• SONAR
  • I Must Be A Caveman. (p.4)
2015/09/22 18:52:37
Doktor Avalanche
Er... A primitive version...
(Missed a trick).
2015/09/23 05:42:03
jpetersen
I have been trying to get out of my cave lately, but when I try something I haven't used before, I run up against issues and bugs.
 
In another thread I wondered whether I was the only person really using Sonar.
This thread confirms my suspicion.
2015/09/23 08:42:28
kennywtelejazz
My chariot is swift and powerful when it works  , I've already mastered the art of using Fire .
I don't club all my future X's over the head w a Louisville Slugger when I first meet them .
Hunting for my food is rather safe and all done in the comfort of a supermarket .   
 
Having said that , I can't seem to get behind the Whole Caveman Tag or Label  …..
 
I got much deeper problems than that 
 
The past couple of years I have spent litteraly treading water in what I will call a learning curve quick sand  …..
Exercising  patience and learning new things is something I'm OK with as long as I'm doing it in small achievable bite sized chunks or increments….
My progress seems very slow to me at this point . 
There happens to be a lot of features in SONAR that I still have to learn or make my Peace with them …
 
Life used to be so simple for me when all I wanted to do was just play the guitar ….
 
Kenny
 
2015/09/23 15:00:50
Danny Danzi
kennywtelejazz
My chariot is swift and powerful when it works  , I've already mastered the art of using Fire .
I don't club all my future X's over the head w a Louisville Slugger when I first meet them .
Hunting for my food is rather safe and all done in the comfort of a supermarket .   
 
Having said that , I can't seem to get behind the Whole Caveman Tag or Label  …..
 
I got much deeper problems than that 
 
The past couple of years I have spent litteraly treading water in what I will call a learning curve quick sand  …..
Exercising  patience and learning new things is something I'm OK with as long as I'm doing it in small achievable bite sized chunks or increments….
My progress seems very slow to me at this point . 
There happens to be a lot of features in SONAR that I still have to learn or make my Peace with them …
 
Life used to be so simple for me when all I wanted to do was just play the guitar ….
 
Kenny
 




That's the thing....and what I think a lot of guys are missing. You don't have to use anything more than what you know. I'm old school, so to me, Sonar is a big tape machine and I use it just like that. Punching in is easier as I used to have to find a spot in the song where I'd have to press play and record on my 16 track 1 inch. LOL!!
 
It's like guitar rigs man.....some guys like a tube amp and maybe a tone booster or Tube Screamer. Other guys like a processed sound that entails several effects and routing. I have a Fractal Axe Fx XL+ which is a killer guitar processor. One of the best I've ever used. You can make it as simple as a stomp box into an amp....or a complex rack of gear that can make your head spin. Sonar, in my opinion, is in the same camp. Use what you need, ignore what you don't.
 
Here's another thing to further drive the point. I beta test for a few really cool companies. I kinda felt like I was wasting their time to be a tester because I don't really use their programs like many others. For example, I've been with FxPansion testing BFD for a long time now. I don't need to program drums or use the loop stuff that come in the program because I'm a drummer and have a killer real kit as well as the top of the line V-Drums kit. I don't even use the effects or mixing options given and told the company that. Their reply was "we want guys like you that just use the program the way they use it. If everyone used it the same way, we'd never find the bugs we need to find."
 
So, use whatever program you use, the way you use it. Primitive is great, as long as it's productive. I still think though that if anyone gets a little extra time, it's always cool to visit the "what's new in Sonar" in the help files. They now give us enough tutorials to where you can at least see what the program can do. Another quick story....
 
I don't create dance or hip hop stuff in my studio due to my clients always coming prepared with their own loops and grooves. These guys are as crazy with their loops and grooves as we guitar players are about our chops and tone. LOL!
 
But anyway, I had a guy come in that needed me to create something for him from the ground up. Definitely uncharted waters for me....but low and behold, that particular week, I saw a "whats new in Sonar" option that made me curious, so I messed around with it and created a killer little piece of music before I even had to deal with this client. Having learned from the Sonar tutorial, I was up and running with some good choices for my client to which he liked 3 out of 5. So you just never know what you may grasp even if you are just exploring or heck, just watching a video or reading what capabilities Sonar has that you may never use. There is no right or wrong....unless of course a person is doing something the long way and there is a super short cut to get to the same place. LOL! :) Proud to be a caveman....as long as I get my work done and have a little fun, ya know? :)
 
-Danny
2015/09/23 17:35:28
robert_e_bone
I have used Cakewalk since Twelve Tone days on a 5 1/4" floppy disc on a DOS computer.
 
