31 Days of Sonar X3 Tips by Craig Anderton

August 1: The Overachieving Meters

To change resolution for any audio meter, in any view, right-click on it and choose a range of
12, 24, 42, 60, 78, or 90 dB.
Each meter can have its own range.With the Console view, I set the output bus meters to 12
dB to help gauge the approximate amount of loudness maximization that may be required.
For example, if the meters make it to 0 but otherwise spend very little time in those upper 12
dB, then the track will probably need to be made hotter when mastering.For the Track View
track meters, choosing the maximum resolution (90 dB) helps reveal if theres noise at the
lower range of an incoming signal.
In Track View, the meters can be vertical or horizontal. Choose Options > Meter Options and
select the desired option. When vertical, the meters behave more like activity/clipping
indicators, because when you collapse the track to a short height, you basically see only
activity and clipping. If you use the Console for mixing, this is a good choice because you can
see more track parameters in the Tracks Pane, as the vertical meters dont take up space
along the bottom.
If you generally mix using the Track View rather than the Console, then you can extend the
width of the Track Pane, enable horizontal metering, set them to a fairly wide playback range,
and enjoy high-resolution metering.Also under Options > Meter Options, you can specify the
Record, Playback, and Bus meter characteristics. Choose from Peak, RMS, or Peak+RMS
(my favorite choice) response, whether playback meters are pre- or post-fader, and whether
bus meters are pre-fader, post-fader, or pre-fader and post-FX. These settings are
independent from equivalent meter settings for the Console view.You can also choose
whether peaks are held or locked (I recommend checking both), as well as show Peak
Markers. These indicate the highest point in the track and can be extremely useful when
mastering.
This kind of flexibility allows the Track and Console views to be far more than just two ways to
view the same type of material. For example, the Console meters are probably better set to
post-fader, so you can see at a glance which tracks are contributing the most amount of level.
But in Track view, a pre-fader setting lets you monitor track activity so you can check whether
a Track has signal, regardless of the fader position.The metering options are just one more
reason why I tend to mix in Console view, but track and edit in Track View.

August 2: The Biggest, Baddest Drum Reverb Sound Ever

You want big-sounding drums? Want your metal drum tracks to sound like the Drums of Doom? Keep
reading. This technique transposes a copy of the reverb and pans the two reverb tracks oppositely. It
works best with unpitched sounds like percussion.

Insert a send in your drum track, then insert the Breverb (or your reverb of choice) in the Send bus.
Youll
now need to bounce the reverb sound without any dry signal so that the reverb is isolated in its
own track; that way its suitable for processing. Probably the simplest option is to solo and select the
track to which you want to add reverb, choose Tracks > Bounce to Track(s), select Buses from the
Source Category drop-down menu, highlight only the bus with the Breverb plug-in in the Source
Buses/Tracks box, and then click OK. You now have a new track with only the reverb sound for the
track you soloed.
Copy the new reverb track by selecting it and then choosing Tracks > Clone Track(s). Select the cloned
reverb track and then choose Process > Transpose. Select -1 semitone (or more) for the Amount, make
sure Transpose Audio is checked, then click OK.
Pan the two reverb tracks oppositely, but this neednt be extremefor example 60% left for one track
and 60% right for the other works fine (and dont forget to disable the send to the Breverb from the
audio track). Youll
be rewarded with a bigger, wider reverb sound.
But really...theres no need to stop there. Transpose one reverb track by -7 semitones and the other by
-10 semitones, and to help restore a sense of reality, enable the send to the original reverb and add that
to the transposed sounds. Although I recommend this technique mostly for insane percussion reverb, it
can work with some melodic parts if you transpose one reverb by -7 semitones to produce a reverb clip
thats a fifth below the other reverb clip.

August 3: Have You Visited the Browser...Lately?

Another long tip, hope that's okay...I'll do something shorter for tomorrow.
Without much fanfare, Cakewalk has been tweaking the browser over the last several updates to where
its a very different animal compared to X1. These differences arent obvious if you keep using the
Browser the way you always have, so here are some browser coolnesses to check out.
When using the Media browser, if you choose Views from the Media drop-down menu, choosing
Folders turns the Browser into a Sonarizedversion of Windows Explorer that makes it easy to
browse through CD-ROMs, drives dedicated to samples, and the like. If you choose Views > Details,
the right pane shows the filename along with the size, type (e.g., WAV, REX, AIFF), and when it was
last modified. Youll probably need to widen the Browser if you want to show all of this at once; as the
Browser width is limited to a certain percentage of Sonars overall window, I find a dual-monitor setup
really helps when expanding Browser options to the max.
Furthermore, selecting Folders shows only files that are relevant to Sonar, which simplifies workflow.
However, you can see files of any type by selecting Show All Files And Folders.
The Media drop-down menu is also where you can choose to refresh views. The Media tabs dropdown menu to the right of the Content Box (the box below the Media Browser tab) organizes Sonars
content, so if you want to browse (for example) the included Step Sequencer or MIDI Groove Clip
patterns, select what you want from the drop-down menu. Sonar X3 can browse the Project Audio

Folder as well, so you can see (and audition) all the files used in the current project. You can even
browse Track Icons and drag them into a project (although I havent figured out a way to see the track
icons picture), and also drag in Track Templates.
If youve
chosen the Folders view, clicking on a particular type of content highlights its location in the
left panes file tree (for example, youll
see that PTN MIDI Patterns are located in the Sonar X3 folder,
but the RXP REX Loops default to the Contents folder inside the RXP folder under VstPlugins in the
Cakewalk folder under Program Files).
Also note you can create and delete locations. For example, if you access a folder called Loop Libraries
a lot, select it in the left pane, open it to reveal the files (the folders name will show in the Content
Box), then click the Save (Disk) button to the right of the Content Box. This location will now join the
other locations in the drop-down menu. You can also double-click in the Content Box to rename a
location.

August 4: Ethereal Pads and Choirs with TH2 Producer's Parallel Processing
One of TH2's cooler features is that it has a crossover/splitter. I use the splitter all the time with bass to
preserve the dry sound while processing the parallel path, thus keeping the low end intact regardless of
whatever processing gets added. I also use the crossover with distortion to reduce intermodulation
distortion by distorting the high and low frequencies separately.
However, here's another interesting crossover application that works great withvocal choirs and string
pads, but can even work well with solo vocals.
Use the Splitter module in Normal mode to send only high frequencies to one path, while the other path
carries the remaining frequencies. Set the Splitter's balance control to send the desired amount of each
band to each path.
Insert an effect into the high-frequency path (try modulation effects like chorus, phaser, or flanger,
and/or time-based effects like delay or reverb). If you restrict the high-frequency range sufficiently
(e.g., above 3-5kHz or so), you can add a significant amount of the effect without sounding excessive.
Use the TH2 Mixer Pro modules Balance slider to adjust the ratio of processed highs to dry lows.
Now your airy, high frequencies provide the ethereal layer of processing to complement the dry lower
frequencies. Try it...it works!

August 5: Super-Fast MIDI Pattern Auditions in SD 3

Listen up, Session Drummer 3 fans! Sure,Addictive Drums is coolbut Session Drummer 3 remains
very useful. Here's how to make it easier to use.

