I was a Cakewalk user way back in the dos days of Cakewalk 2.0 all the way up to the windows version of Pro Audio 8! I was a religious midi user.
When Pro Audio 8 came out (still have the disks) I quit using it because it just didn't work on my machine at the time. Can't remember what I was running it on but it was a computer that I built which ran quite good until I tried to run Cakewalk Pro Audio 8 on it. Most of my PCs I built over a 20 year period (I sold most of them). I bought my first store bought computer two years ago in 2006. A Compaq Presario. The PCs that I built, I think I have at least two left that still run and another that I haven't put together yet, often last longer than new store bought ones! Yes I'm a computer nerd geek type. I could easily get a job maintaining computers running on a network. Enough about my computer stories. I switched to Logic 4 and 5 after Cakewalk Pro Audio didn't work but soon after Apple bought emagic I could only use Logic 5 on my PCs. So Steinberg made me an upgrade offer for the PC version of Cubase SX 1 so I went for it! Now I use Cubase SX3 but it doesn't run well on my Presario notebook so I just recently ordered Sonar 6 Home Studio XL. For some reason, when Cubase SX 3 plays back on my Presario the sound somtimes becomes garbled. This doesn't happen on my desktop computers but I need a program that produces good sound on my Presario notebook. So Cakewalk, I'm back after many years of using the competition. I told myself that I would probably never upgrade my Cubase SX 3 to Cubase 4 because it just has too many bugs and now the version is 4.1.2. People are still complaining about it! I'm just going to use Sonar for now on my notebook! We'll see how it works on my notebook. So far so good!

I started with Cakewalk with Home Studio 6 about twelve years ago. I mainly used it to transcribe my instrumentals. Around that time I tried recording audio, but my dad's old Dell 266 had trouble even with four tracks of audio. I've tried other top audio programs over the years such as Logic, Cubase, Live, and Protools, but I have always come back to Cakewalk. Maybe it's just because I am so familiar with the interface, which has fundamentally stayed the same over all these years. I love the ease that I can use the program now. These days I have no problem getting more than enough track counts.

I've been using cakewalk mainly as a midi sequencer since it's intro in mid 80's. My latest version was 8.0 before Plasma and still using it for the same purpose. It's a breeze to edit, record, and compose with midi. Then I would turn the tracks to audio to be used on Cool Edit, Adobe Audition 1.5, 2, and 3. Then I bought Sonar Producer 7 because it handles soft syhnths, VST plug-ins, etc. which Audition 3 does but very poorly and for the most part its useless. That's why

ORIGINAL: Marketing [Cakewalk]

Hello,

Over the last few years we have seen a major surge in the number of customers switching to SONAR from other applications. We have our own ideas why this has been occuring, but we would prefer to hear it from you directly. So, please tell us.

What we are interested in knowing is:

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.)

Thanks for your support of SONAR and thanks in advance for your help.

Best regards,

Carl Jacobson
Marketing Director
Cakewalk

I didn't actually switch to Sonar, I started with Sonar. I used to record (early 90s) with a 16 ips, reel to reel, board, sequencer, external effects. I managed to produce some pretty decent stuff given the nature of my setup. Then got married, bought a house, had to sell much of my gear.

Then a couple of years ago I got the urge to lay down tracks again. I have a friend who's a professional musician. I asked him about it. I was considering one of those all-in-one devices like a BOSS? My friend uses Sonar for both his home studio and he also plays live and uses it on a notebook. He was "adamant". He warned that this would be somewhat more challenging initially, however, in the long run, and if I'm serious about this, that Sonar was "the only logical choice". I took his advice, and he was right, it was steeper on the front end, but once you begin to understand the program, the power and capabilities are unlimited. I am SO happy that I took his advice, and I am even happier that I did not make the mistake of going with another product from another company. What a mistake that would have been...

Many companies make products that people use all the time and take for granted, vacuum cleaners? Toasters? Things we need to be sure, others make less utilitarian products that bring enjoyment like TVs, bicycles? However, you bring so much more to your customers than virtually any other company can bring. You bring the ability to take ideas from inspiration to fascination… The ability to express yourself to your friends as well as people you’ve never met. The ability to convey ideas and emotions. Many people have told me that my music has sometimes made them cry. Not because it sucked so bad that they just couldn’t take it, but because of the powerful emotion that can be imparted by a well written, well produced piece of music, it’s magical. So you see, you’re not selling software, you’re selling “magic”…

I will be a Sonar customer until the day I die. Thank you.

HI,

I just switched to sonar 6 producer edition from Logic pro 5.5 and i can say sonar has more power it's easier to figure out but there is more i need to learn but in due time i will get it the function are little different from logic it's a little less advance as far as function goes but the overall picture is better so now i found a new home and hope to keep using sonar in the future!!

