Et Cetera The Source for Computer Music and Audio Software and Hardware
TEL: 01706 285650
Get advance news on Sonar and FL Studio upgrades
SUPPORT ACADEMIC
   
Cakewalk SONAR 6
The latest version of the market leading audio/MIDI sequencer

SONAR 6
The definitive audio production environment for Windows

Striking the perfect balance between passion and precision, SONAR 6 shatters the limitations found in ordinary digital audio workstations. Offering a complete spectrum of creative technologies, SONAR 6 inspires your artistic expression.

Version 6 adds an arsenal of responsive instruments, more effects, and powerful editing tools including Roland® V-Vocal™ VariPhrase technology. These features are complemented by a double precision floating point engine that delivers dramatic increases in dynamic range. SONAR’s pristine 64-bit audio engine, seamless and accessible even on 32-bit computers, sets new standards for digital mixing. In addition, SONAR 5 introduces ground-breaking advances in RAM and native processing power on systems running Windows XP x64 Edition.

These technologies are fully integrated within a cutting edge engineering and mixing environment to transform your musical dreams into professional finished productions

Grammy and Emmy Award winning musicians, producers, composers, sound designers, and engineers around the world turn to SONAR daily to fire their inspiration and deliver professional results. Whether you are one of these select few, or are aspiring for greatness, SONAR 5 is the definitive audio production environment for all your needs.

SONAR 5 is available in 2 versions:
SONAR 5 Studio Edition & SONAR 5 Producer Editions which provides all of the capabilities of Studio Edition plus Roland® V-Vocal vocal processor, PSYN II subtractive synth, Pentagon I analog synth, Multi-format surround mixing, SurroundBridge, Per-channel EQ, Lexicon® Pantheon Stereo & Surround Reverbs, Sonitus Surround Compressor more.

With its open support for industry standard technologies and hardware, the scalability of a native processing system, and virtually unlimited software capabilities, SONAR 5 Producer represents the definitive audio & music production software for Windows.

Now Shipping

SONAR 6 Producer Edition £369 inc VAT

SONAR 6 Studio Edition £229 inc VAT


New to SONAR 6

 

Key features

  • PSYN™ II subtractive synth, Pentagon™ I vintage analogue synth, Roland® GrooveSynth™, SFZ SoundFont sampler, RXP ™ REX Player groove box, TTS-1™, Cyclone™, and DreamStation™

  • NEW—Active Controller Technology (ACT) dynamically re-maps effect, mix and instrument parameters to hardware controllers

  • NEW—Work seamlessly with VST plud-ins - VST support is now integrated into SONAR 6 and no longer requires and external VST to DX adapter

  • Perfect Space™ Convolution Reverb, Lexicon® Pantheon™ Reverb, Sonitus:fx Suite (10 effects), many more

  • NEW—AudioSnap suite of tools includes: non-destructive audio quantize, Quantize one track with another track's feel, convert audio beats to MIDI, slip-stretch clips to a new time or length, high quality processinf with multiple algorithms including iZoptope Radius™, Percussion Mode and more

  • NEW—New Synth Rack makes managing, controlling and automating your instruments simple

  • NEW—Console view redesigned for ergonomic mixing
  • NEW—Modular Transport provides easy playback control and vital visual feedback


  • NEW—Analyst spectrum analyser

  • NEW—Clip editing enhancements including Lock to Time

  • NEW—Automation enhancements: read/write controls for tracks and plug-ins, enable automation during playback and record, visual automation cues and more

  • NEW—Fast Zoom enables fast precise edits without losing your place

  • NEW—Per-channel EQ and assignable FX controls in Console view and Track Inspector

  • NEW—Mouse wheel support for parameter control and zoom

  • NEW—Import 64-bit floating point audio files and stream them at their native resolution from 64-bit tracks

  • NEW—Crash Recovery safeguards your projects against faulty plug-ins and other sources of crashes

