SONAR X1 & 2nd Generation Intel Core Processor Family

Cakewalk’s SONAR* is one of the most advanced 64-bit digital audio workstations (DAWs) available, offering composers a tool set with an unlimited number of tracks, world-class virtual instruments, and an array of professional effects and audio production tools.

With the December 8, 2010 release of SONAR X1, the SONAR family of products has been reimagined. As Steve Thomas, Cakewalk’s public relations director, put it, “We’ve taken all of the pieces of SONAR and reassembled them in a manner that takes the power and maturity of an industry-standard DAW, combined with cutting-edge creative tools essential for today’s music and wrapped them in one of the most modern and thoughtfully designed user interfaces available.”

SONAR X1 gives game audio professionals a streamlined, next-generation workspace with dockable, floatable, and collapsible views; customizable window configurations; easy-to-access media assets; and simplified context-driven control over vital features.

At every level, the emphasis has been on creating a refined workflow and an intelligent layout that focuses on making more music.

“Ten years ago,” Thomas explained, “game composers would’ve built their loops using one software tool and then imported the loops into another program such as Cakewalk’s Pro Audio, where they’d handle the audio editing/recording and MIDI work. Today that workflow all takes place in SONAR, along with many time-saving features such as Track Folders, that can be vital to a game audio composers’ organization of a large project.

“People creating scores for motion pictures or modern games typically utilize a gigantic number of tracks. If a full symphony orchestra is involved, there may be as many tracks as there are orchestra seats. Track Folders in SONAR X1 are particularly helpful for managing a large number of tracks, especially if the composer is limited to the visual real estate of a single monitor.”

To bring sonic variety and color to their scores, game composers often combine SONAR’s virtual synthesizers, such as Rapture, Dimension, and Pentagon, with live recordings of orchestral instruments. Alternately, composers might sketch their work by using very large sample libraries of strings, brass, and orchestral percussion instruments before committing to recording a live orchestra. Playing back dozens or hundreds of virtual instrument tracks, complete with digital-signal processing such as reverb, echo, level compression, equalization, and transient shapers, is an incredibly processor-intensive task.

Previously, numerous tracks had to be pre-rendered, a process that baked effects, volume changes, and other mixing parameters into audio clips to lighten the workload and eliminate latency, dropped notes, and unwanted sonic artifacts. The latest Intel® multi-core, multi-threaded processors, however, are helping to accelerate this process.

“We’ve been working closely with Intel engineers for years,” Thomas said. “Whether it is multi-core performance gains or optimizations for DSP and mixing that target the capabilities of a specific processor chipset, SONAR has always maintained the cutting edge on the Intel® platform. For example, in 2005 SONAR became the first DAW to offer an end-to-end 64-bit signal path and a 64-bit, double-precision, floating point mix engine. Today this legacy continues with SONAR X1’s support of Intel® Advanced Vector Extensions and full optimization for the new 2nd generation Intel® Core™ processor family. The results just keep getting faster and faster and better.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Before signing on as one of the writing muses for Rose & Her Minions, Dominic Milano spent over 30 years in print, online, and event media production, including working on the Game Developer Conference, and DV, Game Developer, Keyboard, and Guitar Player magazines. His company, DM&C, provides content creation and consulting services in a variety of industries.

CASE STUDY 1: TIMOTHY MICHAEL WYNN

Tim Wynn’s credits as a composer span a number of television shows and motion pictures, including the hit CW series Supernatural and the 2010 feature film To Save a Life. His game credits include: Command & Conquer* 4: Tiberian Twilight (EA), Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 (EA), Red Faction Guerilla* (THQ), Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3: Uprising (EA), The Punisher* (Marvel Comics and THQ), Gun* (Activision), Warhawk* (Sony), and The Simpsons* Game (Electronic Arts (EA)). He is currently working on two unannounced titles for 2011.

