--- product_id: 11604779 title: "The Guitarist's Guide to SONAR" price: "HK$400" currency: HKD in_stock: true reviews_count: 9 url: https://www.desertcart.hk/products/11604779-the-guitarists-guide-to-sonar store_origin: HK region: Hong Kong --- # The Guitarist's Guide to SONAR **Price:** HK$400 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** The Guitarist's Guide to SONAR - **How much does it cost?** HK$400 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.hk](https://www.desertcart.hk/products/11604779-the-guitarists-guide-to-sonar) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description As more and more guitarists begin to use amp simulation software, it becomes increasingly important for them to have a tool that will help them to get the most out of it. That tool has arrived in the form of THE GUITARIST'S GUIDE TO SONAR. Designed for guitarists of varying levels of experience with music software, this book covers some of the considerations unique to recording guitar with any computer-based system, and then progresses into guitar-specific techniques for Cakewalk SONAR. The first eight chapters are designed to flow in order, but after that, the book is more of a collection of tools and tips that you can dip into as needed. Are you having problems nailing a solo? Then check out the chapter "Perfect Takes with Composite Recording." Miss the sound of that ancient phase shifter you sold on eBay? Then read "How to Emulate Vintage Effects." Not happy with the sound of amp sims? There are plenty of ways to sweeten their sound, as described in "How to Improve Amp Sim Tone." Think of this book as a reference that can help you solve problems, but also, there's a lot of material intended to inspire you to try new and different techniques and get your creative juices flowing. Review: Part Tutorial / Part Cookbook of Techniques - 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. Review: Using One Track's Envelope to Modulate Another Track's Processor - 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 ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #11,167,445 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #3,600 in Music Recording & Sound (Books) #6,019 in Arts & Humanities Teaching Materials #8,712 in Music (Books) | | Customer Reviews | 3.4 out of 5 stars 12 Reviews | ## Images ![The Guitarist's Guide to SONAR - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71-gWcz4BQL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Part Tutorial / Part Cookbook of Techniques *by F***3 on May 10, 2012* 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. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Using One Track's Envelope to Modulate Another Track's Processor *by C***K on March 6, 2012* 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 ### ⭐⭐ Too advanced for average user *by B***D on March 28, 2014* 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. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.hk/products/11604779-the-guitarists-guide-to-sonar](https://www.desertcart.hk/products/11604779-the-guitarists-guide-to-sonar) --- *Product available on Desertcart Hong Kong* *Store origin: HK* *Last updated: 2026-06-14*