I Don't Want to be That Guy

I don't want to be that guy who says, "I've had it--I'm done with Sonar," but I am almost there.
 
• I've been using Sonar X1 since it came out.
• I never upgraded because I spent months on the phone with Sweetwater technical support (who built the system) trying to get all the VIs and interfaces to work.  I am terrified an upgrade will break what little I already have and Sweetwater passed their limit working with me. They are no longer an option.
• Also, I fear an upgrade won't fix the issues since the issues I have are things people on this forum swear they've never heard of before.  The person who set up the PC and did the installation had never done it before, and God only knows what is wrong.
• I also am not confident my VS-700 will work if I upgrade.
 
So, my choices are to buy a new PC, install the latest Sonar from scratch, and somehow get all these expensive sample libraries working.  That could be hard because Sweetwater set up somewhat random user IDs and passwords with the various vendors and I am not even sure I have all of them.  Plus, my ISP went away and I had to change to gmail so anything requiring email authorization is now broken.
 
Second choice is to buy a MAC and Logic Pro and, of course, still somehow solve the problem of installing the sample libraries.
 
In either case, I would pay a consultant who knew what he or she was doing to set this up for me.  (That was what Sweetwater was supposed to do but it was a disaster.)
 
Right now I am lucky to get an hour of work in before a crash that requires a reboot, or losing audio which requires different fixes on different days.  While I am working, I don't have snap, copy and paste works oddly, running more than a few VIs kills audio, and I have a variety of other issues no one else experiences.
 
I am completely serious about hiring someone, but if that person wastes my time or money, my wrath will be boundless.
 
This is not a hobby for me and I cannot afford down time.
 
Any thoughts?
 

Did you try the sonar Platinum Demo ?
Im guessing your still on windows 7 because the VS700 needs the drivers ? (though I believe there was a work around for 8 / 8.1)
What kind of video card are you using ?

It sounds like money is more abundant than time.

I bought one of those audio cat computers. He installed Windows and Sonar for me.

I've done a clean install since upgrading to Windows ten.

The point is you could install everything on the second computer. Until it works better than your first computer, you could still use your current computer.

I noticed in the OP's system specs that he has 12 gig of ram. I think this is only possible if you have tri-channel ram and a MB designed to work with it. I had such a system and it gave me a lot of grief with Sonar. It's such an odd thing but I'm wondering if it has a bearing on system stability. I don't see that type of memory configuration on anything I've looked at recently.
 
Any computer Yoda's out there?

It sounds to me like your present system was doomed from the start and what you've been doing, and will continue to do, is limp along until things finally collapse.  Two weeks ago I had a catastrophic HD crash and decided to go ahead and get a whole new system.  I'm now on W10 with SPLAT humming like never before.  Why not go ahead and upgrade everything?  Installing everything again took about 3 days (lots of time down-loading), but other than the time invested, it wasn't that bad an experience.  Even if you lost your passwords it's easy enough to get new ones, and if your old email is kaput I'm betting a reputable software vendor will find a way to work with you.  I'm thinking that's not a terribly unusual situation.  You're going to have to do it at some point anyway so why not do it now?  In two weeks you'll be happy you did.   Just my .02.
 
I do hope you get everything worked out, and if you leave SONAR I truly hope you find what works for you.

mudgel
Konrad runs things like Vienna which is very disc and memory intensive. I would recommend giving Jim Rosebery a call and asking for his advice.

 
Jim is great. I don't know if he works on computers he didn't make, but if so, that's another option.
 

My opinion about Sonar X1 is that it was Cakewalks worst product ever. Sonar Platinum is a completely different beast. And it is a real beast of a DAW. You should be able to use it for anything you want on a Jim built PC.

Sweetwater is a great company and I've always known them to go the extra mile with their customers. But for many years it was a Mac house, and it sounds like you got in on the ground floor of their starting to get involved with Windows.
 
I can tell you from personal experience that Chuck Surack cares about every single Sweetwater customer. This is not hyperbole. Consider getting in touch with him directly, he will listen.

Hi Konradh,
 
If you are using the VS-700R as your audio interface that may actually be the reason for your frequent crashes and required reboots. I'm talking from experience here because I was in a similar boat until I swapped it for a MOTU but kept using the VS-700C as a control surface. Since then the random problems e.g. like not being able to open a project which Kontakt, crashes when using some VIs, silent master bus, meters moving but no sound, etc. have completely vanished.
 
What you could try (without breaking anything and investing up front):

1. full backup (which have anyway, right?)
2. install VS-700C driver, connect it via USB, flip the dip #1 switch in the back and the VS-700C control surface will work as before (except headphone out and aux in on the VS-700C)
3. borrow a top notch interface (either RME or latest MOTU, nothing else IMHO), install and use for test period ... maybe even sweetware can provide you one for a test ...
4. it that works, decide on I/O and get an RME/MOTU interface fits your needs
5. if it does not change anything, flip the dip switch back and you are at least back at your current system

 
Alternative, you could ...

1. do the full backup
2. have someone install win10 in-place (!!!), which effectively wipes out your old windows but should keep your software (some plugs may need to be re-authorized), then ...
3. install the VS-700 as documented in the Cakewalk hardware forum (it will definitely work on win10, but unfortunately not change the Roland driver vs VIs performance problems, hence I still recommend swapping the audio interface first) ... so personally, I'd only install the VS-700C driver and also try with an RME or MOTU interface
4. optionally go for Sonar Platinum, which will be much better from a usability perspective, but I would not expect any significant improvements as regards stability with 3rd party plugs (as this is 99.99% driven by audio driver stability)

 
In either approach it comes down to taking out the VS-700R as the audio interface from the equation first, because these Roland drivers never were as good as they claimed them to be ...
 
Feel free to PM me if you have questons that don't fit this thread.
 
Cheers,
 
Rob

Anderton

telecharge

chuckebaby
Did you try the sonar Platinum Demo ?

Any chance of that hosing his X1 installation?

No, they can live side by side.
 

except for the shared components, of which there can be only one

Anderton
Sweetwater is a great company and I've always known them to go the extra mile with their customers.

+1 for Sweetwater my guy Alan Carter is always there for me and gives me great advice!

konradh Setting up a second computer and using my current one as a backup is definitely a possibility.
 

i think is probably your best path

Earwax
 
If this is truly Chuck Surack, here is your answer right here. Take him up on his offer. Sweetwater is a good company. If, on the other hand, this is NOT truly Chuck Surack...............................

I confirmed that it really is Chuck Surack. It's impressive that the CEO of Sweetwater would address this personally, although frankly it's not surprising.

just as a something, why is it impressive/whatever that someone would step up to defend their company's reputation? surely that's expected?

pwalpwal
just as a something, why is it impressive/whatever that someone would step up to defend their company's reputation? surely that's expected?

because not every CEO out there cares about every single one of its customers.
is that really too hard to believe ?  Ever deal with guitar center
 
Maybe for the small Mom and Pops company's. but Sweetwater is a huge company.