Getting Started with SONAR — Chapter 2 11 2 Getting Started with SONAR Now that you have a basic understanding of the technology involved in making music with computers, I think you’ll find working with SONAR more enjoyable.
12 Getting Started with SONAR — Chapter 2 Figure 2.1 The About Cakewalk dialog box shows the program’s current version number. Get the Latest Product Update Although automatically receiving new product updates would be nice, most companies (except maybe Microsoft) can’t afford to send out CDs to all their users every time they create updates. That’s one of the reasons the Internet has become such a wonderful tool. Sometimes the answer to your problem is just a download away.
Getting Started with SONAR — Chapter 2 13 2. In the section labeled Downloads, click on Patches & updates. 3. In the Patches & updates section, click on the line that says “Get the latest patch or update for your Cakewalk product.” You then see a directory of folders. Double-click the SONAR folder to open it. 3. If more than one update is available, simply compare your current version with the updates listed and select the appropriate one. For instance, if you have SONAR 1.
14 Getting Started with SONAR — Chapter 2 Remember to send in that registration card! And just to be safe, you might want to check with Cakewalk to make sure your information is on file. You just do the following: 1. Find your CD jewel case and look on the back to make sure your CDKEY is printed there. 2. Find your product serial number, either by looking on the detachable part of your registration card or by starting SONAR and selecting Help > About Cakewalk. 3.
Getting Started with SONAR — Chapter 2 15 Projects In SONAR, all your music data for a single body of work is organized as a project. A project can be anything from a Top 40 song or a 30-second radio spot to a full-length symphonic score, such as a movie soundtrack. Along with the music data, all of SONAR’s settings for a single work are stored in the project as well. A project is saved on disk as a single file with a .WRK or .BUN file name extension.
16 Getting Started with SONAR — Chapter 2 In this window, you can see all the tracks that are available in a project. You also can view and edit all the basic track settings, as well as all the clips contained in each track. I’ll talk about the Track view extensively in a number of different chapters in the book.
Getting Started with SONAR — Chapter 2 17 Figure 2.5 The Piano Roll view gives you access to both note and MIDI controller messages. You can change note pitch and duration by simply dragging on the rectangular representations. But more importantly, you can view and edit MIDI controller messages graphically with the mouse instead of having to deal with raw numbers. For more details about the Piano Roll view, see Chapter 7.
18 Getting Started with SONAR — Chapter 2 Loop Construction View One of the new features in SONAR, the Loop Construction view, gives you an easy way to create your own sample loops. These loops, which are digital audio clips designed to be played over and over again, can be used to construct entire songs. While you’re working with the Loop Construction view, you see the sound wave of your loop, as in Figure 2.7. Figure 2.7 The Loop Construction view is a special editing tool for creating sample loops.
Getting Started with SONAR — Chapter 2 19 You can use the Console view to adjust the panning and volume for each track in a project. As a matter of fact, you can use the Console view in place of the Track view for adjusting track settings and recording new tracks. And just like on a real mixing console, you can monitor volume levels via on-screen meters and mute and solo individual or groups of tracks. I’ll talk more about the Console view in Chapter 6, Chapter 11, and Chapter 12.
20 Getting Started with SONAR — Chapter 2 As I mentioned earlier, the new Loop Construction view lets you create and edit your own sample loops. You can then stretch, pitch-shift, and adjust the tempo of the loops just like in Sonic Foundry’s ACID software. And if you already have a collection of ACID loops, SONAR will let you load up and work with those as well. The Track view has been changed significantly.
Getting Started with SONAR — Chapter 2 21 Pentium, Pentium with MMX, Pentium Pro, Pentium II, Pentium III, and Pentium 4 (being the latest at the time of this writing). Of course, although having the best chip available is nice, that doesn’t mean you need it. You can also get away with using different brands such as AMD or Cyrix, but they tend to be less powerful. For instance, the AMD K6 is similar to a Pentium with MMX at the same clock speed.
22 Getting Started with SONAR — Chapter 2 2. Open the System Monitor by clicking the Start button and then selecting Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Monitor. The program should look similar to Figure 2.9. 3. Select Edit > Add Item. In the resulting dialog box, click on Kernel in the Category list. Then click on Processor Usage in the Item list, and click the OK button. 4. Depending on the current settings, you may see a line chart, bar chart, or numerical chart.
