I am writing to tell you about an extraordinary man...His name is Frank McCarthy...He is 86 years old and was the musical director for ABC in Chicago and worked with Oprah for 20 years. I spent the weekend with this man, my friends father and he showed me and played me the Rock opera he has produced using Sonar.
 
This 86 year old man converted from old analogue to sonar digital and wrote ALL the music, plays ALL the instruments, and sings ALL the parts...he is creating for a musical review but I was so blown away by him singing all the parts it reminded me of the genius of a Peter Townsend and told him he should launch it as a CD just as is...
 
I told him I would contact Sonar on his behalf and perhaps they would be interested in using him in their marketing...What a story...between working on music he was building a stone fence with 150 pound boulders and refused to except help from us younger guys who were put to shame by this guy on all levels...
 
Obviously at 86 time is of the essence although I wouldn't be surprised if he lives to 160...lol...
 
He began this musical only about 4 months ago and it is now complete...His 81 year old wife Coleen, says he will wake up in the middle of the night with a lyric idea and go downstairs to his studio and record the parts...
 
I URGE Sonar marketing and PR to interview this man immediately and help him to help you bring the world a truly inspiring story...The music includes rock, rap, and everything in between...
 
Please contact him...I will provide you with his contact info in a private email.

I am currently trying out the demo of SONAR 8 with a view to switching from Cubase 4 Studio.
 
Why am I thinking of switching?
 
Firstly I have driver issues with my Echo hardware, it just has not worked with Cubase 4 since version 4.1.1 and we are now on version 4.5.2. The Echo drivers have gone from version 8.3 to 8.4 and now 8.5. Neither Echo nor Cubase appear to be taking this seriously, the problem still persists with ASIO TIME OVERLOAD as soon as you open a project.
 
Secondly Cubase loves to crash, the times I have to reboot my PC because the application just hangs for no good reason e.g. opening a VSTi instrument...well it is just getting too much!
 
Support...so many bugs in Cubase 4 and what do they do? They ditch it and bring out Cubase 5!...great
 
Things I have noticed with SONAR,
 
It works fine with my Echo Layla 3G sound card, latency is low and there is no crackling/distortion.
 
Sometimes the audio engine stops when opening an EWQL Play VSTi...but clicking on the 'Start Audio Engine' icon brings the sound back...something which would have required rebooting my PC with Cubase.
 
It hasn't crashed once yet and I have been stressing it out with several EWQL instances and other soft synths.
 
All I need to know is , are there any crossgrades available to go from CS4 to SS8.5?
 
  [EDIT] Testing is done, SONAR 8.5 Studio ordered!
 

I seems to me that Sonar is associated / marketed at people that make music in traditional bands and guitar based music.  I like the partnership with roland because it seems some of the plugins etc are designed to offer more unusual sounds and tricks.

Maybe most of your market in the US is bands wanting to record (and of course, thats great) but here in the UK a huge proportion of people use computers to make electronic / dance music.

With the next generation coming along do you think it could be time to promote to these markets? I may be able to help! People seem very suprised when I say I use Sonar. I've tried others but I always go back to it.

Pete (Bristol, UK)

mythicwave


I'm considering switching from Digital Performer and would like comments from people who have experience moving projects from DP to Sonar.  I was a Cakewalk user a long time ago (for DOS), but used Mac tools ever since.  Because of the cost of a new Mac, I'm considering switching back to Sonar on PC.  But I have a lot of DP projects to convert.  How smooth is the process?

-- Brian

Hi Brian,

I would just export everything from DP as OMF or as individual broadcast wave files. SONAR will then import all the files to their time stamp. It's not too much of a pain at all.

keep in mind though that things like plugin effects (unless bounced) and mix parameters will not be transferred, but you can then begin to mix and finish these projects in SONAR once the audio is all transferred and lined up.

You'll get plenty of help here on the forum when the time comes.

Cliff D.


