So, What exactly is P5?

I've been reading various posts trying to figure it out. It seems an intriguing program. I have Sonar Home Studio 6XL, and I have to wonder, what does P5 have to offer? What am I missing by not having P5?

ORIGINAL: RobertB

I've been reading various posts trying to figure it out. It seems an intriguing program. I have Sonar Home Studio 6XL, and I have to wonder, what does P5 have to offer? What am I missing by not having P5?

Hi Robert ........MY Friend..My Old Buddy
the question s...
what does P5 have to offer ?
What am I missing by not having P5 ?
can mean many different things ...to many different people..
last year P5 to me was just a pathway to Dim Pro ...
now P 5 means something else entirely ......to me....
I'm gonna chime in a little , and then sit this out untill some of the other fellas here chime in ,
as they are better at explanations that are more logical than mine....
To me P 5 is a wonderfull software musical application ,
P5 can blow the doors wide open and free up a persons musical creativity .
you can go linear...like HS / Sonar...or you can use the groove matrix and create patterns and grooves to drop in a tune on the fly..
you can audition in real time midis , P5 patterns , waves...
while playing them you can transpose them to lock into a desired formula or even create a formula beyond your wildest dreams....
kinda like a cross between HS / SONAR, Abelton Live, Acid Pro , F..L.
very Hybird in its ability to accomplish in a simple direct fashion with out genre limitations a multitude of musical tasks...as a host...as a slave...
.........oooh that sounds kinky........
P 5 offers many features such as device chains and the ability to midi preview to name a few that I miss the second I go back to SONAR

IMO with P 5 , once you have a bassic knowledge of its way of doing things ...
Ya never have to suffer from looking at a blank screen with a case of musical writers block....

btw anthing I might say about P 5 is not gonna do much as far as an explanation ..
so that was just a taste untill the calvary arives...

Kenny

To Trusty's and Kenny's description I would add a couple of things that seem to pop up frequently as P5 features that people seem to like...


**P5 has better midi functionality than Sonar. It's easier to record and edit midi.
**P5 has a more efficient "workflow" for some, meaning it's easier to record, edit, and arrange patterns/clips/grooves (compared to more traditional programs like Sonar).

Then there are the features (some of which are mentioned above) that P5 has, that Sonar doesn't have - the arpegiator, a couple of softsynths and effects, the groove matrix.

HTH.

eric

Thanks all,
I think I'll give it a go. I've downloaded the demo, and will be playing with that while I save up for the real thing.
Cryophonic, I hear you on the intuitive thing. It seems to be highly subjective, relative to the user. I think it has a lot to do with the balance of left brain/right brain activity. I'm not entirely sure where I sit in that mix, but with guidance and determination, I can usually find my way.
Kenny, hopefully you won't regret this.

SonarHS is an interesting option.....

1. Not as overwhelming as SonarPE or SE.

2. Same linear features as Project5

3. A Mixer window.

4. The better "Sonar" engine. Whatever that means.


If it can hold the instruments I use, with a lighter cpu load, and for $80 ?

Interesting.......

We need to find someone with both P5v2.5 and SHS for comparison.

ORIGINAL: RobertB

Thanks all,
I think I'll give it a go. I've downloaded the demo, and will be playing with that while I save up for the real thing.
Kenny, hopefully you won't regret

Hi Robert,
good move on the getting demo....
I doubt that I will regret this at all ....
P 5 is a little bit different with the learning curve ...not to bad actualy ...once the ball is rolling it is amasing how much can be done with just the bare esentals knowledge wise..
if you want ....or if you have any issues wraping your head around P5 feel free to contact me ...you know how to ....
IMO , I think you might be suprised on what ways P5 can be usefull. even to acoustic guitar strummers...
I have a ton of Jams I built up using the Groove Matrix
I love jamming away to them..
setting up a typical band ...like a bass , drums, and keys / synths is so easy ....
P 5 dosent even break a sweat for that sort of thing...

I'm not gonna hawk any of my tunes here , the 3 or 4 I did that started life out in P 5 and stayed mostly there ...
were the tunes that gave me the least amount of headaches...and were fun to boot..

fwiw...this is the fist I'm mentioning this ....( so much for keeping a secret ...)
I did use P5 on the latest song collab with James for my bass part on Better Days...
I took the tune ...put it into P5 ...and using the Dim Pro and the paino roll I wound up mapping out 80 percent of the Bass ...
then using Rewire I ended up bouncing the P5 parts into the SONAR project
once it was in there I grabed my bass and replaced the midi parts with some good old USA P Bass style ....

in your case you could take a tune like your Project 45 ...import it into P5 ...match the tempo ....and then by using the pattern browser audition patterns / waves and midis for some of the other desired instruments and sounds..and build something up that way...
many of the patterns that come with P5 are contempory and they are quite usefull for comming up with song parts...
..... Mocking Bird was done using stock P 5 patterns that I tweaked....

the stock patterens in P 5 are usualy in the Key of C and to transpose the patterns in P5 is pretty easy...
you have a section on each track that alows you to add efx..transpose, add device chains.....and a whole other bunch of Jazz....

nice rapping with you ...
Kenny

its a secret society way more secret and clandestine than P2

I'm afraid if I told you that I would have to kill you





P5 is an unsubstansiated rumour and that's all you need to know

The reason I suggest this is that some people, especially Sonar, FLS, and Reason users, seem to have a hard figuring out how to use P5. This seems odd to me, since the app was so intuitive to me when I first opened it that i didn't even crack the manual until I was halfway through composing a song. Other people just don't seem to get it right off the bat, but with a little training, it should become very intuitive very quickly.

I had this same experience
It just seemed to fit exactly with how I wanted to work.
For a while, I thought maybe people had been trained to work with other hosts and so had a hard time unlearning and relearning, but I'm more inclined now to believe that some people are more suited to other workflow patterns -- which is why there may be so many choices available -- and some just slip into how P5 works without having to figure anything out.

If I try to use Sonar or Live, I'm constantly referencing Help or tutorials and what I learn doesn't stick all that well.

ORIGINAL: RobertB

do I need to learn the secret handshake or sacrifice a goat or anything?

Nah...your in

ORIGINAL: RobertB

OK,
It seems the timing was right, I sprung for the $99 download version.
It's downloaded and installed. No issues so far(at least in the first ten minutes).
Houston....we have ignition.
Artsoul, do I need to learn the secret handshake or sacrifice a goat or anything?

OK,
It seems the timing was right, I sprung for the $99 download version.
It's downloaded and installed. No issues so far(at least in the first ten minutes).
Houston....we have ignition.
Artsoul, do I need to learn the secret handshake or sacrifice a goat or anything?

I think you have to sacrifice cattle with the Houston reference

Welcome to the club

Ed

Indeed. I'm planning on getting Dim Pro in the future, having gotten a taste of it with SHS6, but in the meantime, I have plenty to work with.
Thanks Ed,
I may be able to come up with a chicken. We have lots of produce in Brighton, too. I'm not sure if sacrificing lettuce counts.