You can choose different MIDI patterns within SD3s Drumkit page by clicking on the MIDI field in
the lower left, selecting Load Pattern, and navigating to a pattern. But its faster to use the Browser.
In the Browser, click on the Media tabs drop-down menu; for Synth Preview Output, select Session
Drummer.From the Contents Drop-Down menu, choose Session Drummer 3 MIDI Drum Loops (if
your browser doesn't show this, see the August 3 tip for how to make this happen).Youre set up and
ready to auditionclick on a pattern to play it.
This assumes the Browsers Auto Preview function is on, if not you need to click on the Start/Stop
Preview button. Once on, you can use the QWERTY keyboard up and down arrow keys to step through
the patterns. As soon as you land on a pattern, it loads immediately and begins playing. It can be very
inspirational to call up the wrong pattern with the wrong kit. Jazz patterns and techno drums
kits...check it out.
While youre in the Media Browser, if you like a pattern, then double-click on it to insert it into the
currently-selected MIDI track, at the Now time.
Even better, this process makes it easy to build up a drum part from simple patterns. For example if you
like a kick drum pattern, double-click on it to insert. Then if you find a perfect high-hat pattern and
double-click on it without changing the Now time or track, it will layer in the same track, on top of the
kick pattern.
If the patterns arent the same length, no problem. Turn on the tracks Take Lanes to see each pattern in
its own lane within the track. Here you can lengthen or shorten particular patterns (theyre groove
clips, so you can roll them out as you would loops). You can keep separate lanes for separate patterns
for the most editing flexibility, or bounce them all into a single MIDI track.
Cool, eh?

August 6: Fun with the Magnifying Glass Zoom

Sometimes the short tips are the ones you use all the time - hopefully todays installment
meets that standard.
The top half of the Track view time ruler has some useful properties. Hover the cursor over it,
and the cursor turns into a magnifying glass. Hold down the left mouse button and drag down
to zoom in, or up to zoom out horizontally. Do the same thing while holding down the right
mouse button for vertical zooming.
Thats useful, but there are also two shortcuts I use all the time:
Double-click with the magnifying glass in the top half of the time ruler, and the entire
project zooms in or out horizontally to fit within the track view.
Double-click with the magnifying glass in the top half of the time ruler within a loop to
select the region defined by the loop.

But wait theres more! You can also undo and redo zooms. Place the cursor in a space
within the track view, then while holding down the right mouse button, click the left mouse
button to undo the zoom. To redo zoom, hold down the left mouse button and click the right
mouse button.

August 7: The Multitrack Loop Browser

as there have been some recent posts about loops, the browser, and auditioning files, I thought it was
the right time for one of my favorite loops-meets-browser tips.
You can audition multiple loops simultaneously in the Browser. Multiple file auditioning is particularly
useful with samples from construction kit sample libraries (e.g., those that break loops down into
individual parts), as you can hear how the parts work together.
There are two constraints:
The loops must all be in the same folder.
If the loops are acidized or Groove Clip loops, theyll all play nice together and match up wit
the host tempo (assuming you have that option enabled in the browser). If not, any files need to
be at the same tempo and key to play together.
And this time, there's even step-by-step instructions!
1. Click the Browsers Media tab and select the desired content folder.
2. Enable Auto-Preview, Loop Preview, and (presumably) Preview at Host Tempo so as soon as you
select a loop youll hear it play with the others.
3. Click on the first loop to select it and hear it play.
4. To add a loop, ctrl-click on another loop in the Browsers list of files.
6. To de-select an already-selected loop, ctrl-click on it again.
If youve selected loops multiple loops you want to use, dragging the entire group over to the track
view loads them into the project.

August 8: EZ Noise Removal Between Vocal and Instrumental Phrases

You may not object much to low-level noise because other instruments mask it, but removing it makes
for a cleaner recording...it's like removing a layer of dust from a fine painting. So let's journey deep
into the oft-neglected world of Sonar DSP, and make the Remove Silence function do our bidding.

But before we do, remember Anderton's First Law of Noise Reduction: Noise reduction works best on
signals that don't have a lot of noise in the first place. Fortunately that's often the case, where a track
will have a bit of mic preamp hiss or whatever, and that's where this tip will help the most.The Remove
Silence function removes most noise automatically, and you can set an attack and decay time to
determine the time it takes for the signal to come in from, and decay back to, the removed (silent)
sections.
Select the clip to be processed, then from the Process menu, choose Apply Effect > Remove Silence.
The parameters are very much like those of a noise gate; the Open Level parameter is the level where
the sound is no longer considered silent, while Close Level is where removing the silence kicks in. The
correct values depend on the clips level and the amount of noise, but -30 dB to -35 dB is a good place
to start.
Attack and Release times around 5-10ms prevent overly abrupt transitions. The Hold time prevents
chatter if the threshold is fluctuating around the open and close levelsstart around 50 ms or so, and
also dial in about 10 ms of look-ahead. Checking "Split clips" makes it easier to tweak attack and decay
times later if needed.
After setting up the parameters, click on OK. Listen carefully to make sure nothing was cut off
abruptly, because removing silence trims the clip. If you decide you cut off too much of an attack, slipediting the clip wont solve the problem; undo and try again.
While Remove Silence is fast, removing silence manually gives the most flexibility. Choose the split
tool, or with the smart tool selected, hold down Alt. Cut at the end of one phrase, and the beginning of
the next. Delete the section between the splits. To smooth the transition from signal to silence or viceversa, hover the smart tool over the fade handles, and add appropriate fades.

August 9: Faux REX Files in Sonar

To create true REX files, you need Propellerheads ReCycle program. This is a very cool piece of
software with multiple users, including signal processing...but thats a another subject for another time.
Were going to cover how to obtain very similar benefits within Sonar.
For time-stretching, you have three main options: DSP, Acidization, and REX. REX is at its best for
percussive loops with well-defined hits, because depending on the source material it can stretch without
degrading the digital audio itself. Where REX doesnt work well is pads or sustained events (like a
crash cymbal spilling over several beats), but if you can slice a drum loop into individual elements that
sound okay by themselves, you can stretch them pretty much as far as you wantnot just faster, but
also slower. To do this in Sonar:
1. Load your loop, and set the project tempo to the loops native tempo (this is crucial). The audio
should a WAV file, not a groove clip or RX2 file.
2. Type "A" to open the AudioSnap panel and turn it on.
3. Clip on Edit Clip Map. The Edit Filter for the track should be set to AudioTransients.

Now comes the boring part: You have to make sure there are transient markers are at the beginning of
any transients, and any transient markers that arent at transients are disabled. This is kind of tedious,
but so is specifying the slices in ReCycle, or the transient markers in the Loop Construction window.
Proper identification of transients is essential to high-quality time-stretching, and programs arent as
good at this as humans. It helps if you zoom in vertically on the waveform itself (click on the track's dB
scale and drag up)so its easy to see low-level hits, and set the threshold to catch the greatest number of
transients.
4. Once youre sure youve identified the transients correctly, click on the AudioSnap Split Beats into
Clips button (two buttons to the right of the power button).
5. Close AudioSnap and set the Edit Filter to Clips.
This is where Take Lanes come in handy. Move alternate beats into a second Take Lane so that the first
slice is in the first Take Lane, the second in the second Take Lane, the third in the first Take Lane, the
fourth in the second Take Lane, and so on.
Slowing down the tempo: If you slow the tempo down, there will be a gap at the end of a clip before
the next one starts. In the Smart Tool palette, choose the Timing Tool as the Edit Tool, and drag the
ends of each clip up to the beginning of the next clip. This stretches the clip using DSP, so for best
fidelity, youll need to bounce the clips. Probably the easiest option is to bounce all clips together to
make a new loop once youve verified it sounds good at the slower tempo. If you dont want to stretch
the audio, sometimes simply fading out each clip will do the job.
Speeding up the tempo: In this case, the end of a clip will overlap the beginning of the next clip.
Simply slip-edit the end earlier so it doesnt step on the next clip. You dont need to use stretching
DSP for this.
As with all time-stretching, speeding up will sound better than slowing down. But you can get away
with substantial tempo shifts with no discernible sonic degradation, unless you have to slow down a lot.
In that case, fading out the clip ends will preserve fidelity and probably do the job.

