Have not taken the X2 plunge..YET! ...your thoughts on it?

Truly beneficial in terms of what exactly? What version are you currently using? X1 I presume?

If you're going to upgrade eventually, and you have the funds, I'd do it now to be honest. Sure, there appear to be a few glitches here and there, but I'm getting along with it just fine. You can still use your X1 along side X2, if you feel that you're struggling with some of the X2 gripes. In the meantime you can be learning all the extra bells and whistles anyway.

A few things to consider, if you thing the $100 is a bit much. If you upgrade now you get $100 (a bit more than that) worth of strings samples for Dim Pro.

You also get a ProChannel version of Breverb, which, for me, is sounding nicer that Sonitus.

And you get R-Mix too, which is looking rather interesting. I'm currently in the process of learning how to use that tool for my own needs, and not for making karaoke tracks.

Automations Lanes are a fantastic addition, as for as I'm concerned and also the improved drawing and editing methods.

There have been a few complaints about not being to able to edit the colours of the interface as much as we have in the past. But if you're happy with how it looks now then that's not a problem.


Have a look at the video that is mentioned in the sticky area...

I'll let the good folk Beta test a bit more while I run X1 in my pro studio. Too many teething issues if you look at the forum, IMO.

There are ALWAYS teething issues with any piece of software this complex, but quite honestly, from what I've seen posted you have nothing to lose and everything to gain by upgrading now.

There appear to be NO showstoppers, apart from one or two people who probably have configuration issues, nothing more.

I would say its by far the best yet. Bang for the buck is fantastic. Some buggy teething problems as others have mentioned that may or may not affect you. Im sure these or at least the most important will be fixed asap.

Bottom line is if you earn your money from it and you have a stable system now, maybe wait for a patch for X2. But in saying that, you can run X1 alongside it anyway. Other than that, i wouldn't hesitate. I dont regret it for a second.

Cheers

Bibs

great workflow changes - but not stable yet. I have circa 10 crashes a day :-( Wait til its patched before doing any serious work

vista user here not going to upgrade to win 7 anytime soon so that seals that deal off from my systems till I get another computer.

There are always lot's a opinions with this type of topic. The ones that stand out to me are the opinions of folks instructing others what to do, and they don't any software experience with the new versions. And no matter what, given all the choices of components we have to build or have built a pc for us - some just have bad experiences with some software.

Thankfully, I've been running sonar since 2004 and never had to experience enough weirdness to remember. That being said, I am really adjusting well to X2 here on a Vista64 machine. I think the key for Vista users is to run X2 at 64 bits for better stability. It's really the only daw I will use now. I probably won't renew my other daw's licenses when they are due. 

I think you will really like it but then again, that is based on me really liking it!  :)

Installation

I installed X2 last night and although it installed, the installation is botched bigtime. It detected the LE version of Rapture and never gave me the option to install the full version that X2 comes with, and it also claims that I have the LE version of Dim Pro and tried to force me to install an LE Dim Pro update. For the record, I own the full version of Dim Pro 1.5 ...

I tried to do a custom installation running the setup as an admin, but it didn't help. It let me custom install some things, but the majority it didn't. * It automatically scans your system for X1 and brings in your settings which I did not want. It gave me the option not to import X1 settings, but the box was checked and grayed out and I could not uncheck it.

I wanted a stand alone installation of X2 so I could compare it to X1. Now it's all convoluted and mixed and moshed between X1 VST's and settings, and it's just a cluster.

Soooo ... tonight, I'm going to wipe out my DAW down to a bare HDD. Reinstall Windows 7 and all the updates, all mobo updates, peripheral updates, then install X2.

Running X2

I ran a few projects through X2 this morning. The breverb sounds fantastic to me. My initial response to lanes is, I do not like them, but they may grow on me. I didn't like screensets at first and then I grew to love them.

I could not get the console EMU to work. It had the same reaction as most of the other modules in the Pro Channel on my system, and that is, no matter what I clicked on and no matter how far up or down I turned the drive knob, nothing changed. It was like it wasn't even on. Global On/Off was set to 'On', the Console EMU module was turned 'On' ... but no reaction.

I had to head out at that point so I haven't tested it any more. I was going to this afternoon, but I had some things come up and I have to run out again. I'm hoping to do the format and fresh install later this afternoon or tonight.

* Cakewalk, how hard can it possibly be to set up the installation process to say, "Please choose which drive you would like to install your VST's on." and ... "Please choose which drive you would like to install your Synths on." and then actually have all of the VST's and Synth's go to those drives?

Update:

Just opened up a very large project real quick while I'm sitting here ... Inserted Console EMU Bus on the Master Bus, dead as a door nail. Inserted Console EMU Channel on the Master Bus, works and sounds great. Left that there, added Breverb, and the Console EMU Channel disappeared, but I could still hear it's effects. It's totally gone, no module header, nadda, zip, but yet I can hear the changes I made with it.

Looks like a repeat of X1 in that they released something that needs patching on day 1. I've been following the forums and I've seen a lot of other posts about modules not showing up right in the Pro Channel in X2.

I'm sure a patch or Quick Fix (remember those?) is right around the corner.

I like X2, the take lanes, automation lanes, track auto zoom, breverb, and th2, all were great additions.

Stability wise X2 has been much worse than X1 ever was for me and.  I'm running under the Win8 preview though, so that may have something to do with it, though X1 doesn't seem to have any problems.

Dan 

Bub

I'm sure a patch or Quick Fix (remember those?) is right around the corner.

Well, you're right on there Bub...

synkrotron

Bub

I'm sure a patch or Quick Fix (remember those?) is right around the corner.

Well, you're right on there Bub...

That was dumb luck. I got the email that they just released a Quickfix, probably not even an hour after I posted that.

Here's what gets me about this, X1 is doing the same thing. Why couldn't they have put out a QuickFix for it and some of the other major bugs? Why can't they still do that? A Quick Fix is a half baked patch, there's no guarantee it's going to work ... it's a 'quick fix' and not thoroughly tested, that's their own words ... so why not throw something like that out for X1 and say, "Here, if it works great, if not, hey, we tried." Oh well, beating a dead horse.

There is no way anyone is going to tell me that Cakewalk magically found a cure for this disappearing module problem that's spanned two releases, less than a week after the second release ...

Sonar is an amazing product..   Cubase and Reaper crash just as much...  I used cubase when I was learning.. 7 years ago, and I've got a Reaper license....

I find Sonar to, "get a bad rap," cause it professional software, and people who have, "no idea what they are doing," tend to blame all their problems on it....

I'm still using X1, but the moment I have a quick $99, I will jump to X2..  :-)

Apparently you missed the highlighted part.  Care to explain why X1 doesn't suffer the same problems though under the same OS?

I didn't miss it and I don't care to evaluate Sonar on an unreleased operating system. Have you tried it on the RTM version of Windows 8?

There is a little bit of instability in this release, but it is far and away the best release yet.  I ran it all day in the studio today with paying clients and had one crash, but I was saving often, so no biggie.  (Looks like there's already a patch for this, but I can't seem to get to it tonight)
But the work-flow was just awesome.  I just found everything so much more natural and intuitive.  I am sure that X2 will be the best release yet.  X1 did take a couple of patches to be solid and we'll probably need a patch or two to see the best in X2, but I'm already sold on it.

lol ....thks John ...

Bud kinda scared me ....