Okay... so I'm back in front of the DAW (got a slow start today... wasn't feeling well this morning). I created a new project just goof around in. I wanted to try out my new AD kits with my padKontrol so inserted an instance using all stereo outputs.
 
Yesterday when I was saying that the AD GUI was HUGE I had been using the standalone so at least I could move it around and access any paramters off screen. Now that I have it inserted as a synth it is constrained inside a plugin window. Due to the resolution settings I have in Windows to accomodate my flatscreen (black bars on either side) I guess it only allows windows to be a max height width. Now the right hand side of the GUI is cut off and I can't scroll over or stretch the window horizontally to get at that stuff. Apparently this GUI is only designed to work on a widescreen monitor which is very unfortunate and kind of odd. I've never encountered this before.
 
So I may have to post a question in the Computers section or something to finally figure out how to force Windows to use the entire width of my monitor. Yes I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out my resolution/aspect ratio stuff but this monitor (which is actually a TV/monitor) is weird. Any time I get it set to take up the whole width of the screen it stretches things out horizontally. Good excuse to finally (hopefully) get that sorted out. Still kind of annoying.
 
I'm also having a bit of a hard time figuring out the new preset scheme in AD2 but I'll just have to read up a little more. It is quite different than AD1 (as far as I can tell).
 
The kits I got however sound AMAZING and will be very useful for my stuff. I was having a problem with the padKontrol's expression pedal triggering sensitivity. I am using a Korg padKontrol which is a rather nice, cost effective but older MPD device and you can assign a MIDI note to be triggered by an external foot control expression pedal which I set to trigger a kick sound so I can play it almost like a real kit. The problem was when I hit the expression pedal it would double/triple trigger the kick. Not ideal but I've had this problem before. In the past I was able to reign it in sheerly by adjusting my performance (I would still get a double trigger every now and again but if that happened while recording I would just edit out the extra notes). This time it was so extreme I thought all was lost and I wouldn't be able to use my exp pedal anymore but after a while it was working fine. I don't see how I could have adjusted my performance to the point of resolving the extra triggers so quickly (it was literally ten minutes of goofing around and I was getting single triggers again) so either I'm a better fake drummer than I thought or AD2/Sonar somehow compensated automagically for those wonky hits... if that is even possible.
 
Anyway... that's enough about AD2 for now but this experiment did prove some other things about Platinum itself.
 
My pK was already detected, enabled and following the existing mapping I had already done. Basically the MIDI device settings imported flawlessly and there was no difference in which kit pieces were being trigger than in AD1. My snare was where it was in AD1, My kick was where it was. Everything was where it was. I just set the pK to my usually scene for live drumming and it I was able to jam out. So that was cool.
 
Also something of interest to some may be... when I open Platinum the plugin scanner now shows 85 plugins as opposed to the previous 69. I have only installed the main Platinum installer as of this writing and AD2. Not sure exactly what extras were installed but that's a pretty good bump up. Maybe there is dupes or plugs updated to 64 bit or something causing the extra but yeah... 16 more plugs showing up and maybe more once I install the other content.
 
Opening/creating projects seems to be relatively snappy even with my AV on (Microsoft Security Essentials) which usually lead to lags and white outs in previous Sonar versions and is why I generally disable the AV when working. So that's nice and indicates some core efficiency improvements.
 
Aside from that I haven't done much but the look in general seems a little more modern than even X3 which was already pretty slick (especially after playing around with one of the competitors recently which was... well I don't care about looks but you really notice it when using other programs).
 
Gonna try to get to my main project now because I really should get this tracking finished up.
 
I'll post more when I've explored more.
 
Cheers.

Your screen setup needs attention soon. Sonar will not be at its best with an screwed screen. 
 
What is its native resolution? What graphics card do you have? Its specs too? Any custom settings for windows for display?  

I'm going to do some experiments on all that later to see if I can get it working on my own and/or make some notes for a proper query for everyone here. The only thing currently getting screwed up by it is AD2 so it's not an emergency. Just something I have to figure out at some point. More interested in doing some tracking right now.