  • NEW—Automatic file versioning: back up old projects with time/date stamps for easy access to old versions

  • NEW—Score video with Video Thumbnail Track in Track view

  • OMFI & Broadcast Wave import/export for collaboration with Digital Performer, Logic, Nuendo, and Pro Tools studios

  • Import formats: AIF, ASF, AU, AVI (with stereo or 5.1 audio), Broadcast Wave, MIDI, MP2, MP3, MPEG, MPG, OMFI, QuickTime 6, SND, WAV (including 32-bit float files), Windows Media Audio 9 (WMA), WMA9 Pro 5.1, WMA9 lossless, Windows Media Video, proprietary Cakewalk formats (.bun, .cwb, .cwp, .wrk)

  • Export: WAV (including 32-bit float files), ACID™-format WAV, Broadcast Wave, AVI (with stereo or 5.1 audio), OMFI, MIDI, MP3 (30-day trial encoder), QuickTime 6, Windows Media Audio 9 (WMA), WMA9 Pro 5.1, WMA9 lossless, Windows Media Video (with stereo or 5.1 audio), and proprietary Cakewalk formats (.cwb, .cwp); other audio formats supported via external command line encoders

Musician's Choice
SONAR 6 offers all the world-class instruments, effects, and creative technologies you need to bring your inspiration to life.

  • Record and edit unlimited tracks of audio and MIDI using effects on input including the new Perfect Space™ Convolution Reverb, Sonitus:fx Suite, and more—31 audio and 8 MIDI effects in all

  • Includes 8 responsive virtual instruments: two synths with genuine Roland® sounds; vintage analogue synths; REX™, SoundFont, and groove samplers; and more

  • Recall every element of a sound: mix, effect, and instrument settings with one click using Track Templates

  • Loop record live audio and MIDI to track layers, then use enhanced comping tools to assemble the perfect take

  • Create backing tracks and remixes fast using MIDI groove clips and ACID™-format loops with per slice control of pitch, gain, and pan

  • Expand your sounds and effects with native support for VST and DirectX plug-ins, and ReWire clients like Project5 and Reason

  • Use any Windows-compatible WDM or ASIO audio interface (including Pro Tools | HD or M-Box), integrate hardware-based MIDI devices and control surfaces from Roland, Tascam, Mackie, and others



Flexible Samplers
SONAR 6 comes stocked with 3 versatile samplers that allow you to work with many different sample formats including REX™, SFZ and ACID™ loop files.

RXP™ REX Player groove box

  • Tempo-syncing drum machine and groove box that plays REX and SFZ loops and single hits
  • Drag MIDI patterns into SONAR for editing and rearranging
  • Built-in multimode filter with parameter controls including attack, decay, cutoff and more
  • Includes almost 300 MB of REX file content

RXP REX Player
RXP™ REX Player groove box
Click for larger View

 

SFZ SoundFont sampler

  • Endless sample-arranging capabilities with outstanding sound quality and built-in effects
  • Loads and plays standard wave files (.wav), Ogg-Vorbis compressed files (.ogg), and SFZ files
  • Adjustable CPU/quality settings to optimise it for use in your hardware
  • Fully multitimbral operation and several loading modes (including direct-from-disk streaming for SoundFonts)

SFZ
SFZ SoundFont sampler
Click for larger View

 

Cyclone™ groove sampler

  • Perform and record loop-based compositions in real-time using any MIDI device, MIDI tracks, a computer keyboard, or mouse
  • Assign ACID™-format WAV files and Groove Clips to Cyclone’s 16 pads that match the tempo and pitch of your project—ships with 400 MBs of ACID™ loops
  • Rearrange, combine, slice, tweak, and customize samples to create new grooves with control over gain, pitch, and pan of individual loop slices
  • Full control over looping points—great for creating polyrhythmic textures and work with loops in odd time signatures

Cyclone
Cyclone™ Groove Sampler
Click for larger View

Huge Analogue Synths
Take synthesis to a whole new level with PSYN™ II subtractive synth and Pentagon™ I vintage analogue synth. These synths feature critically-acclaimed rgc:audio technology, with the pristine, high-quality sound that musicians and sound designers look for in their instruments.

