Mac OSX - Sonar X2. Working on making it a native .app

Scott,
This looks really cool.  I'm very seriously thinking about moving to a Mac sometime next year and would love a way to port over Sonar and all of the PC based plug-ins I've accumulated and invested in over the years.  This method of running Sonar on a Mac without having to use Bootcamp or Parallels will make the decision to move that much easier.

kw

Love it! I've been hoping that Cakewalk would release a Mac version of X2, but doubted it would ever happen. Man, I'd love to run Sonar on my Mac. I currently use Parallels to run X1 just to export my old projects and pull them into Logic. While I love working in Logic, I do miss Sonar at times, but there's no way I'm going back to Windows now. 

This could be the answer. Thanks for posting.

I've had a wonderful experience with wineskin. Nearly every PC program I needed is now a native app and runs full speed. best of all its free. Once I get this all up and running Ill put up some videos so you can see. VMware works as you see from my screenshot, but I like everything native and not having to use bootcamp is a huge plus.  

   

If something needs a bit more then just an install you can just checkbox different .dll



Usually you just click install software  then point to the exe and your done!  Admittedly some software is finicky and requires about more adjustments, or other software installed. The brilliant thing again here is, its all in a single file. so its a programs without windows existing within  a file.

 Im excited, have a ton of old projects I'd love to hear again!

if this works like wine on linux i would be surprised if it works well. However by all means keep working as i would be happy to be proven wrong.

This is really interesting.

Can I just ask how external plugins work - are you using the Mac native versions, or do you install the PC versions? 
In particular, things like the Pro Channel modules are also PC executables - can they work via wineskin?


Cheers
James

wow this is crazy awesome!! I'll beta test anything you've got as I'm running SONAR in Bootcamp right now. If this works I'm amazed. You, sir, are to be congratulated. Wow.

wow....if this works well..... I'm on my MBP as I type. I only have my Win 7 machine for running Sonar and haven't used Windows for quite some time for any other reason. I've been using CW since Home Audio 8 and would love to switch if possible.

Thanks for sharing!

Tom Riggs


if this works like wine on linux i would be surprised if it works well. However by all means keep working as i would be happy to be proven wrong.

Yes it's the same Win32 Api as Wine providing a 'skin' for the Windows app on OSX.
 
Whilst the .app (skin) itself might be a native OSX app the Windows application is still running under the 32 bit Wine layer.
 
It does have the 'all in one' aspect going for it and it might see some good developments in the future but basically it offers no real advantage to running Windows apps under Wine as basically that is exactly what is happening but for the fact the Wine installation is just self-contained in the .app and not installed system-wide on the OS.
 
I should imagine it's great for single Windows executables, but it is currently far from being able to offer an OSX native version of Sonar.
Worth keeping an eye on though and it might help some in the interim.  From their own front page:
 While there is a lot to Wineskin, at its core it runs Windows™ software by using Wine (www.winehq.org), which is a re-implementation of the Win32 API for non-Windows™ operating systems.
Normal Wineskin Engine builds’ Wine versions are built from unmodified Wine source code.

Jonbouy

Tom Riggs


if this works like wine on linux i would be surprised if it works well. However by all means keep working as i would be happy to be proven wrong.

Yes it's the same Win32 Api as Wine providing a 'skin' for the Windows app on OSX.
 
Whilst the .app (skin) itself might be a native OSX app the Windows application is still running under the 32 bit Wine layer.
 
It does have the 'all in one' aspect going for it and it might see some good developments in the future but basically it offers no real advantage to running Windows apps under Wine as basically that is exactly what is happening but for the fact the Wine installation is just self-contained in the .app and not installed system-wide on the OS.
 
I should imagine it's great for single Windows executables, but it is currently far from being able to offer an OSX native version of Sonar.
Worth keeping an eye on though and it might help some in the interim.  From their own front page:
 While there is a lot to Wineskin, at its core it runs Windows™ software by using Wine (www.winehq.org), which is a re-implementation of the Win32 API for non-Windows™ operating systems.
Normal Wineskin Engine builds’ Wine versions are built from unmodified Wine source code.

Many OSX developers are porting games (Guildwars 2 for example) and applications using Wineskin and ciderX. These are the actual developers seeing the worth of a low cost port to OSX within a wrapper. While wineHQ is a linux based api port, wineskin on the mac it is not. A prime example would be winebottler, a mac WINE based api based strictly off the linux port. It is horribly difficult to use and produces semi ok results, while ciderx and wineskin I can achieve perfect ports.

I have a bunch of videos on my youtube page showcasing graphic intensive gaming, emulation, audio programs all PC native woking flawless within OSX. Here is a link of my channel if you would like to see running on my Mac Pro. 


http://www.youtube.com/user/Dezacrator?feature=mhee


Still working on this folks. I want to make sure its perfect out the door, Ill keep you informed!

Keni


Very Interesting stuff Scott...