I hereby renounce my Cubase citizenship. I have been sitting on the decision whether to upgrade from C4 to C5, or from Sonar 7 PE to Sonar 8.5 PE. I have officially decided on Sonar for the following reasons: Dimension Pro is included in the upgrade and sounds great. The Sonar step sequencer puts the Cubase score editor to shame in the ease-of-use category. Cubase has completely lost focus on those of us who actually write music, and don't need "loop mash", whatever the hell that is supposed to be for. Sonar runs fine on Windows Vista, which I am currently stuck with. I have not been properly convinced that Steinberg has achieved this, but I don't want to find out. Did I mention that Sonar sounds great.

Welcome Cliff. Hope you enjoy SONAR and find the forum an invaluable help.

lancer1975


Hello everybody I was a happy user of Logic, and I was so happy with it running on my Pc that I thought that logicwas inmortal, sadly one day Logic and Pc broke down (an apple was the evil ) and because I was young and naive I told myself: `Don´t worry kid. You only have to maintein your Pc....´. That was my first mistake, when I swichted to Windows 7 everything was so bad with my Logic 4.7 copy that I was frustated. I tried Live, Reaper, Cubase but they didn´t sound well to me, or the effects were not very musicla to me, or the design of the interface frustated me... one lucky  day my local seller told me about the new Sonar 8, I tested it and my mind was blown away, the audio manage is superb, the sequencer fits perfect with my workflow, the effects are great and only one word can be used with it: It sounds great, you can work as musician or as engineer. Thsnk you Cakewalk, thank you Roland.....You have a new converse.

Welcome lancer1975. Glad to have you aboard.

"1. What application you switched from and which version of SONAR you switched to."

I switched from Cubase (LE v3 I think) to Sonar Home Studio after trialing the demo version (of producer).

When upgrading my copy of Sonar later on, I was sent the Producer version by mistake.  When I telephoned Cakewalk sales to discuss the error, I was told never mind and was given a key for Producer - result!

"2. Your specific reasons for switching to SONAR (specific features in SONAR, specific problems with other aps, customer service, etc.)"

Steinberg have been chuffing me off with very buggy software since Cubase v2 for the Atari FM platform.  They consistently charge for bug fixes (AKA 'upgrades') and then release apparently untested code containing either the same bugs, or more bugs.  I finally had enough of paying them money to do this so decided to change.  To be honest, I would have definitely considered Logic but it's only supported on the Mac now and I'm not a big fan of that platform.  Besides, the cost of changing both computer platform and sequencer software is prohibitive!  I'm not sure if my Creamware Pulsar cards would be supported on the Mac either (and I loves 'em).

FWIW, the main differences I've noticed between Cubase and Sonar are very clear-cut.

Sonar simply sounds and grooves much better than Cubase, and the included plugins (synths, effects etc.) are of a far better quality and there are a greater variety of them

Cubase's strength is in the UI.  The workflow and tools available (e.g. built-in audio editor and logical editor; please, please include a logic editor in Sonar!!) are better than those in Sonar.  Doubtless some of that opinion is due to familiarity, but it's the little things which seems to make more sense in Cubase.  For example, record a MIDI clip punching in at 3:1:0 in Cubase, and the clip starts there.  In Sonar, it's whenever the first note is played.  Being able to create a blank clip to work in.  Glueing notes / clips together.  Automation handling (resolution, drawing tools).  I could go on...

Neither's perfect, but I'm really glad I made the change to Sonar.  I can work around the issues in the Sonar UI, but there's no way of making Cubase sound and groove better.

