JDNelson
Well... I'm still running 8.1 on XP SP3 and no probs here :-)
 ...So yes it is possible... using a 10 year old system lol.

Blades

A modern PC does not have to be off line. If you’re careful and don’t visit dodgy sites you’re going to be ok.

As "the IT guy", I am advising everyone to please not think this way. It is wrong. Period. There is So much more to this and tons of non-dosgybsites websites websites websites get infected with Malware every day. This is simply incorrect and irresponsible advice.

mosspa
If the current version of SONAR works for you, all you need to do is to put it on its own computer platform with that platform's current version of Windows, and SONAR will work, just like it does now, for as long as you can keep that platform running.

foldaway
I'd imagine we can all agree that Sonar Platinum will continue to work, just for an unknown period of time.
Given that there is this uncertainty, surely having a plan B inplace makes sense.
 
The only glimmer of any useful plan B, I've seen so far is this feaure request here : http://answers.presonus.com/23241/ability-to-import-sonar-projects
 
I can't speak for anyone else but I've put thousands of hours into sonar projects & the potential loss of time invested is more worrying than anything else.  If anyone else recognises this position, please register & up vote the feature request.
 
If they receive enough votes, quickly enough they might have an opportunity to hire some talented developers who might currently be looking for work!

Blades

A modern PC does not have to be off line. If you’re careful and don’t visit dodgy sites you’re going to be ok.

As "the IT guy", I am advising everyone to please not think this way. It is wrong. Period. There is So much more to this and tons of non-dosgybsites websites websites websites get infected with Malware every day. This is simply incorrect and irresponsible advice.

sharke

foldaway
I'd imagine we can all agree that Sonar Platinum will continue to work, just for an unknown period of time.
Given that there is this uncertainty, surely having a plan B inplace makes sense.
 
The only glimmer of any useful plan B, I've seen so far is this feaure request here : http://answers.presonus.com/23241/ability-to-import-sonar-projects
 
I can't speak for anyone else but I've put thousands of hours into sonar projects & the potential loss of time invested is more worrying than anything else.  If anyone else recognises this position, please register & up vote the feature request.
 
If they receive enough votes, quickly enough they might have an opportunity to hire some talented developers who might currently be looking for work!

Wouldn't Presonus have to have access to the internals of Sonar's file format to even begin to think about adding a Sonar project import feature? 

vintagevibe
Unfortunately Presonus will never add a direct Sonar file import feature. The realities of software production ensure that. From Sonar, exporting/importing OMF and MIDI or MusicXML files will remain the only option. The bad news is that Studio One currently doesn’t support OMF so you would have to deal with Wav file export/import which is a lot more work😩. I moved to Cubase a couple of years ago which does import OMF. I used Sonar since it was s MIDI only sequencer so I had a lot of Sonar files to transfer! It’s laborious but it works. The good news is that you can take as long as you need to move on to something else.

vintagevibe

foldaway
Why wouldn't they? There's a great business case for it.  In thier shoes, I'd certainly employ an ex-sonar dev or two to add this feature or create a small standalone convertor. As it would make Studio One top choice when Sonar users evetually have to move DAWs.

Two reasons:
1) They would need legal access to the source code which is currently not for sale.
2) It would be very expensive with no clear return on investment. Since that would be a feature solely for the benefit of a specific group with absolutely no value to anyone not in that group it’s a bad investment. Also the potential customers in that group have several solutions from other, much larger companies. Also this is a specific moment. By the time a major feature like that could be added the moment will have passed. Since software is so expensive to develope properly companies need to make investments into features that a large number of their users need. Sonar import would not be such an investment. Also if they were to purchase rights to the source code that would add a HUGE additional expense. It would be a waste of time and energy to wait for such a feature.

foldaway

vintagevibe

foldaway
Why wouldn't they? There's a great business case for it.  In thier shoes, I'd certainly employ an ex-sonar dev or two to add this feature or create a small standalone convertor. As it would make Studio One top choice when Sonar users evetually have to move DAWs.

Two reasons:
1) They would need legal access to the source code which is currently not for sale.
2) It would be very expensive with no clear return on investment. Since that would be a feature solely for the benefit of a specific group with absolutely no value to anyone not in that group it’s a bad investment. Also the potential customers in that group have several solutions from other, much larger companies. Also this is a specific moment. By the time a major feature like that could be added the moment will have passed. Since software is so expensive to develope properly companies need to make investments into features that a large number of their users need. Sonar import would not be such an investment. Also if they were to purchase rights to the source code that would add a HUGE additional expense. It would be a waste of time and energy to wait for such a feature.

re: 1)  Not necessarily.  This can be achieved legally through reverse engineering, as the goal of said reverse engineering is interoperatbility & does not result in a competing product (as sonar not longer being for sale).  This is the case in the EU at least.  Appears possbile in US but likely more risk attached.
 
re: 2)  An entire customer base, not worth any investment to win over?  How much have you spent on Cakewalk products over the years?

foldaway

sharke
 
I'm guessing that reverse engineering binaries is a very time consuming and expensive endeavor.

Yes, unless you happen to be able to employ someone that already has a pretty good idea of the layout of the binary files in question! ...that being my fundamental point!
 

cparmerlee
A big problem is that much of "the DAW" is actually assorted plug-ins and you can never standard on those.  But there ought at least be a standard that will move the audio and MIDI from one platform to another, and connect the basic routing.  That alone would be very helpful.

Blades
Thing to think about.... If sonar user base were so big, one would think it wouldn't have lost money year over year with Roland and Gibson. Not to be a negative Nelly, but I fear that if the sonar user base were far more "into" sonar than any potential investors or the product would have been profitable and not failed.

foldaway

Yes, unless you happen to be able to employ someone that already has a pretty good idea of the layout of the binary files in question! ...that being my fundamental point!
 

foldaway
Yes, of course using the source code would be illegal.  However, having knowledge of the principles & ideas behind the  source code is not illegal & can greatly reduce the time required to reverse engineer a file format.  That is the point I was trying to make.