Sonar, Project 5 & Multi tracks

[BloodHound]

OK. I thought I'll share this with whoever cares after (trying) to read the thread by James. The thread is too confusing for me to follow, but James mentioned he wanted to process two identical audio tracks. Anyway, here goes...

This tip is to double an audio track in Sonar to apply different effects. The traditional way is to copy the audio clip to a different track. The altenative is to use a rewire device like project 5. Export the audio to a wav. Make sure when you export the clip to start exactly on a measure boundry to avoid synchronization pains. Add project 5 as a rewire instrument and import the audio clip in project 5. Assign the output of the clip in project 5 to any one of the many P5 outputs. Back in Sonar you can now add as many audio tracks as your heart desire and assign the input to the project 5 (rewire). Apply any effect you wish on each different track.

Why do you want to go through all this trouble you may ask. Doing it this way you can have as many copies of the same audio track as you like without adding space to your hard disc. I use this method especially for guitars. One track clean, one with detune, one with distortion etc. You have full control over panning levels reverb etc for each track. This will also work well for vocals where you want to use chorus and delay effects on the doubled track.

Another good idea is to use this method for mastering. Export the whole song to wav and open an empty project in Sonar. Rewire P5 and import your song in P5. Add Izotope Ozone or any mastering effects to your track in Sonar. Now clone the track as many times as you like and play around with different mastering effects settings in each track. This allows you to compare different mastering setting. Remember to mute or archive (depending on your processing power) all tracks but one at a time in Sonar to listen to it.