• SONAR
  • Introducing the new SONAR: New lineup, new features, plus membership (p.95)
2015/01/15 22:49:08
Anderton
Spencer
Yeah? What if these 4 bars are all I have and I press Ctrl+a? Where's the mouse then? ;)

 
Thanks, I couldn't figure that one out.
 
How many threads are there requesting Duplicate?

 
I don't know. Start one in features and ideas, make your case, and see how many people vote for it. I wonder if there are people on the Reason forums saying "Why can't we just click and drag if we want to duplicate a clip multiple times? Why do we have to keep hitting that stupid duplicate key?" [attempt at levity, not serious question ]
2015/01/15 22:50:17
YouDontHasToCallMeJohnson
Amazing how much absurd stupidity has been spewed in this thread all because the CW/Gibson dudes have proposed more value for less money.
 
It would be great if more people knew how to read for comprehension, which we were supposed to start learning in second grade.
 
X3 provided us with 6 months of updates. Now we are offered 12 months of stuff for a lesser price (inflation adjusted).  That means at least twice as much for the about the same cost.
 
FOR ONLY ONE HUNDRED FIFTY DOLLARS!!!
 
The question you should be asking yourself is "Why am I so dumb I cannot understand this is a great deal?"
 
Give me an "Amen!"
 
 
 
 
2015/01/15 23:14:22
dcmg
I think some replies I'm seeing suggest that the folks who ( for lack of better description)
a) "game the system" and adopt late in a product cycle,
b) buy the "current" but sunsetting version at rock bottom price
c) then get favorable (or free) upgrade to the next version
are the most opposed to this new system. Harder to do that in this ecosystem.
 
From CW's standpoint it should be a more predictable revenue stream while allowing the team to simply improve the product in a more linear timeframe, not beholden to "new versions".
 
It's a bold move, and I have high hopes for the results. 
To the CW staff: thank you for all the time and energy expended here in the forums to smooth the transition and answer questions.
2015/01/15 23:38:01
Paul P
YouDontHasToCallMeJohnson
Amazing how much absurd stupidity has been spewed in this thread all because the CW/Gibson dudes have proposed more value for less money.



Your assessment of your fellow person is inspiring
 
2015/01/15 23:39:17
TomHelvey
Anderton

 
How many threads are there requesting Duplicate?

 
I don't know. Start one in features and ideas, make your case, and see how many people vote for it. I wonder if there are people on the Reason forums saying "Why can't we just click and drag if we want to duplicate a clip multiple times? Why do we have to keep hitting that stupid duplicate key?" [attempt at levity, not serious question ]


I started one in Features and Ideas months ago, no one voted for it. It's possible that very few if any current Sonar users had any idea what it was. Requests for duplicate functionality always seem to spawn a flood of copy + paste or groove clip instructions, neither of which are the same thing. http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/3099521
Sorry for the hijack.
2015/01/15 23:42:30
cparmerlee
dcmg
a) "game the system" and adopt late in a product cycle,

Cakewalk can prevent the "gaming" by delivering regular core product enhancements of value that don't fall precisely on the anniversary periods.  There is a limit to how many release cycles they can do in a year, but a major update to the core functions every 5 or 7 months would tend to discourage the gaming.
 
A key to making that successful is the installation process.  If these can be 10-minute updates that don't force people to go back and re-install or re-authorize third party products, then the program will probably work.  But there isn't a lot of room for introducing bugs.  If the smaller releases turn out to be buggy, many people will resist the more frequent updates.
 
2015/01/15 23:47:31
cparmerlee
The one thing I expected to see more of in the "next release" -- and have actually seen nothing -- is additional support for multi-touch monitors.  Has anybody seen any indication of additional coverage in that area?
 
2015/01/16 00:00:16
Spencer
Anderton
I don't know. Start one in features and ideas, make your case, and see how many people vote for it. I wonder if there are people on the Reason forums saying "Why can't we just click and drag if we want to duplicate a clip multiple times? Why do we have to keep hitting that stupid duplicate key?" [attempt at levity, not serious question ]

Heh. But seriously, it's no laughing matter. I don't need to give the forum a 1500th thread about duplicate, I would think. The bakers are well aware that the demand is there. Someone +1'd my request in this very thread. They don't even have to use up a new key for it, they could implement it as an optional behavior for copy/paste.
 
