Reference Guide

1430 New features in SONAR X3

ARA Audio Random Access support

What is ARA?

ARA (Audio Random Access) is an extension of the VST plug-in interface, which allows ARA-

compatible VST plug-ins to be closely integrated in host programs like SONAR.

ARA is not a new competing plug-in format, but simply an optional extension to the VST format that

has to be supported by both the host program and plug-in. SONAR supports ARA via VST3 plug-ins.

What are the benefits of ARA?

The main benefit of ARA is the ability to integrate with plug-ins that can edit audio, such as

Melodyne. ARA-compatible plug-ins have random access to the audio data since they can also re-

sequence the audio.

Without ARA, a plug-in only receives audio data from the host program in real-time during playback,

and knows nothing about the musical context of the audio data. This may be sufficient for some

types of plug-ins like reverb and EQ, but not for plug-ins that need to analyze the entire musical

context (notes, rhythm, tempo, key, etc.) in order to produce optimal results. ARA greatly improves

the workflow when using certain types of plug-ins, such as pitch correction.

With ARA, SONAR and compatible plug-ins can exchange information about the project’s timeline

data, including audio clips, tempo, pitch, rhythm and much more, which allows them to work together

much more closely.

SONAR X3 includes Celemony Melodyne essential (see “Pitch correction: Celemony Melodyne

essential (Producer and Studio only)” on page 1432), which is ARA-compatible. You can apply

Melodyne to any selected audio region in SONAR, and use the Melodyne Editor directly in SONAR’s

MultiDock view. Melodyne essentially functions as an integrated feature in SONAR.

ARA is latency-free, and unlike regular VST effects, ARA effects such as Melodyne have full access

to audio clips in SONAR.

For more information about ARA, see www.celemony.com/cms/index.php?id=ara.