August 10: Synth Folder Track Coolness

Maybe this is something everyone else knows and Im just late to the party, but a Synths folder track
has some really useful characteristics.
First, if you double-click in the field below the Audio MIDI Synths Hidden strip, theres a Folder
Description notepad that holds up to 1024 charactersmore than enough to describe the synth patch
and any important attributes. If you cant see all the text, you can increase the folder track height, or
extend the panes width.
Second, the Audio MIDI Synths Hidden boxes are show/hide buttons, and these affect both the

console and track views. So if you have multiple MIDI tracks driving drums (e.g., a track for each
drum), you can de-clutter the console view (or track view) easily just by clicking the MIDI button. This
is especially handy when mixing in console view, where you often dont need to see the MIDI tracks
but need to work only on the instrument audio. Whats more, hiding/showing tracks preserves the
height in track view and the width in console view so when you show again, everything is as you left it.
Also note that you can show/hide an audio track so if you render the synth, you can stick the audio file
in the instruments folder and mute the others.
Its gotten to the point with virtual instruments where I just set up the audio, MIDI, and synth tracks as
desired for editing, then click the Hidden button to make them go away until needed. This really speeds
up workflow compared to resizing and minimizing the individual tracks in the folder.

August 11: Dual Defaults for Control Settings

Check this out, and I think youll agree it can make your life a lot easier when mixing.
Like many other programs, with Sonar double-clicking on a control will return it to its default value.
However, you can change the default for channel volume, pan, gain, aux send, and aux pan controls. If
you do, whenever you double-click on the control, it will return to the default value that you specified.
Set the control to the desired default value, right-click on the control, and for Value, choose Set SnapTo = Current. Now whenever you double-click on the control, it will return to the new default value.
The reason why this is so helpful during mixes is suppose all your levels are set exactly as desired, but
you want to boost or reduce a tracks level temporarily. If you save the current value first, you can edit
away but always return back to the setting you specified.
And in true Sonar tradition: But wait, theres more!
A tracks Inspector control can have a different default, giving you two possible default settings per
control. For example, suppose youve set a default for a Console fader, but set a different default for
that same fader in the Inspector. If you double-click on the Console fader to return it to its default, the
Inspectors fader will return to that default as well. But if you double-click on the Inspectors fader to
return to its default, the Consoles fader will return to the Inspector faders default instead of its own
default
This also works with the various ProChannel controls. However, unlike the track controls, these
settings dont persist. If you go to a different track and come back to the track where you made the
ProChannel control defaults, the default setting will revert to whatever it was originally, not the value
you set. Still, when youre working within a track, its handy to be able to experiment with ProChannel
settings and return to what you had originally before moving on to the next track.

August 12: A Beautifully Deranged Timbre-Shifting Application

The Loop Construction window is one of my favorite Sonar features. But its not just a way to loop, its
also a way to process rhythmic tracks in totally bizarre ways. You wont believe your ears...
1. Bring a non-groove clip WAV file (preferably drums or something rhythmic) into a project, then
double-click on it to bring up the Loop Construction window. (If the file you want to use is a Groove
Clip or RX2 file, simply bounce to clip to convert it to a "virgin" WAV file.)
2. Choose Clip > Loop On/Off and make sure Loop On/Off is checked.
3. Set Threshold to 0%.
4. Click the Loop Construction's Preview button to start the loop playing.
5. Set the Pitch parameter to +24. Pretty twisted, eh?
7. Experiment with the Slice drop-down menu. Start with 16th notes for the most electro-friendly,
robotic effects, then try other values. Each slice setting produces a different type of freakazoid effect.
8. Try other pitch values as well...things start to get interesting at +8 and above. Also try variations on
the Threshold slider.
Note that with the Threshold slider at 0, you can erase transient markers with the Eraser tool to add
"stuttering" effects (think of it as the poor man's "Stutter Edit."). Although you can erase transients with
other threshold settings, in that case some markers are fixed in place and it appears like they're not
being erased. However if you then set the slider to 0, you'll see they have been erased...it's more
convenient just to set the slider to 0 in the first place.
These bizarro loops seem most effective when layered with the original loop, which should be set to
normal loop settings. They also make great breakbeats when you drop out the original loop.
Don't just read about this, TRY IT!! I think you'll be amazed.

August 13: A "Peak Hold" Trick for Mastering, or Just to Make Files Sound
"Louder"
In Console view and the Inspector, a numeric peak value attained by a track during recording or
playback appears below the meter. Track View can also show numeric peak values (this appears to the
left of the tracks meter if enabled), but has two other options you can enable under Track View
Options > Meter Options. Show Track Peak Markers and Show Bus Peak Markers display a marker
on the track or bus itself during playback or recording that indicates the highest peak attained, and
updates the numeric value and location upon encountering higher peaks. If you right-click on a tracks
Numeric Peak Value and select Go to Peak, the Now time locates automatically to the tracks highest
peak.

However, note the following:

The Peak Marker reading takes the track faders setting into account, so if for example the
waveform reaches a peak of 0.0 but the fader is set to -1.0, the peak will show as -1.0.
The peak marker will appear 40 milliseconds after the peak itself if the MeterFrameSizeMS
variable (in the AUD.ini configuration file) is set to the default. A lower value records peak info
in smaller time slices, but increases stress on the CPU and uses more memory. If you keep the
default, after you Go to Peak or locate it visually, look for the highest peak 40ms prior.
The peak markers let you see (among other things) where a track or bus went above 0dB. Whats more,
this is invaluable when mastering if you need to create as loud a master as possible to please the client,
but dont want to overdo the dynamics processing. Heres how.
Bring the file to be mastered into Sonar. Turn off any plug-ins for that track so youre compensating
solely for level changes within the audio file. Normalize the track to -0dB, not because thats
necessarily what youre going to do when you assemble an album, but because we need a reference
level. Then, decide by how much you want to increase the overall levellets say 2dB.
Play through the file to find the first peak thats over -2.0dB (or find it with Go to Peak). Select the
half-cycle containing that peak (its helpful to Snap to Nearest Zero Audio Crossings, found under Edit
> Preferences > Customization > Snap to Grid), then use the Process > Normalize function to
normalize the peak to -2.0dB.
Proceed through the file and reduce all peaks greater than -2.0 to -2.0dB, and now you can raise the
level of the entire file by 2dB. Because youre processing such a short part of the signal and not
creating any artifacts, these changes are essentially inaudible. If you do end up using limiting or
compression, you wont need to add as much, and the effect wont be as drastic. When assembling an
album, you can then raise or lower the tracks overall level to match the other tracks.

