John

sharke

John

sharke

John


You do know that Sonar is a MIDI sequencer right?

You do know that there are 3rd party plugs with sequencing functionality that Sonar doesn't have, right?  

No actually. What are they? What would that be? 


What benefit is there in the OP's plugin over what Sonar offers? And most plugis that have sequencing are synths that work stand alone as well as as a plugin. heck SD3 has patterns. I just would like to know why this is being asked about. 

Why worry about it? Different tools, different jobs, different workflows, different minds, different tastes. 

Just a quick look at the plugin in question is enough to see that it offers a different sequencing experience from that of Sonar. I mean at a glance, the ability to apply swing or transposition to a pattern in real time. And some people like the vertical bar style of sequencer, in which the vertical height of each bar represents velocity. It's convenient for drum patterns. In Sonar's step sequencer, the note triggers and the velocities are separated into their own rows. And the OP's plugin has some kind of chord functionality, in which you can trigger chords and their inversions with one note. 


Another example, why would anyone pay $250 for FXpansion's Geist, when you can theoretically make the same drum patterns in Sonar? 

Sonar must be the only DAW in the world. Perhaps Giest is marketed for use in other DAWs? DAWs that don't have Sonar's MIDI facilities for creating MIDI. But then why not have a a dozen ways to create MIDI rather than just Sonar's measly 4 or 5.

Really? Really? Based on the same logic, you could question why anyone buys any 3rd party plug at all when the Cakewalk ones are perfectly sufficient. 


Sonar is not perfect, and does not cover every possible workflow and possibility. Therefore, it's perfectly reasonable to seek 3rd party add-ons. I already pointed out some of the convenient functionality of the OP's plug. Why don't you take a look at Geist as well, to see for yourself what it has in comparison to Sonar's functionality. 


I guess you'd also question why anyone would want to ReWire a 3rd party notation program into Sonar too, right?

rivers88

swamptooth


hey rivers - totally get why you want to do this... cthulhu comes to mind...
a word of warning though.  i've got an x2 project with couple of instances of reaktor doing lfo and envelope-based control changes to different synths - so, 2 instances of reaktor midi output running into two different midi tracks on different channels for recording purposes.  problem is, sonar confuses the two instances of reaktor and records the output of instance one on both midi tracks.  i have to shut down all synths that enable midi output except for one when recording otherwise the whole thing is a mess.  i'm still testing it out but you might want to give that a shot just to make sure your setup is running ok with it.

my config is
reaktor 1 cc 4 output-->> midi track a on channel 2
reaktor 2 cc 22 output -->> midi track b on channel 4
midi track a -->> rapture
midi track b -->> dimension pro

i'd be interested to know if you have the same issues with the plug you're using and would be more than grateful if you could check it out before i file a problem report.


cheers and i look forward to trying out KC at some point.

I'm just getting started using Cream (it's actually still in beta) , but I'll post later as I find out more about it.  I do like the interface, and it sounds like my ultimate goal is going to be somewhat similar to yours ~ in my case, I plan to use the CC track programmability to run through an external MIDI-to-CV convertor, then route to some other analog gear for synchronized CV control.
 
Basically, I plan to use it in lieu of an expensive external analog sequencer (totally off the table now, thanks to the upcoming USG budget cuts!), and since it's a VST plugin, I should be able to run it inside a minimal VST host on a low-end netbook that can't handle the overhead of a DAW like Sonar.
 
Randy

hey randy that sounds like a fun project.  when i was in college i was into industrial music and a friend of mine and i in the electronic music seminars decided to do a real industrial band by rigging power tools to supply cv to this big-ass modular moog in the studio.  good good fun! 
anyway one thing i would totally check out is combining lfotool with bidule (which can act as a small host) see this video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aH2ELClxPQU
 
one of the things that i'm using right now is a combination of pure data, sonar and reaktor on 3 different networked machines (2 win laptops and an imac) to produce adaptive sound based on the outputs of each machine.  really easy kinda stuff to set up, so i think with cream (great price point too btw!) you'll have a great starting place.  i'd highly reccomend pure data http://puredata.info/downloads and native-instruments Reaktor because you can set up OSC output schemes that can get around certain midi limitations.
 
as for cake products the reason to have tools like this that you can use is so that things like lfos to control parameters in synths like dimension that do not have lfos natively hooked to them.  you can also route the midi out to something like loopmidi then hook the loopmidi output up to an autiomation lane via remote control so you can apply lfos and midi control to things like fxbin parameters or prochannel module controls.  the only thing i don't like about that method is that the automation lanes forget the remote control assignments every time i close the project, which is a major drag but whatever...
 
anyway good luck with the experiment and keep us updated! 

swamptooth -

Thanks for the ideas ~ I could definitely see incorporating something like LFOTool in the future! (if only it would show up as an iPad app!!)

Right now I'm doing a lot of "tinkering" just to see what works, with the hopes of putting some of my gear currently collecting dust (like the netbook I mentioned earlier) back to work.  I travel back and forth between my two "homes" quite a bit, so a lot of what I'm doing is geared towards working with some of the more portable hardware and software options that can travel with me.

I'm just getting into the analog CV side of things, but I think Cream or similar plugins (and apps), combined with my Doepfer Dark Link MIDI-to-CV interface, will ultimately offer some pretty cool analog control options.  Right now, I have a Moog Minitaur, Ring Modulator, MIDI MuRF filter, Analog Delay, and Moog/Realistic MG-1 synth that can all be controlled via CV, so a sequencer that can offer multiple CC tracks could make for some interesting possibilities!!

I'll keep you posted as the 'experiment' progresses...