Thoughts on Sonar X1d
Just updated to X1d producer, and I have to say it runs very smoothly with everything except video. Sonar is still woefully inadequate when it comes to importing different video formats. It's really not up to the standard of some of the other DAWS out there in terms of film music work, and for this reason I'm thinking of jumping ship and going with something better, in this respect. I think if Cakewalk really want to make Sonar a worldbeating product then improving the video side of the app would be a big plus. My other gripe about X1 is the interface, for me and others in the music industry who I've talked with about this product the general consensus is that Cakewalk have kind of lost the plot on the interface design. It looks klonky and amateurish, with the big fonts and big buttons. Really it's not a step up from ver 8 in terms of the interface, and the gimmicks which have been added like the new editing tool don't speed things up as far as I can tell from using it. It's more annoying than anything, because once you learn all the shortcuts for the editing functions you don't need the fancy graphics. For me X1 has been a step down not the other way, It feels like cakewalk is trying to make sonar be all things to all people and in doing so has missed the boat on a few key things like the video side, which for many is a big factor in choosing a DAW. In saying this, the audio side of X1 has been impecable, and I haven't crashed it yet, so I'll hang onto it, but I think when money permits I might move to another DAW for film work.