I sold Sonar and Pro Fools along with all the others. The advantage with Sonar is you can build up your hardware as you go. Not with Pro Fools. ALso once you get Sonar down you leap forward from the MAC crap and use a real computer. If that is not true, then why does MAC NOW add IBM programs to their offering Aaaannnd....why does Sonar accept Pro Fools but NOT the other way around?
As of Sonar 2.2XL, you are now talking cost constraints and NOT quality. Sonar all the way. SO you have to learn more...so what. U B lazy?

Hello,

I am keeping an eye on these Forums for a long time and am enjoying the tone and spirit a lot. Until now I am a Cubase (since VST 5, SX3at the moment) user and very reluctant to upgrade to Cubase 4. So I placed my upgrade order (from music creator) for Sonar 6 Studio edition today.

I am very curious how this will work out...

Cheerz

ORIGINAL: Marketing [Cakewalk]
1. What application you switched from and which version of SONAR you switched to.

I "switched" from a hardware based solution to Sonar back in 2001 or so. Switched to Sonar 1.31

2. Your specific reasons for switching to SONAR (specific features in SONAR, specific problems with other aps, customer service, etc.)

At the time I started looking for a DAW solution, I had a good friend working for a large manufacturer of plugins, and he was able to get me fully-functioning copies of most of the main software packages. I tried them all, and the only one that made SENSE was Sonar. After about 30 days of messing around, I'd made my decision. Nothing else worked as well.

I have plenty of friends who use ProTools, Digital Performer, Logic, etc... they all love their solution. For me, it was a hands-down decision: Sonar worked as I expected it to work, the buttons were where they belonged (where I'd have put them!), and it rarely crashed. It's become more stable as it's matured, and now I can't imagine moving to another solution.

Interestingly, I can actually move around pretty easily in other DAW packages... I've begun working in film lately, and the knowledge I've gained from Sonar has been extremely portable. Other packages use different names, but it all works similarly.

Corey

I plan on getting the competitive upgrade moving from cubase to producer version but I want to wait and see what version 7 brings to the table cause I don't want to pay for something then have to turn around and pay for an upgrade. It's so close to 7 being released why don't they announce a FREE UPGRADE? I would buy 6 tomorrow if I could be assured of getting a free upgrade to 7. I was going to get the NI bundle w/ Kore first but some other money issues came up and now I want a vg99 as well and prgogression this new software that allows you to record you tabs as you play them on a guitar synth.

I would buy 6 tomorrow if I could be assured of getting a free upgrade to 7

So would I do..... but this year THAT seems to be no option!


Let's wait what cakewalk will bring along....

It can be only a few weeks until take off, or do I go wrong?

Been using poor man's Protools on a mac G4 with digi old one (Pun) Had been using nuendo PC. The mac stuff always sounded better HMMM. I bought P5 and a new dualcore PC. Then I bought Z3 synth and started to read more about Cakewalk Sonar since i loved everything I was getting from them. So I got a copy of Sonar at 5 and now at Sonar 6 i can't tell the difference between my Poor man mac system and my poor man Sonar 6. Plenty of headroom and I don't hear a loss in hi end like Nuendo. These are both in my home and when i get serious I go to a full blown room. But I have mixed a song with Goapele's vocals on an album recently at home. SHHHHHHH! Nobody has noticed. But i did need Waves and Focusrite EQ.


I am sold on Sonar and how it integrates with all my virtual synths! Sonar is the only thing that is on a PC that will get me away from pro tools. Poormans or otherwise. And I love that Rapture/Dimension combo! rapture for the unique synthy stuff and dimension for the organic.!

Hi -

Yes, I've made the transition not only to Cakewalk/Sonar but also to the PC as my primary music machine. I've had a PC in my studio since 2000 when it was a used primarily as a softsynth slave to a Mac9600 ProTools III rig (888), with Studio Vision Pro as the Midi/GUI interface. I had the PC for stuff I couldn't do on a Mac at the time - so having a dedicated PC for things like Reason, Softsynths, NI's Reaktor, as well as Acid (time streching loops in ProTools was a dream) and Soundforge seemed like a good idea. ProTools TDM handled a lot of processing power in those days, and there was really no way to run anything else on the machine other than the recording software and the TDM plugins.

