Practical steps to exporting a SONAR project for another DAW

I'm continuing to use SONAR, but I'm also immediately getting on the learning curve for Reaper because I think it's inevitable that SONAR won't be usable at some point in the future.
 
I don't want to lose any of the projects I've done, so I've started taking a look at how to export everything. At the moment, this is the process I'm using:
 
1. Open Track Manager and make everything visible.
2. Bounce everything to clips.
3. Drag the left hand edge of every clip all the way to the start of the project.
4. Select all the audio tracks and export them as .wav files.
5. Drag the MIDI tracks one by one into the folder with the .wav files, where they will appear with names like Clip(1).mid.
6. Rename all the MIDI tracks to indicate what they were in the SONAR project.
7. Using the new DAW, import the audio files. Then drag and drop the .mid files onto MIDI tracks.
 
Can anyone suggest a more efficient way of getting this done?
 
Thanks in advance.

vanceen
I'm continuing to use SONAR, but I'm also immediately getting on the learning curve for Reaper because I think it's inevitable that SONAR won't be usable at some point in the future.
 
I don't want to lose any of the projects I've done, so I've started taking a look at how to export everything. At the moment, this is the process I'm using:
 
1. Open Track Manager and make everything visible.
2. Bounce everything to clips.
3. Drag the left hand edge of every clip all the way to the start of the project.
4. Select all the audio tracks and export them as .wav files.
5. Drag the MIDI tracks one by one into the folder with the .wav files, where they will appear with names like Clip(1).mid.
6. Rename all the MIDI tracks to indicate what they were in the SONAR project.
7. Using the new DAW, import the audio files. Then drag and drop the .mid files onto MIDI tracks.
 
Can anyone suggest a more efficient way of getting this done?
 
Thanks in advance.

Something you might want to take a look at that is in the installer of REAPER, and does not install by default is the virtual ASIO device ReaRoute.
 
When I switched from Sonar to REAPER 9 years ago, I used ReaRoute to move my audio directly out of Sonar into REAPER. In addition I used a virtual midi cable (MidiOx I think) to move all the midi at the same time, and lastly I set Sonar to transmit midi clock and REAPER to slave to it, so I could in one real time playback, move all audio and midi from Sonar to REAPER.
 
ReaRoute looks to both Sonar and REAPER as an ASIO audio device driver, and selecting it in both DAWs, outs in Sonar and inputs in REAPER, lets you put each audio track in Sonar on numbered channels of ReaRoute. Then in REAPER you set the same number of tracks into record ready, and assign their inputs to be assigned the same channel numbers in ReaRoute. This gets a multi-channel digital pipeline for the audio established between the two DAWs, so the data is not going through any D to A and A to D conversion which would introduce audio degradation.
 
In my case, I also added the virtual midi cable between the two DAWs in a similar manner. Once I had all the audio and midi channels setup to send from Sonar and to receive in REAPER, it was just a matter of putting all tracks to be moved into record ready in REAPER, hitting record (which was then waiting on the midi clock from Sonar), and lastly hitting play in Sonar, which started the transports rolling in both DAWs.
 
HTH
 

Some good ideas here.
 
ReaRoute and midiox I'll have to look into. Hope I can get my head around it.
 
The Snipping Tool idea is excellent.
 
Craig, I hope you'll let us know on here when the Sound on Sound article appears.
 

FWIW - just found out that if SOP and SONAR are open at the same time, I can drag and drop files from SOP to SONAR (no groove clips, though, they have to be rendered first).

The screenshot idea is an excellent one because in the past, I've taken photos of important mixer settings on my Mackie console before switching to another project, so that I could go back to it quickly!
 
Craig, I look forward to that article and something which would compare say Studio one, Cubase and FLStudio with Sonar so that we know what's likely to make the easiest transition?
 
From what I know, bouncing each track down to audio and MIDI stems is the only way as it's like having a studio multi-track reel-to-reel master recording before it got mixed down to 2-track stereo with all the effects added, back in the day!  That's what I'll do and is probably the best that anyone can do.
 
As long as we have a way of keeping Sonar going, I intend on using it until I need better features.  Look, certain producers use mixing consoles or studio outboard effects which are ancient and now obsolete because they give a certain character to the recording so how is this situation any different?
 
It's a tool right and if it works for you and you get the results you need, continue using it until it stops working, as long as we get that lifetime key that Noel has promised in this thread:
 
http://forum.cakewalk.com/Cakewalk-Announcement-m3687511.aspx
 
FAQ:
Q. What if the cakewalk site goes down - will we be able to reinstall and activate our software that is paid for and owned?
A. If and when Cakewalk's servers are taken down, we will issue a mechanism to activate software you own, without needing access to the internet. We're working on the mechanics of this and we'll provide more details as available. At present online activation is fully functional.

FYI- screenshots. If you have One Drive or Dropbox, ALT/ PRT SCN  takes a screen shot and saves it to a folder. 
I take screenshots of all my on line transactions. The snipping tool is good if you want to include a dialog box in the shot. ALT/Prt Scrn only captures the top layer of a screen. 
 
You should already have each project in a folder. 
In that folder is the CWP file -- Only good for all versions of Sonar otherwise usless. 
SAVE AS to a midi file and that will be a huge part of what was in the CWP file for many. 
You also have the Audio folder which with a few preps can be everything else you'll need. 
So between a MIDI file and the audio folder 90% of your work is safe. 
 
The thing is, as you all know, that the audio folder can be a huge mess of bits and pieces that you'll never sort out. So what you'll want to do is fix things up and then perform a "save as"  to a new project . This will clean up the mess. ( hopefully) 
If you have a guitar part that is spread across 20 take lanes and whatnot. Bounce it to a new clip to make one nice long clip. NAME that so you'll know what it is. 
What I found is Sonar will name audio files if you name the track BEFORE you record it. Re naming "track 7" to Guitar after the fact doesn't seem to work. Another good reason to always use a track template.  
 

Anderton
FWIW - just found out that if SOP and SONAR are open at the same time, I can drag and drop files from SOP to SONAR (no groove clips, though, they have to be rendered first).

Whats up, I mean whats SOP? LOL

Anderton
FWIW - just found out that if SOP and SONAR are open at the same time, I can drag and drop files from SOP to SONAR (no groove clips, though, they have to be rendered first).

fret_man
Studio One Pro

OK, LOL, I guess that's OK, so assume then you can do this vice versa i.e., from Sonar to SOP, or is that what you meant?  

 
Discussions on transferring SPLAT to SOP.
Sounds messy