i wanted to start building a home studio in july of this year, so i went to guitar center and bought an m-audio delta 1010lt audio interface and m-audio av 40 monitors first. after an extremely difficult install, (the delta card would not seat properly in the pci slot) it would not play sound so i had to download drivers from avid and uninstall and reinstall etc. and finally got sound.  next i bought pro tools m-powered 8 and could not get past the "welcome to pro tools" dialog box, just that and an eternal hourglass.  on hold for tech support 35 minutes, gave up and tried email support.  gave them all required information about system, hardware, driver versions, etc. and a desciption of the problem. they wasted a week of my free support asking redundant questions about the information i had already given.  week two i had my son hold for 28 minutes for tech support agent, tech agent logged in remotely to my computer and spent 1 hour 36 minutes to get pro tools to load.  when i came home later and started protool it partially loaded and error message said no m-audio hardware found.  more hours uninstalling and reinstalling drivers. week 4 program on sound on start learning about program step by step with included training dvd.
i get to the part where we load a virtual instrument.  the guy on the video opens an instrument track, i open an instrument track. he goes to first insert drop down list>instrument>mini grand,   i open instrument track, go to first insert drop down list>instrument but all my list has is and eq and melodyne ess., not the rest of the instruments shown iin his list.  i read help pdfs.  virtual instrument are in creative collection that is supposed to install with pro tools  no problem creative collection can be installed later by inserting pro tools installer disc, click setup, choose custom install>creative collection.  sounds simple enough... i click setup-- welcome to protools; eternal hourglass.  i try to work around but the mpowered installer folder icon is transparent and clicking on it does nothing.  i call tech support hold 12 minutes for the screener guy, he says free tech support is over it'll be $39.95 to make work what should already.  I call gutar center, tell them my story, they say bring my pc and they will get it working. i say ok then go back to pro tools to record some canned music and vocal.  I click pro tools to open, error message says i have to insert i-lock to use protools. my i-lock has never left its usb port since day one.  i check, i-lock is in its port and powered up.   i restart pc and protools, this time error message says something about one of my drives having too many characters in its name and that i should rename it to avoid i-lock corruption.  I call back guitar center and ask them if they want the next thousand bucks im going to spend on my home studio, and if they do it will require the return credit for the buggy crap they sold me called pro tools m powered.  they decide its in their best interest, and upgrade me to sonar producer 8.5.
JOY!  everything loads, everything works, (even with the finnicky delta sound card) i browsed the program and i think from what i can see that pro tools not working was a blessing in diguise for me.  i'm very much looking forward to working in sonar. thanks

Brandon Ryan [Cakewalk
]

Shambler


I am currently trying out the demo of SONAR 8 with a view to switching from Cubase 4 Studio.

Why am I thinking of switching?

Firstly I have driver issues with my Echo hardware, it just has not worked with Cubase 4 since version 4.1.1 and we are now on version 4.5.2. The Echo drivers have gone from version 8.3 to 8.4 and now 8.5. Neither Echo nor Cubase appear to be taking this seriously, the problem still persists with ASIO TIME OVERLOAD as soon as you open a project.

Secondly Cubase loves to crash, the times I have to reboot my PC because the application just hangs for no good reason e.g. opening a VSTi instrument...well it is just getting too much!

Support...so many bugs in Cubase 4 and what do they do? They ditch it and bring out Cubase 5!...great

Things I have noticed with SONAR,

It works fine with my Echo Layla 3G sound card, latency is low and there is no crackling/distortion.

Sometimes the audio engine stops when opening an EWQL Play VSTi...but clicking on the 'Start Audio Engine' icon brings the sound back...something which would have required rebooting my PC with Cubase.

It hasn't crashed once yet and I have been stressing it out with several EWQL instances and other soft synths.

All I need to know is , are there any crossgrades available to go from CS4 to SS8.5?

[EDIT] Testing is done, SONAR 8.5 Studio ordered!

Welcome Shambler. If you run into any problems or have questions, the forum is an amazing resource. Of course if you get really stuck, contact Cakewalk via any method described here.

 
Thank you. I can report that after several weeks of using SONAR I have found it to be virtually bombproof as far as reliability goes and I am very happy that I took the risk and switched.