I moved studios and upgraded into a G4 and a ProTools Mix Plus system (just on the bubble of HD being introduced). This was about 2002. I still had the same PC slaved for softsynths, etc. It worked great being controlled via Midi with a RME Nuendo 96/52 8 I/O. I had also made the leap into Logic Audio 5 as Opcode had gone belly up. I had been a Opcode user since the first release of Studio Vision and Studio Vision pro on my first Mac LC, but I digress.

Although Logic running on top of a ProTools Mix Plus rig (888/24) was robust (again due to Digidesign Hardware) the Mac G4 at 400mhz was fairly limited and the PC remained a slave. My studio partner then brought in his PC and Nuendo rig. The studio was equipped with an Argosy console that housed a PC / Nuendo on the Left and a Mac / Logic-Protools rig on the right. I loved Nuendo but never really felt comfortable on it. Logic was (and a apparently still is) highly unstable.

As the executive duties of my job demanded more of my time, I just really wanted to boot up a machine and make music with what time I did have for the studio. Instead I found myself constantly debugging, and doing some kind of tech work-around on the Logic/ProTools machine. Eventually I left the studio to my partner (who I hired frequently) with the only use of the Mac rig was converting files for his sessions. That was about 4-5 years ago.

Alot has happened in the last half a decade. As my watched my studio evolve under the guidance of my partner I saw all of the wonderful changes in Softsynths, Softsampers, Softinstruments, Recording Software and effects evolve. My partner finally moved out of our old studio space when he got married and set-up a new business closer to he and his wife. My studio which is a detached structure from my house would now be empty. I had thoughts of air hockey tables and pac man machines but that didn't last long.

I asked him, "Now that you're moving out and I have more time for studio projects again, I'm not sure what to do - I don't want to spend my time doing tech support for Logic and Digidesign". He said, "I've been looking around for a new DAW myself (he was on a 3yr old version of Nuendo) and I'm hearing great things about Sonar 6. Are you open to having a PC as your primary platform?"

I sad yes, if it works and I can spend more time making music than finding work arounds to bugs and crashes.

Well, thus far that's the best piece of pro-audio advice I've gotten in a long time. I love Sonar6. I have a bit of a learning curve jumping not just back into the game but also on an XP PC, but Sonar makes it worth it. Intuitive and stable. Any issues I'm having with the software are just part of my learning curve.

A footnote to this is that I know a lot of highend Logic/ProTools users. I asked them outright - how is it these days? Money isn't really the issue for me - but time is. They all pretty much had the same response, "great if you can afford a full time engineer". Well, thats not what I needed to hear and their dirty little secret is that although there may be a Mac in plain view, theres a closet of PCs slaved to it... I just cut out the middle man.

-bf

This is my first post in the forum. I just want to say that I tried alot of different software DAW'S like Cubase,Traktion,Ntrax,Reaper,and Protools(UCK!!!). Anway I started out with Sonar 2.2XL in 2003 and never looked back.
My band recorded our first CD using Sonar and really pleased with results. Currently I use Sonar 5 and shortly I will upgrade to 6.
I laugh everytime I hear a band or artist ask a studio if they have Pro Tools and if not they have no desire to record there. It's just that the General Public(musicians) have been brain washed into thinking that Pro Tools is the magic bullet and the industry standard. It really boils down how well you know your DAW,recording and mixing. another thing too is the artist/band have to be able to play well and have very clear understanding of what is expected of them in the studio. Especially using a click track. Anway so much for my 2 cents on that issue,but again Sonar is great DAW in my studio!!!!

