Shock Headline - Mac user buys PC just for X1!

Hi Everyone!

Yes, I know the subject line may have shocked you all, but I have indeed just bought my fist PC in 9 years to run X1 Producer alongside my Mac. I know I could have bought windows 7, run Boot Camp and installed X1 on the Mac itself, but I didn't want to do that, so instead I bought a brand new Dell XPS 8300 Core i5 (Sandy Bridge) 2.8GHz tower with 4GB of RAM just to get me started. 

Why have I done this?

The short answer is X1 is one of the most impressive makeovers I've ever seen of a DAW, period. I quite freely confess that I have never been a fan of Sonar before, always disliking what (to someone who had no experience of it) seemed to be a complex and somewhat cluttered GUI. X1 changed all that and it's modular construction really wowed me and started making me look at the Mac programs I had been using for almost a decade (such as Logic Pro) in a totally different way, and not a good way at that! 

Then, there's the Pro Channel, which is also impressive and (I feel) better designed and laid out than it's closest competitor, the SSL mixer emulation in Record. The trouble with Record is that the channel is in a very long strip, which is great if you have a 30-inch (or larger) monitor, but not so good if you don't! Yes, there are some workarounds, either buy having a dedicated monitor in portrait view or hiding sections of the strip you might not be using, but it's just not as logical, fast or as easy to use as it is in X1, IMHO. X1's workflow seems very impressive indeed (after using it on a friends computer) and even though it had several issues when I previewed it a few weeks ago, one of the other things that's stunned me is just how speedily the Cakewalk team try and solve everyones problems. Another program I have been using since v1.0 has recently been plagued with problems for 2 years now and still shows no sign of being fully fixed, yet here we are with X1 and most of its major issues have been almost completely resolved in just 4 months! So, after trying X1 out, I decided to take the plunge and buy a PC back, along with a monitor and a Cakewalk A300 Pro keyboard as well. I'm looking to get X1 Producer very soon and I'm really looking forward to using it fully on a new project.

Does that make X1 perfect for my needs? Well, there are a few things I'm not too keen on, but they are very minor. Firstly, for a program that is labeled as "DAW 2.0", I have to say that some of the bundled soft-synths and effects seem very "DAW 0.0.1" and have a very Windows '98 look and to them, due to not ever being updated since the earliest days of Sonar. I noticed that Sound On Sound magazines recent review of X1 picked up on this as well and I feel that they are letting the side down a little, but then I have yet to find any DAW whose bundled plugins excite me in the slightest, as I'm not a fan of Logic's plugins for the same reason, as they feel old and clunky next to what's available now because they hardly ever get updated. However, if Cakewalk set to work on the plugins and gave them the same makeover that now graces X1, I'm sure I would be astounded and for the first time, I would feel that I had a DAW out of the box that I didn't need rush out and accessorize with 3rd party plugins just to get the results I need. Also, my final (and very minor) grumble would be the Matrix and Step Sequencer windows need to be the same shade of grey as the main DAW app itself, as keeping them in Sonar 7 or 8's colour just doesn't feel right somehow (for example, you wouldn't expect X1's mixer to be a different colour from the rest of the program, would you? It would just look odd). If the user can customize that, then I'm speaking out of turn, but as I said earlier, you'll have to forgive me as I don't own X1 yet.

However, the above are minor niggles and overall, I am immensely impressed with X1 (as I'm sure you can tell) and I hope my time here as part of the Cakewalk community will be a very happy one!

welcome to the forum buddy...hecky ya..love your statements.im so happy for you.i think you will be very surprised at how well it functions compared to some of the reviews you may have seen of people saying it has alot of problems..rest a sure there are plenty out there that have hardly.
i love this version so much..by far my favorite.its taken a few things and changed them around a little and there are a few things i wish had been done differently but im almost sure you will love it..able to minipulate many things and the includes are awesome..great to hear!
do not be a stranger let us know how your making out..and remember your time in the cakewalk community is what you make of it my friend..help others as you would want to be helped.
congrats on your new daw

A1MixMan


Welcome to the dark side. Or is it the light side? I get confused, anyway, the first thing I would do is AT LEAST double your ram. It's way cheap and one of the best things you can do.

hes right i just ordered two more sticks of g-skill so i will lose the 4 i got in now and put in two new 4 gig pops..39.99 a stick of 4gig is cheap as nuts..though dont freet out by what you got now i push the envolope hard with my specs and there very close to yours(new egg..g-skill 4gigram 39.99

Welcome to PC land and Cakewalk.
I love my X1 :-)

Strange thing is ... this is the first time in over 35 years I have owned a Mac.
I bought a MacBook Pro a few months ago...  now this a a little bit of a learning curve.


Gary

Zonno

Collandra

Also, my final (and very minor) grumble would be the Matrix and Step Sequencer windows need to be the same shade of grey as the main DAW app itself, as keeping them in Sonar 7 or 8's colour just doesn't feel right somehow (for example, you wouldn't expect X1's mixer to be a different colour from the rest of the program, would you? It would just look odd). 

Where is Panup? Panup can you do this?
 
@Collandra: Check out Panup'sthread. He makes modded versions of SONAR.

I have used Panu's mods without any issues at all and highly recommend them. IMO they really improve the look of X1. It's really easy to go back to the original X1 shades of grey if you want to. 

