Thinking of upgrading to Sonar X1 from old Sonar

Hi,
    I'm currently using Sonar 8 but i'm thinking of upgrading to Sonar X1. However I had a few questions that I hope some of you (who have made a similar upgrade recently) can clear up?

Firstly, is it difficult to adapt to the new user interface and layout??? I think the new layout, and features (Skylight etc) look really cool.. but my fear is that it will be like learning a totally new DAW.. Also I've heard the Key commands have all changed. How extreme is this and does it take a long time to get used to??

Secondly, is it worth getting the "Sonar X1 Explained" thingy, or would you say if you have a good knowledge of the previous Sonar incarnation it's not necessary??

Also, (and this might be a silly question but...) if I install X1 will I need to reinstall all my third party plugins again?? Or move them to a different folder or something??

Finally, have people noticed any big disadvantages, drawbacks to X1.. or any bad bugs etc???

Thanks in advance for all help, advise etc..

velouria08,

is it difficult to adapt to the new user interface and layout???

There are different paradigms you need to deal with that will definitely make using it different that you are currently used to.  It took me a bit of time until I felt I could use it effectively like I did with 8.5 and earlier.

is it difficult to adapt to the new user interface and layout???

No.  Leave Sonar 8 installed and install X1 too.  The both can exist on the machine.  Use the new file folders suggested in the install (for X1) so that you won't have any issues.

have people noticed any big disadvantages, drawbacks to X1.. or any bad bugs etc???

I've been using X1 since the initial release and had a few headaches, but nothing that I could find a suitable workaround to keep working.  Now, please note that I tend to record guitar based music.  I do have soft synths mainly for drums and some keyboard parts.  I don't use loops.  I also use more third party plug-ins than are provided in the Sonar package because I prefer them.

Also, make sure you backup your current projects on your machine before you install the latest version of any software.  This will always help to ensure an easier transition.

Hope this helps,
Tom

Hi. You'll get all sorts of different answers to this, so this is just my two bits. 

Is it difficult to adapt? Depends on you really - how attached are you to particular ways of doing things? How open and/or quick are you to incorporate a new workflow? X1 is definitely not a whole new DAW, you don't have to scratch very far below the surface to find that it's much the same under the hood... but the top layer of program interaction is definitely different. I found it pretty intuitive to get into, some others agree, other others hate it with a passion. 

The key commands are definitely different. I think the new ones make more sense for the most part, and I wasn't using the old ones that extensively - partly because I found they didn't make a lot of sense - so I'm adapting well to them and using them more than I used to. It's still possible (though still a bit unwieldy) to customize them, so if there's a few that you're really attached to you can get those back with a modicum of fiddling. 

Third party plugins should be fine, though some have reported some new or different incompatibilities. I haven't, and I have a fairly full stable of plugins, but that's not a guarantee that you won't have any trouble. 

Disadvantages/drawbacks... well, depends again on who you ask. You don't have to search very far to find threads about things that have changed in ways that don't work very well for some people. I'm not saying I love everything about it either - I get that some functions are tucked away in menus and not easily accessible in places that might make more sense, and I'm personally in favour of giving back some customization options particularly in the area of menus, whether fixed or contextual/right-click. 

A couple of things are just broken - staff view is now even more crippled than it was before, for example - but many of these have been ironed out now by a pair of updates and a quickfix. 

By and large, in my view, I like enough things about it to make it worth the upgrade and the learning curve. Some new features are really almost unequivocal improvements - FX chains, screensets, drag-and-drop support come to mind - while others most find great but others not so much (Pro Channel, envelope edit filter, Multidock). Overall there's still room for improvement and hopefully X2 will be better still, but for now and for my own purposes, 8.5 doesn't get cracked open much anymore. 

Hope that helps - I'm sure you'll get some different replies, so it's really up to you to weed through and see what makes sense in terms of your decision. I hope it works out well for you either way!


p.s. is Velouria a reference to the Pixies song of the same name, by any chance? I love that song. 

@ Subtlearts ... Thanks for your advise too. Sounds like maybe the "Sonar X1 Explained DVD" might be an option alright. I suppose you're right, I won't know how well I will adapt until I dive in.. It's different for everyone.

P.S. Yea "Velouria" is indeed a Pixies reference!

velouria08

P.S. Yea "Velouria" is indeed a Pixies reference!

Awesome, now I have that song happily stuck in my head. Maybe I'll even go put it on, haven't actually heard it in a while. That album was a big part of the soundtrack for a particular part of my life...

The Groove 3 video is certainly worth watching but I wouldn't buy it, just watch it online for 30 days that's certainly long enough to digest the information.

After I had watched it I then bought the Sonar X1 Power book for more in depth information and I haven't looked back since.

I do get the odd freeze up with X1 but on the whole it's worth it.

You're all great people! This thread helped me out a lot

andychap

After I had watched it I then bought the Sonar X1 Power book for more in depth information and I haven't looked back since.

Thanks, Andy! Glad to hear you're enjoying the book.

Scott

--
Scott R. Garrigus
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar and Sony Sound Forge Power book series: http://www.garrigus.com/
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar ProAudioTutor video tutorial series: http://www.proaudiotutor.com/
* Publisher of the DigiFreq free music technology newsletter: http://www.digifreq.com/digifreq/
* Publisher of the NewTechReview free consumer technology newsletter: http://www.newtechreview.com/newtechreview/