For me it was more or less a lucky punch to switch to Sonar.

I've been looking for a nice set of native FX and tested the Kjaerhus stuff. I recognized that their "Golden Audio Channel" (which was very interesting for me) is included in Sonar (VC 64). God knows why I checked if CW has a crossgrade offer and bingo! - I've been able to buy Sonar for less the price of the "Golden series".

I'm usually very Steinberg biased as I used Cubase since the Atari days. But in recent years only Ableton Live made it on my PC because I liked their approach of reduction. In fact I produced more output than ever with this very smart application. However, Live has its weaknesses when it comes to Midi and a "major" sequencer for more complex projects has been on my list for some time now (with low priority though).

Well, the rest is known. I tested Sonar intensively and today, just on the last day of the demo period, S7 arrived. I'm happy. :-)

I recorded 3 cds at a studio, adn the guy used Cubase.

When I decided I wanted to do some experimenting (expensive on studio time), I bought Cubase as that was what he had used.

I couldn't get on with it. I then read a review of Sonar 7PE in Sound on Sound; the reviewer was really complimentary about it. My local digital sound shop had one copy of the competitive crossgrade left, so I took the risk (risk only as I had not had the time to try out the demo) and bought it. I have to say that Cakewalk's crossgrade offer was very generous of them.

My Christmas project is to it down with Garrigus's Sonar 7 Power and explore the software fully, a challenge for me as I usually just dive into software and learn as I go along.

The icing on the cake for me is that the software is dongle free, and long may it continue to be. I sometimes have problems finding a free USB port for a dongle ,what with printers, scanners, wireless keyboard controllers etc.

ORIGINAL: Healing Spirit

My Christmas project is to it down with Garrigus's Sonar 7 Power and explore the software fully, a challenge for me as I usually just dive into software and learn as I go along.

Hi Nic,

Thanks very much! I hope you enjoy the book...

Scott

--
Scott R. Garrigus - Author of the Cakewalk Sonar and Sony Sound Forge Power book series. Get Sonar 7 Power & Sound Forge 8 Power - Today! Go to: http://www.garrigus.com/

Publisher of DigiFreq - free music technology newsletter. Win a free Absynth 3 or Kontakt 2 DVD Tutorial, go to: http://www.digifreq.com/digifreq/

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Well, my first experience with MIDI started with a DOS version of Cakewalk that I ran on my 286 laptop computer, not one of these slim & fancy notebook computers but actual laptop computer that weighted good 20lbs as I recall...with monochrome green screen. I remember being absolutely amazed by the computer playing Bach's Invention 13 in Am...the MIDI demo tune 12-Tone System used to ship out with the software...via connected Casio keyboard that I borrowed from a friend.
Since then, I've witnessed Cakewalk for Windows, with which I believe I made most music before migrating to the ProAudio series. I used to upgrade with every new release until Steinberg released its Cubase VST.
That's about I started wandering about different DAW softwares bouncing around Cubase VST, Logic Audio, & ProAudio instead of making music. In fact, that's about the time I believe when I last had a chance to do any music making on the computer. Since then, some 10 years have passed without much music but just a whole lot of fussing around equipments & being an absolute specs nerd.
Finally, I've figured I should just pick a system that I am most comfortable with and stick with it.
After reflecting on the past...from Cakewalk DOS all the way up till I'd lost my mind somewhere in the middle of VST...I'm getting back to what got me started. And this time around, Cakewalk has never looked so good! It's good to be back.

Hello.

I've being using sonar since cakewalk 6...i won't change for anything it's a great tool.

1. What application you switched from and which version of SONAR you switched to.
2. Your specific reasons for switching to SONAR (specific features in SONAR, specific problems with other aps, customer service, etc.)

1. I was using Reason 4 for making HipHop Instrumentals, Mackie Tracktion 2.2 for recording vocals.
2. I wanted to have something that could do it all, making instrumentals and recording vocals. Tracktion can do midi and all that, but I really don't like the implementation. Reason is great for making beats, but you can't record any audio with it. So I sold Reason and started to look for a DAW. Oh boy what a journey. Digging the Internet till 4 in the morning for a few weeks. Watching screenshots. Trying some demos. After like 3 weeks there where only 2 options Left. Cubase 4 and Sonar 7 Producer edition. After hours of comparing the two I finally decided to go with Sonar 7 producer edition. The main reasons where

1. Amazing cool integrated step sequencer
2. Fantastic plug ins and instruments included / Z3TA+ and ! Boost 11 are looking great baby (topping the ones included with Cubase I think)
3. 64bit power
4. Perfect price.
5. Nice and friendly community
6. A company that listens to its customers.
7. I love the mixer.
8. Fantastic Midi editing
9. Probably a lot more then I know

Thanks Cakewalk for making the DAW of my dreams!

I came from Pro-tool LE primarily because of the Vista/Dual Core support and the fact that protools is a pain to use while travelling because of the hardware interface dongles. Also with the LE version of Pro-Tools you always feel second best for everything.
What i like so far is Sonar doesnt crash and it was a straightforward install.

Thats said i'm not finding the transition easy or intuitive. Eg would be nice if the mouse controlled zoom like it does in almost every other audio application, the interface is cluttered and the workflow doesnt seem to be straight forward.

Fully featured but not intuitive is how i would describe it.

ORIGINAL: noteapot

I came from Pro-tool LE primarily because of the Vista/Dual Core support and the fact that protools is a pain to use while travelling because of the hardware interface dongles. Also with the LE version of Pro-Tools you always feel second best for everything.
What i like so far is Sonar doesnt crash and it was a straightforward install.

Thats said i'm not finding the transition easy or intuitive. Eg would be nice if the mouse controlled zoom like it does in almost every other audio application, the interface is cluttered and the workflow doesnt seem to be straight forward.

Fully featured but not intuitive is how i would describe it.

Keep reading the manual and fooling around with Sonar. It already does all the things you've mentioned.

Well I've actually been using home studio for quite a long time and I was completly happy with that, until I tried the demo download of Sonar 7. It was expensive for a amateur like myself but I had to have it after that.

I was using Cubase for a long time, starting with 3.0 (not SX3!). It worked fine for me over all the years, never had any real showstoppers. But after the upgrade from SX1 to SX2 there was that growing feeling of a software getting bigger and bigger but still sounding the same as it was 5 years ago. So I stayed with it, ignored SX3 and never had real interests in Cubase4. I don't need databases to organise my presets or a virtual control room. And SX2 was rock solid over the last years.

As I wanted to make a step forward with the sound of my mixes I considered either to buy an UAD card or upgrade my computer and get the Sonar crossgrade. Well, I still think about getting an UAD but the demo of Sonar 7 convinced me! Nice sounding effects, great virtual channel and that beast called z3ta. It took me only few time to take out my credit card and make the order...

After frickeling out some strange problems with my computer everything's fine now and I start to get into Sonar. I still love the workflow of Cubase SX2, but soundwise Sonar is a big step forward. Let's see if I'm clever enough to change my habits and learn how to use all the other benefits of Sonar

Oh, and btw: Great forum here!
Wolfgang