FAQ

Below you will find answers to several questions you may have.

How does SONAR communicate with control surfaces?

SONAR 2 takes a plug-in approach to supporting hardware control surfaces. Cakewalk has defined a set of COM interfaces, supplied by SONAR, to communicate all the relevant project state information, and to allow transport control, etc. Plug-in parameters are also exposed. SONAR also supplies methods to allow MIDI transmission out to a MIDI hardware port.

Examples of what is supported by SONAR's Control surface architecture

Bi-directional, real-time communication between SONAR and the control surface. Control all mixing parameters of SONAR's audio and MIDI engine, including automatable effect parameters. Support for all current control types: motorized, non-motorized and touch-sensitive faders, infinite encoders, multi-state, multi-function buttons, text displays, various indicator lights, transport controls (MMC), Jog/Shuttle wheel, etc. SONAR menu commands accessible from control surface Ability to synthesize keyboard keystrokes (navigate views, property pages, plug-ins, etc. from control surface Scrub via Jog/Shuttle wheel. Remote control of track selection. Remote control of plug-ins and synth parameters Active Controller Technology (ACT ) WAI (Where Am I?) More

What are the benefits of supporting control surfaces as plug-ins?

By supporting control surfaces via plug-ins, any 3rd party vendor can develop, and update, support for their products independently of Cakewalk's release schedule.

Who can develop Control Surface support for SONAR?

Any control surface vendor can write a control surfaces DLL using our Control Surface SDK. Control surfaces integrate with SONAR by means of a COM object. The Control Surface SDK utilizes MFC and ATL to create these COM objects. Given these COM interfaces, the control surface module becomes a separate DLL. A knowledgeable technical person can write these DLLs using our control surface S