Going from SONAR 6 PE to X 3 ...what will I looking at here to get back to being current .

brundlefly
Kenny, my man, you are in for a treat, but be prepared for a considerable amount of head-scratching over the UI changes!
 
Your basic plan seems sound. I think the internal drive will likely work fine for the short term, despite the slow speed. So the main thing will be to get a good interface for it. I will leave it to others to make recommendations on that front, as I'm running a PCIe MOTU 2408 on a desktop.
 
Feel free to ping me with the inevitable "dumb" questions as they come up as your installing and learning X3.
 
Have fun!
 
Dave

urock
Good luck Kenny!
 
I was last on Sonar 7 and am seriously thinking of upgrading.   I (and I'm sure others) will be interested in hearing how you feel about the upgrade.  Many who vocally dislike the X series regularly compare it to 8.5 which they seem to hold as Sonar's peak.  I am curious how those that last used Sonar pre-8.5 feel about X3.
 

slartabartfast
So it looks like you are getting the price for Sonar X3 Producer from any version of Producer. If you use softsynths that is a huge bargain as you will be getting basically all of the synths you would have collected in version upgrade steps at one time. Also a bunch of plugin processors. You might consider paying extra for a boxed copy if you do not have access to mega-bandwidth for the download. You might check with Cakewalk customer service to see if the boxed upgrades being sold by their distributors like Sweetwater will qualify for this offer (i.e. will allow you to register based on your previous product).
 
I suspect that an external drive speed of 7200 will not be fully utilized unless there is a USB3 or eSATA  connection. For modest projects 5400 should work.
 
There is an excellent chance that the AudioGram6 drivers for Win 7-64 will work fine in Win 8. Many suppliers have not re-done their drivers for Win8 because there is no need to do so. Definitely give it a try before you buy new hardware.

Sanderxpander
I also started on Sonar 6 PE and had a hard time adapting to the "X" way of doing things. But X3 made some great strides for me with comping and the smart tool. You'll have to learn some stuff anew but overall I would say the experience is a lot better than it was at 6.

mudgel
Hi Kenny,
Man it's been a while.
As others have said you're pretty much on the right track. As was always the case, the number of simultaneous inputs and outputs you need is largely what determines your sound card. Price will effect whether you go for RME on the higher side or something like the Roland or similar USB versions. USB is basically it for laptops these days unless you have a proven FireWire choice.

The Roland devices have a good rap for drivers and driver updates independent of Cakewalks future after Roland.

You'll probably find you can make do with a single drive for OS, Sonar and plugins even though it's on the slower side. Unless you can upgrade it to a faster drive the discussions mute in any case.

An external drive for Projects and samples isn't a bad idea. Whether you have 1 or 2 drives can be a matter of experimentation as you can always add another. Of course a lot depends on how many USB, eSATA ports, XPress card slots etc your laptop has for peripherals.

All that said, the jump in technology from Sonar 6 to X3 is enormous? 7, 8, 8.5, X1, X2 and now X3. That's about 7 years of software and hardware development. All the best.

brundlefly
The shock to the system of going from S6 to X3 is hard to imagine. Between that and your new PC, you must be in heaven. 
 
One thing I can suggest is that you just open up a copy of a big project, and click every menu option you can find, and right-click every object, including some buttons in the Control bar, to see what's in the context menu, and try all the tools. This will give you some idea what new features are available, and where existing features went, since pretty much everything not in the main menu will have moved, and you're going to spend a lot of time searching for things that you've comitted to muscle memory.
 
This applies to keyboard shortcuts, too, as many have been re-assigned. I re-bound some of the most egregious (in my eyes) examples like F7, 8, 9, 10, and their Ctrl-modified counterparts. And be sure to go through the clip and track tabs in the Inspector (I), and note the MIDI and Audio tabs at the bottom of Simple Instrument tracks (combined MIDI and audio track option for inserting soft synths). And, of course, Prochannel; so cool.
 
Some other miscellaneous thoughts/reminders:
B= Browser; a very powerful new feature that I don't use enough, myself); drag-drop synths, FX, and MIDI-Audio content from anywhere on your system.
 
D= Dock; Shift+D toggles between maximized and partial views.
 
1-9, 0 = Screensets 1 through 10. A very powerful feature, but take care not to inadvertently start typing numbers when you haven't opened a field for editing (!).
 
T= Tools; brings up the toolbar HUD (Head Up display); get used to using the Smart Tool with all the modifier keys, especially in the PRV where everything is different (right-click deletes!; double-click is Properties).
 
- Shift+T toggles lanes open and closed.
 
- Edit Filter dropdown in Tracks and Lanes (defaults to "Clips"); this is where you enable automation envelopes, Audiosnap, Inline PRV, etc.
 
- Right-click the record button, and note how it changes when you change modes; I think you are going to love comp-record mode.
 
 That's all for now; a tiny droplet in the bucket of features that is X3.
 
Cheers,
Dave
 

slartabartfast
I suspect that an external drive speed of 7200 will not be fully utilized unless there is a USB3 or eSATA  connection. For modest projects 5400 should work.

kennywtelejazz
i have a new dog ...

tcaylor
Kenny,
 
If you do decide to get a new audio interface for your laptop, take a look at the Focusrite 2i2 ($150).  I have one for my laptop and it was very easy to install and use, also has direct monitoring making latency a non-issue.

bluzdog
Kenny, There are lots of videos out that can get you up to speed in no time. There's some free ones at Cake University that are good. The Groove 3 and SWA videos are in depth and real eye openers for a small fee. Scott's Sonar Power books rock but the X3 version isn't out yet. Congrats on the new toys.
 
Rocky