Specifications

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. Not only does it provide
the functions of the old Track view, but it doubles as an audio editor
by providing the functions of the old Audio view, too. In addition, the
Track view gives you access to many of the same controls for each track
in your project that you would find in the Console view, including signal
level meters. Suffice it to say, you’ll be spending a lot of time with the
Track view.
If you don’t understand some of the things I’ve been talking about here,
don’t worry. I’ll be going over all of the features found in SONAR in
detail throughout the remaining chapters.
Set Up Your System for
Better Performance
Cakewalk specifies a system with a 400 MHz processor and 64 MB of
random access memory (RAM) as the basic requirements to run SONAR.
Of course, you also need a Windows-compatible MIDI interface and/or
sound card. If your computer system lives up to (or surpasses) these
specifications, simply installing SONAR is more than likely all you’ll
need to do to get up and running with the software. If you really want to
get the best performance from SONAR, however, you can make a number
of adjustments to your computer system that will allow you to squeeze as
much power out of it as possible. Depending on your computer’s
specifications, these changes may even allow you to play back a few more
simultaneous digital audio tracks or apply more real-time effects. (See
Chapter 11 for more information.)
Microprocessor
You can’t do much to tweak your computer’s central processing unit
(CPU), aside from maybe upgrading it to a newer chip or buying a whole
new computer system. Suffice it to say, the newer and faster your CPU,
the better your computer system and SONAR will perform. From oldest
to newest, the order of available chips goes something like this:
http://www.muskalipman.com
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Getting Started with SONAR — Chapter 2