Need Some Win 8 Unbiassed Reviews from Sonar Users

Please chime in if you've been using Win8. I think this would be useful for all users that are thinking about the upgrade. Please try to be as impartial as possible - NO fanboys, or anti-MS people. Separate in 2 please:

1. How do you find the experience of Win8 by itself. Do you have to do a lot of customizing to get to something you can live with? etc...

2. How do you like it with Sonar? Any problems? Any hacks that need to be done? etc..

Feel free to add anything else that you feel might be interesting.

Thanks.

CakeAlexS


Articles here

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22windows+8%22+sonar&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-gb:IE-Address&ie=&oe=&redir_esc=&ei=RHB8UJdNpqvRBdHKgOAD

LOL - thanks CakeAlexS - but I wanted an IMPARTIAL reviews... Just everyday users etc... I saw the Cake article, but it's not what I'm looking for. It's very useful in the info it presents, but often it lacks that 'real world' testing that saw X1 advance from a to d versions. Numbers are great, but we're doing art, not math, so I'd also need to know the feel of it and how it handles. For example a lot of people fee uncomfortable with the new layout. Of course those are just regular users, hence my post on the Sonar forum to get prespectives from Sonar users, not just regular ones.

Ah impartial... OK

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/27/bill-gates-windows-8-microsoft_n_1919877.html

personally i will wait for win8 to be available before i ask for anyones opinion :) .. there just wont be enough valid data points until then (reviewing a preview isnt valid imo)

my mistake

MS has said they wont have the normal update schedule. They will be updating Win8 much faster. In fact there was already an update last week that fixed some audio/video issues.

Sounds pretty good out of the gate. They were saying that previews of Win 8 got less than enthusiastic reviews, but what I can gather, at least on this forum, that's not the case.

Need to clarify one thing though: If software is Win 7 compatible, does that mean that it's also Win 8 compatible? In other words, is there backwards compatibility software-wise? Anyone had problems with synths, samplers or plugs? With hardware I take it that in most cases you need Win8 drivers.

Typical French, always expecting you to do it for them.... 

The only apparent problem having here is cannot print.

HP printer attached to computer: found, driver installed, shows in devices, no errors, no printing.

Network shared printer: found, windows update driver, shows in devices, no errors, no printing.

This is for 2 win 8 computers.

Same issue with cameras.

Lots of messages at the MS forums about this stuff.

And the pundants are also commenting.

One dude reported that Canon will provide support when w8 is "officially" released. Sorta weird. It got released to enterprise subscribers in August. Should have printer support by now, more than a year after the initial preview.

My wife's computer appears to be working without issue: Office: OL, word, excel,,, IE, audio, videos,...   Just can't print.

The music computer has crashed. But I can not connect such directly to Sonar X2. I figger it is the audio device drivers (still 32 bit), or some other such device.  Nothing clearly identified in the event log, mini-dumps,...

Anybody got any control surfaces running in Sonar & Win 8? Problems?
 
I'm eyeing a full line of Mackies...

Mackie Control here and Windows 8 Pro 64 bit.  I use MIDI to connect the MC. I have had no problems what so ever with Windows 8. 

Windows 8 is fabulous! Sonar X2 and Windows 8 were made for one another.

One thing though is be sure to get Windows 8 drivers for all your hardware.

 

I love win 8, and my impression is that X2 runs a bit better in it.
 
I don't like the metro UI, so I downloaded the free Classic Shell, which allows you to get back the Win 7 start menu, and disable the metro UI.

firefly9000


Please chime in if you've been using Win8. I think this would be useful for all users that are thinking about the upgrade. Please try to be as impartial as possible - NO fanboys, or anti-MS people. Separate in 2 please:

1. How do you find the experience of Win8 by itself. Do you have to do a lot of customizing to get to something you can live with? etc...

2. How do you like it with Sonar? Any problems? Any hacks that need to be done? etc..

Feel free to add anything else that you feel might be interesting.

Thanks.

I can only speak for myself. Also, I am not a Sonar power user. Just a hobbyist. I had Windows 7 x64 and did an upgrade to Win 8, keeping all my apps and data.


1) I like Windows 8. It "feels" faster but the benchmarks (outside of Cakes Sonar benchmark) say it is the same speed as Win 7. The only customization I did was to place the tiles of the my most frequently used apps on the modern UI (Chrome, Thunderbird, Sonar X2, etc...). I also added a few keyboard shortcuts (I.E. ctrl-alt-S opens Sonar, ctrl-alt-C opens Chrome)



2) All my apps and drivers, including Sonar X2 and m-audio Profire 610, ram out of the box. I have not run into any issues yet.


The new UI takes some getting used to. I jump to the desktop a fair amount. I am not going to get a Start Menu replacement app. I am getting used to and liking not having it. I can get to my less frequently used apps without the Start Menu quicker in Win 8.

Lots of stuff here:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2012885/20-must-know-windows-8-tips-and-tricks.html

Including booting directly to the desktop, without need to enter password.

-------------------------------
I have placed shortcuts on the desktop for the most used applications. Including Control panel.

I have placed the task bar on the left, and have it auto-hide.

And I have a link to the all-users start menu, that I have arranged with folders so I do not have to waste my life scrolling the start screen to find one shortcut in the sea of dozens, without structure.

---------------------

w8-64 X2 crashes the computer when closed.  8.5 and X1 do not. Figger it is the audio drivers. But, 'tis strange mostly happens at exit. 

I have had X2 crash in w7-64 after opening closing lots of projects. But it did not freeze the computer.

The lack of printing to shared network printers is still an annoyance: very vista.

Did get my wife's camera and skype working last night. Logitech updated the driver.

On one forum a dude wrote the only way he could get the printers to work was to create a Homegroup.  I don't need another door and key.

I have lost one hour due to an anomaly that was x2 or win8. I have lost three to four hours due to user errors around auto zoom.a I'm happy on win8.