August 14: Godzilla Drum Sounds

This might seem like it's for hip-hop and EDM, but you can get a monster drum sound for rock if you
don't go too nuts.
Drums lend themselves well to a little crunch, but there are limitations. If you apply a bitcrusher like
Alias Factor, the sound will become indistinctwhich may be what you want, but I prefer to have a
monster low end and a more defined high end. This usually requires a couple tracks with a crossover,
but TH2 can do all of this in one track, and more flexibly as well.
Start the signal chain with the TH2 Splitter in Normal mode, Balance set to halfway, and a crossover
frequency around 230Hz. Send the low frequency output to the Randall amp. Other amps will work
too, but I prefer the Randalls tonal characteristics. Select Overdrive mode for the Randall, turn Gain up
about halfway, and Level to around 4 oclock.
The high-frequency split provides the clean sound, although of course you can always process it if

you want. Finally, use the TH2 Mixer Pro to combine the parallel paths back into serial. Make sure the
mixer is set to stereo, then use the Balance slider to adjust the ratio of monster lows to clean, defined
highs.
Yes, it's that simple...but you can make some pretty Godzilla drum sounds.

August 15: Remote Viewing and Control

Computers make noise. They're getting better about it (solid drives and fanless graphics cards help), but
still, if you want them to be quiet you need to either put them in an isolation box, move them to another
room, or move yourself away from the computer. Today's tip is for the latter scenario.
The Big Time feature (choose Views > Big Time), which shows the current M:B:T or SMPTE time in
large type, is pretty useful if you need to see where you are in a tune, but arent right in front of the
computer (e.g., youre several feet away, overdubbing your part with a guitar or keyboard).
You probably know that clicking in the Big Time window alternates the readout between
Bars/beats/clocks and SMPTE time, but if you right-click in the window, youll be able to change the
font, point size, style, and color (however some fonts and styles arent recognized). For maximum
visibility, I recommend the Arial Black font, yellow for the color, and 144 point size (the maximum size
you can use, but youll have to type 144 in the Size field; the preset font sizes dont go that high).
This is also very useful if youre working on audio-for-video projects with a dual-monitor setup:
float the Big Time window over to your second screen, and youll always be able to see exactly
where you are at a glance.
As far as remote control is concerned, there are two really simple remotes you can use - in fact, you
might already have one of these handy.
The first is a wireless keyboard. The range is usually sufficient, but if not, you can run an extension
USB cable to the USB receiver that picks up the wireless keyboard's signal. Done/
Another option is to run a USB extension cable to a micro keyboard, like the Korg nanokey2, and use
key bindings to bind your most used functions to keyboard keys.
Now go forth and overdub!

August 16: Future-Proof Backup!

Well, you can't have totally future-proof backup of everything...but you can come really, really close.
This backs up a project as individual audio files that you can open in anything, including other DAWs
and whatever else the world decides to throw at you in the decades ahead. These can be raw files,
include automation, include processing...pretty much whatever you want to preserve for the future.
First, hopefully you have good names for your tracks because that's the name that's going to get
exported. If your bass track is called "Track 12," good luck trying to find it later.
Start by doing a Ctrl-A to select everything, including all tracks involved in virtual instruments. Now,
you may note that the song seems to end way later than expected. That means there's a rogue
automation node or little clip of audio or something after the song. With Ctrl-A still selecting
everything, drag in the timeline from the "real" end of the song past the "alleged" end of the song, then
cut. De-select everything then Ctrl-A again, and now you should have the correct song duration.
Choose File > Export Audio. For Source Category, choose Tracks. They'll all be listed so you can
deselect something if needed. Also, choose your various export options (sample rate, bit depth, etc.);
note that this also gives you the option to bounce all tracks with or without the effects of automation,
signal processors, etc. This way you can create a set of backup files with all the goodies, and one with
just the raw tracks if you expect to upgrade your processors to the vastly superior plug-ins in SONAR
X14 sometime in the next decade. (I turn off dithering and turn on Fast Bounce unless I'm using
external inserts, which mandates real-time bouncing for at least the tracks that use the inserts.)
What's very cool about all this is that the entire track gets exported as one long clip from beginning to
end. You never have to worry about lining them up if you need to reconstruct the song.
When asked to give a name, I put the name of the song so that's what precedes the track names in the
files.Create a folder to dump all your tracks. Click Export, then wait for the process to complete.
Wait!! You're never finished with a backup until you test it. Create a new, blank project and open
the folder that has all the exported tracks. Drag them into the project, and click Play (while observing
the master level, which will probably overload - pull it down). You should hear exactly what you hear
when you play the mix, and best of all, these files can be brought into anything capable of reading
WAV files.
So even if you created a project in SONAR X3 and Mac OS X "Hello Kitty" doesn't recognize it in
2025, you still have the most important part by far - the performances themselves, with the results of
whatever add-ons (e.g., automation) you decided to include.

August 17: Fast & Easy Real-Time Effects Control

Ive mentioned in a few posts that after being a Track View kinda guy all these years Im getting into
using the Console and Inspector as well because they can provide complementary functions. One of my

favorites has been around for a while, but Ive only recently re-discovered its usefulness for easy and
fast effects automation: Assignable Controls in the Console and Inspector. Now, before you say "I
already know about that," read to the end because that's when it gets interesting.
In Sonar Producer Edition, there are four horizontal sliders below the FX slot you can assign to any
four FX parameters. To see these sliders, for the Inspector click Display > Module Options > FX >
Show Assignable Controls and for the Console, Options > FX > Show Assignable Controls.
If there are several plug-ins, click on the one you want to adjust, and the four sliders will relate to the
selected plug-in. A few older plug-ins that cannot have parameters automated will not show any
parameters (nor will FX chains), but most will, including virtual instruments.
The default for the four controls is the first four parameters in the list of plug-in parameters that appears
when you go to an automation lane to add automation. However, you can reassign these sliders to any
of a plug-ins automatable parameters. Right-click on the slider, select Reassign Control, and choose
from the list of available parameters.
This means you dont have to leave the Console view to adjust or automate crucial parameters. For
example, if you have compression plugged in to a track, you can assign Threshold, Compression
Amount, Output Level, and Attack to these knobs, making it easy to adjust parameters in context
with other tracks no window flipping.
Bu the best part as far as Im concerned is you can right click on a fader, select Remote Control, move
your mod wheel, then click Learn and now you can tweak the slider with your mod wheel. Just
remember to right-click on the fader and choose Disable Remote Control when youre done.
What with the ProChannel and effects being adjustable from the mixer with a hardware controller like a
mod wheel or pedal, the Console becomes an even friendlier mixing environment.

August 18: Inspector / Console View Synergy

Although at first glance it might seem that the Inspector just reproduces a Console channel strip, they
can actually give very different insights into a particular track or bus.
For example, I usually want to see multiple sends in the Console for tasks like adjusting reverb on
various tracks. In this instance, being able to see two sends in the Inspector is far less useful, so under
the Inspector Display option I uncheck Sends/Bank/Patch. This opens up room to choose the
Inspectors Module Options > FX > Show Assignable Controls, which I dont show on the Console
until its time to do the final mix with automation (see yesterdays tip) because I tend to adjust FX
controls on a track-by-track basis. Furthermore, until the mixing process I often dont show the FX
bins, ProChannel, or I/O in the Console; these are again modules that tend to be edited for individual
channels, making them ideal to show in the Inspector. With this type of approach, the Console becomes
like an old-school console for gain, sends, mixing, and fader automation, while the Inspector becomes

much more of a detailed editing tool.

Another application is seeing four sends at a time, because you can show different sends in the
Inspector and Console. Or you can change the metering, so that the Console shows RMS metering to be
more like the analog meters of yore, while the Inspector shows RMS+Peak meteringand as
mentioned in Day 1s tip, you can also have different ranges for meters. If you want a wider, more
diagnostic range for the Inspector and a narrower range for the console to concentrate on whats
happening at higher levels, no problem.
Two other fave Inspector talents: You can see the track and the bus it feeds simultaneously, and if you
click the Track Tab, theres a notepad where you can enter up to 1024 characters (just like the notepad
in folder track headers) perfect for when you want to take detailed notes on a session setup.