Getting Started with SONAR — Chapter 2 23 different programs at once that each take up 16 MB of RAM, technically, two of those applications shouldn’t be able to run. However, Windows simply uses virtual memory to handle that extra 32 MB load. Because virtual memory uses your hard disk for storage, and your hard disk provides much slower access than your system’s RAM, all that “swap file” processing makes your computer run more slowly. That’s why your system runs faster with more RAM installed.
24 Getting Started with SONAR — Chapter 2 Figure 2.10 This generic hard disk drive Properties dialog box shows the hard drive settings. 4. Select DMA in the Options section and then click on the OK buttons to close the dialog boxes. After Windows restarts, your hard drive will access the computer’s memory directly, which may or may not provide a noticeable speed increase. Video Card Believe it or not, your video card can have an effect on your computer system’s performance.
Getting Started with SONAR — Chapter 2 4. 25 You may or may not have to disable hardware video acceleration altogether. You’ll have to experiment to see what works best for your system. After you set the slider, click the OK buttons to close the dialog boxes. After Windows restarts, your new settings will take effect. If you have a newer computer system with an AGP-based graphics card, you shouldn’t have to worry about hardware video acceleration problems.
26 Getting Started with SONAR — Chapter 2 Video resolution and video color depth affect how precise your computer monitor displays graphics. A higher color depth means more colors will be displayed, and a higher resolution means the sharper the image will be. But the higher the resolution and the higher the color depth, the harder your computer has to work. High settings can slow down your computer quite a bit, especially if you have an older CPU and an older video card.
Getting Started with SONAR — Chapter 2 27 Windows may or may not restart automatically (depending on the version you’re using), but when you’re done, your monitor will show the new resolution and color depth settings. Getting used to the new settings might take awhile if you’ve been using higher settings all along, but don’t worry, you’ll live. And I think you’ll like how much snappier Windows reacts. TIP For additional tips on dealing with video cards, check out this Web page: http://www.cakewalk.
28 Getting Started with SONAR — Chapter 2 4. Select Disable in this hardware profile in the Device usage section and then click on the OK button to close the dialog box. Windows disables your network card without your having to restart. Then you can simply close the System Properties dialog box, and you’re done. Sound Card As far as sound cards are concerned, there are a couple of things that you should know. PCI-based sound cards perform much better than older ISA-based sound cards.
Getting Started with SONAR — Chapter 2 29 NOTE One of the most common questions I get from readers is, “what sound card should I buy?” There are so many different sound cards on the market, providing so many different features, that I can’t simply recommend one or the other. I can, however, tell you what features to look for so that you can make an educated choice. If you want to be able to record more than one audio track at once, you’ll need a card with multiple audio connections.
30 Getting Started with SONAR — Chapter 2 NOTE (Continued) Two other measurements you need to look out for are signal-to-noise ratio and frequency response. As with the other measurements mentioned here, the higher the better. Since all electronic devices produce some amount of noise, the signal-to-noise ratio of a sound card tells you how much higher the signal strength is compared to the amount of internal noise made by the sound card. The bigger the number, the quieter the card.
Getting Started with SONAR — Chapter 2 31 Set Up Your Cakewalk Hardware Profile Of course, making many of the previously mentioned changes to your computer system every time you want to use SONAR and then changing them back for normal system use can be a major hassle. Luckily, Windows includes a handy feature called Hardware Profiles. You can think of Hardware Profiles as Windows presets, similar to synthesizer or audio effects gear presets.
32 Getting Started with SONAR — Chapter 2 Now, the next time you start Windows, you can choose a system configuration to fit your needs for that computing session. The only setting from the list of tweaks that isn’t saved in a Hardware Profile is the screen saver setting. You have to change it manually each time. Yeah, I know it’s a bummer. Personally, I always leave the screen saver disabled. If I know I’m going to be away from the computer for more than fifteen minutes, I just turn off the monitor.
Getting Started with SONAR — Chapter 2 33 The support page of the Cakewalk Web site (http://www.cakewalk.com/ Support/) contains a ton of helpful information, including FAQs (lists of frequently asked questions and their answers) and technical documents that provide details on a number of Cakewalk-related topics. You should check them first. If you still can’t find an answer to your problem, the next place to look is in the Cakewalk newsgroups (http://www.cakewalk.com/Support/newsgroups.html).
