MusicRadar

There's more to Sonar 8's feature set than initially meets the eye.

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7. Free to edit
You can now edit by clip or time without having to hold down a modifier key. Hit Shift+E or click the Free Edit Tools button (it's the one that looks like an upper case I) to activate the Free Edit Tools. You can then select a segment of a clip by dragging across it with the cursor. Conveniently, the Free Edit Tool will happily obey any Snap To value you've specified.

8. Mid-side miking
Mid-side miking is a technique that involves using a pair of condenser microphones (one cardioid, one omni-directional) on the same sound source to create a deep, rich tone. It's particularly effective with acoustic instruments – listen to any Will Ackerman disc, for example, to hear it in action. Sonar's new Channel Tools plug-in offers a mid-side decoder to help you get the most out of tracks that have been recorded using this technique.

9. TL-64 tricks
The new TL-64 Tube Leveler is a killer compressor, capable of delivering some real punch. However, it also shines when used with a lighter touch. It's an old engineering trick that works particularly well on vocals: instead of hitting the track hard with a single TL-64, load up a pair of them with less aggressive settings. Try it for a smooth, professional vocal sound.

10. Make mine mono
In previous versions of Sonar, all audio outputs were represented as stereo pairs. This was fine for most uses, but some of us still own the odd bit of ancient mono hardware. This could be very confusing when dealing with stereo outputs, but it's no longer an issue. Sonar 8 offers mono hardware outputs, so you can warm up vocal tracks with a single-channel tube preamp, or run your drum tracks through that beloved old analogue synthesizer.

11. Live Input Bouncing revisited
It's been said that mixing with a mouse takes much of the spontaneity out of the process. Regain some of it by using Sonar 8's Live Input Bouncing to record and play any software instrument and effects tweaks into the bounce. You'll be amazed at some of the stuff you can come up with when you're flying by the seat of your pants.

For an in-depth guide to Sonar 8, check out the December issue of Computer Music (issue 133).