August 19: See LOTS of Sends at Once

If you want to see a lot of sends at the same time, then create a "Send-land" screenset, and adjust the
other track parameters with the Console / Inspector. Heres how.
First, create a custom Track view screenset because youll want to be able to return to this. Next, click
on the track control button that selects the different track widgets, then choose Track Control Manager
from the drop-down menu. Click on New, and create a view called Sends or Sends+Buses, depending
on which you enable. For the Audio Strip widgets, what you choose depends on making a tradeoff
between seeing a greater number of sends or a greater number of tracks. To see the most sends,
uncheck everything except for Aux, Out (if you want to see buses too), and maybe one more option,
like MSR. If at least one widget is selected other than just Aux, the track header sits on top of the bus
strips, not to the side so you can see more buses at once. If you uncheck everything except Aux,
depending on your screen size you'll be able to see more tracks at once because the track header will be
to the side of the sends.
You can add widgets other than MSR, like Volume, Edit Filter, or whatever, but that makes for a pretty
cluttered view. If all you want to do is adjust sends, keep it simple.
Next, in Track View widen the track pane (at the expense of a narrower Clips pane) until you see the
desired number of sends. Bring up the Console hieight in the Multidock so theres enough room to
select tracks; you can then edit these in the Inspector.
Ive included a screen shot because a picture is worth a thousand words...right? Also, credit where
credit is due: I first saw the basic idea for this in a post by Fast Biker Boyand I thought it was too
good to languish on page 45,659 of the forum, so I figured Id embellish on it a little bit and make it
todays Tip of the Day.

August 20: SONARs Fine-Tuning Pitch Transposition Window

SONARs digital audio transposition function (Process > Transpose) works only in semitones, but
there are some situations were you need to correct pitch in finer increments. I run into this problem all

the time when sampling notes from instruments, which may be a few cents off despite my best efforts
at tuning them.
The solution is remarkably simple. Open the audio that needs to be fixed in the Loop Construction
window, but dont turn it into a Groove Clip. In other words, dont type Ctrl+Linstead, just select the
audio and choose Views > Loop Construction.
From the Clip drop-down menu, check Stretch On/Off. Move the Threshold slider to 0 so there are no
transient markers.
In the pitch window furthest to the right, enter the change in cents. For example if you want the audio
to be 10 cents flatter, enter -10 then hit enter. (Note that the cents field is limited to +50 and -49 cents;
if you want to do, for example, -75 cents, youd need to do -1 semitone then +25 cents.)
Click on the clip in Track View and then select Bounce to Clip. The clip will now be fine-tuned.
However, there are a couple fine points. This process changes pitch, but does not preserve lengthin
other words it works just like speeding up or slowing down a tape recorder. For small pitch changes,
this likely wont make any difference. If it does, you can always use conventional time-stretching to fit
the clip to its original duration. (A big advantage of this type of "stretching" is it doesn't add any
artifacts, it just changes the pitch.)
A more significant point is that if you lower the clip pitch, the clip will become longer than what the
clip currently defines. So when you bounce to clip, the clip will cut off at the end of what used to be the
loop length. The solution is simply to extend the clip duration prior to doing the pitch transposition.
Conversely if you raise the clip pitch, the clip will become shorter so you may need to trim the end to
regain the correct duration.
One final tip: You don't have to travel to Japan to record a taiko drum...shift a kick drum's pitch way
down, and you'll be good to go

August 21: Add Dynamics and Feel with Rhythmic Automation

Well I promised some short tips, and I'll try to squeeze some in before the 31 days are up. But this was
too cool not to include, even though it is long.
Ive often mentioned that I consider mixing as a performance, and a control surface is great for that.
One of my favorite techniques is creating slight rhythmic nudges so that theres a little more level on
a measure'sdownbeat, or the third beat of a measure, or whatever. However sometimes its difficult to
obtain the desired amount of precision, like if theres a string of 16th note hi-hat audio hits and you
want to emphasize the first 16th note of every beateasy to do with MIDI but difficult with audio, and
difficult to do with a control surface.

Sonar can write periodic waveform automation (but thats only half the tip so if you already know that,
keep reading). If youre not familiar with this technique, you can right-click on the Draw button in the
Smart Tool palette, and choose from several different waveforms. When youre drawing an automation
waveform, just click the pencil in an automation lane and drag left or right. The Snap value determines
the waveforms period; dragging higher than the vertical place where you clicked increases amplitude,
as does dragging lower but in this case, it flips the phase. For example, dragging up increases the
amplitude of a sawtooth with a positive ramp up, while dragging down increases the amplitude of a
sawtooth with a negative ramp down. You can even alter the amplitude and flip the phase at any point
when youre drawing the waveform.
Now heres the payoff part of the tip. Consider that example of creating level changes for the hi-hat. Set
the snap to 1/4 notes and start drawing a negative-going sawtoothbut you may find its difficult to
draw a subtle, constant waveform precisely. Theres a simple solution.
When drawing the waveform, click lower than halfway in the automation lanes vertical space, and
drag a little below the bottom of the automation lane. (For a positive-going sawtooth, youd click a
little higher than halfway in the automation lanes vertical space, and drag a little above the top of the
automation lane). Now drag left or right, and the waveform will be a constant amplitude. It will
probably not be not subtle enough to provide the slight rhythmic push we want, so lets adjust this
waveforms master level.
Choose the Smart Tool, and hover just below the automation lanes header. The cursor will turn into a
line with up and down pointing arrows. Drag up or down, and the waveform wont be able to go any
higher than the automation lanes ceiling or lower than the lanes floor, which lets you lower the
amplitude of the peaks without changing the shape.
Now the curve is probably sitting too high or low in the automation lane. Release the mouse, and again
hover the Smart Tool just below the automation lanes header. Now when you drag up or down, the
waveform retains the limiting effect from when you dragged previously; you can position the
constant waveform, with its lowered amplitude and subtle amount of change, anywhere you want
vertically in the lane.
If youre thinking This would be really cool to add some dynamics to individual drum tracksand
rhythm guitarsand for EDMand hey, this is also like a MIDI LFO!, youre definitely thinking
along the right lines.

August 22: Re-Discovering Snapshot Automation

Fader automation is so ubiquitous that its easy to overlook the less glamorous, but highly useful,
snapshot automation. This type of automation gets its name because its not a dynamic process, but
rather, captures the parameter settings at a particular Now Time. This makes it really easy to do a quick
level change, drop the EQ amount in a track to open up space for another instrument, etc. There are two
snapshot automation techniques: Per-parameter, and multiple parameters.

