The Guitarist's Guide to SONAR

The first five chapters of `The Guitarist's Guide to Sonar' are very likely the clearest, most readable primer on interfacing guitars and computers for both recording and live performance that I've read. In spite of Sonar in the title, these chapters are also largely software/hardware neutral and should be useful to any guitarist looking to get a handle on the possibilities. All kinds of common setups are described: Whether you're going direct with a DI (and describing what that means), using a USB/Firewire/PCIe interface, dedicated control surfaces, miking a physical amp, or using an external modeler/interface unit such as a Pod or a V-Amp. Cabling, signal paths, line versus mic inputs, and the digital musician's ever present bugaboo, latency are all covered. Even the material on configuring Sonar's drivers and I/O devices is by and large common to all DAWS. The book deals largely with playing and recording electric guitar through modeling software and/or external modeling processors. There's very little here concerning MIDI guitar in the sense of using the instrument as a controller (my Roland GK-1 from the 80's spent decades gathering dust in the closet but, as Anderton says, hardware horsepower has improved so much I may just reattach it and see what it can do.) As the book progresses, references to plug-ins, effects and features become more Sonar-specific. Anderton sticks to features common to X1 Studio and Producer, with the exception of a chapter on Effect Chains 2.0, found only in X1 Producer Extended. The later chapters have more the feel of a cookbook rather than a guided tutorial. Specific chapters on improving modeled sounds, various Sonar production tools, using ACT to integrate control surfaces and chaining effects are all presented in depth. If you're experienced and are looking for solid advice on a topic, you can drill right down. If you're not very experienced (as I'm not), I felt a bit like being thrown in the deep end of the pool and would have appreciated a bit more of a progressive approach where techniques build upon each other logically. One thing I did particularly like is that Anderton doesn't just dictate steps to follow and he doesn't play favorites (well, except for the Roland 700 control surface I feel he mentions a bit too often, although I get the Cakewalk/Roland tie-in). He explains the whys and trade-offs involved in all of these setups so you can choose the one best likely to meet your needs. He's also not out to impress you with his knowledge or dazzle you with techie detail. This is a guy whose books and articles I've been reading since the 70's. He knows this stuff from the ground up as a guy who built a lot of his own gear and taught countless people to do the same. His writing is natural and clear with an easy pace. As the author puts it plainly: at the end of day no one cares what gear you used or what production tricks; they care only about the emotional connection your music makes with them.

I don't really have Sonar, but I am very familiar with earlier versions of Cakewalk, which is the precursor of Sonar. I used it for sequencing MIDI, but I couldn't really get the audio recording features to work. I think that it was moving more and more in that digital audio direction. It looks like Sonar is a full blown audio recording program, that retains the MIDI features I know so well, but with the focus on recording digital audio tracks. This book is geared toward guitarists, using guitar to input MIDI, and using digital amp simulations and so forth for digital recording. Even though I lack the software, I could see that this was a pretty good book, and there was a lot of general information that could be applied to digital recording with other programs. I recognized the name of the author, Craig Anderton, who has written numerous books going back to the dawn of digital music. Seems like I can recall a book he wrote about how to build your own guitar effects from scratch, soldering resisters and diodes. The blurb on the back says that he has written over 20 books in addition to being the editor-in-chief of harmonycentral dot com and executive editor of Electronic Musician magazine. There are sections on Active Controller Technology (ACT) and Pitch Transposition with Acidized Files. How to Emulate Vintage Guitar Effects like the Wah Wah pedal or the Phase Shifter. Latency issues? Covered. How about Side Chaining Effects? Ditto, on that Daddy-O. From time to time Anderton will drop in a rant such as when he asks: Just because we can do it, should we? This discusses composite recording techniques, which Craig thinks should be used to enhance a good recorded take and make it transcendent rather than build a mediocre take from a series of lame takes. And I couldn't agree more. With all the technology available today, why is the quality of most of the music so poor? OK, rant over. The Bottom Line is that The Guitarist's Guide to Sonar by Craig Anderton is an excellent book that I would have enjoyed and benefited from much more if I actually had the Cakewalk Sonar software, but the way that Anderton talks about it intrigues me, and I may end up getting it after all just to see what all the fuss is about. ALSO BY CRAIG ANDERTON: Sonar Insider Guitar Player Presents Do-It-Yourself Projects for Guitarists (Book) Home Recording For Musicians - Revised Making Music with SONAR Home Studio Digital Delay Handbook Sonar 3: Mixing & Mastering Electronic Projects for Musicians Digital Home Recording - Tips, Techniques, and Tools for Home Studio Production Multieffects for Musicians