HEYY,
I WAS A STEINBERG FAN FOR SOME YEARS AND WAS INTRODUCE TO CALKWALK PROTOOLS LONG TIME AGO BUT IT WAS TO EXPENSIVE THEN I STARTED TAKING CLASSES IN MUSIC AND WHERE WE PRACTICE LOGIC BUT LOGIC WASN'T MADE FOR PC AND SONAR WAS THE LOGIC OF PC'S i'VE HAD MINOR PROBLEMS W/ SONAR 8.5 BUT NOT ENOUGH TO STOP USEING

OK!..I switched from Windows Logic Audio 5.1 to Sonar 8.5 Producer.
I have had used Logic for about six or seven years when I decided to move to another DAW.
Some new VST plugs did not work with Logic but it was not only because of that I switched over.
It had some bugs too and when Logic get sold to Apple it was not updated anymore.
Of course it made me very  very angry when Apple kicked windows user out in the cold.. but anyway.
Then I bought Adobe Audition because of their MIDI and audio...but their MIDI is veeery poor and no updates in 3 years.
Tried Cubase demo and Reaper but was hooked by Sonar. Sonar can handle external MIDI machines better than Logic could ( ver 5.1).
The Cakewalk website have very good videos and information about nearly everything about Sonar and VST plugs.
Well..feels very good when I finally found my new DAW, took me 2 years .
Bye , Mixermuso

I switched from Adobe Auditon 3 to Sonar 8.5 Producer version because I couldnt run EZDrummer in Audition - it doesnt have the MIDI capability...and so I can explore MIDI.

doncobb,

Probably not the right forum for your post but I too found a lot of things difficult in Sonar but have found nothing but great help and assistance for every question I've had.

In that spirit here's a great site to learn all there is to know about Session Drummer 3 and using its drum loops. Hopefully that's not the same place others have sent you for 'an education on Sonar' but it sounds to me like you need 'an education on Sonar.' Trust me if you spend the time to go through that master class on Session Drummer 3 you'll be well on your way to understanding Sonar and can apply that knowledge to the entire program.

http://cakewalk.com/CakeT...m-Production-Episode-1

I guarantee you'll know a ton more about Sonar if you follow that tutorial.

There's also a 'Get Started' forum where the tone is very beginner oriented and people are very helpful there. Link below.

http://forum.cakewalk.com/tt.aspx?forumid=56

HumbleNoise


doncobb,

Probably not the right forum for your post but I too found a lot of things difficult in Sonar but have found nothing but great help and assistance for every question I've had.

In that spirit here's a great site to learn all there is to know about Session Drummer 3 and using its drum loops. Hopefully that's not the same place others have sent you for 'an education on Sonar' but it sounds to me like you need 'an education on Sonar.' Trust me if you spend the time to go through that master class on Session Drummer 3 you'll be well on your way to understanding Sonar and can apply that knowledge to the entire program.

http://cakewalk.com/CakeT...m-Production-Episode-1

I guarantee you'll know a ton more about Sonar if you follow that tutorial.

There's also a 'Get Started' forum where the tone is very beginner oriented and people are very helpful there. Link below.

http://forum.cakewalk.com/tt.aspx?forumid=56

Thank you, Larry. I look forward to getting acquainted with Sonar. I'm convinced it will meet my needs and then some. I've gone through the SD3 master class videos. I've learned a lot. I've created a custom loop from scratch for my first Sonar recording, and that's progress. I cannot, however, get the loop to play in Sonar. I followed the instructions in creating it and found it on track 19 like it said I would. I grabbed it (an 8 beat loop) and dragged it out to extend it for 32 beats but I get no sound when I play it in Sonar. I can hear it in the Step Sequencer where I created it, but I get no sound in Sonar. I've been poking around trying to figure out why it's muted, and I'll keep digging around to find out what the problem is. Thanks for your encouragement. I'll go check out the vids for those links you posted.


Thanks, Larry.


