Drum maps and the Drum Grid pane. Editing audio. Software instruments. Surround Mixing Platinum and Professional only. ProChannel Platinum and Professional only. MixStrip Artist and Steam Edition only. Using Region FX. Melodyne Platinum and Professional only. Drum Replacer Platinum only.
VocalSync automatic audio alignment Platinum only. Sharing your songs on SoundCloud. Window management. Templates and key bindings. Notation and lyrics.
Instrument definitions. System exclusive data. Synchronizing your gear. Audio file management. Skylight largely eschews MDI and streamlines Sonar's user interface, presenting a modular approach where different Views can be docked and organised together within a single window.
The only time when you realise MDI is still lurking is if you have multiple projects open simultaneously. There are five key elements to the Skylight interface: by default there's the Control Bar at the top, the Track view in the centre, the Inspector to the left, the Browser to the right, and the MultiDock at the bottom.
All of Sonar's different Views can be manipulated within these five main areas, and this turns out to be quite a flexible framework. With the exception of the Track View, every Skylight element can be either docked into the main window, as it is by default, or turned into a floating window. This gives you quite a degree of customisation, which could be especially useful if you want to adapt your habits from other programs.
If you're coming from Logic, for example, and would rather see the Control Bar along the bottom of the screen, you can dock it there instead. If you're a Live user and would prefer the Browser on the left, that's also possible. And if you have multiple monitors and like to have everything except the Track View floating on a different screen, you can do that too.
Such flexibility is great, but Skylight is more than just a consolidation of Sonar's existing user interface Views, as we shall see. Unlike the previous Sonar toolbar, the controls on the new Control Bar are neatly organised into Modules. There's the main Transport Module, which contains familiar transport buttons and displays, showing the current Now Time in Sonar parlance alongside tempo, time signature and audio settings.
But there are also Modules for setting the current loop, configuring Sonar's ACT control-surface handling, synchronisation, and more. The only extra thing I wish Cakewalk would add, since the developers have already thought of pretty much everything else, is a condensed mode that keeps only the most commonly required controls in the Control Bar.
This would be a neat compromise to reduce the vertical overhead while keeping certain controls visible. The Control Bar can be toggled by simply pressing the 'C' key, which is very convenient indeed. But existing Sonar users might be wondering: if the 'C' key toggles the Control Bar, how do you switch to the Split Tool?
Another aspect of the user-interface overhaul in Sonar X1 is a complete rethink and reassignment of the keyboard shortcuts. Although this will inevitably be a pain for Sonar veterans, the new shortcuts definitely make things more accessible, especially for new users.
And, where possible, the shortcuts are 'clustered' so that the modifier keys offer related functionality to the primary key used in a shortcut. However, as before, these Key Bindings are configurable if you want to change them, and a Legacy Key Assignment preset file is included if you want to revert to the bindings used in previous versions. In addition to transforming Sonar's old toolbar into the Control Bar, Cakewalk have also taken the opportunity to revise a related part of the user interface: the menu bar.
Rather than having all of the program's commands accessible from a single, monolithic menu structure, Sonar X1 introduces local menus to a number of Views, which turns out to be very welcome indeed. As a result, additional cryptic toolbars have been eradicated from the editing Views, making Views such as the Piano Roll, Staff and Event List significantly cleaner and much simpler to work with.
The new Inspector can show two Channel Strips side by side: one for the selected track, and the other for a related bus, such as a send destination or output. Notice also the Track Properties page at the top. The Skylight Inspector in Sonar XL is a big improvement over its predecessor, adding an appreciable clarity alongside new functionality.
Taking a cue from Logic, the new Inspector can display two Channel Strips at the same time: one for the selected track, and, in the case of audio tracks, one for an associated bus. By default, this will be the Channel Strip representing the bus to which the selected track is routed, but you can also switch it to buses used for send effects.
And speaking of instrument tracks, if a track of this type is selected, you can toggle between its audio and MIDI Channel Strips by clicking the appropriate tab at the bottom of the Inspector. Like the Control Bar, the Inspector has a few neat tricks up its sleeve.
Firstly, you can resize it to show only a single Channel Strip if you wish. And, in addition to showing Channel Strips, the Inspector can also display the ProChannel for the selected track see 'ProChannel Spotlight' box or the relevant Clip and Track Properties if you toggle the Clip or Track buttons at the top of the Inspector.
This is obviously a big improvement over having to open separate dialogue windows to work with these properties, as was the case in previous versions. On the plus side, you can at least collapse or open the Inspector easily by pressing the 'I' key. The good thing about the Synth Rack View, compared with, say, Cubase's VST Instrument window, is that it shows all the instruments used in the Project, regardless of whether they are hosted by instrument tracks or simply fed by one or more MIDI tracks.
However, I have to confess that I find this View a little quirky. The Browser gives easy access to different elements you have added or want to add to your project. If you select an instrument in the Synth Rack View, the appropriate track for that instrument will be selected in the Track View.
So far, so good. However, this association doesn't work the other way around: selecting tracks in the Track View will not select the connected instrument in the Synth Rack View, which can be annoying if your project contains multiple instruments of the same type. Such detachment also means that if you delete an instrument track in your Track View, the instrument remains in the project. And while you would imagine there might be an option to 'link' a track to an instrument for this type of operation, I couldn't find one.
These two — albeit minor — points aren't new in X1, however; the interaction between the Synth Rack and Track Views is the same as in the previous version of Sonar. According to a spokesperson for Cakewalk, this behaviour is intentional. However, to me, it does seem like something of a missed opportunity to further improve the functionality of instrument tracks. Another slight gripe is that certain control assignment modes for instruments in the Synth Rack View are not available if the View is docked in the Browser, which is its default position.
This runs counter to the otherwise convenient nature of Skylight, because while I understand that the Assigned Control area makes the Synth Rack View more horizontally capacious, I'd rather temporarily resize the Browser instead of having to undock it or dock it somewhere other than the Browser for certain functionality to be accessed.
The only slight oddity is that if you drag an tnstrument into an existing track space, it will be added as an insert, which seems a little pointless, as I'm not sure there are many common situations where you would want that to happen.
More likely is that you would want to replace an existing instrument. The MultiDock allows you to switch between different open Views without taking your eyes away from the Skylight interface. Along the bottom you can see tabs that represent the number of open Views that have been docked. The final component in the Skylight interface framework is the MultiDock, which replaces the Tabbed View found in the prior Sonar incarnation.
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