Envelope tool is a function to draw or record the automation for your midi and audio track. Almost every parameter can be automated including pan, volume, effects send, and also parameters of the effect or synth inserted on the track.

The new envelope draw tool offers free hand drawing and preset shape drawing.

Tip #1: Holding “ctrl” button and hit the “space bar” to stop on the spot

Tip #2: “Scroll lock” to stop the moving screen while the song is playing

Tip #3: Double click on any controller to reset to zero

Tip #4: Right click on “number” goes 10 at a time

Tip #5: Use the “N” key on your keyboard to turn “snap” on and off

Don’t you read the Cakewalk Forum???
Haha .. this conversation would make you laugh.

• controlling pan for separate audio in the stereo file
• controlling the width of the individual left and right channel
• adding delay to make your stereo audio sounds wider.

Watch the video below for the features explanation.

Now the built-in plug-ins are decent enough that you might not need to spend extra dollars to buy third party plug-ins.

One of the tool shown by Seth is the Channel Tools, which provides easy and powerful zero-latency channel processing for adjusting L/R channel placement, gain, pan/width, and phase; sample delay for precision timing adjustment of L/R channels in recordings; Automatic Mid-Side decoding of imported Mid-Side recorded material. Channel Tools can also provide a widening or narrowing effect to stereo recordings through adjustments to mid-side gain.

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Brandon demonstrated the new effect processors

TS 64 Transient Shaper – a powerful tool for sculpting the transient dynamics of any percussive based source material such as drums or guitars.

TL-64 Tube Leveler — a line driver/leveling processor that employs advanced analog vacuum-tube circuit modeling algorithms to add the unique qualities of tube color and warmth found in classic recordings to whatever source material it is applied.

Beatscape loop performance instrument — Beatscape, the latest instrument by Cakewalk’s premier synthesis architect René Ceballos takes loop manipulation and realtime triggering/performance to new heights. Beatscape provides 16-pads to load and trigger loops or samples for sequencing your productions and beats. Each pad features a full powered REX player, Rapture-style step generator, multiple effect processors, and sophisticated groove slicing and dicing tools powered by Cakewalk’s own AudioSnap slicing technology.

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• Newly-added instruments including Beatscape, Dimension Pro, and TruePianos Amber VSTi
• New features such as Loop Explorer 2.0, higher track counts with lower latency, single instrument tracks, Anytime Recording, more
• New plug-ins, including the TS-64 transient shaper, TL-64 Tube Leveler, Channel Tools, and more
• New creative content — Maximize your creative potential with SONAR’s massive collection of loops, samples, and presets

Also, get your first glimpse at the new SONAR V-Studio 700, the groundbreaking new hardware/software solution from Cakewalk by Roland. Visit www.sonarvstudio.com to watch exclusive videos and get in-depth product information.

SONAR 8 Music Production ’08 Tour:

Thursday, November 13, 2008
Guitar Center Rockville
12401 Twinbrook Parkway
Rockville, MD
301-231-6100
Time: 7:00 – 8:30

Thursday, November 13, 2008
Guitar Center Seattle
530 Westlake Ave.
Seattle, WA
206-287-9100
Time: 7:00 – 8:30

Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Guitar Center Central Dallas
7814 North Central Expressway
Dallas, TX
214-692-9999
Time: 7:00 – 8:30

Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Sam Ash Carle Place
385 Old Country Road
Carle Place, NY
516-333-8700
Time: 6:30 – 8:00

Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Guitar Center Natick
321-C Speen St. Cloverleaf
Natick, MA
508-655-6525
Time: 7:00 – 8:30

Tuesday, December 2, 2008
West LA Music
11345 Santa Monica Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA
310-477-1945
Time: 7:00 – 8:30

Several things that he showed:

• using the Dimension Pro to play a percussion loop
• using the Session Drummer to play a drum loop
• using the Loop Explorer

Quick tips:

• Press “F” key to fit all tracks within the screen
• Press “CTRL” and drag a clip to duplicate it

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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

Cakewalk Sonar provide several tools that can ease your job to get the perfect vocal tracks.

Watch the video above and read this tech tip by Nick Dika

Tips – Getting the Perfect Vocal Take with SONAR
YouTube – How to get Perfect Vocal Tracks

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

Preparation

1. First, make sure that your MIDI Device is hooked up to the computer and that the inputs/outputs are selected in Options | MIDI Devices.
2. Next, you’ll want to go to View | Toolbars and make sure that “Controllers/Surfaces” is checked.
3. Open up Options | Controller/Surfaces. If there are any Control Surfaces already listed here, select them and hit the red ‘X’ to delete them.
4. 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:

1. We want our controller/surface to control 8 tracks simultaneously, so set Number of Track Strips to 8.
2. 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).
3. Let’s start by configuring the parameters for the first track: set Configure Strip Number to 1.
4. Select Parameter 1 (Volume) by clicking the radio button that’s just left of the Parameter 1 field.
5. Move the first fader on your controller/surface (move it a couple of times).
6. 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.
7. Select Parameter 2 (Pan).
8. Move (twice) the first knob in strip 1.
9. 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.
10. Next, let’s configure the parameters for track 2 (Base Track + 1): set Configure Strip Number to 2.
11. Now, repeat step 4-9 for the respective sliders and knobs.
12. 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.

A handy way to do it is to split the loop explorer view in Sonar. Then select ( you can select more than one loop by holding down “CTRL” key while clicking the audio loop with computer mouse) loops that blend in nicely and in sync with your projects.

After you are happy with what you have found, just drag and drop the audio file(s) into your project. Separate audio tracks will be created for each loop.

Watch this video for the demonstration.

This video was prepared by Gearwire.com.

Remove the buttons you seldom use and customize the toolbars to suit your needs.

This is another compelling reason for Cubase, Protools and other DAW users to switch to Sonar 7.