Don

Ive been meening to post in this thread for around 6 months now that would be about the time I moved over to Sonar Producer 8.5.3

Ok so my story is like this

I had been in and out of studios for years doing sessions for people on the drums etc

I always had a passion for what was going on in the control room when I was druming so I used to ask once I had finished my takes if anyone would mind if I hung around and watched most of the guys I worked with were all cool about it so I got to watch a lot of different guys work in a lot of different ways and my passion for it got bigger and bigger

Every studio I was in was always ProTools Logic or Cuebase I had never been in a studio that was useing Sonar ( I am in scotland)

So I decided one day It was about time I got my finger out and started to learn to do some home recording this would be about a year ago now.

I bought a project mix and it arived broken this happend 3 times 3 different units all buggerd!!!! I was planing to use it with a laptop I had to get my self started.

I held back on geting another one and saved a bit more took all the money I had and bought a Digi 003 with Protools 8 and the Music production tool kit bought a bunch of plugins etc
I then built my Daw a dual core 4 gb of ram 2 500Gb hard drives at 72000rpm 32mb cach

With all this I thought I was good to go

I had nothign but problems I had constant crashes spent more time trying to fix things that recording and it was costing a bomb phoneing tec support who I have to say ARE THE WORST TEC SUPPORT TO DEAL WITH EVER ! I was told parts of my daw were not supported so they couldnt help me with it.....

I was so frustrated as all I wanted to do was record and get on with makeing music. I then gave the computer to a family memmber and went out abd spent £1500 on a computer from a well known Daw builder in the Uk I wont give there name on here as I feel that its un fair.

So my new computer arrived with windows 7 64 on it 12 gb ram etc etc awesoime I thoguht I have one kick ass rig here adn to top it off they have configured it to work with protools

I was wrong I didnt know that protools was not windows 7 reay let alone not 64 bit so it was all a waste I had even more problems than i was haveing with the couplture I had before so I sent it back to get fixed I got it back with vista and then there was more problems
Protools wasnt happy with this that and the next thing

So months of sending the computer up and down from scotland to england and them saying they didnt knwo what the problem was but there was probblems they could see they sent it back yet again and to my luck it was working for about 1 week then the same problems started not enough power etc to do what I was needing etc the company even told me it was not down to a user error as I was starting to think it was all my fault.

So I had Bought all of this protools gear and the Daw from the one shop they contacted me and said they would offer em a full refund on everything and I took it and said a big F U to ProTools

There Tec support as I said Suckes and there Forum members are not exactly the most helpfull of folk

I Started looking about at other programs logic was out of the question because I hate macs

I was never a big fan of what I had seen qith cuebase

Luckly I found out a friend of mine was useing Sonar 8.5 producer so I got a great demo from him and then I went to a store that had not long opend in Glasgow called GG Digital If you are ever in glasgow you have to go its like being a kid walking in to a toy shop :D

My friend John works there in there Roland planet and he gave me a great demo on the VS700 and from that momment I knew that Sonar and the VS700 system was for me

The following week I orderd it all got it home and had no computer to run it on since I had spent al my cash on the Vs700 so I had one whole month off loking at it and not useing it.

I finaly got the money together bought all my components and built the computer that you see in my sig it came to £800 thats a saveing of £700 compared to what I spent on the last one that got sent back.

With everything installed it was plug n play I had never been happyer

I had problems adjusting to useing sonar from protools since its so different but I am learning every day.

The guys on this Forum are all the nicest of folk and I cant thank you all enough compared to the guys at the protools forum them are just not interested or at least that was my feeling.

I have contacted tec support a couple of times with trying to fix audio dropouts and things like that and one thing I can tell you is Cake Walk Tec support are the BEST I have ever dealt with they make you feel like they want to help and give you all the time you need they really listen to you! What more can we ask for !

I cant thank Cake walks tec support team enough! Ryan Munnis Is the man!

Moveing to Sonar was the best move for me and any one who has seen my set up has since decided that they want to use Sonar aswell

Cakewalk and Roland together are awesome and I know I am going to be very happy here for as long as I am recording

Thanks Roland and Cakewalk!

Norrie