lawp
I'm interested to know how you're using it - mainly audio or vst or what? you're perennially happy

I'm in a project right now that is all audio. But I often do MIDI stuff. My uses very greatly it will depend on what I take on for a project. The one I am working on now will be a CD and a video. 
 
While I am doing that I am also doing a documentary that will also use Sonar for narration. 
 
I'm still shooting the doc.

The Kiosk Project

John
I don't know what it is exactly and I can't see a noticeable graphic difference that matters but Sonar X3c Producer is the most fun DAW I have yet used. It seems to elicit joy in its use. I just like it and get a good feeling when its being used. Is it its stability? Is it how easy it is to get along with it? How simple things are to do? I can't put my finger on it. All I do know is its a gas!
 
CW has brought wow back into computer audio. Thank you CW. 

I feel exactly the same John, I cant put my finger on it either. I have had X3 for exactly three weeks now, and I have never felt so productive and inspired to sit at my console and compose and put the software through its paces. Your post got me thinking, why ? For me, I can perhaps put it down to at least these reasons:-
 
First and foremost, every other version of Sonar I have had,from V6 onwards, has always crashed on me, infrequently perhaps, but always a little disturbing when it does. X3 has had 100% uptime, with zero crashes on the same DAW hardware and Win 7 64-bit OS that I have ran X1, X1 expanded and X2.
 
Yes, custom track colours too, puts back a much missing feature from beyond Sonar 8.5. 
 
Plug-in management. The default menu layout of VST's seems so much more tidy and logical when inserting softsynths, so it looks and feels like a professional system as well as performing like one. Ditto the VST
auto scanning not interfering with getting up and running on start up.
 
Put that together with future proofing with VST3 capability, and the ARA integration of Melodyne, and I think the sum total of the other enhancements and additional plugins, gives the feeling that this is a toolset that can really get you where you need to get, musically speaking. YMMV of course, but for some of us, I think X3 has reached a critical mass of functionality, stability and useability that wasn't quite there before.
 
Yes, I'm a happy bunny too...
 
Garry Kiosk

I think you have hit many points that help explain what I'm talking about. I think you understand where I am coming from. It is greater then its sum. It just flows for me and does seem more professional. I think what prompted my post was earlier I was fooling around with another DAW. Then I started back working on this current project. Now some of this is due to me knowing Sonar but I've known Sonar for a long time. It has worked well for me but not in the way it is working now. X3 is for me, a very cool DAW.  
 
 
CJ I haven't had a glass of Kool Aid in such long time I can't remember the last time I had one.
 
 


 
 

I have a high-level pro musician friend who used Pro Tools on the Mac and then switched to, uh, "a different but highly-respected program from a very large company" (I'll be nice and not name names!) on Windows. He kept telling me how frustrated he was and all the crashes he was having with a system that was supposedly integrated for the program and interface he was using. I suggested he try Sonar although I suspected he wouldn't want to deal with going through a learning curve.

Well, he called and asked what interface he needed to use with Sonar. I told him he could use any interface and he was a little surprised that it didn't matter because he always used interfaces from the same company making the software. So he started digging in.

Next I heard he had already done a project! He said he didn't experience a learning curve, it all seemed totally logical. But more importantly, he said "This has put the fun back into recording!" I know what he means, I feel the same way. I look forward to booting Sonar. So now he's a total Sonar convert, and back to being happy again with his recording setup.

I think the Bakers have done a great job with X3, but this is just the beginning of a new era for Cakewalk...they won't be resting on their laurels. Stay tuned.

Anderton


I think the Bakers have done a great job with X3, but this is just the beginning of a new era for Cakewalk...they won't be resting on their laurels. Stay tuned.

That's what makes me feel all warm and fuzzy (especially the; "stay tuned")...even without the Christmas eggnog.