2 Cakewalk Download Sonar X3 Producer Review
. Pros Stellar new vocal comping and built-in Melodyne pitch correction. Improved skylight interface is easy to customize. Truly robust instrument plug-in bundle.
In doing this review, it would be easy to look at all the things taken out from the higher-end Studio and Producer versions of SONAR X3, and list them all as cons for this product. We're reviewing the Producer Edition here, but it's worth mentioning that all three versions of Sonar X3 (X3, X3 Studio and X3 Producer) have the same basic feature set, including unlimited tracks, 64-bit processing, ReWire, and VST3 support. The main differences lie in the bundled effects and instruments,.
Cakewalk Sonar X3 Producer Crack
Stock ProChannel effects sound excellent and are built into every mixer channel. Windows 8.1 touch support works well. No USB dongle required. Cons Needs better notation editing.
Some disparate elements of the user interface remain. Skylight UI really needs a 1080p screen to come into its own. Addictive Drums plug-in isn't mapped to General MIDI keys.
Still no Mac version. Bottom Line Cakewalk SONAR X3 Producer continues to deliver oodles of power for not that much money, and aside from some persistent UI quirks, this latest version is the best one yet. Cakewalk's SONAR X3 Producer ($499 direct) for the PC brings some welcome new features, as well as a second round of refinements to the Skylight interface first seen in SONAR X1. Some users may prefer, but SONAR X3 Producer is a solid value, especially thanks to the latest version's bundled virtual instruments.
There are still a few rough edges to steer around, and we still favor the industry-standard Avid Pro Tools for its robust mixing, audio editing, and scoring facilities. But SONAR X3 is a powerful digital audio workstation that's easy to recommend. Setup and Configuration As before, SONAR X3 Producer remains the top of the line SONAR version; there's also SONAR X3 Studio ($199) and the base SONAR X3 ($99). All three versions of SONAR X3 feature the same unlimited audio, MIDI, and instrument tracks, as well as the same 64-bit double-precision and support for 192kHz recording, which is great. (For more information, head to Cakewalk's site for a comprehensive.) For this review, I tested Cakewalk SONAR X3c Producer Edition—the latest build available—on a touch-screen-equipped ultrabook with Windows 8.1; its Core i5 processor, 8GB RAM, and internal SSD proved plenty fast for recording and mixing work. First, a brief recap: Cakewalk's venerable sequencer has been around for more than 25 years. It was originally a solid competitor to Voyetra Sequencer Plus Gold for DOS—this a couple years before the first Adlib and Sound Blaster sound cards appeared.
Later, Cakewalk brought it into Windows 3.1, followed by Windows 95/98/ME versions that added digital audio recording. Then, back in 2001, Cakewalk began with a clean sheet of paper to produce SONAR, a more advanced DAW that looked a lot like the old Cakewalk but had a brand new recording engine. This, Cakewalk has steadily refined, with new SONAR versions appearing almost every year. SONAR X3 is the 11th major version of the program since then alone! One of the best things about SONAR is its lack of copy protection. Cakewalk lays down some rules—mainly, that you can't sell or transfer the software, which is something you can do with a few of its USB dongle-based competitors.
But the lack of a dongle means you can use the software on a laptop—or even an ultrabook like the Aspire S7—without fear of breaking the dongle off or losing it, or otherwise having to put up with ridiculous authorization schemes. And since many laptops have only two free USB ports, you can keep them open for, say, an audio interface and a MIDI keyboard.
There's no challenge and response system, either; just install and go. Comping, Pitch Correction, and ProChannel One of the new signature features in SONAR X3 is the comping tool, which lets you assemble the perfect track from a series of take lanes. Each time you record, it creates a new lane. A special mode lets you quick comp without the mouse; just hit shift and the space bar and you can toggle between the various tracks using the arrow keys. Each time you hit Enter for each piece, it jumps to the top, so you can assemble the take very quickly without stopping the audio engine. This makes quick work of assembling lead and background vocals, and (arguably) can be even faster than it is in Pro Tools, assuming you take the time to learn SONAR X3's way of doing things. Another tremendous upgrade is built-in Melodyne pitch correction with ARA integration on a track-by-track basis, meaning that you don't have to transfer voice clips to and from the plug-in; you can do it all live.
We first saw this with Presonus Studio One, and both and integrate Melodyne-like pitch correction. Either way, I'll gladly take it here, as I never got my head around Cakewalk's older V-Vocal plug-in. In essence, Melodyne lets you map out and edit pitch on a piano roll-style window, complete with a pencil drawing tool. Built-in pitch correction at the sample level is a completely different animal than basic automatic tuning, and it's great to see it built into SONAR X3; Avid Pro Tools still lacks a similar facility, even in Pro Tools 11 (which we haven't reviewed yet).
Jamie Lendino is the Editor-in-Chief of ExtremeTech.com, and has written for PCMag.com and the print magazine since 2005. Recently, Jamie ran the consumer electronics and mobile teams at PCMag, and before that, he was the Editor-in-Chief of Smart Device Central, PCMag's dedicated smartphone site, for its entire three-year run from 2006 to 2009. Prior to PCMag, he was a contributing editor for Laptop and mediabistro.com. His writing has also been published in Popular Science, Consumer Reports, Electronic Musician, and Sound and Vision, as well as.
Comping A smarter way to record. SONAR X3 now introduces our breakthrough Comping - the smartest and quickest method for working with multiple takes. Record the same part as many times as you like using the new Comping record mode, and when you’re finished, our speed comping accelerates your workflow so that you can isolate, edit, and promote your strongest performances into one unified flawless track. Comping at its core improves the overdubbing process and streamlines the post-recording and editing experience.
VST Enhancements The latest VST technology for the greatest DAW. VST3 support is now fully integrated across all versions of SONAR X3. That means superior plugin management, low CPU loads, and improved visual workspace. It’s perfectly integrated into SONAR X3’s browser and shows you VST3 and VST2 plugins side by side.
SONAR X3 automatically detects new VST plugins so you never have to rescan, and if you have a project using the VST 2 version of a plugin that also supports VST3, SONAR will update it and keep all of your settings intact. Enter the Matrix Welcome to a non-linear world. Why edit and arrange your loops when you can play them instead? The Matrix View lets you organize audio and MIDI loops, phrases, and one shots into cells and columns for real-time triggering from one (or more) MIDI controllers. Use it for easy arranging of song sections or for complex sets of multiple grooves, one-shots, drops, and breakdowns - all playable in real-time.
And the entire performance can be captured onto discrete tracks in SONAR's Track View where it can be freely edited and mixed until it's exactly what you want. The new per-cell trigger resolution and enhanced routing with support for external MIDI hardware make it a formidable creative force. What are you waiting for?
Free your mind. Plus. Move seamlessly across all your production tasks with Skylight Interface. NEW! Skylight Interface enhancements and color customizations. NEW! Assemble the perfect performance with breakthrough comping workflow.
NEW! Full support for VST3 synths and effects.
NEW! Gobbler cloud saving and sharing. Take Lanes & Automation Lanes. Play loops in real-time with Matrix View. Edit audio and MIDI, hassle free, with Smart Tool and Smart Grid.
Cakewalk Sonar X3 Producer Edition
Custom touch support on touch-enabled devices running Windows 8. Mix like a pro with a full mixing console that includes built-in EQ.
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