1: World-class i7 Laptop: $1000
2: DAW: $499
3: Midi Keyboard controller: $200
4: Microphone: $200
5: cables and accessories:$100
6: Monitors and headphones: $500
 
$2500 to have a 24bit 96Khz state-of-the-art studio with no limitations, wonderful! And Soundcloud or Youtube or Bandcamp to help sell the result and show it off to the public. Not to shabby i reckon.
 
In the 80's this was utterly inconceivable. 

yevster

...wicked
 
 
This. 8.5 was a monster upgrade
 

How things change! When 8.5 first dropped, people on this forum were infuriated that CW was charging for a point upgrade. And no rehashing of all the new features calmed the furor.

Ever heard of CWPA 8?  The internet was more than "around" by then.  I'm sure they're are references here about the coincidence of Sonar 8 being released and basically being lauded by one hand clapping.
 
8.5 was worth absolutely any amount spent by anyone who'd ever bought a CW product.  No small feat.
 
X1 couldn't have been released without it IMHO.  I do feel the same way about X3 because you really need a stable platform before you can jump to the next "model".

yevster
When a bug is so old, you adjust your workflow around it, that's hardly rock solid. This never had to be done on any other DAW I've ever used.

Did you try my suggestion about checking streaming through FX?
 
I  don't consider the finishing of tails as a "bug." There's a buffer; it needs to empty. And it's "rock solid" because it works the same way every time and doesn't degrade performance.
 
Flushing a buffer is expected; a "bug" is something unexpected that causes operational or stability problems. What you want is a feature that flushes the audio buffer when you hit stop. Some digital delays do that, some don't.

kson
 
Are you working on a mastering suite and/or chord track?

I already created my own songwriter-centric Chord Track solution. I actually have a couple variations on the process, and showed them to Cakewalk a few months ago. Let's just say they paid attention.
 
It's what I used to write the songs New Day and Daughter on my YouTube channel. For New Day, I didn't even replace the scratch chord track that was generated...just threw an amp sim on it. You can probably guess what kind of amp sim that might be if you've checked the new features in Platinum.
 
As to a "mastering suite," it depends on what you mean, and you need to be realistic. If you want restoration, iZotope's basic version of RX4 is $300 and the advanced version is $1,000. Their basic Ozone mastering suite is $250 and their advanced version is $750.
 
So yes, SONAR could build an iZotope-level mastering suite with restoration into SONAR by having it cost $2,250 instead of $500. Why force people to pay that much for something they may not want or need? They can buy either of the iZotope products, use them in SONAR, and get world-class mastering software. That's the beauty of plug-ins.
 
That said, I already do quite a bit of mastering in SONAR (also, few people seem to know you can cut and paste individual samples to do restoration of digital overloads) and I don't think it would take all that much effort for CW to take it up another  level. That's up to them. Then again, based on a lot of the music I hear these days, a "mastering suite" consists of a Waves L3 and someone who knows how to turn the reduction slider to -15 dB and the ceiling to 0.01 
 
 

While Craig is only half kidding, you can get a lot of mastering done in Sonar with a good linear phase multiband compressor, a good surgical EQ, a good character EQ, a decent saturation plugin, a smooth-sounding exciter and finally, a limiter. Many of these already come with Sonar.
 
And for the record, the L3 kind of sucks on a whole mix. The L2 is much more transparent, lol.
 
Regards,
Dan
 

dcumpian
While Craig is only half kidding, you can get a lot of mastering done in Sonar with a good linear phase multiband compressor, a good surgical EQ, a good character EQ, a decent saturation plugin, a smooth-sounding exciter and finally, a limiter. Many of these already come with Sonar.

 
And you can also do multiband loudness maximization to either a subtle or absurd degree. What makes a "mastering suite" are the tools available to do mastering, not something with a label on it that says "mastering suite."

dcumpian
A lot of mastering is done in Sonar with a good linear phase multiband compressor, a good surgical EQ, a good character EQ, a decent saturation plugin, a smooth-sounding exciter and finally, a limiter. Many of these already come with Sonar.
 
And for the record, the L3 kind of sucks on a whole mix. The L2 is much more transparent, lol.
 
Regards,
Dan
 

You forgot to include a "Stereo Widener", which many do use, including myself; if it is used modestly and within reason it does certainly have relevance for a quality final master. Also depends on the 'quality' of the stereo widener, as some of them cause defects in stereo imaging too severely. As far as an all-in-one "Mastering Plugin", i find Ozone 6 to be exemplary, and the results are better than any of their previous versions IMO.

 
 

Drone7

dcumpian
A lot of mastering is done in Sonar with a good linear phase multiband compressor, a good surgical EQ, a good character EQ, a decent saturation plugin, a smooth-sounding exciter and finally, a limiter. Many of these already come with Sonar.
 
And for the record, the L3 kind of sucks on a whole mix. The L2 is much more transparent, lol.
 
Regards,
Dan
 

You forgot to include a "Stereo Widener", which many do use, including myself; if it is used modestly and within reason it does certainly have relevance for a quality final master. Also depends on the 'quality' of the stereo widener, as some of them cause defects in stereo imaging too severely. As far as an all-in-one "Mastering Plugin", i find Ozone 6 to be exemplary, and the results are better than any of their previous versions IMO.

I used to use wideners on mixes, but I don't anymore. I find the results are much more natural by pushing individual tracks wide by using subtle delays rather than trying to widen the whole mix. I still have Waves S2 and MeldaProduction's MStereoSpread. Really useful tools, but I only use them when I have to.
 
