Cakewalk

The Pentagon I soft synth bundled with Sonar 5 is a powerhouse that even offers vocoding facilities. If you've overlooked it so far, remedy the situation with our tips, tricks and programming guide.

As video becomes more accessible, Cakewalk have taken notice, adding a lot of video-friendly features to Sonar 5. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to combine the worlds of audio and video within the program.

Sonar seems to get more customisable with every version, and the newly released Sonar 6 is no exception, allowing you to tweak various aspects of appearance and operation until the program looks and feels just the way you want it.

Another major upgrade for Cakewalk's DAW software adds powerful new features, and provides hands-on control at a touch.

Sonar 6's new 'channel strip' offers multiple routings that enable techniques such as parallel compression, frequency-conscious dynamics control and side-chaining.

One of the biggest new additions in Sonar 6, Audiosnap, is a powerful time-stretching audio toolkit promising better-quality stretching and enhanced controllability. This month we'll explain the basics of using the new tools, following up next month with some real-world applications.

Find what you're looking for faster with Sonar X3's new Browser.

Sonar's Audiosnap time-stretching tools offer some mind-boggling possibilities, including REX-like beat slicing and sophisticated audio quantising.

Sonar's Session Drummer has evolved from a MIDI plug-in to a sophisticated tone module that also includes pattern playback capabilities. We take a look beneath the surface.

Ever wished you could use your favourite control surface to change not just mixer controls, but effects plug-in parameters and virtual instrument settings? Apparently someone at Cakewalk has too...