I started out with Cakewalk Professional...I still have my single 3.5" floppy disk for which I paid $500
... I later grew with Cakewalk into the Pro Audio line but eventually switched to Cubase SX and had a good run with that program...I do like the UI for Cubase quite a bit.
As I have grown with computer recording and sequencing I switched from hardware synths to virtual instruments so I have been on the holy grail quest of finding the most bang for my buck in terms of processing power. I fell into the Apple marketing hype and thought paying the big bucks for a top of the line apple computer and getting Logic would give me the power I needed -- boy was I mistaken. I purchased a Mac Pro 8 Core intel system amost 2 years ago and started with Logic 7. I absolutely hated Logic. I don't even know where to begin with it's limitations...but the "environment" comes to mind, as with strange workflows that were hard to adapt after spending so much time with other sequencers. I sold Logic 7 and tried Digital Performer...ugh, it has some cool features but some really backwards ways of doing things...until recently it had no rt. mouse button support and it doesn't use midi regions for editing. Wierd. I tried Cubase 4 on the mac but there were so many performance issues I ended up selling it. Then Logic Studio came out...wow, this looked promising. A revamped UI, better workflows...wrong. Again, after spending $150 in tutorial videos I still find it clunky to work with. I hate the strict design. I can't move my transport without throwing away the whole purpose of the new UI. I always have to start a project by being forced to create a track first. Sure I know I will need a track, but let me start with a blank slate -- Don't impose a workflow on me. I hate that none of the track level meters mean anything and that the channel strp doesn't update correctly.
I know I am in the minority here, but I just think Logic is not very good -- Way over hyped. In particular, I am always struggling with CPU spikes with very minimal projects. I am running an 8 core system wth 6 gigs right? Shouldn't this be running like melted butter?
So, fastforward to the present...I needed to install Vista 64 on my mac through bootcamp so I can run Maya 2009 64 bit and Photoshop 64 bit. I then decided to give Sonar 8 demo a try...holy shiat...it works! I know I have been reading about user problems with Sonar, but I am telling you this version works great on my Vista Mac. For example, I can run tons of VI's...including Omnisphere and Kontakt, and it works, with no CPU spikes and hardly any cpu drain. Granted with Omnisphere, switching things has a little lag as it loads in and out of memory, but it never crashes, and I can load about 8 instances with 4-5 part multis without a hitch and barely tax my system. On the Mac/Logic side this was impossible. I would always get CPU overload messages. Even Sonar's UI has grown on me -- I love the customization options. I love proper track folders vs Logics embedded folders. I love the track manager, snap tools...etc. Honestly, I think Sonar's UI is oneof it's greatest strengths. No candy coated garbage. It just works and works well. I'm sure I will hit limitations as I delve deeper, but nothing I don't feel I can't tackle. Hell, even being able to load an bitmap image on the background is killer. AND, since Spectrasonics is releasing everything in 64 bit as with NI eventually, my performance is only going to increase, plus with Cakewalk releasing 8.03 soon...everything is looking up. I think that what sells me the most on Sonar is the development. I love coming to this forum and reading fairly up to date announcements of where Sonar is going. Consistent history of updates and new versions. Try that with Apple. Their software developement is so sparce.
So yes, I am wierd, I barely load up OSX anymore -- it is a cool OS, don't get me wrong, but it suffers from the boutique syndrome where major development for cross platform apps and plugins goes to windows setups first, then ported to Mac...so you never get the full power unless it is directly written for OSX. No Maya 64 bit on OSX right now for example :( Vista honesly is perfectly stable on my Mac system. I feel confident in Cakewalk since this is their 3 rd generation of running in a 64 bit environment. All the other sequencers slowly trickling to 64 bit are bound to those initial growing pains. Sonar has matured so well in this regard.
After spending time with the demo I decided to place my order for Sonar 8...looking forward to making some music, thanks for a great product!
