this problem.

MP3 Files With 256K Bit Rate May Not Play in SONAR LE
MP3 files that are created in Cakewalk MediaWorks version 1.0 with a setting of 256K, may play back as silence when imported into SONAR LE. This may also apply to MP3 files that are authored in SONAR LE at 44.1kHz, 16-bit, 256K joint stereo. Other bit rates should be fine.

Using Cakewalk Kinetic Groove Synth in SONAR LE

If you are a Cakewalk Kinetic customer and you are using the Kinetic Groove Synth in SONAR, please be advised that any saved SONAR projects that make use of the Groove Synth can no longer be opened if you uninstall Kinetic. Attempting to open such a project may result in a crash. The Kinetic uninstaller is removing the Groove Synth sample file, but not the actual synth. Both must co-exist or you will run into the issue above. To address this, make a backup copy of the P5antom *.DAT file before uninstalling Kinetic, then copy/move P5antom *.DAT file back to its original location after Kinetic has been uninstalled.

Importing MPEG 2 Files in SONAR LE

SONAR LE does not directly support MPEG 2 import, but if you have installed Cakewalk Pyro Plus, SONAR LE will be able to import MPEG 2 files by virtue of the shared libraries and filters from the Ligos components of Pyro Plus. However, please be advised that if WinDVD or Power DVD have been installed before Pyro Plus (or MediaWorks) is installed, SONAR may crash when attempting to import MPEG 2 files.

Successive Snapshots Do Not Update Envelope Node Values

When taking multiple automation snapshots at the same Now time, new envelope nodes are created instead of updating any existing envelope nodes. To address this issue, undo the previous automation snapshot before performing a new snapshot.

Staff View Font May Require Reboot After SONAR is Installed

SONAR installs a font that is used by the Staff view. This font is only installed temporarily when SONAR is installed, and becomes permanently installed after the machine is rebooted. On some machineseven if the Staff View font is successfully temporarily installedsome functions that reference the font may fail until after a reboot. The problem is easily identified by corrupt Staff View graphics.

Can't Print if Staff View is Floating

It is not possible to print the Staff view if the Staff view is float-enabled. If necessary, temporarily disable floating if you need to print from the Staff view.

Muted MIDI Ranges are Not Distinguished Visually

When using the Mute Tool to mute a time range in a MIDI clip, there is no visual indication in the Piano Roll View, the Event List or the Staff View to differentiate between muted and unmuted data.

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