bradstrongproject
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Am I truly missing out?
First off just to explain myself, I use Sonar for recreational, soon to (hopefully) be professional music production. I don't use any outside instruments besides a Access Virus TI. I mainly use softsynths. I have used Sonar for over 5 years and do enjoy it, I've learned it quite well and like what I can create with it, besides a lacking feeling of control of my sounds. On a side note I use Reason Re-Wire on occasion, this was my main program before I got into Sonar.
That being said. My concern is when I find any sort of "showdown" between the "top" DAW's I never see Sonar listed. It's always Logic, Ableton, and/or Reason(6.5 mainly). Coming from my POV I would consider Sonar to be a part of this "top tier list" but not many other people seem to think the same as me.
Am I truly missing out on the potential of Logic and/or Albeton? Granted this can be opinionated but if the majority seems to find those two to be where its at. I am starting to doubt myself.
Thanks in Advance!
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sharke
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Re:Am I truly missing out?
2012/10/16 01:32:08
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Best thing you can do is try the demos of those programs (where available). If you peruse the music tech forums like Gearslutz I think you'll find that Sonar is spoken very highly of among seasoned DAW users. I've heard Mac users lament that no Mac version is available, put it that way.
They all have their ups and downs. With regard to the "top" DAW's, a lot of their "top" status has to do with how popular they are. Things like Abelton and Reason have more street cred than Sonar, mainly because they are known to be used by big names in the world of electronic music. It's kind of like back in the day when most producers used Atari ST's in their studios. You could do exactly the same thing with an Amiga, but the Atari name became synonymous with music production more so than the Amiga, so that was that - nearly every hobbyist went for the Atari over the Amiga. Same thing with Macs versus PC's in the graphic design world.
To me, Sonar is an ideal balance of audio recording and MIDI sequencing. Abelton and Reason are more geared toward MIDI, while Pro Tools has always kind of lagged behind in the MIDI stakes but is more used for audio. I used Pro Tools for a while and it sucks compared to Sonar, despite being the "industry standard." Sonar seems to be the best of both worlds. But it depends on what kind of music you're into. I've heard it said that Sonar's automation capabilities aren't fully up to the task of producing Dubstep, for instance, but I don't quite know what that means.
You could also try watching a few YouTube tutorial videos for each DAW, get an idea of the workflow and figure out what the advantages of each one are.
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Mystic38
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Re:Am I truly missing out?
2012/10/16 07:48:34
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Ableton is arguably the most popular DAW for one reason.. it a a great platform for the live playing of loops... if this is not a feature you need there are several DAW more capable than Ableton...and it has its issues, for example..it does not support record automation for h/w synths.. a key component in the way i produce...where an osc control may be an nrpn
Each and every DAW has its plus's and minus's.. and a visit to other forums is the best place to learn of the *foibles* of each system... and tbh, even though I am frustated at a couple of things with Sonar, say i jumped to a DAW that had VST3 and multi-track automation support for VST (so that automation for Virus parts is linked to the appropriate tracks)...it would take me far longer to get up to speed on that DAW..then only to find that something i took for granted in Sonar is missing there.... so no, for me the grass isnt greener...
HPE-580T with i7-950, 8G, 1.5T, ATI6850, Win7/64, Motu 828 III Hybrid, Motu Midi Express, Sonar Platinum, Komplete 9, Ableton Live 9 & Push 2, Melodyne Editor and other stuff, KRK VXT8 Monitors Virus Ti2 Polar, Fantom G6, Yamaha S70XS, Novation Nova, Novation Nova II, Korg MS2000, Waldorf Micro Q, NI Maschine Studio, TC-VoiceLive Rack, 2012 Gibson Les Paul Standard, 2001 Gibson Les Paul DC, 1999 Fender Am Hardtail Strat, Fender Blues Jr, Orange TH30/PPC212, Tak EF360GF, one mic, no talent.
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Bristol_Jonesey
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Re:Am I truly missing out?
2012/10/16 08:27:47
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Am I truly missing out on the potential of Logic and/or Albeton? IMHO - No! But it's your call.
CbB, Platinum, 64 bit throughoutCustom built i7 3930, 32Gb RAM, 2 x 1Tb Internal HDD, 1 x 1TB system SSD (Win 7), 1 x 500Gb system SSD (Win 10), 2 x 1Tb External HDD's, Dual boot Win 7 & Win 10 64 Bit, Saffire Pro 26, ISA One, Adam P11A,
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garrigus
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Re:Am I truly missing out?
2012/10/16 08:48:44
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sharke
music. It's kind of like back in the day when most producers used Atari ST's in their studios. You could do exactly the same thing with an Amiga, but the Atari name became synonymous with music production more so than the Amiga, so that was that - nearly every hobbyist went for the Atari over the Amiga. Atari's built-in MIDI ports also had a lot to do with it. I still have my Atari 520ST system and it still works!  Scott -- Scott R. Garrigus - http://garrigus.com * Author of the Cakewalk Sonar and Sony Sound Forge Power book series: http://garrigus.com/?PowerBooks * Author of the Cakewalk Sonar ProAudioTutor video tutorial series: http://garrigus.com/?ProAudioTutor * Publisher of the DigiFreq free music technology newsletter: http://digifreq.com/?DigiFreq * Publisher of the NewTechReview free consumer technology newsletter: http://newtechreview.com/?NewTechReview
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bradstrongproject
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Re:Am I truly missing out?
2012/10/16 12:37:05
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Thank you for the responses, I played with Ableton a bit last night and it looks like its aimed more towards live performances, but then again I haven't dug that deep.
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stoutlyric
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Re:Am I truly missing out?
2012/10/16 12:53:14
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The new automation lanes and resolving all of the bugs in copying and pasting automation now make Sonar X2 a much better tool for dubstep production.
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CJaysMusic
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Re:Am I truly missing out?
2012/10/16 14:45:51
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Am I truly missing out? To each their own. you can have the best wife and your as happy as a maggot on a dead water buffalo. But then you start wondering if their is a better one out there. Its human nature. The only way for you to truly know is to try both of them.
Everyone has the grass is greener complex and sometimes it is, but most of the time its not (in my actual experiences)
CJ
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Bristol_Jonesey
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Re:Am I truly missing out?
2012/10/16 15:10:34
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CbB, Platinum, 64 bit throughoutCustom built i7 3930, 32Gb RAM, 2 x 1Tb Internal HDD, 1 x 1TB system SSD (Win 7), 1 x 500Gb system SSD (Win 10), 2 x 1Tb External HDD's, Dual boot Win 7 & Win 10 64 Bit, Saffire Pro 26, ISA One, Adam P11A,
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bradstrongproject
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Re:Am I truly missing out?
2012/10/16 18:14:48
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Fog
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Re:Am I truly missing out?
2012/10/16 19:00:23
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if you are looking at ableton, you might want to wait for bitwig by some of their ex-employee's..
I bought "live" a while back , they couldn't deliver it in 4 weeks so I cancelled the order and their attitude to customer service ROYALLY sucked. Along with m-audio / NI , I won't buy any of their products or will do my best to avoid them.
live's greatest asset is the elastic none tempo loop side *BUT* it's most used thing is in a live environment.
reason is quick , that's why I use is .. but well I still have to use sonar and cubase as well and would regardless for 1 major thing the VST angle.. things in each I like, and in cubases case stuff I know from the atari ST days , along with clab/notator (still have my ST / clab) not used it in years.
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