I just had an idea. Coming up with a macro Cal script. First select the clip, then copy. Then the Cal would kick in:
1- Go To Thru
2- Paste
3- Enable Keyboard Edit (numpad 0) (can't use mouse, of course)
4- Move to Next Clip (ctrl+numpad 6)
5- Select Clip (numpad 9)
6- Copy
7- Disable Keyboard Edit (numpad 0)
 
Something like that. Don't think it would work for notes, only clips, but still better than nothing. Now I may be a genius but I'm nonetheless too lazy to learn how to code CAL. Can anyone try to pull this off? You'd be a hero.
Or hey, apparently they pick up the phone when you call them, Mr Anderton? Maybe you could see if they can do that?
Oh yeah, Go To Thru doesn't have a default keybind, I think it should be End (and Go To From should be Home). Not sure if it would be necessary to have one for the script.
2015/01/16 00:16:44
brconflict
carlosagm79
Anderton
For those who don't know what direct ASIO monitoring is, it basically switches to hardware direct input for recording and the computer output for playback. It made a tremendous amount of sense back in the late 2000s, when computers weren't as fast as they are now, and before people got into recording through plug-ins like amp sims. Here's a useful article from the June 2007 Sound on Sound, describing ways to circumvent latency and including ASIO direct monitoring as one of those options.
 
Nowadays, most computers are fast enough that you can monitor through the computer with under 10 ms latency, or under 5 ms latency at 96 kHz. If that's not enough, most interfaces have a switch or knob that allows direct input monitoring. You can then switch out of it after recording and get back to the computer environment.
 
I'm sure some people will say that have a problem with under 10 ms of latency, but I spent so many years on stage more than 10 ft. from my amp it's actually an improvement 


I have an M-Audio Firewire 1814, a Tascam US-220, a DIGI 001 and even a Soundblaster Extrememusic, Sonar cant communicate with those interface mixers like Pro tools or Cubase does, not direct monitoring, very frustrating when you have around 30 audio tracks and a bunch of FX plugins and Hungry Softsynths on a Intel Core 2 Duo with 4 gigs of Ram, simple like that, glitches or latency!.Yeah, you have to workaround with the external analog or software mixer.


I can echo this (no pun intended). It's not always been a problem for me, but it's been inconsistent unless you disable PDC or all latency-causing effects. It's as consistent as how Sonar will variably leave an FX running, even after Audio has stopped. Believe me, I've tried many ways to eliminate ASIO delay, but even on the blazing fast PC I have on Windows 8.1 and all my ducks in a row, it's never been consistent from Stop/Play/Stop/Play, etc. I have to turn off Echo and back on, or the Audio engine. Sometimes latency is low, sometimes, it's high. Depends on many things, probably. 
 
So, we also track with a hardware mixer in the chain, still. OS/Software power with drivers still hasn't matched the latency of even my old Yamaha AW4416, which has virtually none on a near 2-decade old proc running a Linux kernel, meanwhile processing all FX and FX on the channel I'm tracking on. We just aren't there yet, because the plug-ins are far more sophisticated and CPU hungry. Perhaps the PC power will catch up to this. 
 
You can see this thread (http://forum.cakewalk.com/Freezing-and-unfreezing-all-tracks-at-once-m3138036.aspx) in the Feature Request area regarding Freezing the entire Project to virtually eliminate all delay, including plug-ins, meanwhile, allow you to insert another Compressor or reverb while tracking beyond 20+ tracks. 
2015/01/16 00:23:32
Larry Jones
UPDATE BELOW
 
Jeez, you stay away from the forum for a week, and the whole world turns upside down.
 
I just got the email announcing the new Sonar sales model yesterday, and I logged on last night and read about 200 posts, intermittently going to the "Products" pages and looking at the new features and how Cakewalk intends to charge for them. Then I slept on it, and now I will try to say what I think about it -- just for my own clarity. Nobody else has to read this.
 