Welcome to SONAR, Collandra. I honestly think we're at a point in time with the technology at hand that it more about the DAW and less about the platform, and I suppose your decision to use SONAR on a PC is proof of that.

And welcome to the forum, too. There are many, many highly knowledgeable users here who will be able to help you out with just about anything (computer or SONAR related, of course). 

Collandra

WOW! I can see that this is already a great (and friendly) place to be, which makes a welcome change, as I'm really not too keen on typical forum mentality, which is normally aggressive, ridiculing, insulting and flamingly hot if you so much as say one word out of place to those members who've been there since day one! I'm sure we've all had experiences of that, so thanks to everyone for the warm welcome.

... good thing you weren't here from December through March... it can get a bit hairy in here too, so don't be surprised. Mostly it's a fun, supportive, quirky and interesting joint, but it's not immune from some of what you've described. It seems to get wacky around update time, and this year was a particularly spicy one, but it generally tones down to a mostly friendly groove after a bit. One thing you'll notice, and in fact it looks like Seth has just illustrated this, is that company employees will often pop in here as well, far more than on most forums I've seen, and they are usually helpful and cool as well. It is still primarily a user forum so not a replacement for tech support and shouldn't be viewed as such, but it's nice to have a bit of interaction with the folks that keep the good ship Cakewalk afloat...


enjoy and welcome!

Collandra....

You should write a book about how much you love X1 even though you haven't purchased it, installed it, or run it.

I wouldn't buy the book or read it....but I'd give it glowing reviews.

Twigman

Collandra

X1 is one of the most impressive makeovers I've ever seen of a DAW, period. I quite freely confess that I have never been a fan of Sonar before, always disliking what (to someone who had no experience of it) seemed to be a complex and somewhat cluttered GUI.

You know many of us would disagree very strongly with this comment.
X1 is a dumbing down of previous versions, hiding functionality away in illogical places (illiogical to those of us who knew and loved previous Sonar GUIs).
Old Sonar GUI was simple, intuitive, customisable and functional with everything just where you need it.
X1 GUI involves hunting, clicking through illogically placed 'hidden' menus and is IMO far from intuitive in the way that old Sonar was.

Wrong in almost every point. What you and many are about is never ever opening the manual and learning how X1 works. Its as simple as that.

Sonar 8 was/is a hodgepodge of discombobulated unrelated pasted on abilities that in most cases had no relationship with one another. A bunch of independent views that required learning the peculiarities of each.

What you and a few others are all about is not wanting to forgo all you have learned over the years. It is not dumbed down. Nor is it less powerful. It is where it should have been years ago.

Learn it Twiggy and you will see the light. Skylight that is.   

subtlearts - Thanks for the welcome. I was here in that time, but just as a quest. The moment I heard about X1 back in November, I decided to take a look around and get a feel for the place and what I saw was typical of any new major software release - a lot of people kicking off about bugs that had slipped through the net into the release version, anger, frustration and general hair-tearing of the "oh, I give up" nature, which is only to be expected, as at that moment, everyone vents their anger without ever really stopping to think that the software vendor didn't want it to be that way either! But, that's human nature I guess. The type of forum attitude I was referring to is when it's like that 100% of the time but for no reason whatsoever! It's really childish and I just can't stand to be around those kind of places.

Adroen - Thanks!

skullsession - Yes indeed! Sorry if it seemed a little over the top, but I'm the kind of person who goes by first impression and when I spent the weekend using X1 at my friends studio, I have to admit I was addicted and very impressed and I just wanted to relate that here.

Twigman - Yes, I knew there could be a possible backlash for me expressing my love of X1 over previous versions of Sonar, but everyone has their own opinion, be that "love it", "hate it" or "undecided" and speaking as a completely new Cakewalk user, it's personally just my opinion that if Cakewalk can convince someone like me to go out and buy a dedicated PC just for the sake of using X1, someone who has always disliked Sonar 1-through-8 and who has no love for PC's whatsoever (as a self-confessed long-term Apple fanboy) then I guess they must be doing a pretty fine job on X1. Maybe if I had been a long-term Sonar user like yourself, I may feel the same way you do about X1, but it would be totally unfair of me to comment on that as Sonar was just about the only DAW I've never used.

Since I first started getting involved with music software, back in 1987, I've used just about everything from Steinberg Pro-12, C-Lab Creator and Passport Trax on the Atari ST to Logic Pro and Pro Tools HD on Mac Pro towers and I have to say that nothing has quite impressed me this much when it comes to the user having full control over the layout of the user interface so as to set the workflow the way they want it without compromise. It makes everything else feel like a compromise and I'm no longer prepared to do that just for the sake of being a loyal Mac user.

Sonar X1 is dumbed down... it's basically Garage Band 20.0

The latest changes have probably inspired a lot of Mac users to dream about trying SONAR on a store bought DAW.






I wonder if you need a back ground check to buy a Dell?

And yet Cakewalk just neglected to include valuable features and parameter entries from Pro Channel to make it "look" like some make believe vintage gear.

I agree with John about FX3 Soundstage.  I think that's the coolest reverb plug ever released.

skullsession


I agree with John about FX3 Soundstage.  I think that's the coolest reverb plug ever released.

I totally agree.