The per-parameter snapshot places a node on the corresponding automation envelope if such an
envelope exists. If not, it creates the envelope and places a node. This works with any mixer controls
(e.g., level, pan, send amount, etc.) as well as ProChannel modules.
To take a snapshot of an individual parameter, place the Now Time where you want to enter the
automation event for the parameter. Then, adjust the parameter to the desired value. Right-click on the
parameter control, and choose Automation Snapshot. Done!
The procedure for creating a snapshot that encompasses multiple parameters is more complex. You
would use this if you want, for example, several tracks to change volume instantly and at the same
place, such as when switching from intro to verse.
With a track that has the focus but is not selected (e.g., the blue track number isnt lit but the track
shows in the inspector), ctrl-click in the Edit filter to select the automation you want to writelets say
Volume. Using ctrl-click Quick Groups all the tracks so theyre all set to Volume automation.
In that same tracks Inspector, click on the Track tab to reveal the track parameters. Ctrl-click on the
Write Mode drop-down menu and select Overwrite, then enable automation Write for the tracks where
you want to create the snapshot.
Set the controls as desired, press Play, and then Stop; youll see nodes deposited on the automation
curves where you pressed Play and Stop. This isnt true snapshot automation because of the extra node
at the Stop point; however in most cases this wont matter. If it does, you need to delete each extra node
manually. (If you Select All, drag in the timeline over the area with the nodes to create a region, choose
Cut Special and choose only Track/Bus Automation, those nodes will be deleted but new nodes will be
created at the region start.)
Finally, remember that you can snap automation notes to the gridthis is perfect for when you want a
change to occur precisely on the beatas well as change the curve shape between notes.

August 23: Reclaim Session Drummer 2 Programs for SD3

SD2 has some programs that SD3 doesn't have, and as a lot of my older projects used SD2, I wanted to
see if I could load programs from the 32-bit SD2 into the 64-bit SD3. Its not difficult, and by
jettisoning SD2, youll be one step closer to an all-64-bit system. (Besides, I'm probably not the only
person who appreciates SD2'sHard Rock Room.prog!)
If SD2 is already installed on your computer, skip to the next paragraph. Otherwise, you'll need to
install it to use its programs. Dig out your Sonar 6 or Sonar 7 installation files, and run the installation
procedure that lets you select what to install. Uncheck everything except Session Drummer 2, and
install it into your usual VST plug-ins folder. For SD2 content, the installer creates a Session Drummer
2 folder, and puts the Contents folder inside it. Choose the file path carefully, as SD2's file paths to

drums and programs are 'baked into' the installation; if you move the Contents folder, SD2 won't know
where to find the drum samples and you'll get error messages. Its probably the same best to choose the
VSTplugins folder that holds the Session Drummer 3 folder with its Contents, so that all your Session
Drummer files are in the same place.
Heres how to consolidate the SD2 and SD3 folders so you can access everything from SD3.
1. Open both the SD3 and SD2 folders that contain their respective Contents folders.
2. Open each Contents folder, then open each Programs folder located in the Contents folder.
3. Copy or move all the folders from SD2's Programs folder to SD3's Programs folder. Leave all
other folders and files untouched for both SD2 and SD3, as their program (.prog) files point to
these locations.
Now call up Sonar. Insert Session Drummer 3 and, on the Drumkit page, click on Prog/Load Program
and navigate to SD3's Contents folder. Open the Contents folder, then the Programs folder; you'll see
all the SD2 and SD3 folders that contain program files. Call up an SD2 program and it will load...but
were not done yet.
Although the program files are compatible (including Tune, Width and Pan parameters), SD2 programs
will load with incorrect mixer levels. Go to SD3's Mixer page and double-click the Mixer faders to
return them to zero. (Also note that the last two percussion channels will be grayed out because SD2
only had 10 channels instead of 12. As soon as you load a sound into these channels, they'll be
available.) Return to the Drumkit page, then click on Prog/Save Program so it will load with zerodefault mixer levels next time. Of course, you can also edit these levels prior to saving.
When you load an SD2 or SD3 program, it will load the appropriate MIDI patterns, because those are
also pointed to by the .prog file. So an SD2 .prog file will point to the MIDI files in SD2's Patterns
folder. However, if you want to call up SD2 patterns in SD3, you do not need to navigate to the SD2
Patterns folder, as all of SD2's 'legacy' patterns are also located in SD3's Smart Loops folder under
Patterns.
Regarding drum sounds, SD3's Kits folder contains everything that SD2 has as well. The only
difference is that you'll find SD2's tambourine sounds in SD3's '9 Alt Cymbals' folder.
So, now we're set: you can load SD2 programs easily from within SD3, which automatically loads all
of the SD2 program's associated patterns, drum sounds and kits. If you load an older project that opens
SD2, note which program it uses. Insert SD3, drag the SD2 MIDI file into SD3's MIDI track, load the
same program into SD3, then delete SD2.

August 24: Gridlock - Everything You Wanted to Know About Snap

There seems to be some confusion about how snap works, so todays tip lays it all out. A lot of this
confusion stems from snap having both independent and interrelated characteristics for the MIDI Piano

Roll View and Track View (including when a tracks Event Filter is set to Notes to show MIDI data
within the track).
The Global Snap Module
The Global Snap module in the Control Bar determines the primary snap setting. Click on the grid to
enable/disable snap globally in both Track View and the PRV.
The almost invisible button to its right, which also functions as a vision test, determines whether you
snap to a specified setting or by a specified a specified setting. For example if a snare drum hits a little
bit late and you want to preserve that offset when quantizing, you would choose the quantization value
and then snap by. If you wanted it to land on the rhythmic boundary you specified, youd choose
snap to.
Right-clicking on the field below the on/off button lets you choose the grid resolution, such as
particular note values as well as seconds, samples, frames, etc. For the latter, youll need to enter a
number. Holding the N key while selecting chooses an alternate snap value, which you select by
holding down the N key while moving a note or clip. So really, the N key accesses three snap options:
press briefly to toggle between snap and no snap, or hold to use an alternate snap value. If you want to
swap the primary and second snap settings, type ctrl+shift+N.
Furthermore, if you disable snap while holding down the N key and making your snap selection, then
holding down the N key will turn off snap for as long as the key is held down.
Right-clicking on the field below the on/off button also lets you select Smart Grid. This changes the
snap resolution dynamically on the assumption that the further you zoom in, the more youll want a
finer snap resolution. This can be somewhat disorienting at first (Hey! My snap values changed!!)
but once you get into it, its very helpful. Note that the alternate snap value is not affected by the Smart
Grid, so the alternate value will always be available regardless of the resolution the Smart Grid
chooses. This relationship remains if you swap alternate values with ctrl+shift+N.
You can also choose to snap to markers, automation nodes, audio transients, etc. To access these Snap
options, type shift+N.
Tracks showing MIDI in-line in the Track View follow the global snap settings in the Control Bar, but
you can set up independent settings in the PRV.
The Piano Roll View Snap Module
The key to accessing PRV snap is the little grid icon in the upper right. When disabled and its controls
are folded in, the PRV follows the global snap settings. This includes alternate snap settings and the
Smart Grid option.
Enabling the grid opens up three buttons that let you enable snap to note values, MIDI notes, or
markers, with all of this independent from the Global snap settings. As long as these three buttons are
showing, the PRV wont follow the global snap settings, and holding down the N key has no effect.
However, the N key remains a master snap on/off for the PRV and Track View.
One cool multidock feature is you can have different independent snap settings for different MIDI

tracks. Normally the multidock defaults to whatever MIDI track youve selected for editing, but you
can lock a tracks view by right-clicking on its multidock tab and selecting Lock Contents. Now you
can open up another docked view for another MIDI track, which can have its own snap settings.
Snap Offset
One final option is for non-Groove audio clips only. Normally snap is based on the clips beginning,
but you can set an arbitrary snapping point anywhere within the clip. Set the Now time to where you
want the snap point to be, then right-click on the clip and choose Set Snap Offset to Now time. The
only way to remove an offset is to go into the clips Inspector and enter 0 for Snap Offset.
Cool, thanks! Yes, the MIDI filtering options are very powerful. X-series users can find it under
Process > Find/Change.
If you want to filter out events and your only concern is velocity, duration, or notes out of a particular
range,Sonar also has a simpler "deglitch" function. I suspect it was included for people who use MIDI
guitar Go Process > Deglitch, and you can enter a duration in ticks or milliseconds. One of the cool
features of deglitch is it displays the value of the shortest note, the softest note, and the highest note in
the selection so you can see the results of your edits.
As to why you're getting doubled notes in the first place, I assume that if it's only a controller, there's no
need for local control on/off. Do you think it's contact bounce, or maybe something else? Also, was the
very short note just before the "real" note, or did they both start at the same time?