PSYN™ II subtractive synth

  • Get classic analogue sounds and evocative new sounds through full-featured subtractive synthesis
  • Includes two unique filters, four multi-wave oscillators, cross-modulation for Ring Modulation and FM synthesis
  • Five 6-stage Envelope Generators, three assignable LFOs, 64-note polyphony with unison, true mono and portamento
  • Perfect for rap, hip-hop and dance musicians who need warm and edgy bass and lead sounds.

PSYN II
PSYN™ II
Click for larger View

Pentagon™ I vintage analogue synth

  • Get the warm, classic sound of the vintage analogue synthesizers, combined with the fidelity and precision of virtual instruments
  • Features 4 Oscillators with 13 Alias Free Waveforms including saws, squares, pulses, harmonics, and sines plus a Noise Generator per oscillator
  • Packed with effects including the Format Filter which makes Pentagon "speak" vowels, 6 mode modulation, Chorus, Flanger, Phaser, Delay, EQ, and more
  • Includes unique Voice Modulator expands your creativity through imaginative sounds.

Pentagon I
Pentagon™ I
Click for larger View

 

Authentic Roland® instruments
Featuring industry-standard samples from the Roland® library, Roland® GrooveSynth™ and TTS-1 GM2 synth offer brilliant sounds that are perfect for all genres of music. Whether you are looking for searing leads, booming drums, or classic instruments like pianos, these instruments deliver with the quality you have come to expect from the Roland® name.

Roland® GrooveSynth

  • Features 100%-genuine Roland® sounds from their genre-defining groove boxes and synthesizers
  • Access drum sounds from the legendary 808 and 909 kits
  • Tweak and fine-tune different parameters including Vibrato, Portamento, Modulation Depth, Bend, Tuning, and more
  • Includes presets for pianos, organs, drums, brass, strings, bass, and much more

Roland® GrooveSynth

Roland® GrooveSynth
Roland® GrooveSynth™
Click for larger View

TTS-1 GM 2 synth

  • A high quality, multitimbral, multi-out GM2 synthesizer with a Roland® synth engine to generate amazing, expressive sounds
  • 256 instrument sounds and 9 drum sets, with the ability to create custom presets
  • 128-voice polyphony and up to 16 part multi-instrument playback
  • Includes high quality reverb, chorus, delay, and EQ.

TTS-1
TTS-1 GM2 synth
Click for larger View

 

Producer's Edge
With SONAR 6 you get a comprehensive set of editing, mixing, and
delivery options in one integrated environment.

  • Get higher-quality mixes with SONAR’s cutting edge 64-bit double precision floating point engine with full delay compensation

  • Keep pristine audio quality with support for 32-bit float files and up to 500 kHz sampling rates

  • Accomplish powerful vocal edits including pitch correction, phrasing adjustments, harmonization, and much more with V-Vocal™

  • Flexible mixing with 30+ surround formats, effects, on-the-fly bussing, vector envelopes, pan laws, configurable meter ballistics, more

  • Configure SONAR the way you like with custom layouts, colour schemes, even use keystrokes from other audio applications

  • Deliver projects in virtually any format, bit-depth, or sampling rate: POW-r dithering; Windowed Sync sample rate conversion; external command line encoder support; OMFI and Broadcast WAV for collaboration with Pro Tools; QuickTime; MP3*; more

  • Prosoniq MPEX time scaling—a superior time scaling algorithm that is great for matching audio to video or for loop/sample authoring

  • SONAR 6 includes a 32-bit version and the first native 64-bit digital audio workstation. 64-bit** version experiences 20-30% processing performance gains and can access 128 GB of physical RAM

    *Includes 30-day trial MP3 Encoder
    **Requires Windows XP x64 Edition

Console View
SONAR 6 Producer
Console View

Click for larger View

Amazing Reverbs
SONAR 6 Producer Edition features some of the finest reverbs on the market today including new Perfect Space™ Convolution Reverb, Lexicon® Pantheon™ Stereo and Surround Reverbs, and the Sonitus:fx Reverb. Emulate virtually any acoustic space you desire.

