Cakewalk Sonar Home Studio 6 XL review

  • £119
By Computer Music
published
Sonar Home Studio 6XL

MusicRadar Verdict

A feature-packed budget version of Sonar.

Pros

  • +

    Great value for money.

Cons

  • -

    Lacks the flexibility of the flagship package.

MusicRadar's got your back Our team of expert musicians and producers spends hours testing products to help you choose the best music-making gear for you. Find out more about how we test.

Feature-limited though it may be (you miss out on a lot of the Producer version's cool plug-ins, for example), Sonar Home Studio 6 XL does have some goodies up its sleeve.

Extras over the regular, non-XL version of Home Studio include the Boost 11 Peak Limiter (with 'look ahead' peak detection that prevents output clipping), Dimension LE (a cutdown version of the excellent Dimension synth) and the Garritan Pocket Orchestra (this offers an abundance of orchestral sounds). Finally, the Session Drummer 2 plug-in is on hand to meet all of your rhythmic requirements.

At a mere £119, Sonar Home Studio 6 XL represents great value for money, offering heaps of functionality for the cash. It's definitely worth investing in if you like the Cakewalk vibe but can't afford either of the company's fully-fledged Sonar products.

Computer Music
Computer Music

Computer Music magazine is the world’s best selling publication dedicated solely to making great music with your Mac or PC computer. Each issue it brings its lucky readers the best in cutting-edge tutorials, need-to-know, expert software reviews and even all the tools you actually need to make great music today, courtesy of our legendary CM Plugin Suite.