August 25: The Real-Time Beat Machine

Calling all Session Drummer 3 fans (and those who are about to find out why they should be). For a
more improvisational feel when creating drum parts, try this approach.
Each MIDI pattern in SD3 responds to MIDI notes: MIDI note #27 triggers pattern A, MIDI note #28
triggers pattern B, MIDI note #29 triggers pattern C, and so on, consecutively for eight notes total
(MIDI note #24 triggers Off). When you insert SD3, Sonar loads a drum map that labels the notes that
trigger patterns with the SD3 pattern letter (of course, there are also names for the various drum
sounds). If you want to augment the patterns with additional hits, you can still play individual notes on
top of the patterns while they play.
Now turn on SD3s loop button, set up to record in Sonar, and start recording Play the keys that
correspond to the patterns you want to hear, and on playback, the patterns will play back as you
triggered them. This is really handy if already have all the patterns you need to create an arrangement,
as you can simply string them together, drum machine-style, to create the kind of overall part you want.
And of course, also remember that you can load pretty much anything into the pads - including guitar

chords, complete sections of songs, or whatever (in just about any audio format) and use patterns
consisting of a single note to trigger just that sound.

August 26: How to Keep Groove Clips "Groovy" When Processing Them
Sometimes when you apply an audio process within Sonar to a Groove Clip, it loses its grooviness and
reverts back to regular audioand sometimes it retains its acidizing markers. Heres why.
If you reach the effect by right-clicking on the clip and choosing Process Effect > Audio Effects,
thenchoose the effect and click on OK to apply the effect, the clip being processed will retain the
Groove Clip acidizing markers. This has worked with the Cakewalk effects Ive tried, as well as those
from other manufacturers. However, if you insert an effect in the FX bin or ProChannel and choose
Process > Apply Audio Effects, the Groove Clip reverts to a standard WAV file. If you work a lot with
Groove Clips, its a good idea to get into the habit of using the Process Effect > Audio Effects function.
But there's a catch: Auditioning the effect is more of an off-line process. First, the Transport needs to be
stopped. Then, calling up the effect presents you with an Audition button (this wont be present if the
sequence is playing when you call up the effect). Make your edits, hit Audition, and wait for Sonar to
build a temp file. Dont like the results? Hit Stop, edit some more, audition, and wait. When it sounds
the way you like, hit OK.
Fortunately, theres a faster workaround. Insert the effect in the FX slot, edit in real time to your hearts
content, and when everything is just as you like, save the settings as a preset (the imaginative name I
use is "temp"). Then go Process Effect > Audio Effects, call up the effect and preset, then click on
OK. Just dont forget to remove the effect from the FX slot when youre done, otherwise youll hear
the effect applied twice once from the processing, and once from the real time FX slot effect.

August 27: "Parallel Mastering

This technique is well-suited to Sonar-based mastering, and is the result of my never-ending quest to
produce masters that are loud enough to please clients yet have enough dynamics to please me. The
concept is similar to parallel processing for drums, where you mix compressed sound to bring up
lower-level dynamics with a dry sound that preserves the peaks.
The basic concept is to bounce the tracks down through significant amounts of limiting/maximizing
(and perhaps some high and low end emphasis) to create a highly squashed track, then mix this in
with the other tracks as you do your real mix. Heres the procedure.

1. After getting all levels, automation, etc. set for a good mix, insert the processors you want to use in
the Master bus.
2. Edit the master bus processors to obtain todays crappy overcompressed/overly bright soundin
other words, what passes for mastering with much current pop music.
3. In Track View, Select All so that all tracks are enabled.
4. From the Tracks sub-menu, choose Bounce to Track(s).
5. In the dialog box that opens up, select Entire Mix for Source Category, Stereo for Format, and
set Dithering to none. Make sure all the boxes are checked, especially Bus FX.
6. Click OK, and now you have a nasty master with plenty of squashing or whatever.
When its time to do the real mix, remove the processors from the master bus and run your mix again
but this time, bring up the squashed track a bit. The optimum level will vary; for most of my projects it
ends up around -20dB to -12dB. Also, you may need to make a few tweaks to the other tracks to reflect
the changes caused by adding in the parallel track. It may take several tries to get the right squashed
track and the right overall mix, but the results can be dramatic and satisfy both those who want a loud
sound, as well as those who like dynamics (and are aware that its possible to make a song louder by
turning up whats called a volume control).
Remember, you must use this power only for good

August 28: The ProChannel "Distortion Construction Kit"

Sonar has two different, ProChannel-compatible saturation effects: Cakewalks Tube and Softubes
Saturation knob. Whats more, you can use them both at the same time. Each has a different character,
and driving one with the other can give sounds you cant get with either one by itselfand switching
their order gives yet another set of timbres. You can also enhance saturation by the modules you put
before and after saturation, then think of the entire setup as a single Distortion Construction Kit."
That's what today's tip is all about.
Start with compression. The S-Type Channel compressor is my favorite for limiting and leveling, while
the U-Type has a smoother, rounder character that tends to smear the sound a little more.
Follow the compressor with Cakewalks Tube distortion, then the Saturation knob. Driving the
Saturation Knob with Tube produces a wider variety of distortion effects than the reverse order. Next,
follow the Saturation knob with EQ to shape the saturated sound. As one example of how to use this,
consider distortion with bass.
1. Bypass all modules except compression, and dial in a round, consistent bass sound.
2. Enable Tube in Type 1 mode. Turn up the Input and Drive controls for an amp-type growl.
3. Enable the Saturation Knob; selecting the Keep High option gives a fuzz bass sound, whereas
Neutral provides a more aggressive version of the tube distortion. The Keep Low setting makes the
speaker flap less, changes the tone, and gives a more sustained distortion.
4. Now we can use EQ to create more of a cabinet sound; start by enabling the LPF to trim the highs.

5. Bring the midrange down a bit around 1.5kHz to emphasize the bass, and add a broad, low bass
bump for a rounder tone.
Note that bypassing any of these modules makes a big difference in the overall sound. In any event this
setup really makes the bass stand out...and we havent even touched on what this can do with drums!

August 29: So What Does that Plug-In Header Do, Anyway?

