Hello all,  just wondering if anyone has tried installing and using Sonar on a Windows 8 tablet (like the Surface Pro or one of the Intel Atom powered tablets like the Dell Latitude 10)?

misterindie


Hello all,  just wondering if anyone has tried installing and using Sonar on a Windows 8 tablet (like the Surface Pro or one of the Intel Atom powered tablets like the Dell Latitude 10)?

Hi,
I have a surface pro 128,  Sonar X2 producer, Guitar Tracks Pro and a Roland ua-1g.  It all  works great and its fast.  its also has very low line noise when plugged in.  Something I did worry about when buying it... 
The screen is small for HD so it takes practice to touch controls accurately.  I am going to experiment with scaling to see if that helps.  If you use the pen, its a lot easier of course.
Still, its a great companion when traveling to a jam session.  Sits nicely on my amp too.  Great for recording and effects but maybe too small for serious production.  I have a big screen for that.  I really want a 30'' touch screen now ;)
I will say that Cakewalk did a nice job adding touch to Sonar and I look forward to improvements.  I hope they add pinch zoom to enlarge screens and controls.
 
Btw:  the surface pro is a dual core i5 with a fast SSD (~500 Mb/sec).  Would not work nearly as fast on an atom.  Depends on what you need I guess.  Real time effects and lots of tracks will tax it.
 

I have a Surface Pro also. I haven't installed SONAR directly on it yet. However, I have used remote desktop to control my main DAW running SONAR X2. It works really well for the most part, especially when using the pen. One exception is that I can't get the right-click to work in SONAR with the pen. The work around in that case is to use the trackpad on the touch cover or a wireless mouse.
For me the benefit to using it that way is that I can detach from the desktop and still have access to my full compliment of plugins. I use a low-latency wireless audio transmitter that let's me broadcast the audio from my studio. This also allows me to listen to mixes through other speaker systems in the house while still being able to tweak things remotely. I've even used it in my car in the driveway. 

BTW, this also works with other tablets, including the Windows RT-based ones.

e.B

hi. one question. i too have a Surface pro and sonar x2. how dos cakewalk say on using the one lisence for sonar on bouth computers?

You may install SONAR on both computers with the one license. Because you only have one license, you may not use SONAR on both computers at the same time.

Sonar X2 is used in an article with MaximumPC about how the Surface Pro stacks up to a desktop. MaxPC gave the Surface Pro a "Fail" because of the reasons char27 gives. (Article in the June edition pg 48)
 
But it got me thinking that with CW developing touch capabilities into Sonar, wouldn't it be possible and feasible to develop an app that would run basic stuff and leave the full production stuff to the workstation?
 
I'm not talking about Sonar X2 on the Surface Pro, I am talking about an app that runs in Win8. With this app CW could have all the controls/functions optimized for touch. The app would be designed for touch from the ground up to run on a tablet.
 
And I continue to dream!
 

One issue with Windows 8 and the Surface Pro (or any smaller touch screen) was that the touch did not work well when you had any screen scaling enabled.  I had to run X2 with scaling off (you can do that per app) in order to control the volume controls with touch.  Otherwise you had to use the mouse/pen for that.  Most everything else worked.  When I reported this to support (Cakewalk), they said it did not support scaling.
 
I just upgraded to Windows 8.1 RTM and I would like to report that the fixes MS did for scaling seem to have fixed this issue.  I have not tried everything yet but it certainly looks encouraging.  Sonar X2 appears to be a lot easier to use non on the smaller screen.
 
I will experiment more in the coming days and If I run into any additional issues, I will try to report them here. 
 
btw:  I will note that the Surface Pro has been one of the nicest devices I have ever had.  I have had it awhile now and I still love it.  Its small, fast, and runs in tablet and full Windows mode.  I can easily browse and watch video with touch, and then can open Sonar X2 and connect my DAW and easily place the Surface on my amp for quick access.  I also use it for as one of my development machines (sometimes remotely or connected to my new (2560x1440) 27' monitor).

I installed Sonar X2 on a Surface Pro .... and I must say that it works very well (I have a small M-Audio m-track .... for that). (BTW, this is not my primary daw).
 
No particular problems, Sonar runs well, but I have the problem regarding the volumes/panpot, not so easy to control.
 
Could someone please explain me what is the "scaling" problem and how to fix the situation, since it seems to be related to my situation?
 
Also, I will use the surface also with remote desktop, to control another pc....
 
Thanks a lot.
 
Giorgio

misterindie
Hello all,  just wondering if anyone has tried installing and using Sonar on a Windows 8 tablet (like the Surface Pro or one of the Intel Atom powered tablets like the Dell Latitude 10)?

Think of a tablet as an extension/addition to your desktop... not a replacement.
It's not going to have the speed to run full-scale projects (virtual instruments, dense mixes, etc).
Same with many laptops...
As long as you have reasonable performance expectations, you won't be let down.
 

The Surface Pro 2 with 8g of ram should be able to handle most projects though.
It's becoming pretty much a laptop now.