Mar/Apr Tape-Op SONAR X1 review is out...

Wail, since we're in such a musical mood today:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_v468ptuXw

Does that about sum it up?

yorolpal
Does that about sum it up? 

Hahahaha!


Well, the review is a little more objective and does take issue with a few things (real-estate among them) but does result in a positive.


@Humble: thanks for that link! I wasn't sure if it was a login-only thing on their site.

Yoro that was just a bit off the mark... ; )

The trade mags are all playing dead dog because they live on glossy full page ads from the biggies. Don't bite the hand the feeds you. Put the real story in off-handed comments about a few "issues". 

Reviewers are even more compliant. If they don't act servile they won't get free gear to play with.

A business friend who is the CEO of a mid-sized music gear mfg told me they don't even bother with demo units and reviewers because you can smell the mendacity in the review. He said the user comments in forums will drive sales or kill a product.

The internet has given power back to the users, thank God.

sdpate
The trade mags are all playing dead dog because they live on glossy full page ads from the biggies. Don't bite the hand the feeds you. Put the real story in off-handed comments about a few "issues". 

Oh I dunno, that theory has had holes poked in it before, but Tape-Op has always had a particularly relentless indie viewpoint in their reviews. I've seen plenty of critical ones from them and if ever there was an "unbiased" source I would trust it to be them.

Yes, the trade mags have been shrinking.  It is obviously because they are a crock of spit, writing only good reviews for subpar products like SONAR so they can get advertising money instead of subscription.  Well, what do you expect?  Someone to actually pay for anything?  When you can get so much more balance and intelligence from the internet, where everyone is an expert since they have an opinion.

Don't forget, caveat emptor.

@

yorolpal


While I think that in the past the trade mags might have had a bit more independence in their reportage and reviews, today it is surely getting harder and harder to "be totally frank" with readership.  If any of you have picked up a copy of Electronic Musician or Mix, to name two former stalwarts of the audio and music production community,  You will have noticed that both are now the size of a coupon blow-in from Appleby's in the Sunday paper.  I honestly thought that my last copy of EM was just a single fold-over circular touting subscribing to it...not actually being it. 

You should see "Future Music" ... it's huge every month and comes with a DVD loaded with videos, samples, etc.   It's not cheap though.

wormser


Personally I don't trust any of the magazines, but Tape Op is one of the more independent ones. I've seen lukewarm reviews there. The reason you rarely if ever see a product slammed is because if the product is that bad, the reviewer usually refuses to review it.

So in theory, the worst products, at least mainstream ones, would be the products you don't see reviews on.

Future Music gave X1 a very good rating as well and they too acknowledged the bugs.
Cubase 4 got slammed for bugs when it was released.
I believe ProTools 8 didn't get overly enthusiastic reviews either but when you walk on water it doesn't matter :)

I see mag reviews as anecdotal, not something to take as the end-all/be-all.

But, I suspect a HUGE percentage of sales of any of these products is for the casual hobbyist who doesn't use/need/care about a large percentage of the features/functions.   There just aren't that many pros that could support such a big market with multiple choices.

So as long as they appeal to that larger casual user percentage, they can almost say anything if it sounds about right.

There are people using X1 now who NEVER knew the "Inspector" was there previously (albeit somewhat different).   That always makes me giggle a bit.

So a mag could say the "new inspector is ....[fill in the blanks]" and the user might go "wow, sounds cool".

LANEY


+1 for Future Music!!

Yah.  I find it to be a good investment.   The DVD studio and artist profiles have incredible details that one doesn't usually find in mags or supplements.

AT


Yes, the trade mags have been shrinking.  It is obviously because they are a crock of spit, writing only good reviews for subpar products like SONAR so they can get advertising money instead of subscription.  Well, what do you expect?  Someone to actually pay for anything?  When you can get so much more balance and intelligence from the internet, where everyone is an expert since they have an opinion.

Don't forget, caveat emptor.

@

I personally thought you did a pretty balanced review. You said a few times it should be approached as something somewhat seperate from the old sonar line, at least as far as the UI goes. While you acknowledged that you weren't comfortable with it initially, you felt you could overcome the problems and still get work done.

Not that it really matters, I already bought it.  ;-)