Shambler


I am currently trying out the demo of SONAR 8 with a view to switching from Cubase 4 Studio.
 
Why am I thinking of switching?
 
Firstly I have driver issues with my Echo hardware, it just has not worked with Cubase 4 since version 4.1.1 and we are now on version 4.5.2. The Echo drivers have gone from version 8.3 to 8.4 and now 8.5. Neither Echo nor Cubase appear to be taking this seriously, the problem still persists with ASIO TIME OVERLOAD as soon as you open a project.
 
Secondly Cubase loves to crash, the times I have to reboot my PC because the application just hangs for no good reason e.g. opening a VSTi instrument...well it is just getting too much!
 
Support...so many bugs in Cubase 4 and what do they do? They ditch it and bring out Cubase 5!...great
 
Things I have noticed with SONAR,
 
It works fine with my Echo Layla 3G sound card, latency is low and there is no crackling/distortion.
 
Sometimes the audio engine stops when opening an EWQL Play VSTi...but clicking on the 'Start Audio Engine' icon brings the sound back...something which would have required rebooting my PC with Cubase.
 
It hasn't crashed once yet and I have been stressing it out with several EWQL instances and other soft synths.
 
All I need to know is , are there any crossgrades available to go from CS4 to SS8.5?
 
  [EDIT] Testing is done, SONAR 8.5 Studio ordered!
 

Welcome Shambler. If you run into any problems or have questions, the forum is an amazing resource. Of course if you get really stuck, contact Cakewalk via any method described here.

lancer1975


Hello everybody I was a happy user of Logic, and I was so happy with it running on my Pc that I thought that logicwas inmortal, sadly one day Logic and Pc broke down (an apple was the evil ) and because I was young and naive I told myself: `Don´t worry kid. You only have to maintein your Pc....´. That was my first mistake, when I swichted to Windows 7 everything was so bad with my Logic 4.7 copy that I was frustated. I tried Live, Reaper, Cubase but they didn´t sound well to me, or the effects were not very musicla to me, or the design of the interface frustated me... one lucky  day my local seller told me about the new Sonar 8, I tested it and my mind was blown away, the audio manage is superb, the sequencer fits perfect with my workflow, the effects are great and only one word can be used with it: It sounds great, you can work as musician or as engineer. Thsnk you Cakewalk, thank you Roland.....You have a new converse.

Welcome lancer1975. Glad to have you aboard.

When I was young I used Cubase and was very happy.  Then Sonar came along and made me an offer I could not refuse.  They told me the Kraeken would devour me and all my fellow Cubase users unless we changed to Sonar.  Also they wanted to buy some mushrooms that grew beneath the great spruce tree.  The mushrooms belonged to the squirrels who ate there every day.  At least the squirrels thought so.  They ran to the top of the tree and told all the Gods who would listen about the Kraeken.  They didn't mention the mushrooms.  That is how I became a Sonar user.  Also Cubase sucked.

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

I switched from Cubase (LE v3 I think) to Sonar Home Studio after trialing the demo version (of producer).

When upgrading my copy of Sonar later on, I was sent the Producer version by mistake.  When I telephoned Cakewalk sales to discuss the error, I was told never mind and was given a key for Producer - result!

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

Steinberg have been chuffing me off with very buggy software since Cubase v2 for the Atari FM platform.  They consistently charge for bug fixes (AKA 'upgrades') and then release apparently untested code containing either the same bugs, or more bugs.  I finally had enough of paying them money to do this so decided to change.  To be honest, I would have definitely considered Logic but it's only supported on the Mac now and I'm not a big fan of that platform.  Besides, the cost of changing both computer platform and sequencer software is prohibitive!  I'm not sure if my Creamware Pulsar cards would be supported on the Mac either (and I loves 'em).

FWIW, the main differences I've noticed between Cubase and Sonar are very clear-cut.

