Today Cakewalk announced Sonar X1, a significantly updated DAW that has been re-envisioned with a modern design, better layout, and smarter tools in order to help you work faster and more efficiently.

Sonar X1's main new features include:

• Skylight, which introduces a simplified and more intuitive workspace
• Smart Tools: Sonar tools revamped with improved functions that speed up editing and arranging
• ProChannel (Sonar X1 Producer edition): expands the software's console with big, pro-studio sound built in to every channel
• Edit Filter: a new aspect of every track that allows you to see and work on only the data you want
• Easier drag and drop capabilities
• Key Clusters: intuitive keyboard shortcuts
• FX Chains that let you create complex arrangements of multiple effects that reside in one container, which can be manipulated as a single effect
• Redesigned menus that make it easier to access various functions
• New Track Templates, patterns, and samples that help streamline the process of setting up projects
• Unified preferences view: every option and setting is now arranged in a single view that lets you apply changes as you go

Skylight, the revamped user interface, speeds up workflow by eliminating unnecessary floating windows, layout clutter, and so forth. The four main components of the Skylight interface are Inspector (see all vital track and clip information in one location), Browser (organize all content in one managed place with full drag and drop functionality), Control Bar (access crucial functions quickly and clearly -- collapse it, rearrange it, move it around the workspace, and so forth), and MultiDock (dock and instantly access any number of Sonar’s views into one combined area). In a nutshell, the new Skylight interface makes it easier to view and organize anything in your workspace.

Sonar’s tools, now called Smart Tools, have been rethought for Sonar X1. Most functions are now performed with a single implement that switches automatically based on context, an improvement that speeds up editing and arranging by reducing the need to constantly switch tools across different applications.

Available exclusively in Sonar X1 Producer, the ProChannel expands the software's console with bigger, pro-studio sound built in to every channel. With ProChannel, you get channel and bus compression, smooth and clear Gloss EQ, variable tube stage, flexible routing options, preset save and load functions, real-time visual feedback when ProChannel is collapsed, 64-bit double-precision audio resolution, Native x64 operation for modern computer workstations, and more.

Additional Sonar X1 features:

• Drag and drop EQ settings across channels in the console view
• Automatic plugin delay compensation PDC built into all versions
• Flexible Freeze options allowing for editing / arranging of frozen data
• Track Folders for superior management of tracks
• Per-track Arpeggiator
• Step Sequencer providing powerful step sequencing capabilities
• Matrix View for simple and flexible cell-based, non-linear audio and MIDI arranging with live triggering capability
• Active Controller Technology (ACT): automatically remaps parameters to whatever view has focus
• SurroundBridge technology for using stereo VST effects in Sonar’s surround environment (Sonar X1 Producer and Sonar X1 Studio)
• Surround mixing in over 30 formats (Sonar X1 Producer and Sonar X1 Studio)
• Flexible delivery options
• Automatic file versioning: back up projects with time/date stamps for easy access to old versions
• Waveform Preview with per-track markers that show maximum peak and overages on buses and synth tracks
• Clip-based effects and editing
• POW-r Dithering , iZotope Radius Time Stretching, MPEX 3 Time Scaling
• Crash Recovery safeguards projects against faulty plugins and other sources of crashes
• Wave-64 support provides capabilities to record large scale (2 GB and higher) projects view
• Integrated CD ripping and burning

Sonar X1 comes in three versions: Sonar X1 Essential ($99), Sonar X1 Studio ($199), and Sonar X1 Producer ($399). Visit Cakewalk's Web site to view complete features for each one.

Cakewalk notes that for all versions of Sonar X1, "Starting November 1, 2010, the buy Sonar 8.5 and get Sonar X1 free campaign begins and will continue through 2010." An upgrade from Sonar Home Studio XL to Sonar X1 Essential is free, while an upgrade from Sonar Home Studio to Sonar X1 Essential is $49.

For more information, visit cakewalk.com.