Any negative experience?
Trying to see how I can take advantage of my Sonar equipped laptop for more productive stage performances?

If you are speaking of playing backing tracks for you to play/sing along with, I think you would have giant performance hits if you had to load a full project every time you wanted to do a different song.  In other words, if Sonar had to load all the tracks and synths and audio for each song, there would be a giant gap while you waited for a project to load.
 
You would be better off creating exported audio files of each project, as they are MUCH smaller and would stream with no such gap, and work with those.  These would be much much better performing, lots less work for Sonar and for your computer.
 
Bob Bone
 

If you are talking about using Sonar as your "mixing console" for a live venue, we do that often.
 
Granted, you have to be careful which effects you use on each channel to minimize the delay.  You also have to keep your buffers as small as you reliably can.  But it works really well.  I've not had any dropout issues during our performances.
 
I use the Pro-Channel to apply a Gloss EQ, a console emulator and a compressor on each channel.  In addition, on some of the vocal channels, I use the Pro-Channel Breverb module to give the vocals a little enhancement.  On the Master bus, I EQ out feedback and tailor the sound for the venue with the Pro-Channel Gloss EQ.
 
I should note that we typically only have 8 inputs (mics and DI guitars) so it's small.  The template I use has 8 input tracks 5 busses, including the master, and a metronome bus.  We use an Octa-Capture for the inputs and to provide outputs to feed the FOH and monitors.
 
Finally, I use a Frontier Tranzport to control the transport to start/stop recording, add markers and enable/disable input echo on grouped tracks.  Very convenient and inconspicuous during the performance.
 
Later,
Paul
 
 

I have seen a local band who had a laptop running MIDI for their lighting effects, etc. but did not get close enough to see which DAW they were using or what tracks/FX were going on - it had a track view opened, but the guitarists were using pedals so "assume" FX there were not used. I have personally never tried this (sort of fear it actually), but be very aware of the capabilities of the computer and minimize "real-time" processing as much as possible (i.e., any tracks without input should be rendered wav files so the only processing is "playback"). The more overhead you can free up, the more forgiving variations will be.
 
I have seen other comments on laptop placement (vibration issues), so other things to consider are the surface the laptop is placed on, venue, etc.
 
Definitely operational test your setup thoroughly prior to a performance, and bring a "backup plan" with you (i.e., something to play bounced backing tracks in case the laptop should fail - removes the real-time FX (DAW) aspect, but allows for continuing the performance).
 
Again, I have not done this personally, but saw it in action - about 3 hours long, without issues - on a fairly complex setup (loud venue these guys have been doing for 15 years now).

I use it to access all the soft synths ... and rarely have had trouble, but for last night. I'd upgraded from X3 to Platinum and in Platinum, the audio engine kept randomly turning itself on and off all night. Mind that this was only a practice, but having that occur during a performance is a big no-no.

I posted a query on this board, as that problem never happened in X3 ... but no replies yet.

I have used Sonar for years to run my show, including multi track backing, lighting control via dmxis, and external mixer and effects automation. The playlist works well once you get the hang of it - it is the main reason I switched from
Cubase to Sonar when I started using multi track audio instead if midi backing tracks. It has never let me down on stage - user error aside:)
 

Time doesn't permit live gigging very much for me anymore but I still have the seasonal gigs I do every year. I have used Sonar onstage since X1 and never had a glitch. My system has been tweaked here and there with all automatic updates disabled, virus software shut down, wireless shutdown, etc.. I use all virtual instruments, some strategically placed rhythm guitar, background vox and bass audio tracks. All my live guitar tracks have automation programmed for switching stomps on and off, switching presets, and so on. All I have to do is play my guitar and not worry about stomping on pedals or adjusting volumes. The arrangements I have done are always the same because these songs are meant to be more of muzak type music for banquets and private partys. I still have left spots open to improvise as far as the playing is concerned but the arrangements themselves are pretty cut and dried.
I also have versions of the same songs using my POD HD500 if something does go wrong but I have never had to use it.
Since X1, the load times have gotten faster which has made things a lot smoother for me. Like I said, with a few tweaks the load times are very tolerable on older versions of Sonar. SPLAT loads like lightning!

We use multi tracks every week for our worship services.  Some tracks like click and a guide track to in ear monitors and loop, keys, etc. into the mains to give us a full sound and perfect timing.  I have to say I would much rather be using Sonar for this!  We use PT and don't let anyone ever try to tell you that it is rock solid and never fails!  It is a great compliment added to our live bass, keys, lead guitar, vocals, and drums.
 
We setup a complete worship set of typically 4 songs in a single session that is about 17 to 20 minutes long.

If you use a PC with decent specs (incl SSD) and optimize your Sonar projects (bounce/freeze whatever you can) it will work.
 
We use Sonar with its playlist feature to provide the backing tracks for the entire show, change digi mixers scenes, external FX presets for several devices, etc. In our case it works fine and has not let us down ... only had troubles once when MIDI echo got somehow turned on and crashed the digimixer due to a MIDI loop (but we sorted that prior to the show). So it does require a lot of testing as every system is unique and you need to know 100% what are using to be able to rely on it 100%.
 
BTW - we're still on X3 for live shows, but that's just because we tested that for 2 years and have no reason to change/upgrade the live DAW.