Sonar simply sounds and grooves much better than Cubase, and the included plugins (synths, effects etc.) are of a far better quality and there are a greater variety of them

Cubase's strength is in the UI.  The workflow and tools available (e.g. built-in audio editor and logical editor; please, please include a logic editor in Sonar!!) are better than those in Sonar.  Doubtless some of that opinion is due to familiarity, but it's the little things which seems to make more sense in Cubase.  For example, record a MIDI clip punching in at 3:1:0 in Cubase, and the clip starts there.  In Sonar, it's whenever the first note is played.  Being able to create a blank clip to work in.  Glueing notes / clips together.  Automation handling (resolution, drawing tools).  I could go on...

Neither's perfect, but I'm really glad I made the change to Sonar.  I can work around the issues in the Sonar UI, but there's no way of making Cubase sound and groove better.

I started out with Cubase, Sony Acid and Sonar Home Studio 6. I spent a small amount of time on each program to see which one was easier for me to learn. I choose Sonar Home Studio! I only used the software to record and mix my clients vocals to soundtracks/performance tracks and then I would master their vocals by splitting the vocal track into clips that needed pitch change and so on. This took a lot of time since I didn't have producer software, but I still was able to record and master 10 albums with this low cost software. 
Now I have upgraded to Sonar 8.5 Producer because I needed a better workflow and better plugins like vx64 to make my vocal mastering a little easier. Plus with all the extra plugins, recording live artists and creating music, is a snap!

i wanted to start building a home studio in july of this year, so i went to guitar center and bought an m-audio delta 1010lt audio interface and m-audio av 40 monitors first. after an extremely difficult install, (the delta card would not seat properly in the pci slot) it would not play sound so i had to download drivers from avid and uninstall and reinstall etc. and finally got sound.  next i bought pro tools m-powered 8 and could not get past the "welcome to pro tools" dialog box, just that and an eternal hourglass.  on hold for tech support 35 minutes, gave up and tried email support.  gave them all required information about system, hardware, driver versions, etc. and a desciption of the problem. they wasted a week of my free support asking redundant questions about the information i had already given.  week two i had my son hold for 28 minutes for tech support agent, tech agent logged in remotely to my computer and spent 1 hour 36 minutes to get pro tools to load.  when i came home later and started protool it partially loaded and error message said no m-audio hardware found.  more hours uninstalling and reinstalling drivers. week 4 program on sound on start learning about program step by step with included training dvd.
i get to the part where we load a virtual instrument.  the guy on the video opens an instrument track, i open an instrument track. he goes to first insert drop down list>instrument>mini grand,   i open instrument track, go to first insert drop down list>instrument but all my list has is and eq and melodyne ess., not the rest of the instruments shown iin his list.  i read help pdfs.  virtual instrument are in creative collection that is supposed to install with pro tools  no problem creative collection can be installed later by inserting pro tools installer disc, click setup, choose custom install>creative collection.  sounds simple enough... i click setup-- welcome to protools; eternal hourglass.  i try to work around but the mpowered installer folder icon is transparent and clicking on it does nothing.  i call tech support hold 12 minutes for the screener guy, he says free tech support is over it'll be $39.95 to make work what should already.  I call gutar center, tell them my story, they say bring my pc and they will get it working. i say ok then go back to pro tools to record some canned music and vocal.  I click pro tools to open, error message says i have to insert i-lock to use protools. my i-lock has never left its usb port since day one.  i check, i-lock is in its port and powered up.   i restart pc and protools, this time error message says something about one of my drives having too many characters in its name and that i should rename it to avoid i-lock corruption.  I call back guitar center and ask them if they want the next thousand bucks im going to spend on my home studio, and if they do it will require the return credit for the buggy crap they sold me called pro tools m powered.  they decide its in their best interest, and upgrade me to sonar producer 8.5.
JOY!  everything loads, everything works, (even with the finnicky delta sound card) i browsed the program and i think from what i can see that pro tools not working was a blessing in diguise for me.  i'm very much looking forward to working in sonar. thanks

