How stable is Sonar X1?

Really depends who you ask. I've never had it crash. Other people seem to have it crash all the time.

On which basis, I would take all responses, whether positive or negative, with a pinch of salt. Best thing would be to download the trial and see how it works out on your particular system.

Hmm. It won't have even been on sale for nine months by the time X1c comes out. Also, there has bee no indication whatsoever that this is the final patch.

Ifm, I checked the forum occasionally in the past it's exactly what I broadly remember.

I just installed the demo, and I think I will like the new user concept. But it's a nice to have thing and not necessary for making music. Furthermore  X1 is to risky to be installed on my main system. I'm not looking for this "missing MIDI note" problem.

So I'll wait for X2...

No risk - a lot of fun!!!!

In my opinion, and believe me, I had tons of problems with X1 when it was first released, but it seems now to be at least as stable as 8.5.3 - on MY system.

But DON'T try to import older projects into X1 and expect them to run normally. They won't.

I'm finishing off all my old stuff in 8.5 and using X1 for new projects only.

Thanks for your input. I will wait...

Something to bear in mind as this thread no doubt progresses is the correlation between the coherency of the poster and how well they are managing to make their DAW function. I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions about that.

Seems a pretty poor showing when people start attacking individuals rather than own up to the fact that X1 is monstrously unstable and very fussy on what  it can run. I have used Cakewalk for over 15 years and have  had to admit to myself  that this is pretty poor at present. Hopefully they can get it sorted but meantime it's back to a previous version or I am seriously considering Jumping ship. You shouldn't have to be a computer technician to run a Music production program on a modern up to date PC!

I think having to go in and park/unpark cores so you don't have CPU spikes is a little much for most people. That sort of thing needs to be fixed. If it can be fixed on the Sonar side it should be addressed immediately. That's just an example of the many murky things that can cause people to jump ship. If I was in customer support that is exactly the sort of thing that would be a priority for me. How about having to disable a floppy drive in CMOS just so screensets don't stare at you until your beard is long enough? Those are valid things that should be hashed out in R&D.

It's not a new problem. You could probably have argued 20 years ago that you shouldn't need to be able to solder stuff and do some basic electrical work to be a sound engineer. But by god, you did.

"You shouldn't have to be a computer technician to run a Music production program on a modern up to date PC!" It's an interesting point, this. I'm very sympathetic to this argument, in the sense that "you shouldn't" have to be a computer technician. But the reality is, to some extent, that's currently how it is. You're simply not going to get by all that well on any computer based DAW without being reasonably technically clued in about the platform you're running it.

 
I can certainly understand the frustration...
But I agree that you have to develope some level of technical proficiency.
No different than getting up-to-speed with any other studio gear (large format console, etc) or other studio skills (learning mic placement, learning how to effectively mix, etc).
 
Way back in the day, I bought my first PC from a local custom shop.
After a few days, it was quite clear there was no one locally that could help install my two Tahiti audio interfaces... and get the system working.  If I was serious about recording on a PC, I was going to have to become my own PC DAW tech.  Well... I got the two audio interfaces installed/working, but found out QuadStudio was a total train-wreck.    So I moved on to the original version of S.A.W. and then on to Cakewalk Pro Audio 4.0.
Problem-solving is a major part of working with DAWs, technology in general, and many traditional jobs.
The art of mixing could also be likened to problem-solving.
Recording/mixing is a challanging technical process.  Absorbing, working with, and working around technology IMO will always be a major part of what we do.  In a perfect world, this wouldn't be necessary... but we live in an imperfect/messy world.  Embrace it warts-and-all... and make the best of what it is. 
The tools we have today can be frustrating... but they're also capable of amazing results. 
When I was a kid, I remember spec'ing out complete recording studios (dreaming of one day owning one).  I'd get so frustrated... because the tally for a basic hardware based "Project Studio" was the better part of $100,000.  We live in an amazing time... (don't get bogged down in frustration with tools)
Enough psycho-babble from me...  

This of course doesn't mean anyone shouldn't expect the tools they pay for to be as good as possible, or for bugs to be fixed.

 
Agreed...

It amazes me how Cakewalk has confirmed there are problems with the Pro Channel turning on and off by itself, the midi note problem, and a host of other problems I won't re-hash, and yet, people will come on here and say it works perfectly

 
You're assuming all X1 users are experiencing the same exact problem/s.
If I was experiencing the ProChannel turning on/off while working, I wouldn't be able to use X1. 
This is not happening on my DAW.
 
You're right to voice your experience...
On the flip side, if X1 is working well for another user... is that not also a legitimate experience?
 
I recently mixed a 24-Track 4-hour live recording using X1.
If I experienced the issues some report, it would have driven me crazy.  No doubt...
But that wasn't (isn't) the case.  X1 worked very effectively.
Note:  I wasn't using the ProChannel.  I was using volume and send automation.
Waves SSL Bundle was used for most of the EQ/Dynamics.  TRacks-3 singles were also heavily used (Pultec in particular).

yorolpal


I agree with John here.  While it would be very nice to have a DAW that could quite literally "read your mind" the truth is that you have to bring either a modicum of knowledge of the current state of digital recording, mixing and mastering or the willingness to learn.  That said, Sonar is quite remarkable for it's ease of use else a dimwit like myself could not manage it at all.

As usual, very well said, Mr. Pal.
 
X1 is more stable than 8.5 for me. Plus I like it ALOT better than 8.5, and I started from Pro Audio 9. I do recommend running it on a fairly new system with a clean install of Win7 64bit and as much ram as you can afford.

It will however corrupt projects started in previous versions, I've had that happen to me. One I lost forever because I hadn't backed it up (my fault). What I started doing was create a duplicate of the project and open that, but I just don't even open old projects in X1 anymore. It's not worth the risk, and I don't use the Pro Channel so there's really no need to.

I have never encountered that. I as a rule don't open projects from a new version in an older version. I believe CW does not ensure forward compatibility. Only backward compatibility.

Thanks for giving more information on the PC issue.  I still can't say I have had any problems with it.

 

You know, you don't have to sit and watch while it downloads. You can go and do something else.