My Experience (so far) with X2a

I am not seeking agreement nor am I seeking disagreement. I just want to relate my experience. I've been using Sonar for 22 years. Every day, for many projects, both professional and personal. I've got Sonar X2a installed on my office computer, but not my DAW. Each time I open it to explore and learn it I close it with the feeling there is no gain whatsoever in using this software in production.
 
All software has some bugs. But when I open Quicken, Photoshop, Expression Web, Firefox, Sound Forge, VSL, Kontakt or other programs, I rarely actually encounter the bugs. With most programs, I don't even know what the bugs are. A rare crash, sometimes, but that's about it. Sonar X1 and X2 are a different story. How many software publishers market a program that has some 100 possible color options, but only about 20% actually do anything? How many software publishers would allow fairly serious bugs, such as the notation editor's triplet dysfunctionality, to remain year after year, decade after decade, despite many users clamoring to repair it? And things like having to constantly re-configure windows, as in the tempo view, where if you close it and re-open it, the tempo pane (right side) closes up? (Unless it's part of the same screenset). Same with the controllers view, you open it, adjust the horizontal pane, close the screenset and re-open it, presto! You have to do it all over again as X2 doesn't remember the setting, what a time waster! And the right-click process menu in staff view now requires SHIFT and right-click rather than just right-click. Isn't that the purpose of right-clicking with the mouse, so that you don't have to use the keyboard?
 
What are these people at Cakewalk thinking? And what about the console view? It is really ugly, and, except for names and width, non-customizable. I saw Digital Performer 8 this morning, the console view is beautiful. Aesthetics matter, particularly when you have to look at it all day long every day. I don't know what is happening at Cakewalk. They've got some innovative ideas, but in my opinion poor implementation of those ideas. Did the best programmers leave? Do they not talk to composers and only want to sell Sonar to loopers and engineers? Are the project managers not concerned with details? Is selling Cakewalk to Roland the problem? I don't know.
 
It is disappointing to see a company's product go downhill, especially one I've supported for 22 years. I don't have much time to spend on software forums so I can't reply to those who's experiences differ. I hope Sonar X3 restores the color options, focuses on fixing long-standing bugs and stops adding new features at the expense of making the features that are already present work correctly. Success isn't just about sales, money and profits. It's also about integrity and the satisfaction of producing a solid product.
 
JG
www.jerrygerber.com

@jsg - Wow, you are going to stick around for X3?

Staff View - same limitations for decades, and it's existing functionality going down hill with each release?

I started out with Pro Audio 2.0, then left, went to Logic PC, and came back starting with Music Creator 3.

Nothing but Staff View function disappointment, release after release.

I like the direction X1 took overall (it resembled Logic Pro 8), but Staff View continues to be treated like a red headed stepchild.

I do like the concept of the Matrix View, and the improvements it seems to have gotten in X2, along with other tools and their improvements, BUT, I visualize music as notes on a staff.  I realize that the PRV is a total requirement for exact timing / duration of MIDI data, but come on.

Will someone from Cakewalk please make a direction statement regarding Staff View?

I won't keep giving Cakewalk money when a feature near and dear to my heart goes ignored.

Jim Roseberry

I started out with Pro Audio 2.0

Cakewalk Pro Audio 4.0 was the first version of Cakewalk to feature audio.
That's when I became a Cakewalk user...
It was "MIDI only" prior to that point.


Sorry to hear some folks are struggling so much.
X2a is working well here...

You are correct.  I started with Pro 2.0.

  Hate to say it but I was looking at Cubase 7 earlier today... looks mighty tempting at $500 if Cakewalk doesn't start fixing some things. 

And large font is really unnecessary. Now my eyeballs are all borked out. o_O

I hate to say it, but I'm looking into Cubase also, after 11 years with Sonar.  For one thing, UAD support.  I wonder if the take lanes in Cubase are as buggy or cumbersome as Sonar's?

I'm a relatively new customer and I still have hope that the next patch will pull things together but the way this release went down is leaving me a little annoyed. X1d wasn't exactly rock solid and I get it was a complete overhaul so... whatever but this is the time for Cake to iron out the major and crucial bugs. I came from a Nuendo background and bought Sonar because I figured it would be cost effective. With Cubase now at $500 and seeing all the goodies that come with it coupled with the fact I pretty much have all the other extra gack I need that Sonar offers (and stuff I bought to make up for extras that weren't really cutting it for me) if the main DAW isn't stable... why continue dumping money into it? 

This is what is happening, folks. New customer, busted my arse to learn all the weird methods of Sonar, stayed positive the whole time... and I'm thinking of bailing because of a badly timed release and a patch that did nothing to solve crucial issues.

Not getting angry yet but this b patch better be good.

backwoods


You guys are going to be disappointed by Cubendo if you think Sonar is buggy.

Well I don't know what the current versions are like but I ran Nuendo on a rickety old P4, had no manual, no support and had no clue about computers let alone DAWs (I didn't even know it was called a DAW) and managed to record and mix an entire album without a single crash and barely a hiccup. Everyone said it sounded great too... even my high fallutin' engineering buddies (had a big time mastering guy offer to master it for free he liked it so much). I like Sonar well enough and don't want to think this way but it's been a bit of a pain to deal with from tech to just making the program do what I want it to. 

Just sayin'... it doesn't look good. All I want the b patch to clear up some of the more glaring issues and I'll be happy again. Not too much to ask I think.

Cheers.

@backwoods... The rig was essentially handed to me as is because they wanted me to be able to get my stuff recorded and do recordings of other local acts. I had no upgrade path because of this and I don't think I would have qualified anyway it was so old. I needed something inexpensive and modern so I looked around and Sonar seemed to fit the bill... and it does for the most part. Just can't have things hiccuping and crashing as often as they are. If they get X2 as stable as X1d then that is sufficient. I would like to see some of the broken features fixed though and the stability be even better than X1d.

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Programming is for special people ...............the ERROR "screen " is in the ----nanometers area ...........................
and the sound you get outa SONAR .................................I dare you all ---try getting it out of somethig else -........................................................

Cubase doesn't get my attention in comparison to X2. They are still at 32bit internal processing and most of their features are chasing after what X2 already offers. I'm sure they do a couple of things better than sonar. I do wish Cake would bring out the 2nd generation of V-Vocal, but then again, I now own melodyne so not that big of a deal. Notation, I hope cake improves that for the people who need it. I don't but I'm empathetic to those users. Ability to change more colors would be nice, but way low on my list of things to post about. All in all I'm happy with X2's ease of use, stability and sound. X2 looks and feels polished. I say no thanks to switching even if it was a free crossgrade. Happy here.