Perfect Space™ Convolution Reverb

  • Low latency, 64-bit convolution processing for the sweetest sounding reverbs
  • Includes 250 impulse responses sampled from professional hardware reverbs and real spaces
  • Reproduces actual room ambience with perfect accuracy
  • Includes non-destructive impulse editing, Linear phase EQ, and SSE/SSE2 and 3DNOW optimizations.

Perfect Space
Perfect Space™
Click for larger View

Lexicon® Pantheon™ Reverbs

  • World-class, pristine sounds of Lexicon reverbs in both stereo and multi-channel environments up to 5.1
  • Features numerous factory presets and full editing capabilities for creating custom presets
  • Full control over many different parameters including pre-delay, room size, mix, spread, roll off, and more.

Lexicon Pantheon
Lexicon® Pantheon™ Reverb
Click for larger View

Sonitus:fx Reverb

  • Features high-quality reverb algorithms that emulates the most realistic acoustic spaces
  • Add reverb that resembles the character, decay and frequency response of various environments
  • Adjust input, output and reverb levels or mute for fast previewing
Sonitus:fx Reverb
Sonitus:fx Reverb
Click for larger View

Seamless Workflow...Easy Editing
Building on SONAR 5's award-winning workflow enhancements, Version 6 includes over 20 new workflow enhancements making it the most intuitive and user-friendly DAW in the industry. With all these new workflow enhancements, powerful editing tools are just a click away making it easy to arrange and edit your projects.


Clip-based effects and editing
Click for larger View

Clip-based effects and editing
Audio and MIDI clips contain full-featured FX bins with automatic delay compensation. Copy effects from clip to clip, clip to track, or track to track. Apply fades and effect automation to selected audio clips, and specify the fade duration and curve type

Track Templates
Quickly insert complex combinations of tracks and buses. Create and save your own custom track templates or use them to store Track and Bus I/O routing, Track Folders, Mute, Solo & Arm states, Effects & Synths, more.

Track Icons
Easily identify tracks using hundreds of built-in icons, or add custom icons. Set icon states for the Track View, the Track Inspector, and the Console View. Seems quaint at first but after a while you will wonder how you did without them.

Track Freeze
Freeze tracks, effects, and synths to save valuable CPU resources. Unloads plug-ins, frees RAM, frozen audio is editable, Quick Unfreeze allows for toggling, and more.

Track Folders
Organize tracks into folders for managing your large scale projects and loop-recorded takes. When tracks are organized into folders, you can quickly mute, solo, record, archive and perform other functions on all of the tracks in the folder.

Track Layers

SONAR’s acclaimed take management is now even more powerful with Per-layer Mute and Solo, Overlap clips within layers, Auto-crossfade clips on the same layer, and more.

Comping and Editing

Use Track Layers to build your composite using Clip Muting or Partial Clip Muting (time-based within a clip) to isolate takes or sections of takes to achieve a perfect track.

Inline Audio and MIDI
Audio and MIDI has been unified into one view for display and edit. Seamlessly access Audio clips, MIDI notes & clips, MIDI controllers, Automation Envelopes, and more.

Advanced MIDI Sequencing
Edit, display and filter multiple MIDI notes and controllers simultaneously. Easily enter MIDI notes from a keyboard controller from any MIDI view at any time with SONAR's advanced step recording.

New Automation Shapes
Powerful tempo-sync’d pattern drawing, including sine, square, triangle and saw, as well as freehand and random shapes.