And yet, in all that time - I have mostly done keyboard tracks - I don't do Take Lanes, nor do I do any serious editing of audio.  I mostly do midi playing from my controllers, and sometimes guitar and vocals.  
 
There are ZILLIONS of things that Sonar offers that I have never used, and may well never use.
 
A guitar player or a vocalist would likely have a whole different approach, and would face different challenges than what I do - that's normal.  It's also one of the great things about these forums, because there are almost certainly some other set of folks that have experience with whatever area we may be currently struggling to get working properly, and it's absolutely fabulous that those folks are out there, and willing to bend over backwards to try to help.
 
So, PLAY your guitar, SING you vocal lines, do what you do, and when you need or want to do something in addition - use the reference manuals, look for YouTube videos, and come to the forums for help.
 
This is a GREAT community - so ROCK ON! :)
 
Bob Bone
 
2015/09/23 18:23:08
57Gregy
I also use it as a recorder. I don't use a lot of VSTis and my bad hearing doesn't allow me to use a lot of EQ or mastering effects well.
I may add pan or volume envelopes, or some audio effects like chorus or flange, but mostly I just record.
2015/09/23 19:11:57
webbs hill studio
"Sonar is a big tape machine and I use it just like that."
"I also use it as a recorder"
+1 Danny and Gregy.
 
my job is to record the best wav I can and the difference between 8:5:3 and X4 is immaterial to me,in that context.
the rest is just icing the cake ..
I still think that most of the allure of upgrading is being able to master a new plugin or feature,battle a bug fix or whatever.
mot of the replies here,so far, admit they do not actually need or use new features I imagine they would prefer fixing existing bugs.
this reminds me of the 50`s automobile industry when they changed the colours and tailfins every year but the basic engine stayed the same.
planned obsolescence.
PS:I thought a Dim Pro was someone who was not very bright but made a living from it...
cheers 
2015/09/23 19:16:24
John T
The way I tend to approach the feature set is very rarely to sit down to learn any particular thing. It's more that I just get on with what I'm doing, and from time to time, I'll run into something I need to do, so I'll have a poke around the help files and the forum to see if there's a way. And the more developed and mature Sonar becomes, the more rare it is that I can't do whatever has come up directly in Sonar.
 
For example, we've had the vocal alignment thingy for nine months now, and I only first used it about two months ago. I was working on some vocal comps with a singer, and he said, literally, "is there a way of tightening up the doubles, like a vocal alignment thingy". And I thought, ah, there is! And it turned out to be totally easy to use, and solved our problem right away.
 
Another example would be that I'd not given any thought at all to the addition of new export formats this year, and then I was doing a sound effects job recently, where they needed all the files in Ogg Vorbis format, and I thought, ah, great, they added that to Sonar, didn't they? Saved me having to have a post-export conversion process.
 
I think that's what I particularly like about Sonar. All the well-known DAWs are good at lots of things, and some of them are especially good at a few things, but for my money, Sonar is the most comprehensive. Whether that matters to you will depend greatly on the kind of work you're doing with the program. Myself, I'm doing all kinds of stuff; band production, mixing, remixing, audiobook production, sound effects, all kinds. Whatever comes in that'll pay the rent, basically. And I very rarely have to go outside of Sonar (and its bundled instruments, effects and tools) to get anything done. Which is pretty impressive, I think.
2015/09/23 19:21:16
John T
Expanding on that, to me, it's like my studio has a tech team that I never see, but who just make improvements and additions when I'm out of the room. Occasionally, they do something that makes me go "ugh, guys, come on" - horribly slow start screen, I'm talking about you - but mostly, it's completely unobtrusive, and kind of amazing. "Hmm, whoever tracked this had no idea where to put a kick drum mic". "No problem chief, we installed a Drum Replacer when you went to the kitchen for a cup of tea. Here's a video on how it works".
2015/09/24 11:59:00
stevec
John T
Expanding on that, to me, it's like my studio has a tech team that I never see, but who just make improvements and additions when I'm out of the room. Occasionally, they do something that makes me go "ugh, guys, come on" - horribly slow start screen, I'm talking about you - but mostly, it's completely unobtrusive, and kind of amazing. "Hmm, whoever tracked this had no idea where to put a kick drum mic". "No problem chief, we installed a Drum Replacer when you went to the kitchen for a cup of tea. Here's a video on how it works".




I like it...
 
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