FL Studio as a VSTi inside Sonar?

Hello,
 
I am heading towards a multi-touch Windows 10 setup with a 32” multi-touch screen. FL Studio and Sonar are the two DAWs that have invested resources in the multi-touch technology. I favor Sonar X3 (or soon X4) because it has ARA for Melodyne. I really like FL Studio 11 and will implement all this when V12 is released.
 
So the question is, is there any advantage to using FL Studio as a VSTi inside Sonar X3? If you are using FL Studio as a VSTi in any DAW have you found this combination useful. Use it mostly for midi or audio or for both?
 
Is it better to use VSTi or rewire?
 

Fl studio is much better used as a vsti more stable and Easier to get things routed,downsides include no routing audio from sonar to fl studio and many of the keyboard keys are given to sonar "only" so if your accustomed to using hot keys in fl studio for speed this will probably become a issue fast.
Other then that working them together is a dream having the best of both worlds,mostly I'll do some work in fl studio getting all the setup stuff and some of the idea for the track started in fl then open fl as vsti in sonar and go from there,this seems to work the best because as I've said sonar will take a lot of the hot key functions away and starting fl in sonar empty well...try it youill see what I mean.fl shines at midi programming but falls short in a lot of audio editing areas not that it can't just sonar dose in two clicks what fl takes 8 clicks,in some cases automation is also easier in sonar for similar reasons yet fl automation is hands down the more flexible but can become very disorganized if your not careful about your color coding and or naming everything as you go.automation is really purely situational depending on what you need.

i was getting crashes while rewiring FL into Sonar (x64 versions), so vst is the way to go (as suggested by the FL people)

You can drag and drop audio between FL and Sonar. You can drag and drop a MIDI clip from Sonar onto a Channel in FL. That's as much as you can do between the two. No dragging MIDI data from FL to Sonar, you have to save the MIDI file in the Piano Roll and drag it from Sonar's Browser.
 
One thing to note is that Sonar has full keyboard focus, and I don't think you can change it. So you won't have any shortcuts at your disposal when using FL inside of Sonar, which pretty much makes FL useless by killing its quick workflow. I prefer doing everything I need to do in FL then exporting the stems, but to each his own.

I have two monitors myself, but that's not any different from using one monitor and locking a program to one half and the other program to another half. Either way FL is running inside of Sonar, so Sonar determines whether it gets access to the keyboard. Sonar allows you to give a plugin keyboard focus but that doesn't work in FL's case.
 
I'm not sure what you're trying to show me, that's just a Google search.

Giving keyboard focus to plugs would be a most welcome change as it's been a frustrating issue for many years

No matter what you do using two daws together will always be finicky,the main reason to do this is when you want or need certain features durning any production from one or the other,for me fl studio is my main focus for its flexibility with midi programming,all matters pertaining to audio,editing,recording,etc etc.. Are focused in sonar,basically all audio is bumped into sonar,all the final arrangement,mix and mastering take place in sonar.in fl studio things get so crazy and disorganized it's nearly impossible to get it sorted out....we'll if you produce like I do that is,and this is a problem for a final mix but that's were sonar is my savior from myself lol.also multiple takes and compin in sonar totally invaluable for recording.

Sry that was more a rant than anything,long story short working with any two daws together on a track from new project to finished track there will be problems.

things like rewire and vst versions are awesome but don't forget that these are different competing company's,they only support the standards everyone elts is they do not support eachother.Rewire and vst versions are tools to make interchanging project parts between softwear and to use effects and or synths that are native to said daw only possible.

Has anything changed in the Sonar Platinum and FL studio 11 (and 12 to be released shortly). I assume the issue when Sonar (host) is the focus FL Studio(VSTi) looses most of the hot key functionality.
 
To have hot key functionality of both Sonar and FL Studio when either is in focus, will opening the programs separately, not as VST/host nor rewire help achieve this? Will I be able to copy/paste or drag/drop audio tracks or clips between these two DAW's? How about to copy/past or drag/drop midi notes or midi track or clips? I assume the order that they are opened will not make a difference.

bertski747
Fl Studio content is gone when I open my project back up. The rewire FL Studio track is still there but the beat I put into FL Studio is gone. Any ideas? I'm a beginner.
Thanks

Hi Bert-


If you rewire FL Studio into SONAR, you need to save the .flp (FL project) separately in FLS before you save/close the SONAR project. That's one reason many folks prefer using FLS as a VST in SONAR instead of rewiring it: there's no need to save the .flp separately.
 
-Susan

I think I got it! Thanks!