and I'm only judging "learning time" by reading the forums here.  If it was a quick weekend to get equally as comfortable  with X1, as compared to what people are using now, that's not too much time.  But recording 5-10 hours a week makes it seem like  a couple months is more realistic to get FULLY up to speed.

Yes, I've stuck with 8.5 even though I've had X1 since day one, and have stepped through all the upgrades.

Whenever I have a bit of free time and the inclination, I open X1 again to see, yet again, if I can just bite the bullet and use it.  --and the answer is always the same - I just can't do it.  X1 is ugly to look at, ugly to work with, stiff, non-intuitive with far too many things hidden in sub-menus.  I went through the whole set of video tutorials when they were offered for free - I tested everything - and X1 still remains, for me, a clunky, badly done, over-hyped mistake.  I have no idea why it's gotten any good reviews.

Thank heavens for me 8.5. 

Randy B.

Hasn't it been mentioned that the user community, meaning what you see here, really only represents a small fraction?

bitflipper

I have no idea why it's gotten any good reviews.

That is a mystery I've wondered about, too. All the magazine reviews have been unanimously and unconditionally positive, with nary a mention of the widespread dissatisfaction in the user community. Even the SOS review reads like a press release.

Bought and paid for.

timidi

Murph, at least get 8.5 man...

Where?

I would like to know that also.  I would love to buy a legal, upgradable to 8.5x via registration, version of 8.5.
 

It's worth keeping an eye but that's as far as it goes for me. I'm gonna wait another build or two and see what happens. I work pretty much exclusively in the track view and the new UI doesn't impress me all that much. Not a big fan of the browser and I don't subscribe to the belief that it was a PITA to right click to add FX's to the bin. But, what's done is done and there's no point in crying about it now.  If it fails to impress me in the not too distant future I'll just go back to Cubase.

Bit I am not sure where you got that info from but my computer is not overly powerful and I freeze tracks all the time in Studio One no issue at all.  They just call it bounce but it works in a very similar way. Often much faster than real time. The bounced track just appears on a new audio track automatically created and then you can turn off the VST and away you go.

hey Matt-
It's (8.3.1) not compatible with win 7 64 bit- that's why I went to 8.5.3 which runs beautifully on win 7. 8.5 is hard to buy, too- as an upgrade- from Cake. If anyone wants 8.5 as a download upgrade, I recommend that you call Cakewalk right away! And beg.

I do think that Cakewalk is one of the best companies I've ever done business with- sorry to see them EOL such a fine product as 8.5!

+1 on this being a great thread.

Started out with version 6, then avoided version 7 completely, based on the forum comments.  Upgraded my computer, then got 8.5.3 and have had no complaints.

I could upgrade to X1 for $79 (the current offer to existing 8.5.3 customers) but I have no burning desire to do that, again based on the forum comments.

What Zuma said goes for me too: adopt a wait-and-see attitude, see what comes after another release or two.  (X2?)

Bit I am not sure where you got that info from but my computer is not overly powerful and I freeze tracks all the time in Studio One no issue at all. They just call it bounce but it works in a very similar way. Often much faster than real time. The bounced track just appears on a new audio track automatically created and then you can turn off the VST and away you go.

OK, I'll tell you where I got that info: from the Studio One forum while I was doing my own evaluation earlier this year.

Every DAW has a bounce feature, but that's much more limited than SONAR's freeze function. I don't want to create an extra track. I want to be able to instantly un-freeze it. I want the option of leaving the fx bin active. I want the convenience of one-button operation. I want to see at a glance which tracks have been frozen. I want soft synths and sample libraries automatically unloaded and their resources freed.

Freeze wasn't the only missing feature that put me off S1, just one of the more glaring omissions. Mind you, I actually liked the program. Like X1, it just didn't offer any compelling reason to switch.

Yes the Sonar Freeze function is good and fast too. They have just given you two ways to do things Freeze and Bounce. I don't see that there is big difference between freezing and bouncing. In principle they are both pretty similar really. They both create a new audio track that represents say a virtual synth playing its part and perhaps through effects.

