Hi I'm new here.I switched to this program because they said that the microphone Samsun CO1u is more compatible in this program. So I decided to try it out..
I need some tutorials though its way complicated then Adobe Audition O_o

I am very new to digital recording. My first experience with it was four years ago recording vocals on a friend's old Cool Edit Pro setup. Recently I figured enough was enough and decided to put my own "studio" together (I use that term loosely since I'm very much an amateur). Tried Adobe Audition since it was the decendent of CEP, but read that it didn't support VSTs like EZ Drummer. I did some research and Sonar seemed to be very popular; so I bit the bullet and got version 8. Definitely a learning curve to me, but I like it a lot. The UI is pretty easy to follow, and once I work out some minor technical annoyances I'll be happily recording.

I worked more than 15 years with Logic and in other places I had to work with Pro Tools and hated it from day one..
after Apple bought Logic things started to become bad, no more support, no updates and a very buggy environment, lots of crashes, and yes Macs DO crash!
then I decided to switch to Cubase since it is cross platform I could use it on my G5, but the performance was bad, much worse than with Logic, no crashes but I coudn´t open as much plug in´s and vsti´s like I could in Logic; speaking of which Logic has only AU which sucks anyway..
so then I had to get a new Computer to get my power back, and since there is only Mac Pro with Intel and only 3 PCIe slots, I would have to buy all new PCIe cards, like my UAD´s, Powercore, the RME card etc..,
that was the point where I decided to go PC! I built myself an Core i7 maschine which has an rediculous amount of power and under VISTA 64 I installed 6GB of ram and it´s just great, and payed half of a Mac!
I have to admit that some things are easier to install and handle on Mac, but still it was worth for me to learn how to get a PC running and it´s ok.

Then finally I got the crossgrade package from SONAR 8, cause I wanted to buy Dimension PRO and z3ta, they are both fantastic, and for € 270 I got SONAR with it.
I read in some forums that SONAR has a great sound, also saw Terry Howard´s video, and I thought let´s give it a try, since it´s sittin on my PC anyway. I had a recording of an life event, wich I had to mix an deliver, bout 40 tracks of Audio and I OMF´ed them to SONAR. Just by listening A/B to the unmixed track, no plugs and so on, it was amazing, the difference to Cubase. Specially in the upper range, maybe from 800 HZ on it gets a special clarity, which I didn´t get before, and that shocked me!
I decided from that day I will work in SONAR, it´s a little tough to learn the program and there are some features I loved in Cubase, but hey at the end of the day, all we want is good sound. Since I´m doing my mixes and mastering, this was relevant for me to switch.
Thanks Cakewalk and keep on developing great stuff!

I used a Roland VS1680 for years. A friend of mine showed me Sonar 4, years ago, and it was always my intention to eventually get going with it.

I had an old version of Cubase, which allowed me a competetive upgrade to Sonar 8. I'm loving it on the whole, with a few minor annoyances.

WITH REGARD TO MIDI TIMING:

My experience driving EXTERNAL sound modules (Kurzweil K2500s and EMU racks) is that tight dance grooves were very sloppy. Tight short sounds were randomly not aligning on the beats they were programmed at - useless. (we now know the main culprit is MIDI over USB etc..)

HOWEVER: I now work all in the box with only softsynths and I have detected NO timing issues AT ALL. Tight, tight, tight!

More on why I now work almost entirely in SONAR coming later when I have time to type a good page!

~Cheers

ORIGINAL: Marketing [Cakewalk]

1. What application you switched from and which version of SONAR you switched to.

Not really switched, other apps very much still in use for other projects, but Sonar 8 PE a brilliant addition

ORIGINAL: Marketing [Cakewalk]

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

64-bit performance

I just bought Sonar 8 PE with the intent of letting it replace Cubase 4. I was actually pretty happy with Cubase SX2.2 that I used for two main purposes: Editing Midi files for live backing use and for recording my own songs in the home studio. Before SX I was a happy VST 5 user. My sequencing career started with a floppy version of Cakewalk Apprentice, how about that?

I upgraded to Cubase 4 to get some of the new content, there was a lot of new sounds and effects and a shiny 'new' user interface.