Regards,
Dan
 
 

Anderton

yevster
When a bug is so old, you adjust your workflow around it, that's hardly rock solid. This never had to be done on any other DAW I've ever used.

Did you try my suggestion about checking streaming through FX?
 
I  don't consider the finishing of tails as a "bug." There's a buffer; it needs to empty. And it's "rock solid" because it works the same way every time and doesn't degrade performance.
 
Flushing a buffer is expected; a "bug" is something unexpected that causes operational or stability problems. What you want is a feature that flushes the audio buffer when you hit stop. Some digital delays do that, some don't.

Nope. Tried to find it and couldn't. I disagree with your thought on user expectation. As every other DAW seems to clear its buffers automatically before exporting, it would appear only sonar users expect their most recent playback to impact their audio export. A casual user shouldn't even have to know what a buffer is.

http://morethancoding.com...eature-is-still-a-bug/

P-Theory
Been on platinum for a few days now and despite a few issues with melodyne and Kontakt for me, largely its been a solid release.
 
However I do feel a little short changed, certainly when compared to the joy of the X3 release.  Its clear there has been lots of back room work on things like the command centre but for everyday usage there is nothing that is really blowing me away.  With X3 we had ARA, VST3, AD, Speed Comping, Blue Tubes suite etc  in other words a whole raft of major developments and improvements.
 
The Mix recall is the only new feature that is comparable in terms of product evolution to the X3 features in my opinion. The vocal sync is cool but not earth shattering for me. I'm underwhelmed with the new audio snap, it certainly detects transients better but that's about it, it still sounds the same and offers nothing new functionality wise.  The control bar is well and good but I can't imagine ever reconfiguring again now I have done so adds nothing to daily workflow. ReMatrix and AD2 I already had so that might be swaying my outlook I admit. Expandable sends and FX are fine but just move the scrolling problem to elsewhere in the pro channel as opposed to the FX bin in my opinion.  Pattern tool I just don't get, what was wrong with control V?  PRV enhancements are better but again a little underwhelming and the midi timestretch thing I can't really see any point for in my workflow.
 
I'm not whinging, just commenting, hopefully now cake has some fresh money and subscriptions they can start rolling out killer new features as we go along.  I'd still love to see a product roadmap even though I am already a paid subscriber

I think what you're saying is valid from your personal standpoint. None of us uses the program in the same way and we all look for things that coincide with our work-flow. I've not had any Kontakt issues or Melodyne issues thankfully. This version has been pretty solid for me. As a matter of fact, I don't have any complaints at all other than I'm very upset that I can't have a dark console.
 
I know that's petty, but I think it's been a huge thing that has not been addressed yet. It's true that I haven't a clue what goes on under the hood or how hard it may be to give me a dark console color. But we're talking 4 versions here....so from a guy that hates bright colors in a console, I'll always complain about this. And when I do change a console color, it changes the clip color. I still don't understand that.
 
Anyway, that being my only issue (ok, I had hoped that one of the feature requests I put in may have made it. Any menu window like say, quantize...should be x-ray so you can see your notes move or the action take place to see if it went the way you wanted it and I so wanted a real time speed control like Reaper has) the stability of this version is pretty insane.
 
I've been beating on it with some sick projects and it's not crashed on me. I'm not an audio snap man....so see, this is where someone like me could care less. The pattern thing.....I never used it the old way, so you don't miss what you never used. PRV enhancements....staff view....all that stuff fortunately for me, doesn't matter. I look at the little dots passing by and decide whether they need to be shortened, lengthened or set to time. LOL!
 
Extra plugins, crazy configurations....eye candy....I have enough of that. What I wanted and expected from Sonar was stability that kept me in business. Thankfully X3 was never a problem for me...but again, it depends how you use the software.
 
I use Sonar like a big old tape machine. I play all my instruments in real time, so there is never a reason for me to step write (thank you God) or deal with some of the stuff everyone else has to. That said I DO feel for anyone experiencing any issues with the tools/options/features I do not use.
 
When I play my real drums, I punch in or slide to time based on my click track. When I play V-Drums or keyboard, I have no problems with the PRV as well as quantizing if I need to. When I play guitar, bass or sing, I play the part until I get it right...which may take 600 takes or more in 10-15 second intervals. I can punch in a 10 second part over and over like 30 times within 60 seconds. LOL! That's really nothing to brag about...it shows how horrible I am. BUT....I can punch in like a fool! :)
 
No issues with plugins and no blatantly obvious issues with anything else for how *I* use the software. It is my belief that the audio engine may be a bit more consistent as I'm not experiencing the drop outs I once had. I'm able to run projects at 64-128 buffers using different interfaces without a problem. One thing I have always hated was how our audio engine would drop out and I'd never experience this with other DAWs. Something seems to be better with this now.
 
As Noel mentioned about what's under the hood, that's what I believe was done here. Most of us old timers have begged for stability over features. We can't have the best DAW out there while being plagued with things that slow down or stop our workflow. I think we're NOW as good as anything out there that gets more praise. We use the latest Pro Tools in our studio as well as Sonar. The only options PT has that I like are the multi audio engine possibilities, the export speed/options, and the ability to control wave form amplitude from the wave. Other than those options, I feel Sonar obliterates it.
 
The new control bar options are way cool for me. I've been begging to have that back. The new collapse feature allows me to have everything in the CB now...I always hated that "off screen" stuff. So stupid stuff like that is actually big for me. Having been used to those options in Sonar 8.5 and below, it's nice to have some of that back now. All we need are custom colors all across the board...c'mon guys, pretty please?! :)
 
-Danny