SONAR 8 is out!

Oh man, these days software development is faster than human learning curve - or atleast for people in the mid-thirties. I still haven't completely toured SONAR 7's new feature...

Cakewalk SONAR 8
Producer Edition - $619 US Dollar
Studio - $369 US Dollar

Watch the Youtube product vlog

It seem Sonar 8 is a much more efficient performance-wise (30% general performance gain) rather than laden with new features. Beside performance tweaks, which is quite a few, the one I like is the Dedicated Instrument track. It used to create 2 tracks for a virtual instruments which i feel a bit clunky to handle on large tracks. Now it's a single track. yeay! The Live Bounce sounds good too but i rarely bounce tracks but its good to know now its a single step action. On this line, with Anytime Recording you can now Arm track to record while track is playing, something Sonar users will feel like a removal of small splinter in the butt :). Most of the enhancements are previously minor irritation but now ironed out like the automatic Bus Inputs Quickgroup - no more adjusting ALL guitar tracks using FX Send 3 one by one. Cool.

Enough of the mediocre updates, let's move on to juicier new features.

Sonar 8 now include Beatscape - a loop manipulation and realtime triggering/performance. Maybe its something like Sonar's Cyclone which is already an excellent loop manip plugin. But seem it has more of a synth approach with filters and all. Cool.

Sonar now have a full Dimension Pro included. This is good since Dimension is an awesome sample/synthesis plugin. Also included is NI Guitar Rig 3 LE - wow this is avery welcome addition! Even though its only Limited Edition, GR3 will wet any axeman's tight pants anytime! Awesome amp sim modelling. We also see a lot more xx-64 plugins which started with the excellent LP-64 mastering plugins.

All in all, this iteration is not something to run-around-the-house-shouting about. New instruments can't really be called an 'upgrade'. It feel more like a beef-up rather than a version iteration. But I guess Cakewalk is concentrating more 'under-the-hood', tweaking performance and cleaning up codes for a better, stabler product - which is a VERY good point already. I just hope the performance tweak be as good as what on paper.