Yuker T
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Sonar Reviews
Can anyone point me to some objective reviews of Sonar Professional. I'm just on the brink of ordering, but the only two reviews I found were far from complimentary. Although I realise that there have been quite a few fixes and add-ons since release. I'm a Cakewalk user of long standing, (currently MC5 but going back to 1!). It's time I upgraded. I'm pretty confident that my Dim Pro, Rapture, TTs-1 add -ons will all be fine but I need to know in particular that all my cwp files can be seamlessly imported etc etc.
any advice or reviews welcome
Dave T
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Brando
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Re: Sonar Reviews
April 14, 15 12:56 AM
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http://www.musictech.net/2015/01/cakewalk-sonar-platinum-review/ Curious what you've read that were "Far from complimentary". Usually the criticism of reviews is that they are too complimentary and gloss over issues. I personally think the one above mirrors my experience (their rating is an 8/10) - (Platinum, not Professional - but the core program is the same and only difference is in included plugins).
Brando
Cakewalk, Studio One Pro, Reaper Presonus Audiobox 1818VSL ASUS Prime Z370-A LGA1151, 32GB DDR4, Intel 8700K i7, 500 GB SSD, 3 x 1TB HDD, Windows 10 Pro 64
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Yuker T
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Re: Sonar Reviews
April 14, 15 1:03 PM
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Cheers Brando. Just what I was after.
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John
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Re: Sonar Reviews
April 14, 15 1:17 PM
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Welcome Yuker to the forum. Let us know what you decide.
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Sanderxpander
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Re: Sonar Reviews
April 14, 15 1:41 PM
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Sound on Sound also did a review recently IIRC.
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Beepster
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Re: Sonar Reviews
April 14, 15 1:42 PM
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☄ Helpfulby Yuker T April 15, 15 6:20 PM
The new Sonar is quite brilliant as was X3.
However if you are coming from such old versions it should be mentioned that...
a) There is going to be a MASSIVE learning curve. There are tons of great vids and tutorials out the there. First off do the tutorials in the manual. They only take about 20 minutes or so for a reasonably experienced user (as in you have used a daw extensively before). For more in depth stuff I'd recommend the SWA X2/X3 video series (which you have to pay for) or if you don't have the dough just scour the CakeTV section of the site and read the manual using keywords to search for topics.
b) I would not expect your projects to transfer over "seamlessly". My X3 project seems to be doing okay in the new Sonar and your old projects MAY be fine but expect problems. My recommendation is to either finish your current projects in the versions you have installed and start new projects in the new Sonar OR create a plan so that you export your work as tracks and then import them as WAVs into the newer version. You could do this by simply exporting the raw files with no effects or with some crucial effects that you no longer need to tweak then continueing from there in the new Sonar. If you are dealing with MIDI... well I don't do much of that but I'm guessing it would be better to export the MIDI files and set them back up again in a new project.
That's not to say just opening those old files WON'T work and by all means go ahead and try but seriously... I would not count on it.
Fair warning and all that, yanno.
Welcome to the forum. Cheers.
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robert_e_bone
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Re: Sonar Reviews
April 14, 15 4:13 PM
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☄ Helpfulby Yuker T April 15, 15 6:19 PM
I would like to add that these forums, minus the occasional squabbles (hee hee), are a real strength for the software, as there are not many situations you will face that haven't been seen already by a bunch of folks willing to help you through them.
I have used Sonar and its pre-Sonar iterations since before Windows was popular, and yet there isn't a day that goes by that someone here in the forums doesn't teach me something new or better. I, in turn, try to help out when I can, out of motivation for all the help/knowledge I receive. That is really a big deal, as there are a bunch of things to learn with this, or any, DAW.