I had been recording on a 4 track tape machine in the 80's and 90's. For a few years, I stopped playing and recording. Then, when I got a decent computer and started checking things out online, I realized that I could eventually afford to have a whole studio on a hard drive--wow--I wasn't away from recording for that long!

Cubase just did not feel intuitive or comfortable--I spent too much time figuring things out--it seemed like things were set up to be purposely non-intuitive and annoying. Someone told me about Cakewalk software, so I checked out the Cakewalk site and forums. The people on the forums seemed pretty helpful and reasonable. I bought Home Studio and a cheap preamp to run guitars and vocals into my Audigy card. It did not take much time to get the feel of Home Studio. I was amazed at the number of tracks I could record and at how easy the software was to use. Then, I figured out how to use soundfonts and bought a keyboard controller---that was a revelation--software instruments!

I downloaded the demo of Sonar--Sonar 2, I believe. After using for a week I had to buy it--incredible software. Then, a few years ago I bought a DAW and a good audio interface. I barely even notice Sonar when I compose and record--that's what I like--and Sonar has changed the way I compose--it's like an instument in itself. I upgrade with every version.

Cakewalk's best asset is customer service--listening and respecting its customers, therefore I will continue to support them.
The protection scheme is easy--no dongles, etc...
The software is really intuitive and the help documentation is excellent.
I like the fact that Cakewalk is developing new instruments, etc....
When you buy Sonar you get a great package with effects, instruments, etc....
Once you are a registered customer, the upgrades and discounts become very enticing.
Cakewalk has a really good vibe.

Been using Cakewalk for MIDI since the Cakewalk 3.x days, but had been analog tape till Cakewalk 5 which (I believe) was the first attempt to integrate audio recording. Boy, did that cost me a lot of money. Too early to adopt this technology (Cakewalk's first attempt), too limited on the PC hardware side, and in frustration I shifted to a bank of ADATs, then to a Mackie HDR / D8B combo (still in use today).

I currently track with the HDR, use Nuendo for mixing, Sonar 3.1 for MIDI (Cakewalk has always been absolute best of breed in this category), Cool Edit Pro for deep wave file editing, and there's even a copy of the host version of Pro Tools laying around in the dust somewhere to remind me that not all software is worthwhile.

Although as others have mentioned there is a bit of a cultural chasm between German and American attitudes, I nonetheless enjoy Nuendo and have no complaints with it. I've just oredered the Sonar 6 upgrade, for no other compelling reason than to keep my tools at least reasonably current. Sonar 3 was, for me, still to clumsy to mix audio with. However, I'll be looking at the redesign in Sonar 6 to see if it's finally come of age enough to justify retiring Nuendo.

There are a couple of reasons for this. First, Steinberg raised their price a year or two ago from around $800 to $2500. There was no feature justification for this. I spent enough years working in sales to realize that they were pricing it higher so that they would be taken seriously in the PT infested big studio crowd. Not sure I want to pay that kind of sticker price when upgrade time comes around for what's really just yet another DAW. And of course, like many others, I greatly respect a company like Cakewalk who has the guts in the days of massive Internet piracy to continue avoiding hardware dongles. I also spent a long time developing software for a living and understand the risk that entails. For trusting your customers enough to provide a low impact copy protection scheme, you get 6 stars out of 5.

Of course, it may well be that Sonar 6 still doesn't fit the bill enough for me to drop Nuendo for mixing. If that's the case, I'll certainly continue to use it exclusively for MIDI, as no one else even comes close in that arena.

Either way, a $79 upgrade that allows me to move from a reasonablly ancient version to your latest and greatest makes the purchase a complete no brainer. When upgrade time comes around for Nuendo 4, I have doubts the offer will be compelling enough to engender customer loyalty unless there are killer features I can't get elsewhere that justify their capricious pricing.

Did I switch to Sonar? For MIDI, I never switched away from it. For audio, that day may be coming before the month is out if the UI finally offers a serious mixing envoronment.

Either way, you guys rock.