It became clear shortly after that I couldn't use C4 because of a stupid Midi export error and I waited for a year before they fixed that. I think it was clear from the start that C4 was a realease forced through by sales/marketing and it shouldn't have been released until at least half a year later. Now it works pretty good but I don't feel like getting C5, I simply don't see any important feature updates that I need (except maybe the voice pitch correction plugin).

I tested Sonar a couple of years ago (at a time where I had lost that annoying hardware dongle for Cubase) and I was impressed with the new Midi editing tools. That was a true upgrade from Cubase that haven't seen anything new Midi-editing-wise since VST 5.

Also, the fact that Yamaha bought Steinberg and are developing Cubase in the direction of Yamaha hardware is an important factor I have to consider using a Roland Fantom XR module as my main sound source for both studio and live work. I think it is a safer bet to use Roland gear all around, software and hardware. I have always loved Roland gear, they seem to grow after using it for some time. I get the feeling that they actually know the needs of musicians!

The Sonar 8 PE package is an impressive one, it seems to be a really complete package with all the essential tools to make great sounding music. There are some important plugins there to complement my present UAD-1 plugins and I don't expect that I will have to buy anything else to get going.

I know the startup learning period will be tough, I have become quite skilled at Midi editing in Cubase and I will demand the same productivity from Sonar so expect a million stupid questions soon!

EDIT (2 months later): After the honeymoon with Sonar 8 it's becoming clear that I can not achieve the same Midi editing productivity that I have with Cubase 4. It's a sum of different things, the most important being the oldfashioned, bankoriented patch select system in Sonar with very limited audition features. I have a Roland XR module with 5 expansion cards and therefore thousands of sounds to choose from and in Cubase I can make an instrument definitions file sorted by instruments (or any other way I like it). I can quickly find and audition sounds in a nice list sorted by instrument type.

The other thing though not a major one is keybindings. In Cubase I have a brilliant logical editor that can do just about anything to Midi tracks and I can save presets and bind a key to the preset. That makes it possible to use single keystrokes for all those little Midi editing features that I use all the time (like editing velocities, compressing notes, quantizing notes etc.).

I was surprised to discover that Sonar does not have the ability to display a grid with swing settings. You can quantize with swing but not see what you're doing! The grid needs to follow the quantize settings off course (like Cubase does it). Another small but important thing: Why doesn't the piano roll keyboard show the notes you're playing? I often feel like driving blind in Sonar, it seems like Cubase has a lot more user communication built into the user interface.

To sum it up, the advantages of Sonar did not outweigh the disadvantages. I'm keeping Sonar 8 for the plugins, Guitar Rig, Vocal tools but I'm not planning to upgrade it unless important things happen with the patch change system. On the other hand I'm not planning to upgrade Cubase 4 either! I will be following the upgrades of both programs with great interest.

best regards

JimR
Denmark

I switched to Sonar 3 after using a Yamaha cassette 4 track and later a Boss BR-8 ......i've never looked back......ever....LOL Sonar 8 is rockin'!

Hi All
I started making hip/hop/breaks/dnb on fruity loops moved onto a mpc and now i just bought sonar producer 8. The functionality and easibilty for what i do is great.
just use my mpd 32 and keyboard mainly now
Very Happy with PE8

I switched this week.  My last use of Cakewalk was version 8 of CW.  I never really latched on to it and switched to Logic in 2000.  I've been using Logic 5 since they sold out to Apple simply because it was fabulous and did more than I needed it to.  Until I worked a project last year that used 70 tracks and it all choked.  I guess accessing 1GB of RAM just wasn't cutting it.

I'm not inclined to switch hardware just to keep using Logic.  So I've spent the last year on and off trying out various trail versions of everything that was not insanely cost prohibitive.  Obviously, after nine years of the same platform, switching to anything else is going to be a learning curve all over again.  But after trial versions that were either tremendously not like my familiar work flow or trial versions that just felt and looked cheap, I came back to Sonar.

And while I'm not horribly excited about learning a work flow all over again, I'm not displeased with the product after a day of futzing with it.  If I can at least get it to look similar to my set ways, that's half the battle.