BobF
I don't see Sonar ever having a portable install option

neither do i, although there's technically no reason why not... sonar uses the registry far too much, when a simple ini or config text file would suffice (vst inventory anyone?)

Doktor Avalanche
Only way I can see this happen is hierarchical.
Global settings are set in preferences.
When a project or template is created those settings are inherited.


Then these settings can be overriden by the user and saved in project or template for next time.

Of course some settings you would not want to store that in a project, your audio interface settings for instance. Projects need to be portable across environments.

BobF
My take is the opposite with regard to interfaces.  I have several devices with interfaces.  It would be great to have the interface options stored per project so the correct device is opened as I move between or revisit projects.
 
I really hate to invoke "the other DAW example" here, but the portable install option this other DAW has is a HUGE plus in this area.  Install as many copies on the same machine as you have devices, each configured accordingly.
 
I don't see Sonar ever having a portable install option, but per project audio hardware setting would REALLY REALLY nice AFAIC.

Are you saying it's implemented in other DAWs? What would happen if you emailed your friend with a different setup. Would he get prompted every time to select an audio interface, ASIO buffers etc? How would portability be addressed?

If there are different global profiles for the application and hardware that can be imported/exported into a seperate file (say .cwh) then it would be easy to use (flip between profiles) and portable (flip between them in Sonar).

BTW you can more or less do this now by writing a batch file and replacing AUD.INI and other files.You could also get it to replace registry settings (not for the faint hearted!).

pwalpwal
neither do i, although there's technically no reason why not... sonar uses the registry far too much, when a simple ini or config text file would suffice (vst inventory anyone?)

Ini files are considered legacy nowadays by MS and developers. The registry is much more useful as it has a hierarchy and has per machine and per user settings. Files are also more prone to corruption and security issues.

The only time files such as INI are useful are import/export or inventories, however inventories generally use XML format for portability reasons and there is standard code you can use to read/write it.

The way to handle the complexities with the registry is to write a user interface for it.

Doktor Avalanche

Doktor Avalanche
Only way I can see this happen is hierarchical.
Global settings are set in preferences.
When a project or template is created those settings are inherited.


Then these settings can be overriden by the user and saved in project or template for next time.

Of course some settings you would not want to store that in a project, your audio interface settings for instance. Projects need to be portable across environments.

BobF
My take is the opposite with regard to interfaces.  I have several devices with interfaces.  It would be great to have the interface options stored per project so the correct device is opened as I move between or revisit projects.
 
I really hate to invoke "the other DAW example" here, but the portable install option this other DAW has is a HUGE plus in this area.  Install as many copies on the same machine as you have devices, each configured accordingly.
 
I don't see Sonar ever having a portable install option, but per project audio hardware setting would REALLY REALLY nice AFAIC.

Are you saying it's implemented in other DAWs? What would happen if you emailed your friend with a different setup. Would he get prompted every time to select an audio interface, ASIO buffers etc? How would portability be addressed?

If there are different global profiles for the application and hardware that can be imported/exported into a seperate file (say .cwh) then it would be easy to use (flip between profiles) and portable (flip between them in Sonar).

BTW you can more or less do this now by writing a batch file and replacing AUD.INI and other files.You could also get it to replace registry settings (not for the faint hearted!).

1.  Sending project files is the low % case for me.  I exchange tracks during collaborations.  If I were to send a project, then the other user could fiddle with hardware differences the way I have to EVERY TIME I switch back/forth between these projects.  That saves me from the headache in 99.9% of the cases.
 
2.  I have zero desire to write batch files to use my DAW of choice.
 
3.  What I'm saying about other DAW is that this is less problematic because of the portable installs they support.  I have a separate install/shortcut for each hardware device I frequently use.
 
Please don't pretend I don't think thru what I suggest or request.

1. Yes but you need to consider other users in the design. Sharing projects is not uncommon. People don't like to 'fiddle' on the whole.
2. Totally understandable.
3. If you have separate shortcut (in windows) isn't that profile based? You click for a hardware profile. It's not 'per project?'. How does it work?

Doktor Avalanche
1. Yes but you need to consider other users in the design. Sharing projects is not uncommon. People don't like to 'fiddle' on the whole.
2. Totally understandable.
3. If you have separate shortcut (in windows) isn't that profile based? You click for a hardware profile. It's not 'per project?'. How does it work?

1.  I agree that everything done in preferences should be optional
3.  My profile is the only one I'm concerned with ... It's not per project, it's per configuration.
 
The specific hardware I'm talking about is:
a) My main interface, a US-16x08
b) BOSS GT-001
c) Yammy THR10
d) Zoom R24
 
And there will be others ...
 
So I have 4 different portable installs of the other DAW.  Each of these is configured to use one of the above.  It's much better than switching hardware with Sonar, but does have the downside that you have to remember which version goes with which project.
 
It's not as complicated as it sounds, but it's not as easy as per project interface settings.  It would be sooooo cool to have a template for each of these to start a project with.  And per project interface configuration would eliminate the need to remember which is which.
 
 

XML files in user appdata directories (which now exist in 3 security levels - local, roaming and localow) are now the preferred option for settings.  We should be moving towards that and away from the registry.

@Bob so the other DAW does do it per hardware profile and not per project.

Anyway I'm all for hardware profiles and even user profiles but not stored in projects, does not make sense to me. I can't think of a single app that stores hardware and device info in it's documents. It's abstracted for good reason.

Would be totally up for a revamp of preferences though, there are lots of improvements that can be made.