Brad Russell


Benjamin, I'm sorry. I can't tell if you're kidding. 

I have 4 Terabytes of HD storage on my DAW, 8 GB of RAM. What about our huge sample libraries? I also record 48 tracks at once every week. I don't think an ipad will be a serious solution for me for a long time. 

Brad - great thread!  I agree that it is the right time for Sonar to be ported over to Mac.  I resisted Apple products all my life up until a couple years ago when I got my first iPhone and iPad, and read the Steve Jobs biography.  I totally changed my opinion about Apple.  Their hardware is second to none as far as quality and durability goes.  I'm considering a MacBook Pro, however, I'm used to a laptop with a  17" screen and higher resolution so I may not go with a Mac just yet....
 
Who knows?  Maybe when they re-did Sonar with X1 and X2 they were getting ready for a more OS independant set of code?  Is the code written so it can easily be ported over?  Or is it so tightly tied to MS still?  It would be nice to hear from Noel - he would know.
 
And Keni's statement about 3rd party solutions that allow Sonar to run on OSX sounds very interesting.
 
I do think Cake needs to think seriously about iPad.  Of course running huge libraries is kind of out of the question at the moment, but the cost of Ram gets cheaper all the time.  2 Terrabyte SSD drives are now on the market.  It's only going to be a matter of time - maybe a couple years - before memory is not going to be an issue.  You could "sync" projects that you want to work on from your main DAW, just like you synq movies.  You can do some mixing or arranging on the plane, or do some recording on location.  That way you can keep the main projects on your DAW - perfectly in sync.

Well, we just about beat this dead horse into the ground, but since Cakewalk is under new ownership now....bump!

There's no market for it, its saturated already (Linux would be a better idea). Development costs would be pretty big (wanna pay double for you next version of Sonar?), and there's still much to do with the PC version to make it a killer app. Install boot camp and you are done (maybe)., Apples are just PCs in disguise anyway. Best ROI for cakewalk as far as new software is concerned are tablet apps and plugins.

Apple dropping the price of Logic to $199 via direct sale only was basically a sign posted on the Mac that said "We own this market. Go away."
 
Apple has contributed a lot to our world, but one aspect I don't like is how they've devalued software in order to sell hardware.
 
Logic has made a major dent in market share for other programs. So Sonar would not only be coming into the game late, but have to gain back market share that other companies have lost to Logic. That would be difficult for any company to do, let alone one of Cakewalk's size.
 
That said, there's still some room to move in the Mac market, but I believe you will see Apple more and more offering Apple software for Apple computers...and if you want to try and take on a company that has billions in the bank from consumer electronics, and knows what hardware and software changes are coming up before anyone else, you're welcome to try.

Cakewalk hates it when I tell people that Sonar works well on Boot Camp, because they don't support it officially and don't want to deal with support issues...or give mixed messages about Mac and Windows. So please, don't tell anyone at Cakewalk about this post   Some evil spirit took me over and made me type this.

You guys did see that letter from UA about what works with the new Mac desktop and what will never work with the new desktop...right? "Unfortunately UAD-2 SOLO, DUO, and QUAD PCIe cards cannot be made to work with the new Mac Pros."

Anderton
You guys did see that letter from UA about what works with the new Mac desktop and what will never work with the new desktop...right? "Unfortunately UAD-2 SOLO, DUO, and QUAD PCIe cards cannot be made to work with the new Mac Pros."

That's going to upset more than a few Mac users, especially studios that are running Macs with a ton of UAD plugins.

BenMMusTech

Brad Russell


Benjamin, I'm sorry. I can't tell if you're kidding. 

I have 4 Terabytes of HD storage on my DAW, 8 GB of RAM. What about our huge sample libraries? I also record 48 tracks at once every week. I don't think an ipad will be a serious solution for me for a long time. 

 
I am being serious, I am a music tech specialist and I can see the writing on the wall.  I did say we were about a year or two away but lets say for agument sake your like me and many others here on the forum, that is we are hybrid musicians/digital musicians.  All we need is a couple of inputs and outputs.  So for most of us an Ipad will do the job. 
 
As for your argument, that is you record 48 tracks at once, it's not a viable option at the moment but on saying that I know of quite a few high end interfaces eg: RME that will now work with ipad, I believe it has to do with core audio.  So that takes care of the sound quality, next we have to look at SSD speeds, ram speeds and throughput of the apple connectors.  Now I am not sure of these facts but I believe a gig of ram should be enough to buffer 48 tracks of audio at 24bit 44.1Khz, the only problem seems to be storage and the throughput of the apple connector.
 
I believe that these problems will be solved in the near future, lets say apples next Ipad comes with a thunderbolt connector, this would allow you to hook multiple devices to the ipad, possibly in some sort of daisy chain format.  It would also allow you to connect a HD monitor to the ipad and external hard drives.  Couple this with a bluetooth keyboard and you have a very small touch screen laptop that could sit quite nicely in front of your large screen monitor and control things. 
 
Hold the presses I forgot about all the new and exciting interfaces that are availible now, there are fully functioning digital mixers from MAKIE and BEHRINGER which you slide your ipad into.  It wouldn't take much to build USB and HDMI connectors into the desk so you can record 48 tracks. 
 
Honestly this is the way of the future!!
 
Peace Ben

Ben, i was almost going to agree with you until you about certain things, then you started on about you being a music tech........... again.

I have an iPad. It will NOT do the jobas a desktop or powerful laptop will, it has no memory for stocking samples etc, nor large wav files, nor large programmes etc etc.

Its merely a way to a means - i don't have to go 5 metres to press a record button, i use V-Control (which if i remeber correctly, you have also).

IMHO i can't see a tablet replacing a desktop in the near or medium term - they just can't deal with the amount of info they will need to stock.

Also, fro the "new" Mackie and Behringer mixers, sure its interesting, but give me a real slider anyday than a finger swipe. And the iPads are only control devices not the mixers, which lets face it, do the majority of the work.
I await to see your designs for integrating USB and HDMI.........

Digitech have a pedal board that you programme (that is the operative word) using your iPad. But when you're using the thing live as a glorified stomp box, then i would not like my iPad any where near my clumsy feet.

Keni made the best post here.

Sorry Ben, you've not convinced me at all. Tablets as an aid, yes no issue. Tablets as a DAW, well, no.

Cheers,
Jerry

Brad Russell

It seems like Cakewalk is missing something here. The Apple marketshare has been steadily increasing over the last 10 years.

If it is, it's not by much. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems OSX has only 7.5% of the OS marketshare. Windows has 86%. 
 
 

Brad Russell
Well, we just about beat this dead horse into the ground, but since Cakewalk is under new ownership now....bump!

Guess you missed the http://www.cakewalk.com/page.aspx/Gibson-FAQ where the new owners already answered your question:
 
Will Cakewalk develop a Mac version of SONAR? 
Many musicians already run SONAR on the Mac using Boot Camp and various other solutions, so there are no plans for a Mac version at this time. However, Mac and iOS support for other products will play an important part in Cakewalk’s future.