Speaking of Sonar, I recorded a demonstration last year for Innovations, the excellent technology show on The Global Voice, the Internet radio station I now broadcast on, regarding how to record a composition using it, along with the free JSonar scripts for JAWS.
(You can find it on JSonar’s site, Blind Cool Tech, and my audio reviews page.)
I’m very delighted that so many people are finding it useful, and look forward to doing more podcasts and blog entries about using Sonar with assistive technology when time allows. One thing I should note, however, is that shortly after producing that demo, I purchased CakeTalking from Dancing Dots, and have been using it ever since. OK, I know what you’re thinking: “Does that mean he hates JSonar now?”
The answer is absolutely not. I think both products are wonderful, but I’ve felt for a long time that I needed something different. As a result, in future podcasts, when I do anything in Sonar, you’ll most likely hear me using CT for the accessibility, but I’m certainly not abandoning JSonar users. Whenever possible, I’ll try to describe how to perform various actions with JSonar, but the process should be pretty much identical regardless of what you’re using.

Speaking of podcasts, work is slowly being done for Episode 7. I’m not going to speculate on when it’ll be ready, but I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.
In the meantime, feel free to leave a comment here or to contact me through my website to let me know what you’d like to see discussed/demonstrated for future episodes.
I’m considering changing the focus of the podcast to be more about audio production than games, but it’s just an idea at the moment.

The first thing that surprised me was that, in the normal template, you now get two tracks by default instead of four. Previously, the template consisted of two audio and two MIDI tracks, but now you get one of each. This isn’t a bad thing, since you can add additional tracks at any time, so it’s more of a case of getting used to it.
The only thing I had to fix in the Normal Template was to make it load the layout used by JSonar, the set of scripts I use with JAWS for Windows. If it’s not loaded, you can expect all sorts of problems, such as the Media Browser not displaying properly, and, in the case of a song a friend sent me, FX bins all over the place, even though there were only two on the track. (For those of you who are just getting into Sonar, the FX bin is where you can load a soft synth or audio effect to be used exclusively on that track.) In any case, all I had to do was load the Normal template, load the JSonar layout, and re-save the template. Problem solved!

Now here’s something that really got me excited. While browsing the MIDI track’s controls, I came across, get ready for this, an arpeggiator! OK, I know what you’re thinking, so what? That was my reaction at first, but once you enable it, you’ll be having lots of fun.
Project5, CakeWalk’s synth workstation program (which I don’t believe is being sold anymore), had an arpeggiator that you could use on any MIDI track, even if the synth didn’t have it. Now, after all these years, it’s finally in Sonar. I spent a few minutes trying the various presets using a piano sound from my Roland EXR-3S keyboard, and what I’ve heard so far sounds pretty good! But is it just me, or are there a lot of duplicates?
Later on, I loaded in one of my favorite soft synths, Z3TA+ (or Zeta as I’ll refer to it), and tried the arpeggiator with it, even though it has it’s own on a lot of the presets. Wow, this combination is awesome! I hope to produce an audio demo of this feature soon.

Well, that’s all for now, but I’ll continue to update you on my experiences with this excellent version of the product as time permits.

Other links mentioned in this edition:

• Vox Machina, an online speech synthesizer that was used to create the intro for Episode 4.
• The Project Studio Network (PSN) Podcast
• X-Sight Interactive (new link)

Music Featured:

• Theme music and jingle by KJS Productions
• Ending theme: “Contimune” by LVX Nova from their self-titled CD
• “Shine” by Kevin Reeves from his CD “It’s About Time”
• “Getting Through” by Jorgen Hansson

Download Episode 6

Music featured in this podcast includes:

• Theme music: Into The Night by Maxim G.
• Ending theme for this episode: Contimune by LVX Nova

Download Episode 5

Links mentioned in this podcast include:

• WWITV.com
• CPAC, Canadian Parliamentary Affairs Channel
• CNN
• The MOD Archive

Songs Featured:

• Theme music: Into The Night by Maxim G.
• Ending Theme: Credits Music from Epic Pinball by Epic Megagames
• Space Debris by Captain (MOD file)
• Dead Lock by Elwood (MOD file)
• Sometime by Radix (MOD file)

Special thanks to Damien Sadler of X-Sight Interactive for his DecTalk Scripter program (which is no longer available), and for additional music.

Download Episode 4