Let me start of by saying I'm not trolling. I used to help manage a small project studio where we had Macs and PCs and our Macs broke down, crashed, etc. so much more frequently than the PCs,  I used to say "the only good thing about Macs is that you can run Digital Performer on them".
 
I am not familiar with DP, but I am a big fan of MOTU sound cards. I just read today that after many years of being Mac exclusive, DP is now available for PC.
 
So, for those of you who know, why is X2 better than DP? I'm no where near purchase mode, but I am looking to upgrade my PC system next year and I would really appreciate your constructive comparisons.
 
Thanks!

Posted on the "other" software forum. 
 
http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?m=2824611


Quote - 
I used to say "the only good thing about Macs is that you can run Digital Performer on them". 
  
I am not familiar with DP

Rain


Posted on the "other" software forum. 

http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?m=2824611


Quote - 
I used to say "the only good thing about Macs is that you can run Digital Performer on them". 
 
I am not familiar with DP

Irony. See what I did there? Since I don't like Macs... Pretty funny, eh?

razor


Let me start of by saying I'm not trolling. I used to help manage a small project studio where we had Macs and PCs and our Macs broke down, crashed, etc. so much more frequently than the PCs,  I used to say "the only good thing about Macs is that you can run Digital Performer on them".
 
I am not familiar with DP, but I am a big fan of MOTU sound cards. I just read today that after many years of being Mac exclusive, DP is now available for PC.
 
So, for those of you who know, why is X2 better than DP? I'm no where near purchase mode, but I am looking to upgrade my PC system next year and I would really appreciate your constructive comparisons.
 
Thanks!

For notation and (to a lesser extent) video, DP (and most other DAWs) are decades ahead of Sonar which completely ignores these functions.  If you don't need notation or video Sonar is fine.

Yea,  DP8 is great for playing back video.  If you are scoring a film it has it all over Sonar with it's "chunks" and Streamers and other features .  

The notation in DP8 is way better,  but still not anything to get excited about.  Still clunky way to work.  Lead sheets out of Dp8 are waay ahead.

Sonar's Prochannel and other mixing features are by far better than DP8.  As is midi editing.

DP8 does not handle 64 bit plugins very well.  If you are going to load up an Orchestra you will most likely need VEP 5 or another 3rd party app outside of DP8 unlike Sonar.
  
You can change colors in DP8,  but Sonar is still easier to customize.  Sonar is easier with Screen setups and Screen Shots..

I can see me using DP8 for film work, but Sonar will be what I use to create and mix a song.    

vintagevibe

razor


Let me start of by saying I'm not trolling. I used to help manage a small project studio where we had Macs and PCs and our Macs broke down, crashed, etc. so much more frequently than the PCs,  I used to say "the only good thing about Macs is that you can run Digital Performer on them".

I am not familiar with DP, but I am a big fan of MOTU sound cards. I just read today that after many years of being Mac exclusive, DP is now available for PC.

So, for those of you who know, why is X2 better than DP? I'm no where near purchase mode, but I am looking to upgrade my PC system next year and I would really appreciate your constructive comparisons.

Thanks!

For notation and (to a lesser extent) video, DP (and most other DAWs) are decades ahead of Sonar which completely ignores these functions.  If you don't need notation or video Sonar is fine.

I've been testing it out.  Ergonomically it's beautiful, the color options are large.  It's intuitive and easy to learn fairly quickly.  Sonar X2a is finally stable on my system.  They are similar programs.  In terms of notation, the only real problem with Sonar notation, I believe, is with the display of tied and dotted triplets and 64th notes and 32nd triplets.  They don't display properly, never did.  The good news is that the play back is accurate so it's more a graphic annoyance rather than anything that prevents composing and producing in the staff view.  But X2 has great features that some DAWs don't have, like the ability to rename controllers in the event list and the ability to have multiple staff views open at one time.  Those are great features for a composer who works the way I do.  DP for Windows is not stable on my system, it perpetually crashes on program exit, and I've tried numerous things, but my faith in X2a really went up last night when I played back a 300 measure sequence with 40 tracks and many, many controller and patch changes, meter changes and tempo changes and it played it back like a virtuoso without a glitch.
 
I think MOTU will stablize it soon and it will also be a great DAW.  It's as easy to learn as Sonar in my opinion.
 
JG
www.ottavarecords.com
 
   

As with many tools, there are things to like about one over another.  Nothing I've seen has made me want to pull away from Sonar, but I would like to see some more attention with the colour options as shown here:

http://www.motu.com/products/software/dp/body.html#themes


Underneath that screen there are a bunch of alternative themes.  For me it's not about pretty-ness, but rather the desire to have things stand out more clearly (to my eyes).  I know, it's back to the colour topic, but still, it's something that stood out for me on their product information.

I did notice it uses small fonts. Its a powerful DAW and I am very glad it is now available for Windows.  However, I think it needs a little time to adjust to how we work in Windows. I am not impressed with this version. But I do think it could be a very strong competitor given time. 

I like the way it looks but looks are deceiving. The way things are done in general seem more work then they should be. 

jsg
In terms of notation, the only real problem with Sonar notation, I believe, is with the display of tied and dotted triplets and 64th notes and 32nd triplets.  They don't display properly, never did.  The good news is the play back accurately so it's more a graphic annoyance rather than anything that prevents composing in the staff view. 
 
JG
www.ottavarecords.com
 
   

There are a host of showstopping deficiencies in the staff view.  Inability to correctly handle tuplets, incorrect enharmonics, bizarre default groupings that take huge amounts of time to correct... If the forum search worked you could find pages and pages of issues with staff view.  Sonar staff view in amateurish and barely usable for serious work compared to Cubase, DP, Logic and Protools.

DP has two amazing features that I've been wanting in SONAR for YEARS. 

One: constantly centered NOW time. Yup, scrolling timeline. It's wonderful.
Two: a record mode that is MIDI ON activated. So you click it, then as soon as you start playing it starts recording. Sublime for overdubs.