These days I'm running X2 under boot camp on my Mac Pro... I guess I'm wired differently as I default boot up to win7 and rarely switch to OSX other than to keep it updated...

I must be missing something as wine skin appears to be a variation of parallels...?

I guess these are both good alternatives for users who use more OSX than Windows... For me I simply wanted to harness the machine power for Sonar and other than a few keyboard anomalies (location of alt key / lack of hardware button to open/close DVD recorders),I usually forget that I'm not on a PCM!  ;-)

...but I'll be very curios to see your results with this... In the meantime, I'm gonna look into wine skin which I previously was unaware of...

Good luck and much thanks for sharing...

Keni

Hi Keni,


Wineskin is not a form of VMWare or Parallels. Actually the term WINE stands for "Wine Is Not an Emulator" Look at a wrapper as a container for a windows world to exists within the .app file without the need of windows itself. It simply provides the necessary dlls, architecture to allow intel based processing to be "pointed" to the proper calls within OSX.

Hope this helps!

Scott Lee

Keni


Very Interesting stuff Scott...

These days I'm running X2 under boot camp on my Mac Pro... I guess I'm wired differently as I default boot up to win7 and rarely switch to OSX other than to keep it updated...

I must be missing something as wine skin appears to be a variation of parallels...?

I guess these are both good alternatives for users who use more OSX than Windows... For me I simply wanted to harness the machine power for Sonar and other than a few keyboard anomalies (location of alt key / lack of hardware button to open/close DVD recorders),I usually forget that I'm not on a PCM!  ;-)

...but I'll be very curios to see your results with this... In the meantime, I'm gonna look into wine skin which I previously was unaware of...

Good luck and much thanks for sharing...

Keni

Hi Keni,


Wineskin is not a form of VMWare or Parallels. Actually the term WINE stands for "Wine Is Not an Emulator" Look at a wrapper as a container for a windows world to exists within the .app file without the need of windows itself. It simply provides the necessary dlls, architecture to allow intel based processing to be "pointed" to the proper calls within OSX.

Hope this helps!

Thanks Scott...

I'll look into it some more as I can...

Right now simply running the mac as a windows pc is working great for me... I really have no need/reason for OSX as I have never been particularly fond of the OS....

Keni

Any new info on this???

I look forward to benefiting from your progress with the .app. I have used Cakewalk for years on the PC platform and recently acquired a MacBook Pro (8Gb RAM, 2.6Ghz i7 processor).

I tried installing Sonar X2 via VMWare. The sound was OK, but the graphics were choppy. So I set up Bootcamp with Windows 7 Enterprise 64 Bit following all the default instructions. Sonar X2 install went well and the graphics were very smooth, but the sound (both softsynth and audio) was distorted.

With three adjustments, everything seems to be running smoothly.

I wanted to post these somewhere because I couldn't find them anywhere - although there were enough clues about people having success with MBP that I was willing to keep trying.

I don't have any MIDI set up at all yet - so any clues in that direction would be welcome. I have the A800 Pro controller.

Settings I tweaked in Sonar X2 64 Bit to get sound stabilized:

Edit | Preferences | Audio | Advanced | Driver Settings
Changed Audio Driver Bit Depth from 16 to 24
Checked the box for 64-bit Double Precision Engine
Increased the sampling rate to 48000.

I haven't played around with the settings to see if only one or two of these is required. The sampling rate seemed to have the most obvious effect.

I've been thinking about giving Logic Pro a shot. Had a lot of fun learning Garage Band on the Macbook. How would you describe the learning curve / benefits of having both?

Regards,

David Seabury

Application Development Manager
Tanner Health System

Hi Gang...

Just checking in...

I'm quite comfortable running X2a under boot camp with win7 pro x64 and I have very little need/use for OSX overall, but it would make my iTunes use easier to access (my only iTunes setup is on the Mac)...

If it wasn't for the keyboard differences, I would totally forget that I'm on a Mac... ;-)

Please let me know if I can be of any help... I'll be happy to beta test...

Much Thanks...
Keni

Please, please, please PM me when you make more progress. I would love to be able to open Sonar and use it in OSX. It would make my life so much simpler! Thanks so much :)
 

Scott Lee
Hi SBPTraxx,

I  am using logic Pro now these days but have a wealth of songs from Sonar.

Sorry I havent undated this I got swamped with about 5 different projects at once.  just finished this for example.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uf50r9Yzprw


I do have it running those I need to spend more time on this project and I do plan too. Maybe we can get a few more on it?

Im re-releasing my Summoner soundtrack I did for Volition Inc / THQ which is all Sonar / Pro Audio based, so I too would like to have a quick and easy way to access both.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xqc2Ur_Vw_0&list=LLm9MF6QWt0_SIf3jxIxQVuQ&feature=mh_lolz


Here are some wine test results:

http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=26181


I do plan on finishing this for in my time at the moment Im really swamped. Keep an eye out for it, I will get to it eventually.

Best Regards,

Scott Lee
SFX Media