There is a book's worth of value here:
http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/3074655

Thanx for your help mate

Hi Paul,
 
Just want to add to your thread for others who are looking at options - the Allen & Heath QU series does include DAW control and I've had the opportunity to hear several of them. Really good sounding preamps.
 
BTW - a friend of mine has the Zoom and he likes it a lot.
 
 

paul jenkins
Or is it just me using sonar step sequencer wrong???.....In fruity loops and on the R24 the sequencer has measures running from right to left horizontally, and then the tracks are from top to bottom......In sonar its like you build a beat using the step sequencer, but you to do a inversion of that loop you have to save it and then modify it, and then reload it on a new track as a new loop etc etc, it seems really inefficient..........i love how in fruity loops(for example)You can patterncreate a loop, and then copy paste onto a new loop pattern with slight variations etc etc easily.....and create 5 different loops with minor variations, and then just paste the chosen loop variation into the time line............fast an easy

Sonar's step sequencer is in many ways an emulation of hardware step sequencers. It's not intended to handle audio loops at all, just MIDI. It's basically another way of using MIDI to control synths or samplers that has a few interesting tricks of its own. Like every row can send to a different instrument on a different MIDI channel, it can send all MIDI CCs, work with drum maps (which themselves can be used for more than just drums and more besides. It also has limitations, just like the hardware equivalent but those limitations can be a creative tool in their own right.

And within its' design parameters it's extremely easy to create different patterns on and no you don't need a new MIDI track for every pattern. In a DAW such as Sonar (or Logic, Cubase, etc) the entire application is itself a super-powered sequencer as far as MIDI (and audio) is concerned. Regard the step sequencer, piano roll view etc as sequencers running within a bigger sequencer.

To get back towards being on-topic, I suggest you spend more time with Sonar (or any other DAW or other software of a similar size) before deciding on hardware purchases and recording strategies beyond maybe a simple audio interface that can at least let you record a couple of tracks at a time and give usably low audio latency. As and when you firm up what you need you may well end up getting and using something else, but it never hurts to have a spare basic interface in reserve. And with audio interfaces what matters most is latency, the quality of the convertor chips (there are surprisingly few of them, but they can make a subtle difference), the quality of the electronics supporting the AD and DA chips, the noise floor of the analogue side of things such as the preamps and the quality of the drivers.

Another factor is the reputation of thr company for long-term support and how likely the whole thing is to be rendered useless by a Windows update. It's like printers, some manufacturers continue to update drivers for old products while others just tell you they've dropped support so please scrap your perfectly working two year old printer and buy a new one.

For an audio interface I traded into a mackie rmfx 16 mixer with usb and use my alesis keyboard for a control surface, cost was around 150 bucks and I can do all my work in my lazyboy.

Ok im not big on midi anyway, as in im more of a guitarist,bassist,drummer,instrumentalist.........8 inputs is what i want for recording live band , and real drums................So my issue with the step sequencer in sonar is this.......i think you misunderstood me.........if i create a drum pattern and i have it from say bar 2 ,looped until bar 8 for example, but then i try to alter it slighly for bars 9 through to 13 for example, it will then change the loop in bars 2 till 8............you have to have a whole new track if you want a variation of the pattern.............So i found myself building a drum loop, saving it.......creating a new track opening a 2nd step sequencer, loading up the drum pattern that i just saved, and then modifying it.........Seems like a ridiculously long process..............And if its built as an old school step sequencer then they should have another beat building plugin that is more efficient
 

I guess I did, the mackie is a digital mixer, easy to find online, you can get them with as many channels as you need for inputs. The picture under my name was my basement studio, the analog mixer is run to 3-8 channel motus for the comp interface, with 2 ADATS and 16 channel reel to reel, I just got rid of all the gear and run direct in with usb from my mackie now.
The step sequencer though I am not sure what you mean. I am fully updated so that may be where we are missing each other because I can program mine as far out into the track/tracks as I need and I change beats 8-16 or just 8 and 9 it doesn't affect 1 through 7. I just tried it again to make sure and yep, it is an old school step or beat sequencer.
I am 54 years old and wrote/recorded my first song when I was 11 so I am with you about the hands on instruments :)

Ok so i just tried it in sonar, yes i was wrong, you can make the step sequencer go for as many steps as your song goes for.........Iguess i kind of want to be able to just work on a 4 bar loop and then do 5 variations of it to make up the whole song............Maybe you could help me with one small little thing i just got stuck on.............I made the step sequencer 60 steps long, ive filled in the steps 1 to 5......Now i cant get it to play from the start, it keeps starting at bar 5, even though its right back to zero in the track....and im clicking on the the counter window in the step sequencer window, and even clicked back and created a new beat on step one, press play and it starts from where im up to, not from the start........Please help.....I admit im really impatient with little things like this, frustrates me

I can't imagine trying to handle my tracks with a physical device like that :) Totally foreign to me...
 

Ah ha hammerhole freakoid........All good i figured out what i was doing wrong with step sequencer.......thanx for the discuission everyone........And yeah Mr Hammerhole, i plan on mixing it up, the mouse is good sometimes too...........Im happily programming a step sequence right now.......and so my plan is to mix real drums recorded on the Zoom R24 with a mix of R24 step sequenced beats, and Sonar built step sequenced beats..........Ive said enough, thanx everyone for your input, i am now a big fan of community forums!!!!