Nudge
Use this clip/note editing tool to fine tune and time correct your music. Nudge both vertically and horizontally within the Track and Piano Roll views.

And many more workflow tools including:

  • Navigation Pane—get a birds eye view of your project
  • Group Editing—effectively manage and edit multiple clips or tracks
  • Group Manager—control multiple track strips
  • Bus-able Metronome—route SONAR's Audio Metronome through any bus
  • Universal Bus Architecture—flexible routing with unlimited sends and busses

Mixing and Delivery for the Professional
SONAR 6 Producer Edition offers a flexible mixing environment to create the perfect mix down and deliver your projects in industry-standard formats. Whether you are working in stereo, surround, video or collaborating with Pro Tools, Nuendo or Logic studios, SONAR 6 has the means to deliver audio at any bit-depth or sampling rate.

Waveform Preview
Waveform Preview
Click for larger View

Bus & Synth Waveform Preview
Get the priceless visual feedback you need to fix it in the mix. Locate and see the value of the maximum peak of each audio track, synth or bus. Quickly find all the overs and peaks in your project to maximize output and prevent clipping.

64-bit Double Precision Floating Point Engine
SONAR's double precision floating point engine delivers dramatic increases in dynamic range. SONAR’s pristine 64-bit audio engine, seamless and accessible even on 32-bit computers, sets new standards for digital mixing.

31 Audio Effects and 8 MIDI Effects
Mix with professional grade audio and MIDI effects. SONAR 6 Producer comes with the Sonitus:fx Suite, a series of professional audio processing tools for digital audio editing, sound design, games, multimedia, film or studio work. The suite includes: Compressor, Delay, EQ, Gate, Wah Wah, Multiband Compressor, Phase, Reverb, Modulator, and Surround. In addition, all MIDI effects have been redesigned with a precision look and feel. They include powerful new X-Y controls to dial-in the perfect Echo quickly, as well as new dual-function min-max sliders to easily set MIDI ranges.

The Best Surround Experience

With over 30 supported surround configurations, an intuitive surround panner, the Sonitus Surround Compressor, the Lexicon® Pantheon™ Surround Reverb, and the exclusive SurroundBridge™ technology for use of stereo plug-ins in surround, you’ll see why Mix magazine recently stated that SONAR deserves “a standing ovation…by far the easiest and most intuitive surround experience.”

POW-r Dithering
POW-r Dithering provides the highest-quality, ultra-transparent digital-audio bit reduction; reducing 20, 24, and 32 bit audio to CD standard 16-bit format, while retaining perceived dynamic efficiency with very low noise.

Video Thumbnails and FireWire Output

Import Video Thumbnail Tracks for easy mixing of video. You can also output video to 1394 FireWire devices for high quality viewing with lower CPU and disk usage.

Export to Industry-standard Formats
WAV (including 32-bit float files), ACID™-format WAV, Broadcast Wave, AVI (with stereo or 5.1 audio), OMFI, MIDI, MP3 (30-day trial encoder), QuickTime 6, Windows Media Audio 9 (WMA), WMA9 Pro 5.1, WMA9 lossless, WindowsMedia Video (with stereo or 5.1 audio), and proprietary Cakewalk formats (.cwb, .cwp); Other audio formats supported via external commandline.

SONAR 6 x64 Edition
SONAR 6 is the first native 64-bit digital audio workstation on the market. SONAR 5 ships as both a 32-bit and 64-bit application, and the 64-bit double precision floating point engine is accessible in both applications. SONAR 5 sees a 20-30% performance gain when installed in in a 64-bit PC using Intel EM64T and AMD64 processor and Windows XP x64 Edition. In addition, Intel EM64T and AMD64 based systems can access up to 128 GB of RAM that opens up new worlds when using samplers and audio loops.

