Last 6 weeks I put Sonar and the Bakers thru a pretty good stress test...
I recently scored a 90 minute doc/film and have to say Sonar really came thru for me. Let me say I use to be very busy scoring Documentary type cable TV shows. I was making pretty big $s (for me) and having an up-to-date system was not hard. The last couple of years have been so-so and having kids go to college really forced me to tighten the budget. So currently my system 5+years old, something I do like to brag about, but other than getting new hard drives an upgraded system does not get me that much more fire power. The bang for the buck is not that great at the moment.
So I had to do a lot of the normal stuff...underscore much of this project, creating themes plus I had to do a couple of "sound-a-like" songs and replace music editors cut to. To say deadlines where really tight would be the understatement of the year. A lot, a lot of work and hours
As I got a little into this project Sonar updated and against my better judgement, I went a head and updated. I am so glad I did. The new PRV view alone saved me tons of time. The colored CC lanes...I can not tell you how much that helped.
Then my computer started having trouble, my sound card RME Fireface 400 (that I paid $1200 for) died. I had another maudio firewire box laying around that I threw in and it covered for me, but choked a little. I decided to replace my Hard Drives during a break in the project just to be safe. The new Control Center really made updating and getting the new drives up and running very easy for me.
So I slaved 16 hour days for weeks at a time and i had Sonar crash on me a couple of times. I couple of times I had to reboot to get Sonar back up, but all in all Sonar was pretty solid. I sent stems to the audio mixer (who was using Protools) by creating OMFs. Friday I sat all day and fielded calls from the producer who was asking for minor tweaks and fixes, spit them out and "Dropboxed" them back. Everyone was amazed at how fast things where coming back.
One of the fun things i did was record a small string ensemble in my basement. This is where I wish Staff View would be just "this much Better". I printed out parts from Sonar and hand wrote in all the markings I needed. That part is not bad, but i wish I did not have to draw in septuplets and wish I could compose easier in Staff View.
All in all Sonar was a fun tool to have. I think it is very underrated in the scoring world. I did have to split up the film into 6 sections with Sony Vegas, but ...Sonar and the bakers where great to have on my side. That is all.....
post edited by Jimbo 88 - 2015/03/21 19:51:37