Hello one and all!!!
 
It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted but rest assured that I have been lurking on a regular basis.
 
I have come to the point of my recording career where all my gear has aged to where I really want to upgrade. First off, here’s what I have now.
 

• Roland JV-1010 MIDI sound module. (Approximately 15 years old.)
  
• Ketron SD2 MIDI sound module. (Approximately 8 years old.)
  
• M-Audio 2x2 MIDI interface. (Approximately 2 years old.)
  
• Zoom Studio 1202 effects unit. (Over 20 years old)
  
• Roland PC-200 mk ll MIDI controller. (Over 20 years old.)
  
• Mackie Pro FX 8v2 USB Mixer. (Approximately 2 years old.)
  
• Band in a Box 2017
  
• Sonar Platinum
  

 
The gear listed above clearly shows that I haven’t spent very much money over the last few years on music hardware, and because of this I can justify putting out a few bucks to modernize. At least that’s the way I explained it to my better half.
 
I’m looking at starting with the NI Komplete, version 11 bundle. I know that version 12 will be coming out any day now but because of that I’m thinking that the older version will be cheaper than the newer version. All my research has shown that version 11 can still be had and it would be more sufficient for my
needs.
 
Questions:
 

• How difficult will it be to integrate NI Komplete into Sonar Platinum? I’ve never worked with virtual instruments and figure there’s a bit of a learning curve to get it set up.
  
• I still want to keep using my Mackie mixer for an audio interface. Will this be possible?
  
• My Roland MIDI controller keyboard is strictly a MIDI out. Will it still work with Komplete inside of Sonar? Or will I have to get a new controller keyboard? (must it be USB???) If not, where would I plug my old one it in?
  

 
I’m sure that there will be a few more questions that I can’t think of right now, but this is a start.
 
Thanks so much!!!
 

Oscar Myer
How difficult will it be to integrate NI Komplete into Sonar Platinum? I’ve never worked with virtual instruments and figure there’s a bit of a learning curve to get it set up.

 
No difficulty at all really. You install it, make sure the path added to Sonar's VST scan path, do the scan, and it picks them all up.
 
There's no real learning curve. Once you've added a VST synth to the synth-rack, you can treat virtual instruments exactly the same as you did with your old hardware synths. As soon as you add one, it appears as a new MIDI out.
 
Alternatively you can use "Simple Instrument" tracks, which are basically a synth embedded in a combined MIDI/Audio track.
 

Oscar Myer
I still want to keep using my Mackie mixer for an audio interface. Will this be possible?

Yes
 

Oscar Myer 
My Roland MIDI controller keyboard is strictly a MIDI out. Will it still work with Komplete inside of Sonar? Or will I have to get a new controller keyboard? (must it be USB???) If not, where would I plug my old one it in?

As long as you're keeping your existing MIDI interface, there'll be no change and everything will work with Komplete just as if it was a hardware synth.

If you are planning on using a lot of virtual instruments, make sure you have a powerhouse computer with a drive for OS and one at least for samples. Your performance limits will be directly affected by how fast your processor is and how much RAM you can load up. Good luck!!!

Thanks so much for the comebacks!!!
I'm pretty sure my PC will be able to keep up.  I guess I should have mentioned it in my first post.
 
Processor: Intel Core i7 3770 CPU @ 3.40 GHz
Installed Memory: 8.0 GB
System Type: 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
I have 2 one TB hard drives with loads of space on them
I have a 3 TB Seagate external drive (USB) with nothing on it.
 
I'm thinking that I'm good to go!

Oscar Myer
Thanks so much for the comebacks!!!
I'm pretty sure my PC will be able to keep up.  I guess I should have mentioned it in my first post.
 
Processor: Intel Core i7 3770 CPU @ 3.40 GHz
Installed Memory: 8.0 GB
System Type: 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
I have 2 one TB hard drives with loads of space on them
I have a 3 TB Seagate external drive (USB) with nothing on it.
 
I'm thinking that I'm good to go!

I'm running a i5 3570 @ 3.40 GHz, but with 16 GB of RAM. 
 
You should have no problem with CPU running Komplete 11, but be aware that a lot of the NI content is sample based, so whilst 8GB RAM is ok, you may find it'll start to get used up on larger projects.
 
Also, unless you're using SSD's for your sample content, the load time for some larger sample based instruments may seem slow, so project loading time will be affected.
 
In these cases, the "Freeze Track" functionality is your friend. This bounces down your track so it acts like an audio track, freeing up RAM & CPU usage. You can always unfreeze if need be.

I would highly recommend upgrading to at least 16 gigs RAM, especially if you are intending to using multiple sample based VSTi's to insure smooth operation and best possible performance latency.
  High quality sample patches gobble up HUGE amounts of memory.

If by "SONAR Platinum" you mean you are using the program by that name that went off the market 10 months ago, one upgrade you can try out for free is to install Cakewalk by Bandlab alongside it.
 
It won't affect your current installation of SONAR, and with a slight bit of configuration to tell Cakewalk where the SONAR VST folder is, you'll get to use all the cool plug-ins that came with SONAR. Once you do that, it will load and save all of your old SONAR projects and you can go back and forth.
 
Cakewalk is faster, less crashy and has had some nice features that SONAR didn't. The only things that were subtracted were the plug-ins that you already have.
 
It also seems to run more efficiently, which is good news for your plans to go with VI's.

Thumbs up on running Cakewalk with Platinum on the same computer! Been doing this from day one with no problems.

You should consider a SSD drive for your Samples, I'd set it up like this:
C: OS and Programs
A: Audio; your cwp files and the wav files for each
V: VSTi; Samples (SSD)
Be VERY careful when installing, every installer wants to put everything on the C drive by default.
You have to set your download path for Splat and CbB to keep the installers off the C drive.
You have to set your NI sample install to the Sample drive, AND the download path for the NI updates
needs to be set as well (this is where the DATA drive mentioned below is important).
I'd get a 250GB SSD for the OS (C)
Use one of the 1TB for Audio, one for DATA (store your install files, downloads, backups, etc.)
Then the external will hold a second copy of all "critical" data.
backup, Backup, BACKUP! (I grew up in the glory days of NASA, redundancy, redundancy, redundancy!)
Do it, and you can thank me later...
 
T

I was going to jump in and throw my 2 cents in, but everyone here chimed in with rock solid answers. Nothing for me to add...just have fun.  I really like Kontact