BitBridge™
A primary barrier to making the leap to the 64-bit environment has been the lack of plug-ins available. SONAR 5’s BitBridge™ sweeps aside any resistance by enabling the use of 32-bit VST effects and instruments in SONAR’s 64-bit environment. BitBridge technology extends the viability and use of your favorite VST plug-ins; ensures future compatibility of freeware, even for the most obscure, independently developed shareware plug-ins.

Producer Edition Exclusives

  • Roland® V-Vocal™ vocal processor
  • PSYN™ II subtractive synth
  • Pentagon™ I analog synth
  • RXP™ REX Player groove box
  • Perfect Space™ Convolution Reverb
  • Lexicon® Pantheon™ Stereo & Surround Reverbs
  • Sonitus Surround Compressor
  • Multi-format surround mixing
  • SurroundBridge™
  • Per-channel EQ
  • Assignable FX controls
  • POW-r dithering
  • MPEX 3 time scaling
  • Video thumbnail track



Basic Feature Comparison

Professional results are within your reach with SONAR 6 Studio Edition. Studio Edition is a special version of SONAR 6 designed for project studios and aspiring professionals.

Studio Edition is built upon the same core engine and feature set of SONAR 6 Producer Edition. Below is a matrix highlighting some of the key differences between the two versions.

 
Studio Edition
Producer Edition
Unlimited tracks of Audio and MIDI
Yes
Yes
ACID™ loop and MIDI Groove Clip support
Yes
Yes
Native DirectX, DXi, VST, VSTi, MFX and ReWire support
Yes
Yes
Double precision floating point engine
Yes
Yes
32 and 64-bit applications
Yes
Yes
Track Folders
Yes
Yes
Freeze (tracks, FXs and synths)
Yes
Yes
Clip-based effects and editing
Yes
Yes
Integrated inline MIDI and audio editing
Yes
Yes
Roland® GrooveSynth™
Yes
Yes
TTS-1™ GM2 synth
Yes
Yes
Cyclone™ groove sampler
Yes
Yes
SFZ SoundFont sampler
Yes
Yes
Sonitus:fx Suite
Yes
Yes
Lexicon® Pantheon™ Reverb
LE
Yes
Sonitus Surround Compressor
No
Yes
RXP™ REX Player groove box
No
Yes
PSYN™ II subtractive synth
No
Yes
Roland® V-Vocal™ VariPhrase technology
No
Yes
Perfect Space™ Convolution Reverb
No
Yes
POW-r dithering
No
Yes
MPEX 3 time scaling
No
Yes
Per-channel EQ and assignable FXs controls
No
Yes
Multi-format surround mixing
No
Yes
SurroundBridge™
No
Yes
Video thumbnail track
No
Yes
 

System Requirements

System Requirements
Minimum
Recommended
Operating System Windows XP Windows XP/x64*
Processor Speed 1.3 GHz 2.8 GHz or higher
RAM 256 MB 1 GB or higher
Hard Disk Space 100 MB for full program installation 100 MB for full program installation plus Multiple GBs for projects
Hard Disk Type Any EIDI/Ultra DMA (7200 RPM) or SCSI Hard Drive
Graphics (resolution, color depth) 1024 X 768, 16-bit color 1280 X 960, 24-bit color or higher
MIDI Interface** Windows compatible Windows compatible
Sound Card*** Windows compatible WDM or ASIO compatible

* Required to run native 64-bit version of SONAR 6

** Required to connect to external MIDI devices

*** Required for audio playback

Please Note:

SONAR 6 does not support Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, or 2000.

DVD-ROM required to install SONAR 5 Producer Edition.

QuickTime support requires QuickTime 6 or higher.

Customers purchasing SONAR 6 will be required to register the product within 30-days of installation for continued use.

 


SONAR 6 Producer Edition

£369 inc VAT

SONAR 6 Studio Edition
£229 inc VAT

Et Cetera Home Page

All prices on our website are in UK pounds (sterling)
Our Privacy Policy, Terms and Conditions, About Et Cetera, Email Webmaster
© 1993-2009 Et Cetera Distribution Limited