At the top of VST synths and effects, theres a header with options for ACT Learn, Solo, Automation
Controls, etc. But lets talk presets, because Sonar has an easy way to create a list of favorites as well
as do a hard backup of presets into a projects folder.
To create a list of favorites for a plug-in (this also works with DX and DXi plug-ins), double-click in
the preset name field (which normally says No Preset), and enter a name. This can be distinctive, and
not have to be the same as the instrument or effects preset name. Finally, click on the floppy disk icon
to save it. This preset joins a list of favorites which you can access with the drop-down menu, or step
through with the increment/decrement buttons. This list of favorites travels with the instrument so if
you load it in another project, the presets will still be accessible. If you want to delete a preset, first
select it and then click on the red X.
If there are some presets you use a lot, this feature is very convenient and it also works with DirectX
instruments. Think of it as a scratchpad for preset selection.
As to hard saves, although projects remember the settings of synths and effects, these can be lost in
the event of a plug-in update, system meltdown, need to open Sonar in safe mode and then save, or any
other situation where Sonar cant recognize the original instrument or effect. While its unlikely youll
run into this problem, if you want the peace of mind that comes from having the most complete backup
possible, you can store VST instrument and effects presets within a projects folder.
After entering the name in the preset name field, instead of clicking on the floppy disk icon choose
Save Preset from the VST drop-down menu (on bridged 32-bit VST plug-ins, this says File). This
always gives you the opportunity to navigate to a folder, so if youre saving your projects in per-project
folders (which you should be doing anyway), you can consolidate your synth and effects presets in the
same place as the rest of your project. These presets have the suffix .fxp.
You might want to reference the source plug-in in the preset name but if you forget whether Cosmic
Swirl was a Dimension Pro, Kontakt, or even a Sonitus Reverb preset, it doesnt matter; just keep
trying to load presets until the plug-in sees one it understands.
Regarding the other options, whether Bank and Randomize have any effect depends on the instrument
try it and find out. For example, Randomize works with Session Drummer, Lounge Lizard, and the
SI instruments, but not with Dimension Pro or Rapture. Also note that you can access the plug-in
properties directly from the VST drop-down menuyou dont have to venture into plug-in manager

world.

August 30: Preserving Dynamics with Saturation

Heres a really unusual phase-flipping application. I like using saturation from time to time, but find
that with percussive audio like drums, the flattening of the waveform and general muddiness can
reduce dynamics dramatically. You can always try the mix in some straight signal as you would with
parallel compression, but then you start to compromise the saturated character.
The following technique uses phase cancellation to help retain dynamics (this is something you'll just
have to try to hear why it's cool). This works because saturation affects the highest level signals the
most, which of course, are the percussive peaks. The lower-level saturated signals are much more like
the dry sound, so combining the saturated signal with the phase-flipped dry signal tends to cancel the
lower-level signal while leaving the percussive peaks intact. Heres the procedure; to get a feel for how
this works, load a drum loop or other drum part.
1. Clone the audio from your primary track to create a secondary, identical track.
2. Insert the saturation effect in your primary track. I generally use the Pro Channels Tube Distortion
for this application, because (depending on the source audio) being able to choose between the Type I
and Type II saturation options can make a big difference in the overall effectiveness. However, Ive
also tried this technique with the Softube Saturation knob, and it works too.
3. Start playback, and adjust the Tube saturation controls for the desired saturation character.
Dont be concerned if you want to pile on the distortionwell tighten it up.
4. Now flip the secondary channels phase (in Console View, or by using Channel Tools), and turn up
its fader. As the level gets closer to matching the first audio channels level, the individual drums will
become more distinct. Note how the channel meter indicates a more dynamic signal.
The greater the cancellation, the more the level will tend to drop. As it takes some tweaking to get just
the right balance of phase-flipped to processed audio, its helpful to group the level controls for the two
audio tracks so they track each other if you want to change the level. Right-click on the level control
for each track, assign each one to the same group, and now you can adjust the level without changing
the distortion effect.
You might want to increase the bass a bit to compensate for any thinness that occurs from the partial
cancellation; distortion affects the high frequency content more, which means low frequencies will
have more of a tendency to cancel.

August 31: Locking Bass to Drums

Couldn't decide which tip to do for the final one...I had one planned on what I think is a solution to a
common Sonar-meets-Windows problem, but need data from a Baker before I can feel confident I've
actually solved the issue. Because it relates to Windows, it needs to be tested on other Windows
machines and an OS other than Windows 7 (what I'm using).
However, if this does turn out to be a solution, I will post it here as a bonus tip. Meanwhile, I wanted to
get in an AudioSnap tip and fortunately one has been on-deck, warming up, and ready to pinch-hit.
First of all, Im not a big fan of automatically quantizing to a grid. However, I often like quantizing one
part to anotherfor example, snapping bass to (human-played) drums to create an ultra-tight rhythm
section. Ive also snapped drum machine kicks to a human drummer for drum replacement that didnt
mess with the groove. These are both jobs for AudioSnap.
1. AudioSnap does not work with Groove clips, so if youre using Acidized or REX loops for any of
the audio you want to lock, roll them out for as many iterations as desired. Then, right-click on the clip
and select Bounce to Clip(s). This converts the clip into a standard audio clip.
2. Click on the drum clip and type A to open the AudioSnap palette.
3. Click on Edit Clip Map. Transient markers should appear at the drum transients. Adjust the
Threshold slider to catch as many drum transients as possible.
4. To establish these transient markers as the standard to which well snap the bass part, we need to
create a pool of the markers. Right-click on the drum clip and choose Pool > Add Clip to Pool. The
transients now extend vertically (and visibly) through all clips if Show Pool Lines (also found with a
right-click) is selected.
5. Click on the bass clip, and the AudioSnap palette changes its focus to the bass track. Enable the
AudioSnap power button, click on Edit Clip Map, and adjust the Threshold slider to catch the bass note
transients.
6. Right-click on the bass clip, then choose Pool > Quantize to Pool. A dialog box opens. As the goal is
a really tight snap, set Quantize Strength to 100%. Notes outside of the Max Distance parameter will
not be quantized; Quantize Window chooses finer increments (for example, a Max Distance of 16th
notes with a Quantize Window value of 75% means that any note falling more than 75% of the way to a
16th note away from the marker will not be quantized). Then, click on OK.
7. The bass clips note transients will snap to the drum transients. Listen to the bass and drum tracks;
assuming you played the bass part with reasonably good timing in the first place, the bass part should
now be locked with the drums. (If not, skip to the end of the numbered steps for suggestions on how to
fix this.)
8. Were not quite done yet, though, because the real-time stretching algorithm applied to the bass clip
adds artifacts. Rendering the clip in non-real-time using a different algorithm gives the highest possible
quality; in the bass clip's AudioSnap palette, select Radius Solo (Bass) for the Offline rendering
algorithm (of course if this wasnt bass, youd choose something else).
9. With the bass clip still selected, choose Clips > Bounce to Clip. This applies the stretching algorithm
to the bass part, and converts it from an AudioSnap clip to a standard hard disk audio track. Note that
this may take a little while, depending on the track length and your computers speed.
If your timing with the bass was off on some notes, it might have snapped to the wrong transient. For
example, consider a drum part with a 16th note high-hat pattern, where theres a transient on every 16th
note. If the bass note is supposed to snap to a snare hit but the bass note hits more than halfway ahead

or behind the snare, it will snap to the nearest high-hat hit instead of the snare.
To fix this, undo the Quantize to Pool operation. In the AudioSnap drum clip, right-click on the
incorrect transient to which the bass note snapped, then select Disable and widen the window. In fact,
disable any transient thats closer to the bass note than the desired one. Redo Quantize to Pool, and
the bass should now snap to the desired transient.
Finally, remember that AudioSnap is a software algorithm, not magic. Locking bass to drums has a
high probability of success because both have strong, prominent transients that make it easier for
AudioSnap to analyze the signals. The further you get away from this ideal, the more difficulty
AudioSnap will have identifying transients. If the source material is really AudioSnap-unfriendly,
you can always adjust transient markers manually to fall where they should.