Thanks!

Well, I had a number of LE versions bundled with my EMU soundcard and Sonar seemed by far the easiest and most pleasant for me to use, and therefore was the one I upgraded to Producer 6 for some ridiculously small price (that pretty much paid for the value of my soundcard in what I saved) The quality of reverbs etc. that are bundled also make it an always attractive proposition BUT the thing about Sonar is that it strikes me as being the most INTUITIVE package for those of us who are not hardcore engineers just computerising our studio set-ups. Just the way it looks is attractive as well. It has enabled a beginner like me to get a number of songs sounding better than I had imagined they could.

Keep up the good work and PLEASE keep up the fantastic offers on upgrades

Take care

Dan

I am investigating a number of DAW options. I'm not ready to disclose my current DAW(s), but I am comparing the Sonar 7 trial with what I already use.

So far, I have spent most of my time testing Sonar 7's audio recording and playback, as well as basic "synth-via-MIDI" recording and playback features. I have done limited VST testing with Absynth and one or two other VSTs, but not enough to form an opinion in that area. I have done no testing with effects yet.

I find Sonar 7 to be on a par with my regular DAW software; neither significantly better nor significantly worse. My other DAW application(s) is/are stable, and Sonar 7 has also been stable. I don't hear any significant differences between audio engines or "quality of sound." All of my DAWs are excellent recording and playback tools.

I find some things to be less intuitive in Sonar. That is minor, because I just look them up. I do find the "online HTML Help" tool to be lacking, because I've only had a 50-50 chance of actually finding the answer to my question. Then I come to this forum and use the search feature. Again, only about a 50-50 chance of getting an answer. Maybe that's because the features have different names in Sonar.

In any event, I look forward to being able to read a more complete "user manual."

I find quite a bit of the Sonar 7 interface somewhat difficult to see and "click" on (see my thread regarding "hard to see" things on the screen). My vision is not really that bad, either. But I am limited to my monitors' native resolution settings. Some things that should be more configurable include (but are not restricted to):

1. Increase size of buttons in track view and console view (I can see MSR and READ/WRITE just fine, but sometimes their hotspots are hard targets to find).

2. Allow me to make huge, fat meters in console view, and somewhat fatter meters than provided for in track view. This would help me get visual confirmation of signal when I'm sitting 10 feet away at my keyboards or in front of my music stand with an open mic in front of me and a cumbersome-to-walk-with instrument in hand.

3. Allow me to clean up the "inspector" portion of track view. Maybe have a "verbose/brief" option that I could switch on/off for each track or for the project globally (similar to MSR)

On the plus side, I like being able to configure with icons and track colors. For some people, that's a "toy" feature, but not for me. I'm very visual and I organize my thoughts better when things line up correctly, have a certain appearance, consistency, and/or a good graphic to set them aside from the rest of the visual "noise" on the screen.

I would like to see Track and Console icon selection become faster and less "fiddly." Right click, scroll, click on my selection, for example.

I also like being able to use high-contrast track color selections for ease of sight, especially when looking at MIDI tracks while seated at my keyboards across the room.

The step designer and drum functionality is interesting, and I look forward to learning those features. But until I actually get to using them, I don't see that they're vastly better than my other DAW software. We'll see, I may change my mind on that.

At this time, I have decided to purchase the U250 package. It comes with Sonar 7 Studio Edition. I chose this because the USB interface will fill a niche for me. It will work on a workstation or a laptop; The interface is bus-powered, so that will make for a good solution for mobile work if I choose to do that in a couple years. But that interface will also work with my old DAW application, so I am not being "forced' to change my DAW.

And that brings me to my point. I'm really in the best of situations here. I am actually choosing to add Sonar to my rig, not to replace something else with it. It's not my intention to "switch over."

Like any good woodcraftsman, I will have more than one tool in my toolbox, and (hopefully) I will gain enough expertise to be able to use each tool for whatever purposes that tool is best suited for. I look forward to learning more about Sonar and figuring out its best uses for me.

I actually have been using Logic 8 on Mac for the last couple months but find some elements of the work flow just not as fast as Sonar 7 so not only did I switch back to my PC and Sonar 7 but I upgraded from Studio to Producer Edition. Yup. I did. Now if I could only get Vista to work as well as Sonar 64 bit I'd be really elated! Thank God for dual boot OS's. ;)

I am investigating a number of DAW options. I'm not ready to disclose my current DAW(s), but I am comparing the Sonar 7 trial with what I already use.

What prevents you disclosing your current DAW(s)?