UPGRADE ADVICE

Hello there folks,I have Sonar 4 studio which came with the purpose built carillon music pc
i bought roughly 4 years ago.

Due to being too busy playing in various bands i have not done any recording on the pc.

Now i have the time i was wondering if its worth my while upgrading sonar to a newer version

Ill be using Sonar to record miked up guitar,bass,vocals along with jamstix 3 and maybe
session drummer 3? for the drum tracks which i may replace with recording a live drummer in a studio later.I wont be using much soft synths or midi tracks etc,im looking for something that 
can keep things simple and maybe valve simulation as i like the recording sound of 50's/60's
rock n roll and garage band era production along with stax and ska classics.Though the 
virtual guitar amps ive tried dont really cut it.

My sound card is EMU with patchmix dsp

So is upgrade worth it or plugins etc 

Cheers Dunnzer

Beagle


It really depends on what you need for your recording and how you use sonar.

what are your computer specs?  are you using winxp?

upgrading to sonar x1 studio or even producer might not be viable for your system.  check out the system specs first.

honestly only you can decide if the upgrade is worht it or not.  I might think it is, but you might not think it's worth your money.

you might try using Sonar 4 studio and see how it works for you since you haven't used it in a while.  and if you find you are lacking something, consider upgrading. but be warned, X1 is a very diferent program.  the workflow is completely different and it will take some relearning!

Thanks for the reply Beagle


for the record my system specs are WindowsXP,intel(R)Pentium(R) D CPU 3.20GHz 2.40GHz 0.99 GB of RAM, i presume that means ive 32 bit audio? 


As you can prob tell im not a computer boffin,more used to recording in analog studios as a musician and have used reel to reel and cassette portastudios at home myself.


Gonna take your advice and try out some stuff on sonar 4 studio but def think i need to 
get some tube warmth/saturation going on so will look for some plugins or might buy a tube front end and put it before the MindPrint pre amp built into my computer.

cheers Cactus

Looks like ill not upgrade at the minute,though not sure if i need put more ram in my pc?-bit surprised the computer ive got is not able to handle a newer version of sonar as it cost me a small fortune at the time!


As you say if im only using a few of soft synths and jamstix 3 along with a max of 8
audio tracks then i should be ok.The only things i maybe need are more drum kit options 
for jamstix 3 and maybe some eq and msatering efx though theres loads of EMU effects 
on my pc that i havnt tried yet.


Oh and the lexicon pantheon reverb bundled with Sonar 4,surely theres a better reverb than that? 

Yes, RAM and Hard drives are easy upgrades that won't put you out of pocket. A new hard drive is always a good thing as to avoid the dreaded  "dead drive" syndrome. I'm still using Sonar 7 because I see no advantage to upgrade. 2 minutes of reading the x1 forum will always set me straight again when tempted.  If it ant fixed , don't broke it.

Bristol_Jonesey


Dunnzer - there is a lot of mileage inside the Pantheon if you're prepared to get your hands dirty and see what it can really do.

Will have another go with the Pantheon Jonesey,also thinking of buying the Nomad Magnetic and Echoes plugins as they seem to have a good stab at creating some warmth,once ive upgraded my ram i presume they will run fine in SOnar 4 etc

Looking mainly for a BeagleSound response, but will appreciate any and all advice,
 
I've been out of it for the last year or five or so.  My wife had cancer and a lot has happened that kept me from being involved musically.  I'm finally getting around to getting back in to some home recording for my own amusement.  (It makes me appreiciate real artists more )  I've followed the forums intermittantly and I've always respected your answers in the various forums.  I've got Sonar 8.5.3 loaded up on a 64 bit Windows 7 system and on an XP tablet (32 bit).  I was just learning 8.5 when I last played with such things.  I had purchased the tutorial and a book but had to put them down for a long time.  I'm now back to being a newbie.
 
In your opinion would it be wiser to just go ahead with what I've got or should I upgrade to X1?  $99.00 isn't a lot of money to me but on the other hand - I'm not a professional and what I have already would have made Abbey Road or Electric Ladyland (In the early 70's) studios look like primitive setups.  (equipment wise)  I'm also a little afraid of losing something I quite like.  Both versions have so many features that it is really difficult to evaluate what you might gain or lose via an upgrade to X1.
(In the old days, one of my "upgrades" removed Session Drummer 2 from my system and I found it annoying.)
 
Anyway, as I said, your answers (BeagleSound.com) usually seem to be grounded in experience and common sense so I'd appreciate your advice.
 
Thanks
Jeek
 

Thank you very much but unfortunately, my wife died in August of 2010.  I still miss her all day, every day.
 
I think I will see how much I do with 8.5.3 over the next few months.  I'm tempted to purchase X1 and just sit on it until I'm ready for it just in case the price goes up when X2 or whatever is released.  There is no point in going through a steeper learning curve to find that I'm just not going to use it that much anymore.  Right now I'm kind of forcing myself to be interested in something just hoping that one day I might actually start enjoying it again.  I'm trying to learn how to play guitar again too!  I haven't had time to much of anything since 2005.  I wish that were still the case.  I'd give up just about anything to have her back.  I was extemely happily married for almost 34 years and that is something special these days.  I appreciate your response and thanks for the information!!  People like me would always be struggling if people like you weren't around.
 
 
Beagle


Hi Jeek - I hope your wife is doing better - that's the most important thing!

X1 is a completely different beast than 8.5.  if you learn 8.5 then a lot of what you will be learning will be outdate if you EVER update to a new version of sonar because I'm sure they will not go back to the 8.5 way of doing things. 

having said that - if you're happy with 8.5 and don't really need to update for a long time (a couple of years maybe) then there's no point in upgrading if 8.5 does everything you need.

8.5 is a great program, IMO.  but so is X1.  I really like the Smart Tool in X1 after I got used to using it.  but there are some things that they changed from 8.5 to X1 that I do not like - for example I do not like having to go to the Track Inspector to change start, stop times, etc of a clip when I am so used to being able to just right click on the clip and bring up the properties to change that.

what I would base my decision on if I were you is: 

1. is there stuff in the upgrade which would help you for your workflow or tools which you think would work better for you than the tools available in 8.5 (such as ProChannel and other additions that they put into X1 which weren't in 8.5)
2. is the money an issue ( you said it really wasn't much of an issue)
3. do you think you might upgrade in the near future?  (X1 is the future, no point in learning 8.5 if you're going to upgrade to X2 or X3 or whatever they call it)

on the note about Session Drummer 2 - no installation of a new version should ever 'uninstall" the old version plugins and synths.  if that happened you should be able to put your old disk in and reinstall only Session drummer2.

Thank you very much and I'll take all of prayers I can get.  My wife and I prayed together every night before bed and it was always a comfort to me.  I pray alone now but I still feel closer to her every night.