Win 8 64bit & Sonar X3 Producer: Current verdict?

If I had to redo . I would never go with W8 and metro ever!! Just a waste of an OS and the learning curve sucks. I only use my windows machine for Sonar and music. If I had to I would stay with W7 64 bit. I didnt notice a difference at all accept , i dont know where anything is compare to xp. or w7 . Just to find the control panel becomes a problem. METRO is for smartphones and tablets should never be part of a real OS.
 
45% of people still use Windows 7
7.1% use Window 8
33% still use xp
 
As MS's track record goes. I believe Windows 8 will end up being something like Vista . better yet I hope !
 
 

Win 8 x 64 has been rock solid here. Much more stable than Win 7 Ultimate was for me. Just personal experience.
 
You get used to Metro, people just didnt like the change (me included). Win 8.1 brings back the start button and Win 8 still has "Windows God mode" which is quite handy for people who want to tweak and fiddle.

I made the move from 7 to 8. Stayed on 8 for a little while until the scary storys about 8.1 settled down. I made the to 8.1 and I have not had a hitch with the whole process. I did set the 8.1 screen to go directly to the familiar desktop instead of the "Charms" screen. My rig boots up and looks just like 7 did. Other than the inevitable moving around of things and "some things only took one click now takes two" niggles, once you get used to it all seems faster and a little more peppy. As I said, after a few months of 8.1 I am VERY pleased. And Sonar 3 seems happier, too.  Geesh, sounds like a commercial. NOTICE: The main thing I didn't like about 8 was they took away the traditional start and power button. It was happily returned in the 8.1 update. Set your computer to boot directly to the desktop and you'll not notice much difference!

Make sure your devices have drivers for Windows 8 and Windows 8.1, prior to making the switch.
 
I have been running Windows 8 for a couple of years or so already - did not yet upgrade to 8.1 - I like most things about it.
 
I just pinned the apps I most often use to the Task Bar, and set up the Metro tiles with the next set of most-used apps as the leftmost tiles, so the new UI is really no big deal.  The performance is great.
 
Bob Bone
 

LJB
Thanks for the input guys. Other than features as selling points, how stable is 8.1? (which is more my reason for looking at the change). Does one still get odd pauses, a crash or two a day etc etc as with Win 7? How smooth does the system run, and how well does it manage resources? Thanks, I just saw Markyzno's reply regarding this..

 
If you have stability issues with Windows 7 you probably need to look elsewhere for the cause to make your system more stable (start another thread about this I suggest). I don't get the behaviour you describe with Win7.
 
In reality there will be not much difference at all between Win 7 and Win 8.1 unless your drivers are exclusively different in Win8.1 for some reason, and that doesn't automatically mean they are better. Before you update to Win 8.1 you might try a clean install of Win 7 (format the partition first), with all the latest drivers, firmware Windows update and service patches for instance, it might feel like a new machine afterwards.

BTW I am running Windows 8.1 and Windows 7. Sonar runs great on both at my end. In my view I would not waste your money on a 3 year old machine upgrading to an OS that runs exactly the same software, money is better spent elsewhere.

@LJB - I concur with Alex - if your Windows 7 system is not stable with Sonar, then you have some issues that will nearly certainly continue to cause the same problems after a Win 8 or 8.1 move.
 
I would suggest you post each issue that you can identify with a complete list of your specs and settings - see mine at the bottom of this post for an example, including any steps you can list for anything that is reproducible. 
 
Is it one project, or maybe a small number of them, or is it all projects?  Do they crash, are you plagued with latency/dropouts/crackles?  Do you have 32-bit plugins present in these projects?  What exact audio interface are you using (or is it your sound chip of the computer)?  Is your Windows maintenance up to date? Etc.....
 
Bob Bone
 

gustabo
Win 8 is more bearable to me by using Classic Shell.

I am convinced that the MS developers/coders of the Win 8 UI hung out where pot became legalized when they designed the new ui for win 8.