Way to complicated for a newbie daw user. Should be advertised as an advanced book for seasoned user. Author has very specific way of working which I'm thinking is not the way your average guitarist works.

Wanting to do some home recording, I thought I'd check this out. WHile it is for SONAR, I did find a lot of really useful information that applies to whatever software you're using. It gives a very comprehensive, and easy to follow guidelines on the recording process and all the things that you need in order to set up a home studio. It's obvious that this book was well researched and thought out. The world of home recording can be confusing and frustrating and I wish more books were written like this for other software programs.

The Guitarist's Guide to Cakewalk SONAR is exceptional for beginners to computer music recording. In fact, the first three chapters focus solely on navigating, configuring, and comprehending hardware set up, which proves useful for thos starting out. The rest of the text was organized well with step-by-step tools, tips, and solutions that most any publishing guitarist would appreciate.

As a guitarist, when it comes to recording, I know what I want my sound to be when it's recorded. The stuff is already in my head, my subconscious amplifier if you will, and I want it to come out of my amp (or amp sim, whichever the case may be) in a very specific way. This book captures the heart of RECORDING, not just is it a great guide to Sonar, which is an excellent bit of software I might add. I highly reccommend this book to any GUITARIST (couldn't help but to capitalize) out there who wants to learn more about computer recording. Five Stars!!! Rock on!!!

I looked forward to getting my hands on this book but i have to say that I'm disappointed with the information presented. I do realize that in addition to the author's stated goal of writing this book for guitarists of varying levels of experience (with music software), there is also the issue of guitarists' level of experience (or even just familiarity) with basic recording processes to begin with. But I think that with the way things are written, he misses two marks. Those who have little or no experience with music software will often be in over their heads with the introduction of new concepts while being given very little in-depth (conceptual) explanation. Those who are more familiar with music software won't find very much that they don't already know, even when you consider the things that are specific to SONAR versus some other DAW software. In some ways this book feels to me like as much an advertisement for Cakewalk as it does a guitarist's guide to SONAR. This is just my own opinion obviously, but I have to say something about this. As a guitar player using SONAR, it just does not make sense to me that the author would spend 17 pages on VS-20 & ACT (control surface) while writing merely 6 pages on something like bussing (or 6 pages on equalization). Yes, control surfaces are cool and certainly can be a convenience, but you don't actually NEED one in order to get anything done. Bussing on the other hand is something you cannot avoid when doing software-based recording. If you get bussing wrong it can screw you up; and if you know how it works it can let you accomplish things that are impossible with analog-based recording. And only 6 pages on equalization? Really!? EQ is absolutely KEY to managing audio; more information should've been given for everyone from novice to semi-pro. Now of course there is a lot of information in this book, and just about anybody would be able to find *something useful. But at $30 it really should be at least a better reference/guide than the manual that comes with your software, and, it should have *some insight that you couldn't otherwise easily find through a quick Google search. I definitely don't recommend this book for those experienced with music software, and honestly I couldn't even recommend it as a resource for anyone new to software-based recording.

My son and I are guitarists, and we were interesting to learn a little bit more about recording. My son has done much more than I, but I was trying to find a bridge, of sorts. This book helps to understand recording with Sonar...although I think it could be used with other software programs. It seems to be all there, fully explained. I am personnally still a little confused, but hey, you gotta start somewhere.....or you just stay confused. I have to study more to understand, but thanks for helping me.

great read