Cakewalk Sonar Tricks » sequencer

How to Make a Song from Scratch

KCLau — Fri, 14 May 2010 07:28:33 +0000

This is a three-part video tutorials created by best00000007.

The entire screencast showcase how Best00000007 create a song from scratch.
He shows you how he created the rhythm loops and stacked up other instruments and synthesizers tracks. These are all done in Cakewalk Sonar 8.

Part 1 Video

Part 2 Video

Part 3 Video

Music Sequencing with Cakewalk Sonar

KCLau — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 07:23:23 +0000

Sonar is a very useful music sequencer if you are going to work on your music consist of audio and MIDI. Some softwares are strong at the audio part, but lack many useful MIDI features.

If you’ve just got a copy of Cakewalk Sonar or considering to get one, watch these videos to get started recording some tracks.

This video tutorial series is produced by maskerade45.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Want to learn more about music arrangement, here is a link for your reference:

How to arrange music (easy guide)

Sonar Matrix View Tutorial Video

KCLau — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:04:36 +0000

The Matrix view is the new and exciting feature of Sonar.
You can trigger MIDI and audio loops.
I think the Matrix view has some similarity with Ableton Live kind of sequencing environment.

You can simply drag and drop any audio and MIDI loops in the matrix cell. Then you can trigger the playback for the entire column or row.

After arranging the cells accordingly, you can record the sequence while playback by altering the triggers.

This will be very useful for mixing artist, especially in the dance and trance genre.

I am getting a feeling that Sonar is going to dominate the computer music sequencing world.
More to come!

Step Sequencer 2.0 Video Tutorial

KCLau — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 07:40:34 +0000

This is a screen cast tutorial showing you how to use the step sequencer 2.0 found in Sonar 8.5.

Have fun making music!

Using Step Sequencer in Sonar 7

KCLau — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 09:29:18 +0000

Many music arrangers and producers use step sequencers in modern music production. Step sequencer is especially useful when you are creating repetitive loops in hip hop and dance music.

Sonar 7 comes with the new step sequencer built in.

Watch the video below to learn how to use the step sequencer in Sonar 7

How to Control Sonar Using a MIDI Keyboard

KCLau — Thu, 15 May 2008 03:29:56 +0000

This article is going to show you the cheapest and easiest way to control Cakewalk Sonar. It is the cheapest way because almost every Sonar user owns a MIDI keyboard. We will be using your existing MIDI keyboard as a controller. If your keyboard has many knobs and sliders, you can take advantage of the Controller/Surfaces support in Sonar to save you a lot of mouse movement.

I think you will prefer to control, says the track volume using a slider rather than a mouse right?

Preparation

First, make sure that your MIDI Device is hooked up to the computer and that the inputs/outputs are selected in Options | MIDI Devices.
Next, you’ll want to go to View | Toolbars and make sure that “Controllers/Surfaces” is checked.
Open up Options | Controller/Surfaces. If there are any Control Surfaces already listed here, select them and hit the red ‘X’ to delete them.
Now press the yellow ‘Add New Controller/Surfaces’ button and choose Cakewalk Generic Surface. Make sure the input and output port are configured as well.

Click close. You should now be able to see the controller listed in the Controler/Surfaces toolbar. To its immediate right is a field showing the active track and then a button to open up the Controller/Surfaces parameters. Go ahead and open the parameters now.

Now comes the fun part. Let’s say your MIDI keyboards has 8 separate sliders and 8 separate knobs. You want your first slider to control the volume of the first track, while your first knob to the pan of first track. At the same time, the other sliders and knobs will control the volume and pan of their respective track. Follow the instruction below:

We want our controller/surface to control 8 tracks simultaneously, so set Number of Track Strips to 8.
Set Parameter 1 to Volume, and Parameter 2 to Pan. Since our controller/surface only has two hardware controls per strip, we only need to use two track parameters (there is no need to configure Param 3-16; the MIDI message for these parameters should be assigned to None).
Let’s start by configuring the parameters for the first track: set Configure Strip Number to 1.
Select Parameter 1 (Volume) by clicking the radio button that’s just left of the Parameter 1 field.
Move the first fader on your controller/surface (move it a couple of times).
Click Learn. This automatically defines the MIDI message for Parameter 1 in strip #1 (i.e. Volume for the Base Track). You can also type in the desired MIDI message manually.
Select Parameter 2 (Pan).
Move (twice) the first knob in strip 1.
Click Learn. This automatically defines the MIDI message for Param 2 in strip #1 (i.e. Pan for the Base Track). If you know what data value the knob sends out when you move it, check the Trigger Value field to see that it’s the same as the data value that the knob sends out.
Next, let’s configure the parameters for track 2 (Base Track + 1): set Configure Strip Number to 2.
Now, repeat step 4-9 for the respective sliders and knobs.
Finally save the configuration as a preset by typing a name in the Preset field, and then clicking the disk icon that’s next to it.

Sonar 7 Step Sequencer

KCLau — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 07:18:03 +0000

This Youtube video shows how to use the new feature of Sonar 7: the step sequencer. Step sequencer is not available on previous Sonar versions. It increases Sonar’s MIDI programming ability. Most musicians who use Fruityloops, Reasons, and other step sequencers or hardware drum machine might find it tempting to switch to Sonar 7 now.

With the new step sequencer included, Sonar 7 is probably the most powerful audio and MIDI sequencer on the market.