And I think I just remembered what the initial problem was with the video stuff. This monitor is being fed by the VGA (or SVGA) output of my cheapo vid card. If that supports widescreen then I may be able to fix it. Otherwise I'll have to take a look at my cabling options again and purchase a more appropriate cable. I honestly forget waht I have back there at this point and can't be arsed to check right at this moment (I'd have to move a bunch of crap).
 
Got me thinkin' though so that's good. Still would be easier if things fit the screen. My other monitor is not widescreen so if I had to switch I'd still be out of luck.

I use two wide screen monitors and I couldn't do without them. 

Not sure I'd like two monitors on my desk even if it was big enough to accomodate them. Having one well off to either side of me to plop the mixer and VST windows on would be okay but not two or more right in front of me. Maybe if the second one was hanging off the wall above/behind the one on my desk so I could just look up at it when need be.
 
Anyway... was just messing around with a few things. Mostly playing back my project and I tried out inserting AD2 into it and switching my drum tracks to feed it instead of AD1.
 
Really the only thing to report is it is working and it seems to "feel" more solid/less jittery. This is a rather large project with lots of stuff going on and it was kind of going a little weird in X3. Nothing major but playback would take a a second to start, sometimes things would respond instantly... yanno, it just was getting a little logey and if I did something weird it might freeze up for a second and I did have a few crashes.
 
Now I haven't done a lot yet obviously in Platinum but the insertion of the synth and changing routing and some other stuff was all solid. No weirdness or lagging. I mentioned earlier that I had my AV on and that opening seemed snappier even like that. I disable the AV and reopened the project and it was like "BAM!! Project open!" so that was nice.
 
Generally it just seems to be snappier and more solid. Bear in mind I have not yet installed any of the extra content. I am seeing a few reports the Braintree release is causing some minor problems. Well I can say that I am on the Braintree release but only the main program was installed. So if there are issues they may be from some of the extra stuff and I'll be keeping an eye on that as I start installing that content (I left it off intentionally for exactly this reason... I wanted to test this stuff out a little at a time).
 
Just a relatively quick update to how things are going if anyone is interested. Looking good so far.

You're not the first to notice a snappiness to Platinum. It is more solid. I thought X3 was the cats meow.  It is no where near Platinum. They did a lot under the hood. Would you check out something for me Beep? When playback in X3 stopped and replay was done often if not all the time a small buffer sound of the very last thing partial was sounded. A little sound that was very annoying. It seems gone in Platinum. Could you check this out?   

Not sure I know what you mean, John.
 
However your question prompted me to check something out that had been going on in larger projects in X3 that seems to be better now.
 
It was that little nasty digital distortion noise that happens sometimes when you have playback going then jump to another spot on the timeline (it's like the digital equivalent of a needle scratch on a record and I think it's the hardrives "skipping" for lack of a better term). Anyway I just did some agressive jumping around with playback going and there was no noise... just like I would expect in a tiny project with only a few tracks.
 
So something is working better with that and I guess it's better i/o communication from/to the hard disks.

What I mean is a not fully empty buffer sounding when replay is started. Its at the very beginning. I suppose that if you have fade outs or a bit of time at the end of a song it may not sound when restarted. This was in all versions to a greater or lesser extent for me at least X3 seemed to be the biggest problem. There was no way to get rid of it either. Platinum is so far not troubled by it.

I think I may know what you are talking about but it seemed to be right after I engaged recording.
 
Like I would hit record, there would be a bit of a silent pause and then the echo input (or some other noise but I think it was the echo input), then silence again then playback recording would start. That little moment of noise may have been going on with just playback as well but because there was no recording engage maybe it was less so so I didn't notice it as much.
 
I have not recorded anything today but everything does seem to be less noisy in general when starting/stopping/jumping around. I'll know more tomorrow. I doubt I'll get myself set up to track today. Mostly making compositional plans for the new tracks (so artsy fartsy brain work) and somewhat navel gazing about my new options with Platinum.
 
I'm thinking after my test of AD2 I may indeed switch my drums to use that instead of what I currently have because the presets/kits I tried were cutting WAY better. However they weren't sitting as well in the mix as is and will require a totally new approach to the mix as a whole (and fine tuning the AD2 stuff).
 
Meh... not feeling great today either so I'm mostly thinking and poking instead of rocking out.