Production Challenges

Whether scoring music for film, television, or interactive video games, Wynn’s work starts with a visual reference. Scoring games, however, comes with a number of unique challenges. If he’s brought into a game project at an early stage, he might have as his reference only incomplete still images with grayed-out areas and partially rendered characters. If development is further along, he might receive short Apple QuickTime* video clips illustrating game play.

As modern games strive to be more cinematic, Wynn’s challenge is to enhance the story line by writing music that adds to whatever drama is taking place. “I’m at my best when my score helps the player make an emotional connection to the story, the characters, and the game play,” Wynn said.

To accomplish that goal, Wynn needed a DAW that would allow him to import and play back video clips, while giving him the power to record and play back over 120 audio tracks and effects, as well as 30 or more stems, simultaneously.

Wynn’s orchestral recording is always handled at other recording studios. For Command and Conquer, where recording was done at Skywalker Ranch on an Avid Pro Tools* system, he needed a DAW that could import stems (discreet parts of a composition saved as an individual audio element, often used in remixing) mixed in Pro Tools and further tweak them using various effects plug-ins, virtual synthesizers, synthetic percussion, and instruments from multi-gigabit sample libraries.

The Solution

Cakewalk SONAR* is Wynn’s go-to DAW. He finds that running it under Microsoft Windows* 7 on Intel® processor-based workstations with 12 GB RAM gives him the computing muscle to run multiple effects plug-ins on all of his audio tracks and include virtual synthesizers and percussion as well as MIDI tracks in the mix, all without having to render submixes before being able to hear the overall result.

Wynn is shopping for an analog mixing board so he can run digital audio tracks through its analog signal chain for sonic sweetening, and he’s using an M-Audio* Oxygen 8 for volume changes and MIDI control. But he’s more than satisfied with the performance of his DAW system. “With SONAR and Intel® processor-based workstations, I don’t need to be so wrapped up in tech,” Wynn said. “I can just worry about creating music. The computer and the software unshackle me.”

CASE STUDY 2: SEAN MURRAY

Composer Sean Murray started his career at the age of 19. His credits include the hit TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the games True Crime*: Streets of LA (Activision), and the best-selling Call of Duty*: World at War and Call of Duty: Black Ops (Activision).

Production Challenges

Murray’s scores combine orchestral recordings with synthesized sounds. His first game project required him to compose the cinematic cut scenes, which he handled exactly like a traditional, linear film score. For his second game, True Crime: New York City, which required him to write for game play, Murray composed to video clips of each game level. He made a point of writing enough music to play through a significant portion of the level, often keeping additional cues at the same tempo so that switching between them would be easy.

For Call of Duty: World at War, Murray needed to write cues and hear them in context with all of the other audio elements, including gunfire, explosions, and sound effects. “When writing music for games,” Murray said, “you want to find the sonorities that will work within the sound palette.”

Murray also needed to work with digital-audio recordings of a 100-piece orchestra including choir, control a bank of vintage synthesizers, and run Tascam GigaStudio* 4 sample player software.

On his latest project, Call of Duty: Black Ops, after first laying down his orchestral tracks using sampled instruments, he needed to swap these out for live orchestral recordings. This called for delivering a score for a 79-piece orchestra to another recording studio for recording and then digitally manipulating the various stems.

The Solution

Cakewalk SONAR and a Mackie digital mixing board serve as the hub of Murray’s studio. SONAR’s complement of virtual synths and percussion, along with extensive MIDI and digital-audio recording capabilities, give him the flexibility to start composing right away. He starts each audio cue by loading its corresponding video clip into SONAR. From there, rhythmic elements, melodic ideas, or sound design elements drive the composition. “When you’re writing for moving pictures and games,” Murray said, “it’s usually best to go with the first idea you have as you’re looking at the video.”

Murray uses four Intel® processor based computers. One of them runs SONAR and features an Intel® Core™2 Quad processor (2.4 GHz) and 8 GB RAM. The other three are dedicated to Tascam GigaStudio sample player software. It’s all tied together through MIDI running over a LAN, which keeps latency to a minimum.

