Sonar8 no P5 pattern preview

Talk about a complete lack of acknowledgment for the sibling product. That's kind of lame. Another reason not to "upgrade" to Sonar 8. My $180 for the upgrade plus $30 for the Garrigus book upgrade (I think the price went up), stays in the bank.

You know, I stand corrected. Sonar will in fact directly import P5 patterns (.ptn file extension). But not batches of them. They will also not be converted into Sonar's step sequencer format.

What should be the norm now is that single and batches of P5 programs should be imported by Sonar from P5 and the option to import into Sonar's step sequencer format.

So as an example, you do a tune in P5 which has a number of tracks, each containing multiple repeating patterns. Really the whole thing ought to be importable as a bundle right in to Sonar and all as Sonar's step sequencer format. Now that would be a slick production setup and a great way to integrate both programs into one's production.

The reality is that Cakewalk continues to keep the two siblings at arms length from each other. For the past couple of years that has meant exclusive focus on Sonar and almost complete ignoring of Project5. Many of us hope that will change. I say if it will, it will happen in 7 1/2 weeks at upcoming Winter NAMM.

I've been saying this for quite a while, but I'm still giving it one more NAMM. If nothing about P5, then I'm sure it will be history. But, maybe something similar is being developed with a new name. Maybe it will read P5 data. Who knows? We can always hold out hope.

I can tell you this: If no P5 or subsequent replacement, I will not be "forced" in to using Sonar as a result. At that point I'll be shopping for a new DAW company. But I'll still probably hang on to and use Project 5.

ORIGINAL: Nick P

I've been saying this for quite a while, but I'm still giving it one more NAMM. If nothing about P5, then I'm sure it will be history. But, maybe something similar is being developed with a new name. Maybe it will read P5 data. Who knows? We can always hold out hope.

I can tell you this: If no P5 or subsequent replacement, I will not be "forced" in to using Sonar as a result. At that point I'll be shopping for a new DAW company. But I'll still probably hang on to and use Project 5.

Heh. I was thinking that. Because I thought I remembered you saying the same thing about the Summer NAMM. We've all got a special place in our hearts for P5. <insert batting eyelashes emoticon>

Anyway, I completely agree.

Project5 is fantastic, and I'm going to milk it for as long as I can. The problem is that I feel like I won't be able to forever. Other than the fact that it simply cannot handle as much has other sequencers because of its age, if something happens like if Reaktor 6 comes out and it won't work with Project5, I will not use Project5 anymore.

That being said....

At the moment, I feel like Project5 has cancer, and any attempt by Cakewalk to refocus it would just be chemotherapy before its inevitable death.

I like everyone else, really want Cakewalk to do Project5 v3, and I feel that even if they did everyone that left P5 before would at least check it out, but in the end, I don't think it'd really help P5 much.

What I really want out of Project5 is a sustainable future for the product. I love P5 too much.

I'm not kidding when I say I really do think Cakewalk should sell Project5 to Native Instruments.

Cakewalk would be able to put just that much more effort into SONAR, which would be great, and NI and Cakewalk seem to have a good relationship, they must for them to allow Guitar Rig into SONAR. It wouldn't be "empowering a competitor", because as we see, a lot of P5 users are also SONAR users. They both love and use both, for different reasons, and level by level no one's going to stop using either one if they progress at the same rate, and with Cakewalk's blessing the convertion from current P5 user to NI's version could be as smooth as they needed.

I say Native Instruments specifically, because they're the only ones who wouldn't let Project5 fade into obscurity. (Remember Cakewalk Metro?) They could get a lot of use out of a light, intuitive, inspirational sequencer like Project5 to sell with their synths. Project5's handling of softsynths is in my opinion, the best there is, and who better to take the reins than one of the most well-renowned and highly-regarded makers of softsynths in the world. It would make Komplete truly complete, and just imagine how cool it'd be to see P5's explorer as a KoreSounds browser with Device Chains integrated into it. It's almost too perfect, and I feel that with only a slight bit of convincing Cakewalk could convince NI to take it off their hands in a heartbeat.

I think it's the only thing that will cure Project5's cancer.