This month’s release for SONAR Professional and Platinum brings new features to the Piano Roll view and introduces MIDI Bluetooth Support using the new UWP MIDI Engine. This release also contains additional fixes & enhancements to many key elements of SONAR.

New Features

Piano Roll View Enhancements

Cakewalk reaches back to its MIDI sequencing roots to optimize SONAR’s core MIDI editing for today’s generation of virtual instruments. The SONAR 2017.03 update addresses modern MIDI music production needs through a redesign of the Piano Roll View (PRV) Track Pane and the Controller Pane. From efficient, simple controller editing to clean and focused MIDI track selection, SONAR has transformed MIDI editing from tedious to transparent.

You can now click any MIDI track to bring that data into focus, while Auto Lock prevents you from accidentally editing MIDI data from other tracks. Color-coding relates tracks to data for easy identification in complex projects. The re-designed Track Pane displays twice as many tracks in the same amount of space as before, and now allows you to take advantage of SONAR’s unique Smart Swipe feature that lets you select, mute, solo, or arm multiple tracks with a single, quick gesture.

Streamlined Track pane: The redesigned Track Pane now displays in single-height rows with track-color boxes and new controls for filtering, as well as an additional mode to Auto Lock tracks that are selected but not being edited. The Track Pane now also supports collapse and expand via the same controls as other views in the Skylight interface. Auto Lock and Filter Mode are exclusive to SONAR Professional and Platinum. Also, creating custom Filter Sets is exclusive to Platinum only.

Improved Controller Editing with Single Lane mode: It is is now possible to have a much larger editing area for controllers while also having access to many controllers on the same track. Switching this mode is done with the View menu by selecting Show Multiple Lanes. Single lane mode is now the new default when opening the Controller pane.

Select next/previous Note Event: Just like Tabbing to Transients in an audio track, in the Piano Roll view it is now possible to use the Tab key to select the next note or Shift+Tab to select the previous Note event.

Two-tone Color-coding of sharps/flats: When using the Piano Roll view, we’ve now made it easier to identify different notes by adjusting the hue of different Sharps & flats. Gb, Ab, and Bb are now shaded slightly different from Db and Eb to better separate them when editing. (taupe-color for Gb, Ab & Bb, blue-color for Db & Eb).

Aim Assist support for Controller pane: When Aim Assist is enabled it now extends into the Controller pane for improved feedback when editing the Controller data for a note.

New Collapse button for Controller Pane: The Controller Pane now features it’s own collapse and expand button similar to the Bus Pane. This can be opened or closed by simply clicking the button or using the shortcut [Ctrl] + when the Piano Roll view is in focused.

UWP MIDI Engine & Bluetooth MIDI Support

Microsoft have introduced a new API standard for using MIDI on Windows as part of the Universal Windows Platform architecture. With this comes many new advantages including Bluetooth MIDI support and Multi-Client access to MIDI ports. UWP MIDI provides a modern way to communicate with MIDI devices and can be extended to support newer MIDI protocols/interfaces. To enable this in SONAR go to, Preferences | MIDI | Playback and Recording and set the MIDI driver mode to UWP

Fixes and Enhancements

• Double-clicking a track could fail to maximize strip height in some situations
• Track view no longer flickers when reordering tracks in large projects
• Adjusting Take lanes height longer allows the Edit Filter to overlap other controls
• Excluded synths no longer show in Instruments plug-in lists
• SONAR no longer disappears behind other programs when switching Lenses
• Help will now correctly launch from Preferences | MIDI | Playback & Recording
• Exporting as Raw Tracks - No Automation/FX now preserves the Comp on an audio track
• Fixed a possible crash when dragging a MIDI clip to Matrix in localized versions of SONAR
• The power indicator for a FX Bin will now stay in sync with the Frozen/Unfrozen state of a track
• VST3 plug-ins now display correctly in the registered Plug-ins list in Plug-in Manager
• Aim Assist now displays correctly when using the arrow keys to scroll in the PRV
• The mouse position no longer displays only in the PRV when Aim Assist is turned off To learn more about this update visit our Knowledge Base using the link below: http://www.cakewalk.com/Support/Knowledge-Base/2016000060/SONAR-2017-03-Update-Fixes-and-Enhancements