Thinking of Switching to Mac, But Sonar is for Windows...

I've Been looking at upgrading my mobile setup, and I'm thinking of getting a MacBook Pro. However, I recently noticed that Sonar X2 is windows only. I havn't upgraded to it yet from x1, and I'm not sure if I should. Is there a way that I could run Sonar on a mac or should I just switch to another DAW?

bapu



Ever since X1 (IIRC) bootcamp is no longer a viable option to run SONAR on a Mac.

HTH.

Yes We Can. ;)


http://blog.cakewalk.com/...-on-a-mac-yes-you-can/


See, X1 did NOT change everything...

Well, the problem I have is that I really do like Sonar and I do not want to switch, but I want to get a mac. I was thinking that I might just get logic or Pro Tools for the mac and keep a high powered Windows machine for the desktop to run Sonar to do the "real work." Although I would like to just run sonar on a laptop. I just want something that is portable and reliable, and preferably Sonar-ish.

But when I think about it, that kinda defeats the purpose of getting a mac. My purpose is to get a stable OS for audio, and boot camp would just make it like a Windows laptop. In that case I should just get a Windows Laptop. I'm thinking of getting Logic and Mainstage for the mac book for live performance, and then keep a windows rig at home for Sonar. I looked at Pro Tools and Cubase, and I really don't want to switch to them.

AH..  Rather than just writing this all over again, please read my latest post on Renoise's Forum...   My sn is 2 daze j...  I am the 2nd post in the thread

http://forum.renoise.com/...ps-for-it-but-so-what/

guitartrek

Rain - I checked out Logic 9 and was surprised how much it looks like X1 and X2 with the Arranger, Inspector, the list, the editor windows - same window management as the Sonar skylight interface.  Did Sonar get that look and feel from Logic?  Or did Logic get theirs from Sonar? 

Logic, back in 2007 IIRC. Screen sets were also something that was first implement in Logic, way back in the early days. :)




To the OP - you can't go wrong w/ Logic and Mainstage. Most of the guys I know who have laptops as part of their live rig (usually, keyboard players) are using MainStage. 

I've used Logic on a MacBook Pro for over two years now, 5 or 6 days a week, usually 8 hours or more a day. Bought the MacBook, installed Logic and I was done. No optimization, no tweaks, no need to mess w/ the task manager and to kill processes running in the background or to worry about stuff loading at startup.... 


The only times in two years where I actually had to think about technical/computer related-stuff is when running POD Farm, which is by all account one buggy piece of software on the Mac side, and when I first upgraded Kontakt to version 5. That one didn't play along well and it took a bit of tweaking.

kurrykid


You can try Parallels on your Mac. Then you can run both environments at the same time in the same space. I have a few Windows only programs I run (I haven't installed Sonar) and it works great...the 2 environments run in the same space.

I didn't want to turn my MacBook Pro into a Windows machine either with Bootcamp...I am very happy with the setup and it works flawlessly.

HTH

Dave

Exactly my point. However, Doesn't parallels not allow as much system resources for the program you are running? I. E. Sonar would crash often?

Edit: And also, how would that work with installing VSTs? Wouldn't they have to bee installed under parallels? It doesn't sound like it would work to well, and would consume a lot of system resources.

You would still be running Windows - side by side w/ OS X. I personally wouldn't opt for that (or even bootcamp) unless theres something on the PC platform which you really want to run on your MacBook. And if it's all that important, you may be better simply buying a PC laptop.

You know, assuming that you may need an audio interface for your laptop, there's pretty good chances that you could find one that comes w/ a light version of software (most of the time, cross-platform) like Pro Tools, Cubase or Studio One.

If you don't need a full blown DAW, any of these might work for you.

Frankly if I wanted a computer and my goal was to run Sonar, I would definitely buy a PC. I would not try to make it work on a Mac. The Mac is a terrific machine but if I was still using mostly Windows based stuff, I'd have a Windows machine. The good news is that almost all software have Mac versions available nowadays. We know Sonar doesn't have one and there doesn't appear to be any plans in the near future, which is fine.

Any idea why logic is now $199 vs $399 a couple years ago? Besides that, I think i'll stick to this plan of Logic/Reaper and Sonar under parallels/boot camp. I'm going mac looking to the future, but this way I'll have windows just in case.