Never say "Never"

Great point of view. It is one reason for the PC that CW has been saying but its great you got it.

Heck, I just like the way it looks.

I've only ever claimed that it is the sheer convenience of the PC that makes it attractive to me. If VSTs behaved in the same way I'd probably be a PC naysayer too, but they don't, so I'm a PC FanBoi.

Wow Dave! I must say it's nice to hear that X1 is treating you good for once! I thought you'd emigrated to the Reaper for good... 


Remember, all DAWs have proprietary plugins! Cake is the only one that puts them in a ProChannel, though...

I happy you have discovered what I consider "the reason" why many like what ProChannel brings to the table.  Like FBB, it the primary reason I use it on every project.  I still use VSTs, but if they had the convenience of PC I'd love them even more.  It's a good thing to see such honest reassessment from a user that once asked themselves "Why?" and is now coming around to the idea of "Oh thats why!".

Jonbouy


Despite hysteria that always seems to get whipped up to make it appear that I take the contrary stance I've always considered Pro-Channel as conceptually sound for exactly the reasons you are stating there Dave.

It's good to hear it's starting to work as advertised.

I'm pretty sure now most DAW's have prety much reached a plateau in the functionality they offer I see this kind of modular functionality keyed into how the DAW itself works being one of the few avenues left for DAW manufacturers to generate new revenue streams in order to remain in business.

It's a good thing for the end users because ultimately the practicality of how it all works together is going to be where the savvy vendors will have the chance to score highly and generate sales.  It's the usability that you mention that will be the key factor for those folk that are not in the market just to buy anything for no better reason than the mere fact it exists.

Yeah, as an optimist, I believe that the whole SONAR X/ProChannel thing is good news for us. I always thought the old annual upgrade scheme was too rapid and that each increment was too small for what we used to pay. Now they've found a new way to make money earning them ample time to work with the under-the-hood improvements that we really want. 


Only X2 will tell!


Sven

Anderton


I think CW may have been a bit ahead of the curve here. The Rack Extensions in Reason remind me a lot of the approach taken with the Pro Channel. It will be interesting to see if some other DAWs follow suit.

What like with FX Chains 2.0 as well...

I wasn't going to mention it on the Cakewalk Sonar X1 forum but since you have....

Record has had a per-channel ssl style board as a per track default and bus comprsser well before X1 came out as you well know being as you've given it enthusiastic reviews in the past.

The Rack Extension trademark has been registered for a number of years and being an expert on the subject of music software it would be difficult for me to think that you have been completely unaware that something similar has been in the pipeline there, again pre-dating X1. Even a dimbulb such as me had worked out that much.

It will also be interesting to see where their Extensions will score with the unique integration that their proprietary plug-in will provide being has they have been conceptualized from the start to include the functionality already available within its framework rather than relying overcoming the limitations using existing VST technology which has obviously been a benefit to Cakewalk in getting PC modules to market more swiftly.  Hopefully that decision won't hinder them in the long term.

With IK Multimedia and Native Instruments also offering a'la carte functionality to their products already its certainly going to be an interesting few years ahead.

Of course other manufacturers will follow suit and likely already have stuff in the pipeline, the bigger surprise would be if they didn't

bapu

Jonbouy

its certainly going to be an interesting few years ahead. 

Oh boy, does this mean I'll be spending more?

You ain't seen nothing yet....

bapu

Jonbouy

its certainly going to be an interesting few years ahead. 

Oh boy, does this mean I'll be spending more?

But that's the great thing about a la carte offerings - it's entirely up to you to decide if you want to spend the money.

Jonbouy

 I NEVER want to spend money...

I don't mind spending money for things I use, and I tend to prefer being rewarded for my effort if I develop something, which I imagine is the Bakers stance - it's sort of a win win scenario in my book. 

Middleman


I was in the same camp on whether to go to the PC. The initial offerings were not that compelling for me. I thought this was just a revisit of the DXi concept from years back. Actually it kind of is, but the revised EQ & PC2A really delivered the goods. I'm glad I jumped on board as it is so useful to have some reliable and excellent sounding tools which don't eat up the cpu at your fingertips. I was a naysayer, but Cakewalk stepped up on this one and delivered. Now if they would only add:

-A tone generator with sidechain
-PC Channel delay and reverb
-Modulation
-DBX160VU compressor
-Professional sounding tape emulation

Then I could leave my UAD ways and the 32 bit world. Even though UAD is going 64 later this year.

I like your list, but would add a Pultec emulation to the list. 

Jind

Jonbouy

I NEVER want to spend money...

I don't mind spending money for things I use, and I tend to prefer being rewarded for my effort if I develop something, which I imagine is the Bakers stance - it's sort of a win win scenario in my book. 

That is pretty much what I'm saying, I'll put my hand in my pocket if something strikes me as useful.  But I'm a tightwad for sure.

Where's the time savings?

In having the basic FX for a particular track in front of you whenever you merely select it.

It's the paradigm that made plenty of hit producers come up with their own engineering style that in turn made million sellers out of being restricted, for the bulk part of the job, to a limited set of tools that was always at hand.

It's what Dave just described in the OP

So that's not just me.

mike_mccue


 I find it difficult to review claims that ProChannel provides time savings without feeling incredulous.

It is inevitable that ProChannel and the FX bin will integrate in the future and we will back to square one; a DAW with a big old full featured FXbin.

People will grow to expect their favorite fx chains as defaults within ProChannel and anyone who wants to will realize that has all just become another way to load a Track Template.

Really?

Where's the time savings?

Yeah, that's just me. :-)
 

best regards,
mike

The savings in time would be that you can see your FX bin with one key stroke.  If you need a gate and a compressor - hit "I" and there they are.  Enable them, set them as you like and go on about your business.
 
I suppose it's like an FX bin/Track template but it's all in a nice neat package.  I had the choice to open a screen set where the FX was visible (I hide mine in most cases because there are other controls I am using to track with) then click audio FX, navigate through the plugin menus and pick what I wanted multiple times.
 
Or I could go open the browser and navigate to plugin chains and drag them into my track and open it to expose a number of FX scattered over my two screens.
 
Maybe you have a set up for your SONAR app that epitomizes organization and speed of workflow and makes the point of time savings from the PC concept moot, but I don't.  It saved me some time and made me look good in front of a client.  Can you say that it didn't? 

 I think it was the ability to save and reference chains in an incredible efficient package that had me initally interested. I waited to see if the offerings were going to be of a good caliber. 

  I cringe when I hear it said that something,"was good for the price",although I have had that mentality in the past . I no longer want something good for the price. I want something good period.

 Looking at the current offerings in PC. I believe the PC is something good period.

 

Starise


 I think it was the ability to save and reference chains in an incredible efficient package that had me initally interested. I waited to see if the offerings were going to be of a good caliber. 

  I cringe when I hear it said that something,"was good for the price",although I have had that mentality in the past . I no longer want something good for the price. I want something good period.

 Looking at the current offerings in PC. I believe the PC is something good period.

 

Quality without compromise, it seems we share exactly the same modus operandii when choosing between available products.

Robustness comes before anything in my book.

If I wasn't here still helping out people with issues in X1 that I have been familiar with since P7 I'd likely be enjoying the benefits of using Pro-Channel myself.  I learn much about the current state of DAW 2 by doing that, in fact sometimes I learn the odd thing that even some X1 users remain unaware of.

It's only a few minor issues, that I'm very proficient in working around, that remain that have prevented my migration to the new version since it's launch.  Sonar is still my favourite all-rounder despite my money being spent elsewhere during my last upgrade cycle.