I really like Sonar the DAW and Cakewalk the company and the staff members I've had direct interaction with. I have bought Pro Audio 9, Sonar 1, 7, 8, 8.5, X2 and X3. Obviously, I don't feel the need to get every new version. But the new Platinum release looks like a good value to me, and so I will buy it. As has often been the case, there are new things in it that I didn't know I needed, not to mention some whiz bang stuff that just looks like fun. Cakewalk staffers have been at pains to repeat many times in this thread that it will be like "...getting X4 and X5," but of course there's no way of knowing any such thing, so I won't expect that.
 
In fact, if enough new stuff is rolled out during my initial one-year membership to add up to what would have been a whole new version, I'll be quite surprised. I mean, the past few version upgrades have cost about the same as this new membership (I use Producer). How is it that X2 at $149 was more difficult to update than Platinum at $149? Because that's what I've read here -- to wit, with the membership model (paraphrasing)"...we'll be able to roll out new stuff as soon as it's ready, but we couldn't do that with the old model." Why, because somehow nothing was "ready" until the moment the next version was set for release? I don't see how having "members" instead of customers is going to make the development and release of complex code any easier.
 
I won't be going the monthly payment route, mainly because it costs more, and in any case I don't need to "try" Sonar to see if I like it. Which brings me to the price increase. I don't know whether to cry that it will be going up to $200, or cheer that Cakewalk has made the announcement a full year in advance. I understand that everybody wants more money, especially corporations, but it shouldn't come as a surprise to most readers that Americans in general are making less money than they were a few years ago, in adjusted dollars or in some cases in real dollars. At least I am, and the fifty dollar bump is going to sting. If my first year of membership is full of incredible, super-valuable and highly usable upgrades, features and content, I guess I will feel a little better about paying the higher price to re-up, but I'm not sure I'm going to want to pay for another year without some indication of what I'll be getting. Yes, yes, I know I can not pay and keep everything I've got, but sooner or later I'm sure Sonar is bound to come up with new stuff I didn't know I needed, and then there's that price, going in the opposite direction of my income and budget.
 
Finally, I'm not going to try to guess what the conversation in the boardroom was that led to this marketing decision. But I do know this: It was done to improve Cakewalk's bottom line. That's fine with me. I understand the deal: Make a product that people will want, and find the highest possible price point at which people will buy it. I'll even accept that there are a lot of folks at Cakewalk who love the company, its owners, the product, and every single one of the customers -- er, members. But please guys, give me some credit and don't keep implying that this change in marketing was implemented primarily to create love and happiness among the user base. Let us all hope it will do just that, while acknowledging that we are involved in a business transaction, i.e. money for goods.
 
I like you a lot, Sonar. I'm satisfied with the product (especially X3), and I want to pay you for the good work you're doing. But there's no need to jack me up with language like "The bar has now been set for a customer-centric ownership model instead of a company-centric rental ("subscription") model" and "Happy customers is really what we want." It just sounds like -- ewww -- sales talk. That said, I may not have thought a new marketing model (and price increase!) was necessary, but it's not as bad as I feared, after the infamous Subscription Poll and subsequent furor and the many assurances that it was never, ever going to happen.
 
So where do I sign up for my subscription?
 
UPDATE: I was feeling pretty OK about the new marketing and sales model. I was thinking I'd buy a one-year membership, then decide if I wanted to reenlist. Maybe I would, or maybe I wouldn't have enough money, or maybe I'd think it wasn't worth it yet. I'd wait until something appeared that I needed, and then I'd buy another year, which would bring me up to date on everything I'd missed while not a member. You'd think reading 250 posts would have covered everything, but after I wrote my post (above), I read that if your membership lapses, you won't be entitled to all that you missed when you were not a member. You'll get updated on "core functionality," but not "extras."
 
If this is true, it's not as good as the current way of buying Sonar. Whenever you buy it, you get everything, and sometimes you get a little extra if you're buying near the end of a life cycle. If I have to maintain a membership to be sure I always get everything, that's a subscription, no matter how you spin it or what you call it, and I don't care for it.
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