In addition you have different views for editing the piano roll, events, step sequencer, staff, loop constructions and lyrics. It’s easy to use and the overview is as it should be. The arranger window itself is your typical sequencer window that shows all the different midi and audio tracks. Keep in mind to scan all the VST’s that you’ve installed otherwise the list of plugins and synths are just the ones that got installed with Sonar. Except for the Synth Rack that is stuck to the bottom of the arranger window. I do like the way you can set it up and can change pretty much everything. Starting it up for the first time also means you’ll have to set it up in your personal favor.

I used that time to read through the paper manual and to me it seemed well written, very helpful and informative. Installation takes quite some time since you’ll end up with a whopping 15Gb of new data with the majority being samples and loops. Competition is rather extensive so I’ll be very blunt at times. In Europe their market share is limited but in the US it’s quite larger mainly due to the fact that guitarists seem to have a sweet spot for Cakewalk for ages. Myself I have used Cakewalk in the past several times and I have to admit it worked well for me. So with this Sonar 8.5 version you’ll know for sure that you’ll get a well thought quality product that proved itself in the past. Cakewalk have a long history producing DAW software.

Session drummer 3 sonar 8.5 how to