emwhy
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My trip to the "dark side"..........
For the past month I've been working with Pro Tools 9, mainly for a class I teach in the fall on MIDI and loop construction. This year, unlike last year, all the students are MAC users and almost all are using either PT8 or PT9 so I figured I'd better brush up on it event though a good chunk of the class is spent on Reason. Here's a few observations when comparing it to SONAR x1: 1. I really missed the Browser, not just for media, but for plug-ins as well which brings me to my next point. 2. The synth rack is great, it makes things sooo much easier with SONAR. 3. No vst support, unless you want to buy a vst to rtas wrapper...no thanks. 4. No way to drag and drop MIDI grooves from PT9's built in drum machine. 5. I also found myself missing the Pro Channel...a lot. I know people have issues with it, but it really is nice to have the various elements right there whether it be EQ or compression etc. 6. No track freezing....unless I missed something somewhere. I do wish SONAR had better notation, PT9 is better in that respect. Anyway, that's all I have. Both are fine programs depending on how you choose to use them. I just liked some of SONAR's functionality better for MIDI.
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ampfixer
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Re:My trip to the "dark side"..........
2011/08/23 14:32:40
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Hey emwhy, thanks for that info. It's bolstered my X1 confidence. I recently hung out with some college kids using Logic Pro and running Mac of course. They (Mac folk) seem to be in a very different head space when creating music. I don't know if it's the software or the fact that they are young and talented.
Must be the software.
Regards, John I want to make it clear that I am an Eedjit. I have no direct, or indirect, knowledge of business, the music industry, forum threads or the meaning of life. I know about amps. WIN 10 Pro X64, I7-3770k 16 gigs, ASUS Z77 pro, AMD 7950 3 gig, Steinberg UR44, A-Pro 500, Sonar Platinum, KRK Rokit 6
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BEATZM1D10T
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Re:My trip to the "dark side"..........
2011/08/23 15:09:09
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ampfixer
Hey emwhy, thanks for that info. It's bolstered my X1 confidence. I recently hung out with some college kids using Logic Pro and running Mac of course. They (Mac folk) seem to be in a very different head space when creating music. I don't know if it's the software or the fact that they are young and talented.
Must be the software.
A bad carpenter blames his tools. They are just young firebrands.
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ampfixer
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Re:My trip to the "dark side"..........
2011/08/23 15:35:36
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Regards, John I want to make it clear that I am an Eedjit. I have no direct, or indirect, knowledge of business, the music industry, forum threads or the meaning of life. I know about amps. WIN 10 Pro X64, I7-3770k 16 gigs, ASUS Z77 pro, AMD 7950 3 gig, Steinberg UR44, A-Pro 500, Sonar Platinum, KRK Rokit 6
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Keni
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Re:My trip to the "dark side"..........
2011/08/23 15:43:33
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Maybe the different head space they're in is why the chose different tools...
They all work... It's finding the tools that work best for each of us that's important in the end...
Maybe it would be nice if the OMF standard was increased so as to include more items cross-platform...
Maybe if plugins included some kind of "play-only/disable" option that could be included in OMF files... So that people who don't have the plugins still have the option of hearing them or removing them even if they don't actually own the plugin. I think that might be a better way than needing to freeze tracks prior to OMF forcing the shared files to have the FX if not needed/wanted on that end....
But then that's more dreams of the future, eh?
Back to reality.... I've worked with many different DAW's over the years and the Sonar environment is still (yes, even my discomfort with X1) the best around for me. They all allow me to create music from beginning to end... as I adjust my methods to get the job done with their' toolset... ;-)
Have fun with the class!
Keni
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emwhy
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Re:My trip to the "dark side"..........
2011/08/23 16:08:25
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These are young students that I have, none of them are keyboardists, I've noticed a trend over the past several years with the 20ish crew to be much more fixated on loop-based recording which is why I focus on Reason and REX files. I had a guy two years ago who was basically a club DJ and wanted to be able to do different mixes. But Reason has it's limitations unless you pair it with Record, so towards the end of the classes I introduce them to the concept of ReWire to show how you can create these great dance grooves and then add audio etc. I do use SONAR at times in the class, but as I said above, these are MAC guys, whereas in the past I've had a mixture.
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Keni
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Re:My trip to the "dark side"..........
2011/08/23 17:13:46
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Show them how to run Sonar on the mac.... They may be so inspired as to actually use it!
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gothic.angel
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Re:My trip to the "dark side"..........
2011/08/24 12:15:24
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Keni
Show them how to run Sonar on the mac.... They may be so inspired as to actually use it!
+1.... ...Let's start making people understand MACs are focused on other kinda stuff nowadays... i-TOYS are their focus now...!!! 
GothicAngeL - EBM - Dark Electronics______________________________SONAR Platinum ∞, Rapture ProSAMPLITUDE X3 Pro Suite, FL Studio 12, Reason 10
_________________________________________ DELL Dimension E521 - AMD 64X2 - Windows 10 Pro_________________________________________ Proud "Apple's i-STUFF" Worst Enemy...