LOL perhaps they should have!
I guess I need to buy a book to learn the new OS .oh wait maybe 2 one for 8 and one for 8.1.
 Never needed a book to understand any of my OSX updates.  I equally been using windows since 3.11 workgroup and OSx 7 for my powermac. Never till W8 came out have I been so baffeled by an OS . The community outlash on W8 has not been good . There are more complaints than any OS ever. And those are the facts im not the only inept person using W8.

djjhart@aol.com

gustabo
Win 8 is more bearable to me by using Classic Shell.

I am convinced that the MS developers/coders of the Win 8 UI hung out where pot became legalized when they designed the new ui for win 8.

LOL perhaps they should have!
I guess I need to buy a book to learn the new OS .oh wait maybe 2 one for 8 and one for 8.1.
 Never needed a book to understand any of my OSX updates.  I equally been using windows since 3.11 workgroup and OSx 7 for my powermac. Never till W8 came out have I been so baffeled by an OS . The community outlash on W8 has not been good . There are more complaints than any OS ever. And those are the facts im not the only inept person using W8.

Ah I see now you think computing is supposed to be simple and easy. It is for the vast majority but there are a few of us that like to know more. Some of us don't just want to use an OS but master it. I build my own machines and like to keep up on new technology. 
 
Think of it this way when X1 came out I was one very strong supporter of it. I ran up against many that where bashing it at almost every turn. Many claimed it was a step backwards. It was a very difficult time for me yet I did promote it as best as I could. The reason was I saw the potential in the X series. I understood why CW changed Sonar. I didn't come by this view through osmosis. It required that I did a lot of reading and research. Now everyone is on board the X series train and its as if they were never in opposition to it.
 
Windows 8/8.1 is in the same phase where we have a group that make statements bashing it without having looked at with any depth or understanding of what it offers. 
 
You don't like the metro start screen, fine. But when someone says that it is clear to me they haven't understood it.  Yes Windows is not OSX and hopefully never will be. It demands a little effort from the end user.  But the end user is rewarded with a very versatile and powerful OS that can do just about anything. 
 
The notion of a power user is never applied to a Mac user and the reasons are many but the one that sticks out is that Macs are not meant for people that are unafraid of technology but rather wish to embrace it. 
 
Yes I read a lot and yes I try to learn about all the tools I use.  I don't see that as a problem.  
 
 
 
 
   

markyzno

robert_e_bone
@LJB - I concur with Alex - if your Windows 7 system is not stable with Sonar, then you have some issues that will nearly certainly continue to cause the same problems after a Win 8 or 8.1 move.
 
 

Thats not true, Win 7 was very unstable with my AMD card giving me a black screen of death. Win 8.1 has been stable as anything.

I suppose I should have made a more generalized statement, but I do believe that the percentage of unstable Windows 7 systems in the Sonar community is likely pretty small, given the infrequent posted issues related to instability with the OS.
 
I certainly don't intend to get into a debate about the issue.  I think in general terms it is a reasonable approach to identify the current issues, as best as possible, with the OP's Windows 7 system, which may well be fixable.
 
Most folks here in the forum seem to have stable Windows 7 systems, and issues that do get posted are usually with outdated maintenance, shaky drivers, 32-bit plugins or other 3rd-party plugin problems, or Fire Wire chip set problems, rather than some general instability with Windows 7.
 
That's not to say these isn't some conflict with a video card, or something like that, but again listing the issues and providing some detail could offer easy opportunity to resolve those on Windows 7.
 
To the best of my knowledge, I cannot think of a single instance where drivers for a particular device worked better in Windows 8 than they did in Windows 7 - usually the other way around.
 
In any case, I hope the OP does post their issues, so that we can collectively see if we can help get them stabilized.
 