I hope you do jump into picking up Sonar - and hope you too will engage in these forums. In any case, best of it all to you - hope you find something that helps you with whatever aspects of music you are involved with. :)
Bob Bone
Wisdom is a giant accumulation of "DOH!" Sonar: Platinum (x64), X3 (x64) Audio Interfaces: AudioBox 1818VSL, Steinberg UR-22 Computers: 1) i7-2600 k, 32 GB RAM, Windows 8.1 Pro x64 & 2) AMD A-10 7850 32 GB RAM Windows 10 Pro x64 Soft Synths: NI Komplete 8 Ultimate, Arturia V Collection, many others MIDI Controllers: M-Audio Axiom Pro 61, Keystation 88es Settings: 24-Bit, Sample Rate 48k, ASIO Buffer Size 128, Total Round Trip Latency 9.7 ms
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Mesh
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Re: Sonar Reviews
April 14, 15 4:18 PM
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Isn't there a Demo that Yuker T. can test out before buying? (I've briefly seen Demo threads in here, but never read them as I have to real deal. :))
Platinum Gaming DAW: AsRock Z77 Overclock FormulaI7 3770k @ 4.5GHz : 16GB RAM G.Skill Ripjaws X 250GB OS SSD : 3TB HDD : 1TB Sample HDDWin 10 Pro x 64 : NH-D14 CPU Cooler HIS IceQ 2GB HD 7870Focusrite Scarlett 2i4The_Forum_Monkeys
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BassDaddy
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Re: Sonar Reviews
April 14, 15 5:22 PM
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Keeping current with the majority of the Forum members is a great reason for getting into SONAR Plat or Pro now.
It's Bass, not Bass. i7 2700K, 16GB DDR3, 2 SSD sample drives and OS drive, HDD SATAIII for projects, 2 24" monitors Focusrite Saffire Pro 24, Focusrite VRM Box, LAVA Lamp, SONAR Platinum 64 bit, Mackie MCU and 1 MCU XT, Akai Advance 49, Windows 10, Komplete 9 Ultimate, Cakewalk, Toontrack, IK, AAS, XLN, UVI, Air Music Tech, Waves Factory, Sample Tek and Sonivox VSTi's. Overloud, T-Racks, Audio Damage, D16, Nomad Factory, Waves Gold FX
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Yuker T
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Re: Sonar Reviews
April 14, 15 5:59 PM
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Can't thank all you guys enough for you positivity and warm welcome. Looking forward to dipping my toes and hopefully in due course even contributing in similar fashion, but a just a tad daunted by Beepsters 'MASSIVE learning curve'! Have remembered my DAW experience goes back to Cadenza, and Cadenza 1.1 at that. You'd have thought i'd have an awful lot more answers than i have!. Many thanks again.
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John
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Re: Sonar Reviews
April 14, 15 6:15 PM
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☄ Helpfulby Yuker T April 15, 15 8:52 AM
Yuker T
Can't thank all you guys enough for you positivity and warm welcome. Looking forward to dipping my toes and hopefully in due course even contributing in similar fashion, but a just a tad daunted by Beepsters 'MASSIVE learning curve'! Have remembered my DAW experience goes back to Cadenza, and Cadenza 1.1 at that. You'd have thought i'd have an awful lot more answers than i have!. Many thanks again.
I wouldn't get too worried by that. If you are a Sonar user you have learned a lot that will still apply. The rest is easy enough to deal with with the help of this forum and all the members eager to offer a hand. Many have made the transition with little to no problems. It is the future.
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dorism
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Re: Sonar Reviews
April 14, 15 6:48 PM
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Since moving over to Cubase there are an absolute tonne of features I would really miss now, chord tracks, scrolling project window easy audio quantising, remote recording etc. Anyway - this isn't an advert for Cubase - I still love where Cakewalk is going with Sonar - it seems like they are stepping up their game - everyone wins.
p.s. Sonar absolutely destroys Cubase with Skylight. Cubase's UI feels a bit old fashioned in comparison. We need a DAW mashup!!
www.thehadroncollider.co.uk
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Yuker T
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Re: Sonar Reviews
April 15, 15 4:22 AM
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Wow! Just discovered Caketv. Cheers Beepster. I'm gonna be busy for a while!