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Keni
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Re:My trip to the "dark side"..........
2011/08/24 12:36:32
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gothic.angel
Keni
Show them how to run Sonar on the mac.... They may be so inspired as to actually use it!
+1....
...Let's start making people understand MACs are focused on other kinda stuff nowadays... i-TOYS are their focus now...!!!
Yeah, I hear Apple is about to release iBet for keeping us buying... ;-) Keni
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gothic.angel
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Re:My trip to the "dark side"..........
2011/08/24 12:39:27
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Keni
gothic.angel
Keni
Show them how to run Sonar on the mac.... They may be so inspired as to actually use it!
+1....
...Let's start making people understand MACs are focused on other kinda stuff nowadays... i-TOYS are their focus now...!!!
Yeah, I hear Apple is about to release iBet for keeping us buying...
;-)
Keni
 ...yep... only they won't ever get me.... NEVER ever......!!!!!!!
GothicAngeL - EBM - Dark Electronics______________________________SONAR Platinum ∞, Rapture ProSAMPLITUDE X3 Pro Suite, FL Studio 12, Reason 10
_________________________________________ DELL Dimension E521 - AMD 64X2 - Windows 10 Pro_________________________________________ Proud "Apple's i-STUFF" Worst Enemy...
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Keni
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Re:My trip to the "dark side"..........
2011/08/24 12:57:11
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gothic.angel
Keni
gothic.angel
Keni
Show them how to run Sonar on the mac.... They may be so inspired as to actually use it!
+1....
...Let's start making people understand MACs are focused on other kinda stuff nowadays... i-TOYS are their focus now...!!!
Yeah, I hear Apple is about to release iBet for keeping us buying...
;-)
Keni
...yep... only they won't ever get me.... NEVER ever......!!!!!!!
I'm no longer really a consumer (of much)... I can't afford the things I have let alone buy anything new... I don't even use a cell phone... let alone a smartphone or tablet... My purchases ended years ago and now the only thing I buy myself is the next Sonar upgrade.... Will that happen this year? ;-) Keni
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gothic.angel
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Re:My trip to the "dark side"..........
2011/08/24 13:06:35
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Keni
... My purchases ended years ago and now the only thing I buy myself is the next Sonar upgrade.... Will that happen this year? ;-)
Keni
...got it, mate...! ...we both know it depends on whether some fixes/changes WILL be there or not...... let's cross fingers.... (although, I'm not superstitious at all......)....
GothicAngeL - EBM - Dark Electronics______________________________SONAR Platinum ∞, Rapture ProSAMPLITUDE X3 Pro Suite, FL Studio 12, Reason 10
_________________________________________ DELL Dimension E521 - AMD 64X2 - Windows 10 Pro_________________________________________ Proud "Apple's i-STUFF" Worst Enemy...
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Keni
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Re:My trip to the "dark side"..........
2011/08/24 13:17:49
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gothic.angel
Keni
... My purchases ended years ago and now the only thing I buy myself is the next Sonar upgrade.... Will that happen this year? ;-)
Keni
...got it, mate...!
...we both know it depends on whether some fixes/changes WILL be there or not...... let's cross fingers.... (although, I'm not superstitious at all......)....
Unless they release on a Firday 13th.... then I'd be "forced" to buy it regardless! ;-)
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dappa1
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Re:My trip to the "dark side"..........
2011/08/24 13:24:45
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It's rare that you will find a young person using Sonar!
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Keni
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Re:My trip to the "dark side"..........
2011/08/24 13:42:16
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Dappa1
It's rare that you will find a young person using Sonar!
What do you mean? I won't be 60 for another few months.... until then (or longer) I'm still young! ;-)
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Middleman
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Re:My trip to the "dark side"..........
2011/08/24 14:56:14
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The things I like about ProTools are some of the intuitive feature sets like playlists which quickly allow you to keep snapshots of the entire mix which you can jump to for comparison of one approach versus another while mixing. Helps you prevent going down a rabbit-hole. There are a lot of features of that environment which are designed from an engineering and mixing perspective.
The things I like about Sonar is the midi approach and recent improvements to the GUI and workflow.
ProChannel....hmmm. Well not to create a controversy but after using it for countless hours, I have gravitated away from it for any compression. Tube sat is not that useful for me as well. I get better results from VSTs. The EQ, well, I just don't like the sound of the EQ for boosting but i do use it a lot for low pass and high pass, that works just fine. Overall it rates a C to C+ for me. I would like to see some more work on those compressors either their own proprietary sound or improve on what's there.
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bitflipper
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Re:My trip to the "dark side"..........
2011/08/24 17:59:59
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I won't be 60 for another few months....I'm still young! Sting and I both turn 60 on October 2nd, so I guess we have about 5 weeks of youth left. Reminds me, I'd better get my rocking chair on order.
 All else is in doubt, so this is the truth I cling to. My Stuff
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