Hi All,
I was reading about the Roger Nichols Recording Method book this morning and got really excited. It sounds like the kind of thing I'd like to use for learning more about the engineering side of things.
BUT...
The example files are all for ProTools and I don't own it/don't plan to own it. So, I have a couple of questions:
 
1) Has anyone used this book with Sonar? If so, how useful were the examples?
 
2) Are there any other books or learning plans similar to this that use Sonar sample files? Even older Sonar files are better than ProTools, I would think.
 
 

Hi Ronald. I dont think you will find many recording or mixing books out there that use Sonar files or sessions as examples. Unfortunately it not considered to be an industry standard I suppose and the reason he has picked Pro Tools is that he is assuming it is more common overall. I would not let that stop me. They are probably multitrack sessions I guess and it may be possible to load those sessions into Pro Tools somewhere and convert the session tracks to just standard wave files that have been consolodated and then you will be able to import them into Sonar and perform the same work on them. Can you get access to Pro Tools somewhere to be able to do this. There may be studios in your area that could do this for a reasonable cost like one hour of studio time etc.. A fast PT engineer is going to be able to do it quickly.
 
Maybe the Pro Tools sessions are just wave files that have been consolidated anyway and you could drag them into Sonar as is or they may be clips all over the place and you will need to convert or consolidate them yourself. They may contain effects too and you might have to see what sort of effects they are and how they have been setup so you can duplicate the same sort of thing in Sonar.
 
There are resources like this:
 
http://www.cambridge-mt.com/ms-mtk.htm
 
There are tons of multitrack sessions here of many genres you can audition and download and use for the same purpose. These are just consolidated wave files and can be used with any DAW. I have found these to be very good too. You may have Sonar multi track sessions yourself you could use and adapt as well.
 
Check this article too there might be some points in it:
 http://www.soundonsound.c.../rogernichols_0806.htm
 
Here is a Groove 3 tutuorial on mixing designed around Sonar:
 http://www.groove3.com/str/mixing-with-sonar.html
 
All the Groove 3 stuff is excellent. Here is the page showing all the mixing videos:
http://www.groove3.com/str/mixing-training/
 
You could download stuff from the multitrack site above and apply it to any of these videos.
 
Here is another Groove 3 page showing more general music production skills:
http://www.groove3.com/st...ction-training-videos/
 
And if they do provide any material to work with I bet it will be in a format that will allow you to import it into any DAW as well.

Thanks, Jeff! That's a lot to look over/into.
I'll definitely give the Groove3 stuff a close look; I bought their series on understanding Sonar X3 and found it really, really informative.
I'm both sorry and surprised to hear that Sonar isn't considered industry standard or even close enough to warrant consideration for pro-level instruction.
I considered downloading the ProTools demo just for using with the book, if that's even possible, but it's their strict hardware requirements that hold me back.
 
Again, thanks for all the information and links.