The sound quality and the sequencer.

To me the sequencer is *exactly* how it should be.  I personally find it stunning how other DAW's don't make effective use of the right-click feature.  With Sonar, you right-click on the piano-roll note, and you get instant clear access to all of the vital adjustments.  Plus there is a subtle coloring feature: lower midi dynamic levels have a more faded rectangle.  That way you can easily spot a note that is dynamically mis-matched to its surroundings, because the color shading will be noticeably different.   Add to that the easy copy-paste capabilities to move sections around, and you have the king of sequencers.  This is especially true in today's virtual synth environment.  There is nothing better.  Some sequencers force you into a box, but never let you out of it.  Others make it difficult to build the box in the first place.  Sonar lets you go easily in and out of "the box".

The sound quality:  64 bits does indeed make a difference.  No DAW company is more committed to 64 bit than Cakewalk.  The fact that you can stay completely 64-bit, even in effects chains and plugins, shows leadership.

As a final note: when Sonar first came out, the interface was so clunky I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole.  But now, it's not just "adequate".  It's beautiful and spectacular.

I changed to Sonar 8.5 Producer because I have around 100 songs I wrote to keep track of.  I was keeping track of them with a Roland VS-880, a Roland XP-80 and an Alesis SR-16 drum machine.  In order to be able to 'play' music, there was too much preparation necessary (changing to different drives and songs) to have fun.  For me, it had become somewhat of a hassle.

I read a lot of what other people had to say about all the DAW's and thought Sonar would be the best value and that I should purchase 8.5 Producer for the sound library and a few other things.

I started with a Fostex 8-track reel to reel synced up to CreatorSL. Then moved to Logic Audio Platinum 4. I have finally moved to Sonar because the layout of the screen is most similar to the traditonal sequencers I am used to. The ease of use and the fact that it works with audio so well is fantastic. The bundles of VSTs that come with it are great. The whole interface is much more user friendly than Ableton, Cubase, Pro-tools, etc. I don't want to be tied to one OS either.

I dislike the fact that there are certain things my old sequencer could do ten years ago that Sonar cannot do. For example, Logic 4 had a brilliant tool called "De-Mix Note/Channel". If you had, say a drum pattern on one sequence (clip), you could "demix" this clip by note, and end up with the kicks on one track, snare on another, hi-hats on another, etc. Really useful for further editing.

acousticvillage

I dislike the fact that there are certain things my old sequencer could do ten years ago that Sonar cannot do. For example, Logic 4 had a brilliant tool called "De-Mix Note/Channel". If you had, say a drum pattern on one sequence (clip), you could "demix" this clip by note, and end up with the kicks on one track, snare on another, hi-hats on another, etc. Really useful for further editing.

Hey Acousticvillage,
 
Actually, this is a little esoteric, but this particular MIDI edit you would like to do has been possible since Cakewalk Professional in the early 90s through a feature called CAL (Cakewalk Application Language).  CAL made it possible for power users to create scripts for our sequencer to add features that were not already built into the application.

Essentially you select your MIDI track, then click Process, at the bottom of the choices there are triangles to show more choices, one of them is Run CAL.  All you then need to do is select the proper CAL script There are a wide variety of functions that are available.  SONAR does not ship with CAL Scripts, anymore but it is still functional and there are a wide variety available to download from the web.

You can find the one you are looking for here:

ftp://ftp.cakewalk.com/pub/CAL/Split Notes to Tracks CAL.zip 
 
Hope that helps.
 
Best regards,
Carl

Hello.
 
 
 
I SIMPLY LOST MY CAKEWALK SONAR 7 PRODUCER EDITION. 

 
I am thankful for any help. 
 
 
Steven
 

I changed from REASON to SONAR, i unistalled everything to use SONAR, installed SONAR - but when trying to run it i get a FATAL error.  :(:(:(

I didn't really switch as I still use Ableton Suite 8. I recently purchased Sonar 8.5 a week ago and there are a few things I like about it better than Live.

1. Less of a resource hog.
2. Mixing and mastering in it is less of a pain.
3. The media browser.
4. The event history.

This seems to be a very deep program, but I hope to get to grips with it over time.     

Hey Sonar Users!

My name is hue. I go by hueseph on most forums. I was turned on to Sonar by the administrator of recording.org where I co-moderate  the DAW pro audio forum.  Recently I was fortunate enough to acquire Sonar Producer 8.5 via a blog contest. I hope to be blogging on the basic set up and recording, editing, and mixdown of audio and midi on that forum.

I am a former Cubase user and still have and am running a copy of ProTools LE running on my computer. I'm a metal head, jazz fan, classical hack, folkie and generally am a rock and roll oriented kind of musician.

Some may have had a bad experience with me because I don't like to mince words. I tell it like I see it. I don't give false praise but I try to give credit where credit is due. That is who I am in a nutshell.

I'm here to learn as much as I can. Don't chastise me for being a NEWB!  :P  I'll do my best not to irritate anyone. Hopefully, it will be a good experience!

This is the best I've got right now. Yeah it's hackery at it's best. Testing 1 2 3

Technically speaking I should probably be a fan of PRO TOOLS, but i prefer SONAR.

My background .....

I am 47 years old and grew up with big mixers, analog reel multitracks and outboard effects racks  (ie..... the classic recording studio).

I worked with guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen for several years also.

I stayed loyal to analog until 1-2 years ago, but when it got harder and harder to keep my analog recorders fixed and running,m I decided to bite the bullet and move to the digital domain.    I had used things like the Otari radar systems and stand alone Fostex digital recorders, but these were really just used as replacements for analog tape decks.  All the same mixers and effects rack equipment was still used.

When I decided to switch to DAW for my home recording use, I tried both PRO TOOLS and SONAR.

I don't use MIDI, I don't use loops, I don't use sequencing, etc...
I only plug-ins for EQ and delays ..... for my reverbs I still run the signals out to a high quality Lexicon Reverb unit as I feel it sounds nicer than Plug-In Reverbs.

I record all Audio tracks on rock bands using real drums, real guitars, real keyboards, etc...

So theoretically PRO TOOLS should have been the more logical choice for the type of recording I do (since Pro Tools started as a pure audio multitrack DAW years ago)

However, after trying both systems side by side, I found the CONSOLE and TRACK EDIT screens on SONAR more logical and easy to work with.

I also liked SONAR's open system that works with any choice of interface card as opposed to Pro Tool's limited compatibility  (I use an M-Audio Delta 1010 PCI interface).

As we all know, sound quality is really determined by the interface, not the DAW software so whatever is a friendlier work environment is really up to your personal preference.

I confess, If I knew I was going to be working with other musicians or bands or studios in a collaborative effort where we needed to share project files, then I would go with PRO TOOLS because it honestly does have the advantage of being the "industry standard".
For example --- how many major movie soundtracks or albums can you name that were recorded on SONAR ???

However, since I am doing all solo work in my own studio, I prefer the SONAR system.

I would like to see SONAR make more inroads into the professional music industry with more major movies and album releases produced with SONAR so that Cakewalk would get a more professional reputation and not only be viewed as ..... "the stuff amateurs and semi-pros use at home".

It seems PRO TOOLS is still viewed as the professional's choice ......... while SONAR is still viewed as the software for all the non-professionals to use.

Dear Marketing....thanks so much for your reply. I didn't really realise what CAL was about. This sounds fantastic.
Well....given what you've said, I don't think I have any more on my Wish List.
 
Thanks a million...what a brilliant forum.
Jim