Well, I am beginning to use the forum that we have here. I started with Cakewalk LE at the beginning. I liked it a lot but everyone was talking about Majic and Protools in my area of the South, Washington-Crawfordville-Greensboro-Union Point-Georgia. I learned that you had to purchase so much on Protools that it was just ridiculous. Recording vocals in Protools were great along with running Reason in rewire mode. I started using Sonar and I liked it a lot. I have Sonar 7 Producer Edition now. I still can't get Reason 4.0 to have little to no latency while in rewire with Sonar and that is basicly my biggest problem with Sonar. Sonar gets you that professional sound right out of the box. I am the lead producer in the CSRA (East Central Georgia) area. They take my word serious. If someone can help me with the latency problem it would be great! I am using M-Audio Project Mix I/O Control Surface Board (Firewire) for my sound card and M-Audio Pro 88 Key Control Surface Keyboard which is USB on my self built PC since Sonar is not Mac capatible, another bummer :( I have been using Sonar now with conjuction of Protools (reason stated above and differ per task such as comming up with an instrumental with just the vocal or remixing a song.

Brandon Ryan [Cakewalk
]

Shambler


I am currently trying out the demo of SONAR 8 with a view to switching from Cubase 4 Studio.

Why am I thinking of switching?

Firstly I have driver issues with my Echo hardware, it just has not worked with Cubase 4 since version 4.1.1 and we are now on version 4.5.2. The Echo drivers have gone from version 8.3 to 8.4 and now 8.5. Neither Echo nor Cubase appear to be taking this seriously, the problem still persists with ASIO TIME OVERLOAD as soon as you open a project.

Secondly Cubase loves to crash, the times I have to reboot my PC because the application just hangs for no good reason e.g. opening a VSTi instrument...well it is just getting too much!

Support...so many bugs in Cubase 4 and what do they do? They ditch it and bring out Cubase 5!...great

Things I have noticed with SONAR,

It works fine with my Echo Layla 3G sound card, latency is low and there is no crackling/distortion.

Sometimes the audio engine stops when opening an EWQL Play VSTi...but clicking on the 'Start Audio Engine' icon brings the sound back...something which would have required rebooting my PC with Cubase.

It hasn't crashed once yet and I have been stressing it out with several EWQL instances and other soft synths.

All I need to know is , are there any crossgrades available to go from CS4 to SS8.5?

[EDIT] Testing is done, SONAR 8.5 Studio ordered!

Welcome Shambler. If you run into any problems or have questions, the forum is an amazing resource. Of course if you get really stuck, contact Cakewalk via any method described here.

 
Thank you. I can report that after several weeks of using SONAR I have found it to be virtually bombproof as far as reliability goes and I am very happy that I took the risk and switched.

I recently switched from Cubase LE to Sonar Home Studio 7 xl. The reason i moved away from Cubase (as fast as I could!) was because after two years of instability, frequent freezing / crashing etc. I ended up doing a re-install, only to find I was being asked for a product code I had not needed when I first installed cubase (which came bundled with my EMU 0404. Several calls to the retailer who sold me this gear confirmed in my mind that this was an in-built 'ploy' to induce me and the many others stumped by this cubase trick, to move up to the full version. As my beloved compositions were 'locked' in cubase format I was not impressed.

Dont ask me how but i managed to install cubase again :), just long enough to save all my music to midi format. I then took advise from a musician friend who swears by sonar 7 xl. He is a serious composer with more knowledge than me so I went with his advice.

And then...two weeks into enjoying my new world of stability...my laptop died!! C'est La Vie! Still, glad to be with sonar now, and looking forward to using it :)

HEYY,
I WAS A STEINBERG FAN FOR SOME YEARS AND WAS INTRODUCE TO CALKWALK PROTOOLS LONG TIME AGO BUT IT WAS TO EXPENSIVE THEN I STARTED TAKING CLASSES IN MUSIC AND WHERE WE PRACTICE LOGIC BUT LOGIC WASN'T MADE FOR PC AND SONAR WAS THE LOGIC OF PC'S i'VE HAD MINOR PROBLEMS W/ SONAR 8.5 BUT NOT ENOUGH TO STOP USEING