Kev999
Steev
...around the time when Cakewalk stopped support for SONAR X3, which would be around a decade ago...
Maybe it seems like a decade, but it is actually less than 4 years since Sonar X3 was discontinued.
Opps, my bad, in my mind eye I was seeing and referring to SONAR 3 Producer.. Duh..
I really hated the Skylight GUI changes introduced with X1, and continued to upgrade, but stayed with using 8.5 PE as my main working whip.
I actually didn't feel comfortable enough to work in X1PE with all the different keystrokes, I felt like they turned SONAR into a turd and me into a stranger in a strange land hitting a no brainer keystroke and if I was lucky, NOTHING would happen that would push a recording session into a tail spin!
A LIVID stranger in a strange land that couldn't keep recordings session on my typical rapid pace course with one of my favorite clients getting annoyed and barking
"I'M READDY WHEN YOU ARE STEVE!".
After changing the keystrokes back in X2, PE I started practicing a bit more with it as time allowed, but still annoyed with the changes and Cakewalk forcing me to relearn how to drive my favorite DAW that I was so intimately familiar with.
I was really eyeballing other DAWs, I found some similar, but couldn't find anything I thought had features equal to, better, or came close to rivaling 8.5 PE.
And than X3 came out and some new and very powerful ProChannel plugin modules could be added for a very reasonable bundled introduction fee, the big BANG epiphany hit me like a drunk driver, I finally GOT IT, I was awestruck, I fell in love and shut down 8.5 which by then made me feel like working with on hand tied behind my back.
Yes, it all seems like a decade ago with so many upgrades and updates ago, but nothing radical, they just added more choices, goodness, and flavors as time went on.
With many great 3rd party plugins added along the way, which I'm honestly and
seriously thankful for having the wisdom to keep upgrading SONAR for.
And so should everyone here should be grateful for Bandlab's most generous offer of a free upgrade to a current version of Cakewalk by Bandlab. The only real radical differences in CbB from X3 is the killer performance and functional differences supported by newer technologies like VST3 and ARA (Audio Random Access).
And also a MUCH better and improved MIDI piano roll editor, Lasso and zoom editing, individual Take and Envelope lanes per channel are less obvious but very nice tools and improvements you may not even notice or realize are there.
Like better support for the newer Windows OS and Audio Drivers which will eventually kill SONAR X3 OFF, as in DEAD. And that always happens sooner than we would think
Want to experience a train wreck? Try installing SONAR 3 PE on a modern Window 10 computer.
I have no idea if v8.5 would respond any better.
Last I used it I was running it on an AMD Phenom 4 core unlocked Black Edition which is currently a dinosaur by today's standards, but it was so fast it was faster than Windows XP and SONAR 8.5 could handle when it Turbo Boosted past 4 g/Hz at the wrong moment things became very unstable and dangerous.
It was indeed very impressive to see 8.5 load up in the blink on an eye, and amazing at how fast it would load projects running several audio tracks along with instances of Dimension Pro, Rapture, and Session Drummer. Amazing to see how low CPU usage meter was running, and if it spiked as it often commonly did with 8.5 with any CPU, the Phenom would crash and lock up SONAR so tight, It would force a Kamikaze Shutdown to get the computer and SONAR up and running again, and resulting in fatal damage to the project.
Totally system meltdown finally occurred due to the Phenom's ability to shut down XP faster than it could save the system Boot Records.
And so I learned that maybe overclocking is a bad idea for a musical powerhouse workstation. May OK for gaming, but DAWs are not games.
I also learned to keep software and hardware equally as current, and never fall too far behind in either respect.
And that were we are at today with running X3 even without considering the Neo 2 I 4's ancient state of being.
I would easily consider you to be skating on very thin ice if you are running Windows 10, hence X3's inability to recognize WASAPI drivers which are at the core of Win 10's new sound engine, and something even standalone ASIO drivers have to cope with.
Modern computers also have much fast CPU's that stream in more lanes, increased Buss and memory speeds, patch updates issued by Microsoft, Intel, and AMD to ward off system exploitation from hackers all have an effect on system performance, and can have serious implications for any unsupported and outdated software and hardware.
Ever hear of the "Meltdown Exploit"? well if you have any Intel CPU or an older AMD CPU, than the "Meltdown Exploit" has heard of you and your computer's kernel streaming processes, and if you have has been hooked to the Internet in the past year, well than it's trying to break in and exploit kernel streaming
but don't worry, it's only "potentially" harmful in it's current state, because until some software or hardware installed in your system shakes hands and lets Meltdown in, it will forever continue to cycle from CPU thru the chipset buss searching for an open door and continuously be rejected.
Several patch updates have been issued to slow it down by Intel, but at the cost of slowing down kernel streaming which has a mild effect of slowing down your entire computer system. BUT for all of Intel's gracious efforts, they can't do it alone, it will take other patch updates from software and hardware vendors to stop Meltdown completely.
Not a big deal or even a very noticeable for modern multi-core/multi-streaming systems with very fast FSB (buss speeds), but the older the system and hardware components.
Exploits, not to be mistaken for viruses, aren't noticed or detected by virus scans.
But hackers know what they are and they know they are there, and so it's only a matter of time before they figure out how to use them effectively.
And this is one of the reasons why Windows itself stops supporting hardware devices so old their vendors stopped supporting drivers for.
Windows for security reasons, and the vendors would go out of business if their customers only purchased stuff from them every 10 years or so, and have to offer a lifetime of free support and patch updates on top of that.
NOT going to happen!