Seth Kellogg [Cakewalk]

Sanderxpander
It's gonna sound sarcastic, and it's NOT meant to, but I don't understand your point in relation to the OP?

SONAR is a sample accurate application. Reaper is not sample accurate in it's default configuration. Sample accuracy adds higher demands on system resources.

Testing Reaper in one of the sample accurate modes may show similar results to SONAR's baseline. 
 

Sorry, we cross-posted, I meant Mettelus and have edited my post to reflect that. Thanks for your explanation though!

Sanderxpander

Seth Kellogg [Cakewalk]

Sanderxpander
It's gonna sound sarcastic, and it's NOT meant to, but I don't understand your point in relation to the OP?

SONAR is a sample accurate application. Reaper is not sample accurate in it's default configuration. Sample accuracy adds higher demands on system resources.

Testing Reaper in one of the sample accurate modes may show similar results to SONAR's baseline. 
 

Sorry, we cross-posted, I meant Mettelus and have edited my post to reflect that. Thanks for your explanation though!

No worries!

Scook a link to that gearslutz test was posted in this thread earlier thanks.It's not a general comparison of Sonar to Reaper that I'm talking about it's how it handles this specific plugin that bothers me I would like it to be possible to mix down with the same amount of instances of Nebula in Sonar as in Reaper I would like to be able to do all my work in Sonar from tracking to final mix using this specific plugin and if I can't get that to work as I would like then it's either track in Sonar and final mix in Reaper or ditch Sonar and move over to Reaper which I have already paid for anyway.It would be ideal for me to be able to use only Sonar as I've paid for the melodyne upgrade,Karl's videos,prochannel modules etc.
 
              I've been patient with various problems through earlier versions of Sonar and I know all DAWs have their issues but I like the sound of Nebulas libraries and 6 instances just won't allow me to use it as I want.Sonar could run a billion instances of some other plugin compared to Reaper or another DAW but it's Nebula I want to use and Sonar feature rich as it is just doesn't seem to cooperate well with it figuring out why and finding a solution is the only agenda I have.When it comes to other issues I've had with Sonar I can usually find a workaround on my own this is only the 2nd time I've  asked for help on the forum the 1st time I solved the issue myself and I don't like asking for help but Nebula is a product I intend to keep using and using two conceptually different DAWs to get the job done is not my idea of smooth workflow as I'm sure almost anyone here would agree.

Seth's point is far more eloquent as far as any comparison should be as apples to apples as you can get (and few conducting sporadic "tests" put serious consideration into this).
 
There are a lot of variables at play in any system, so lump-summing a statement of a top level system is misleading. Simple things like latencies and buffers can be setup differently between X3 and Reaper as well... and if I wanted to literally choke X3 to death, I could easily do it starting in that one place alone (few plug-ins required). As far as the OP of X3 being "CPU hungry," the first place I would head is latency/buffers for better performance.
 
Dredging up the old thread was more of a distraction, sorry.

I've tested Reaper in sample accurate mode and it performs the same as before with no discernible difference.

I've set latency to max but I don't know what would be good buffer settings to use in Sonar?

The latency/IO buffers are a system specific thing that has a "sweet spot" that is system dependent. I just ran back through the thread quick but did not see what driver mode, and audio interface you are using. These also play into the overall picture. Realize that "maxed out" buffers can be just as bad as too small.
 
As far as finding the sweet spot for your system, it is good to take a fairly intensive project (the X3 demo project is a good choice) and use that for tailoring these.
 
ASIO mode with drivers specific to your interface are highly preferred. WDM mode is a best second, and anything other than these two tend to cause issues for most people (in general).
 
Start with the ASIO buffer at 128 (Preferences->Audio->Driver Settings->ASIO Panel...), and I/O buffers at 512 (Advanced Mode: Preferences->Audio->Synch and Caching)

1. Set preferred audio buffer.
2. Start playback.
3. If it drops out or other issues adjust I/O buffers in steps of 256.
4. Repeat steps 2 & 3. Try adjusting buffers both up and down until happy. 256 jumps should do.
5. If after trying all sizes up to 1024 you still have issues go back to step 1 and increase audio buffer to the next available setting (these are often "locked" to something like 128, 192, 256, 384, 512, 768, 1024, 2048).
6. Repeat as necessary until you find the "magic" combination for your setup.

   The default settings of 128/512 usually fit most scenarios fairly decently.
 
   As mentioned above, the driver mode you are using, and audio interface can also make a massive impact on "system," depending what they are.
 
 

Thanks for the advice Mettelus I tried every setting but still no go maximum 6 Nebula instances as before.The audio interface is a  Cakewalk Sonar V-Studio 100  I don't think there could be a more compatible system  with Sonar than their own interface with their own ASIO driver.I think I'm out of luck trying to use Sonar with Nebula.Thanks again for the help.

I wish I had a solution for you. I am not familiar with Nebula (at all), there was a post by bitflipper that might be helpful as far as work flow beyond this point.
 
There are a lot of folks in the forums who know plug-ins extremely well, and could probably suggest a comparable alternative for you if you are willing to go that route.

Mettelus Nebula is a plugin that is similar to convolution reverbs in that it uses impulse responses but instead of a single snapshot impulse response being used it uses multiple impulse responses and a technique called volterra kernelling to morph between the responses the more kernels the more realistic the emulation of the hardware (at least that's how I grasp the concept)It produces extremely realistic emulation of real hardware like preamps,eqs reverbs,compressors(the tonality of compressors rather than the response time though they're working on that too) even microphone frequency responses can be sampled to be add the flavour of classic mics to your recordings.It allows for excellent emulations of entire consoles for example there are Neve consoles and SSL consoles available from 3rd party library developers and it sounds very convincing but and it's a very big but it absolutely devours the CPU plus the interface isn't exactly user friendly however converts feel it's worth the hit.It's a bit like liquid mix done native (but with a better sound to my ears)