Murray uses the GigaStudio for brass and strings, percussion and effects, and for extended polyphony when he runs out of voices for a given cue. A large collection of vintage synthesizers, Kurzweil samplers, and an old E-MU Emulator* get used on practically every project.

An Apple Macintosh* runs Avid ProTools software, which Murray uses for exchanging projects with other audio post-production facilities.

On Call of Duty: Black Ops, Murray was often running 110 tracks of digital audio, MIDI, and orchestral recordings. He utilized SONAR’s Track Folders feature to organize his score by instrument groups. For example, he put 15 string tracks in one folder, MIDI and brass tracks in another folder, audio data for 36 tracks in another, and so on.

Orchestral stems from Pro Tools were brought back into SONAR, where SONAR’s battery of effects were used to, as Murray put it, “absolutely destroy a sound beyond recognition, so it’s something fresh.” Also called into service frequently were Transient Shaper, V-Vocal, and the Z3TA+* virtual synthesizer that comes with SONAR.

To create a written score for the orchestra, Murray sent the basic MIDI tracks and a WAV file of the score to an orchestrator. The written score in a PDF format was then e-mailed to Murray. After printing, the 75-minute score took up two huge books.

CASE STUDY 3: CHUCK CARR

Spawn*, and numerous other titles. He has since been an Chuck Carr has been creating music and sound effects for games since 1994 when he worked on id Software’s Doom* II. He later served as a sound designer at 989 Studios, a former division of Sony Interactive Studios America, where he created sound effects and scary dialogue for Tanarus*, in-house composer, music manager, and songwriter for hit titles such as Gran Turismo*, EverQuest*, Twisted Metal*: Black, The Mark of Kri*, Neopets*: The Darkest Faerie, MLB* The Show*, Hot Shots Golf*, and more. His latest game projects are Jerry Rice & Nitus’ Dog Football (Judobaby) and Twisted Metal X (Sony).

Production Challenges

For his latest project, Twisted Metal X (Sony), Carr is writing a heavy metal-influenced game soundtrack using his signature rock sound, which he developed writing the theme for the popular PlayStation* Network game, Pain* (Sony).

Carr prefers to write and record his own songs, calling in talented musicians to play solos and various instrumental parts. To accomplish this, he needed a DAW that could accommodate recording live guitars, drums, bass, harmonica, vocals, and other instruments as needed in his own studio.

The Solution

Carr’s choice of DAW is SONAR. To help jumpstart the recording process, he built a rock music template—a preset track layout for drums, guitars, vocals, and other instruments he plans to record. For rock tunes, he starts by laying down a guitar track and follows with drums and other instruments.

For dance tracks, synthesizers or keyboards get laid down first. Carr also includes a vocal track in his game tunes, although he’s never sure if the lyrics will survive the final mix, because sound effects such as explosions will easily drown out the vocals.

Virtual pianos and the many soft synths in SONAR, as well as Native Instruments virtual synths, play a major role in Carr’s sonic toolkit. Carr is also particularly fond of SONAR’s PX-64 percussion strip processor designed for shaping drum and percussion sounds. He supplements them with iZotope plug-ins and Steve Slate drums, which he plays through the Kontakt 4 Player.

Carr runs the DAW system on a laptop equipped with an Intel® Core™ i7 processor Extreme Edition and 6 GB RAM. To bring audio into SONAR, Carr relies on Great River ME-1NV mic pre-amps. He prefers to record 44-kHz, 16-bit audio, and uses Sony Sound Forge* for his 5.1 surround audio mixes.

An Intel® Core™2 Quad processor-powered desktop acts as the house server. Two Macintosh* computers run Apple Logic* and Avid Pro Tools, which are used when collaborating with other artists. For storage, Carr turns to six external 7,200 rpm eSATA hard disk drives. He stores his sample libraries on 80-GB Intel® Solid-State Drives, because as he put it, “Not only do they work, they’re way faster! I love them.”

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