It is also only a single qwerty action to get it started. I don't mind that you get a fresh audio track. The original VST part is muted automatically and I quite like the fact the synth stays active. I group the original muted parts down the bottom out of the way. Because you may still decide to alter the music and it is easy to unmute the midi part and go right ahead and do it then. Turning the original VST's off is not a problem either. (Because they all appear to the left of the mixer channels)

You have many levels of undo so you can go back to just the original part only. But even well later they make it easy to delete a track, unmute the original part and bounce another one.  At least you have all the previous bounces should you decide to pull an earlier one back. It is a one stroke operation to turn off all the effects at once too on the original track.

I am someone who has been using it for over 8 months now everyday and believe me if Freezing is something that was important to me and something I really missed I would be happy to say so but it is not the case. I am finding that I am still getting tracks converted to audio and that is all that is important, it has not held up the music making process at all.

Other things like its ability to switch tracks while recording/looping and do it all so effortlessly is a much bigger thing for me. I love to craft grooves that involve several instrument parts and being able to jump around onto any tracks at anytime within a loop while recording is really exciting. It tends to make you play your parts in a more serial fashion as opposed to stopping, overdubbing and creating new material which more often than not overlaps (unnecessarily) with other parts. Of course you can still play that way too if you want. It is so fast to come out of record and rehearse parts too and then go back in and add new material.

The audio engine is very hard to stop and does all this without loosing time as well. The fact you can drag new synths out and audition them all without loosing sound and rhythm on the fly is all fine but I don't care about that so much. (Brandon has demonstrated that Sonar can do that very well and I am sure he is correct) It is the track switching feature during record that I find very good. I would love Sonar to be able to do that. That alone would probably win me back.

I am still using 8.5 even though I have X1.

I am on 8.5.3 and I did try the demo of X1. I did not get to have as much time with the demo as I would have liked with my daughter visiting, but I did find some things like the browser and Pro Channel that I really enjoyed using. If I were working I would do the upgrade at $79. But I am going to stay with 8.5.3 and hope for more refinement of the X series in the future. X1 is still not going to make any music I produce sound any better than 8.5. It's all about the plug-ins. Want an upgrade? Check out Alloy. 

I had purchased and installed X1b PE upgrade a month or so ago, and I’m still tripping and fumbling my way around with it as time allows, but mainly sticking to working in 8.5.3 PE which runs flawlessly on my older computer workstation, and I really don’t have the time to relearn how to use a DAW that I had become intimately familiar with over the years.
 I’ve long since given up the wanting of having the latest and greatest technology, my needs and desires for being able to sit down, light up the DAW and create music as easily and fluidly as possible when the muse strikes, far out weighs the bragging rights of the newest all powerful toys (and the many trials and tribulations that comes along with them). Personally I still don’t see much advantage of going to the 64 bit OS being I would have to trash literally $1000’s of my favorite software and hardware.
 Sooo, that being said, I have nothing bad to say about X1, in fact I really like the new ProChannel a lot and the new browser functions, the ability to save FX chains, drag and drop them into a channel and stuff like that. But even if I had the latest i7 power box workstation, I’m really disappointed with the whole new interface rebuild, compounded with all different shortcuts makes for a whole new learning curve that does nothing for a smooth and easy work flow.
 I will eventually become comfortable with X1 as I will eventually build a new computer workstation that will run it right proper. Buuuuutttttttt…………. That could take a while, being my main objective is to make and produce music..
 ‘Taint NOTHING wrong with the system I got, and I’m still high on the upgrade from v6 PE (which I couldn’t imagine getting any better at the time) to 8.5 PE (which it REALLY did), and I really don't feel the need to fix something that's not broken.

gcurrie


I am constantly erasing MIDI notes by right-clicking when I meant to bring up the note properties (darn muscle memory). 

That a big one for me as I go through the demo. From my perspective right click on an object to bring up it's properties is intuitive, right click to delete is just off the wall.
 
There is a link to one of Scot Garrigus' videos over on the X1 forum. This shows an example of why I am reluctant to switch to X1.
 
http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?&m=2341295&mpage=1
 
It show the difference in launching the event inspector in 8.5 and X1. 8.5 is totally intuitive to anyone who has used widows software. The view menu - where in 90% of software you find the tool bars. You select the tool bar you want an it appears, you can have it floating or docked.
 
And you could simply right click on a note in PRV to bring up and edit these parameters.
 
In X1 on the other hand you have to know to right click on the control bar to enable the invent inspector, once you do, you probably won't see it as it will be off screen and you will have to disable other items on the control bar to get it show up.
 
I just don't see how X1 is "better" here.