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lfm
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Re: Sonar Reviews
April 15, 15 4:58 AM
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dorism
Since moving over to Cubase there are an absolute tonne of features I would really miss now, chord tracks, scrolling project window easy audio quantising, remote recording etc. Anyway - this isn't an advert for Cubase - I still love where Cakewalk is going with Sonar - it seems like they are stepping up their game - everyone wins.
p.s. Sonar absolutely destroys Cubase with Skylight. Cubase's UI feels a bit old fashioned in comparison. We need a DAW mashup!!
Steinberg never had the guts to do the makeover on Cubase that is needed. It feels very much like and endless patchwork from decades back - and running CE8 more of that. I found that Cubase really works though, but cannot imagine sitting full working days messing with that software interface. If you are a fan of some Cubase stuff - make a feature request. There are some Cubase feature request already at Features & Ideas forum: http://forum.cakewalk.com/Features-Ideas-f76.aspx I'm much too humble to promote my own by a link, but they are there with Cubase in title - hint hint Arranger tracks. 
post edited by lfm - April 15, 15 5:05 AM
Cubase Pro 9 with SA2015 as backup - W7 i7 2.8GHz 16G GeForce GT 730 - RME HDSP 9632 + AI4S
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ShellstaX
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Re: Sonar Reviews
April 15, 15 5:32 AM
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☄ Helpfulby Yuker T April 15, 15 8:51 AM
Here's another review from MusicRadar (of Platinum). The same article appeared in the sister mag Computer Music where it was awarded 9/10. In the same mag - Magix Music Maker 2015 got a 2/10 :P.
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robert_e_bone
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Re: Sonar Reviews
April 15, 15 6:40 AM
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☄ Helpfulby Yuker T April 15, 15 8:51 AM
Yuker T
Wow! Just discovered Caketv. Cheers Beepster. I'm gonna be busy for a while!
There are also ZILLIONS of how to videos from regular folks out on YouTube, AND there are some really well-written books out there for specific releases of Sonar - don't know if there is one for Platinum yet (there might be, I just don't know). Bob Bone
Wisdom is a giant accumulation of "DOH!" Sonar: Platinum (x64), X3 (x64) Audio Interfaces: AudioBox 1818VSL, Steinberg UR-22 Computers: 1) i7-2600 k, 32 GB RAM, Windows 8.1 Pro x64 & 2) AMD A-10 7850 32 GB RAM Windows 10 Pro x64 Soft Synths: NI Komplete 8 Ultimate, Arturia V Collection, many others MIDI Controllers: M-Audio Axiom Pro 61, Keystation 88es Settings: 24-Bit, Sample Rate 48k, ASIO Buffer Size 128, Total Round Trip Latency 9.7 ms
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mudgel
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Re: Sonar Reviews
April 15, 15 7:44 AM
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☄ Helpfulby Yuker T April 15, 15 8:51 AM
robert_e_bone
Yuker T
Wow! Just discovered Caketv. Cheers Beepster. I'm gonna be busy for a while!
There are also ZILLIONS of how to videos from regular folks out on YouTube, AND there are some really well-written books out there for specific releases of Sonar - don't know if there is one for Platinum yet (there might be, I just don't know).
Bob Bone
Scott Garrigus recently mentioned that he would be doing a new book but more as add ons to X3 than a brand new book based solely on Sonar 2015.
Mike V. (MUDGEL) STUDIO: Win 10 Pro x64, SPlat & CbB x64, PC: ASUS Z370-A, INTEL i7 8700k, 32GIG DDR4 2400, OC 4.7Ghz. Storage: 7 TB SATA III, 750GiG SSD & Samsung 500 Gig 960 EVO NVMe M.2. Monitors: Adam A7X, JBL 10” Sub. Audio I/O & DSP Server: DIGIGRID IOS & IOX. Screen: Raven MTi + 43" HD 4K TV Monitor. Keyboard Controller: Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol S88.
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