Bob Bone
 

I can't understand people who say Windows 8 is too hard to learn then give up on it. I'm still on 7 on my desktop but recently bought a Windows 8 laptop. It took me approximately one evening to get up to scratch, all I had to do was read a couple of QuickStart guides. Admittedly the Metro interface is optimized for touch. And if you are using a touch screen, it is a fantastic UI experience. I wouldn't even consider going back to the old start menu - Metro is basically a beautiful, luxurious new start menu once you get your head around it (which takes minutes). If you swipe up from the middle of the screen, you get a much larger and more detailed menu with everything in. The front screen is for live tiles, which you can customize. I'm zipping all over the place like never before. The swipes and gestures are second nature after a while. And I flit between Metro and the desktop with ease with the Windows key.

I can see, however, that some without touch screens might want to bypass Metro and install a classic start menu. I know people who use a Metro with a mouse without problems however. Even without Metro, Windows 8 is an awesome OS. I cannot understand the butthurt, then again I didn't understand the butthurt with Vista either, having used it for 2 years without a single issue. I honestly think a lot of it is meme-based - it becomes fashionable to bash a new OS, especially a Microsoft one, and doing so gives one the air of a tech-savvy pro who knows more than the average consumer.

If you have an SSD, Windows 8 boots ridiculously fast. My laptop takes about 2 seconds (seriously), and once I enter my password the whole thing is chomping at the bit without any noticeable lag. I really feel like I've joined the 21st century with this OS.

I have 8.164 running here on two systems - desktop and laptop - both a few years old now, not super powerful by today's standards - and they both run X3P just fine, smooth and stable up to the limits of the hardware they're running on. 
 
I have never understood the bizarre intense kneejerk negative reactions to Win8, as far as I'm concerned it's a great OS, robust and user-friendly and full-featured, and has been pretty much since release. I like 8.1 a bit more because it seems a bit more refined all around but the rage about the Start button/page remains a mystery to me - not because I love the Metro interface or even use it or look at it very often, but because it really doesn't affect me at all. I use the desktop most of the time, switching if I need to search for something.
 
So in short, in my experience, it works great and W8.1 is a very enjoyable environment. My two shekels, ymmv as always... 

Great experience on Win8, not gone to 8.1 yet.

After installing Sonar X3d on my Windows 8.1 x64 system I realized it wasn't as simple a setup as Windows 7 x64 was. It seems MS has decided the Win8 platform to be everything to everyone so it has EVERYTHING RUNNING. It may and will take a little more time to go through the OS itself and tame it's background functions... But once you get that taken care of and set things up right you will be surprised at how much more stable and faster Sonar seems to run under the same hardware environment on Windows 8.1.

CakeAlexS

LJB
Thanks for the input guys. Other than features as selling points, how stable is 8.1? (which is more my reason for looking at the change). Does one still get odd pauses, a crash or two a day etc etc as with Win 7? How smooth does the system run, and how well does it manage resources? Thanks, I just saw Markyzno's reply regarding this..

 
If you have stability issues with Windows 7 you probably need to look elsewhere for the cause to make your system more stable (start another thread about this I suggest). I don't get the behaviour you describe with Win7.
 
In reality there will be not much difference at all between Win 7 and Win 8.1 unless your drivers are exclusively different in Win8.1 for some reason, and that doesn't automatically mean they are better. Before you update to Win 8.1 you might try a clean install of Win 7 (format the partition first), with all the latest drivers, firmware Windows update and service patches for instance, it might feel like a new machine afterwards.

BTW I am running Windows 8.1 and Windows 7. Sonar runs great on both at my end. In my view I would not waste your money on a 3 year old machine upgrading to an OS that runs exactly the same software, money is better spent elsewhere.

I agree it needs to be a different topic but just an FYI: This is the reason I went to 8.1: One day several months ago Sonar X(n) win7x64 started freezing while trying to do anything (record, navigate, even close the program). CW said it could be the audio driver. Tried different drivers, then cards, clean install, etc... nothing would fix it. Broke. Spent weeks cleaning and installing everything over and over, building system images with varying drivers etc just to troubleshoot the issues. Went to Win 8x64 and the same driver packages and everything works... After my many years of technical support experience I couldn't figure out what happened and a clean install of windows 7 didn't fix it.

I'm +1 with Alex on the current state of OS.
 
I think the best system is the one that allows me to do what I want when I want.  still waiting...