Hello All,
 
    This is my first post as a new member on the Cakewalk forums, so please be gentle. (haha?)
 
    My biggest concern involves the hardware I presently own, and whether or not I will need any other components to complete my setup. This is my hypothetical situation; I will be running SONAR X2 producer, and as far as Hardware, I PLAN to use a POD HD500 as the interface for all my guitars and a ZOOM R16 for anything else (mics, drums, w/e). Both connect to my PC with USB 2.0. As you can probably tell, I have no experience with any DAW so this is all virgin territory for me, so my question is thus:
 
    With the aforementioned devices, is it reasonably practicable to assume that I can start learning SONAR and expect to have everything I need/get a decent performance out of the equipement/software and not suffer any severe latency or other issues on my PC (assuming said PC is exceeding opertaing requirements)? I am aware that there are certain processes and tools within SONAR or any other DAW that will induce latency regardless.
 
    If that is insufficient equipment for a bare-bones set up, then what TYPES of devices am i looking at to complete it? Any advice on the subject is most welcome.
 
                    Looking forward to being a part of the Cakewalk community,
                                                                                                        
                                                                            Blaine

Welcome Blaine...

Am I right in understanding that your proposed setup will not be using a "regular" sound card?  I think you might be able to use the other hardware items as long as they provide an audio input to your PC that Sonar recognizes.

For example, I own a Roland VG-99 guitar amp/FX modeler pedal, and it offers a USB input to my PC which Sonar can use to record audio from the unit.  Is that kind of like what you are planning on doing?  If so, I think it should work.

However I never use this route, opting instead to put a regular sound card between my instruments and my PC.  I do make use of the SPDIF output from the VG-99 so that I go directly digital from the unit right into my sound-card, which frees up its analog inputs.

The other benefit of using a real sound card is that you can use other instruments that might not offer audio over their USB connections.  Maybe I am misunderstanding your request?

The plan is definitely to include a sound card,
 
I apologize for any peculiar use of the terminology I am using! as it says in the post, this is all new to me.
 
I see what you are saying in regard to the sound card. I think it would fall on me at this point to inform myself as to how the processes in the proagram and the sound card relate to one another. my biggest setback at this point, to be embarassingly honest, is that I havent the faintest clue what I'm doing, I just want to know whether or not my gear is gonna work for or against me...
 
Thank you very much for taking the time to respond!
 

CrusherKodiak


Hello All,
 
    This is my first post as a new member on the Cakewalk forums, so please be gentle. (haha?)
 
    My biggest concern involves the hardware I presently own, and whether or not I will need any other components to complete my setup. This is my hypothetical situation; I will be running SONAR X2 producer, and as far as Hardware, I PLAN to use a POD HD500 as the interface for all my guitars and a ZOOM R16 for anything else (mics, drums, w/e). Both connect to my PC with USB 2.0. As you can probably tell, I have no experience with any DAW so this is all virgin territory for me, so my question is thus:
 
    With the aforementioned devices, is it reasonably practicable to assume that I can start learning SONAR and expect to have everything I need/get a decent performance out of the equipement/software and not suffer any severe latency or other issues on my PC (assuming said PC is exceeding opertaing requirements)? I am aware that there are certain processes and tools within SONAR or any other DAW that will induce latency regardless.
 
    If that is insufficient equipment for a bare-bones set up, then what TYPES of devices am i looking at to complete it? Any advice on the subject is most welcome.
 
                    Looking forward to being a part of the Cakewalk community,
                                                                                                        
                                                                            Blaine

I seem to recall that the R-16 can be used as a mixer / USB2 audio interface, but there might be some limitations.
 
Plop this into google:  zoom r16 as audio interface
 
At the time I was considering this, I think there may have been one person on either this or another forum who was using an R-24.
In the google result set, someone from the home recording link said
 
"I have been using the R16 in interface mode for a couple if years now. It was a pain in the ass to get set up and finally I resorted to using the ASIO4All drivers. Since then, zero problems. I also use it as a control surface for Sonar 8. I really like that feature.
Yeah, the pres arent stellar, but they are certainly usable.
I also have Reaper installed on a netbook...the R16 works well with it too. "
 
 

I don't know the POD HD500, or the Zoom R16, so I can't offer much advice.
 
The only thing I could suggest is checking what the drivers are like for those devices.  If they have ASIO drivers, they might be okay.
 
One of my students uses a zoom, so I'll ask him about it tomorrow.

No problem, it was all new to me too.  Sometimes it still feels like it is, hehe.

Typically people get a decent sound card that they use between the PC/Sonar and your instruments.  I'd be surprised if anyone tried to operate without one because it's the way you get external sound (audio) or optionally MIDI into the computer.  And it's also the way you'd listen back to your music as it plays within Sonar.

I mention the Roland VG-99 because it allows you to circumvent the norm of using a sound card by providing an audio stream straight from the pedals.  But I think this is more rare and even I don't bother to use it that way (although there's no real reason not to).

You might want to look into some sound cards and see what they might offer you and what price range you're willing to pay.  Companies like Roland, MOTU, M-Audio, etc. all make good sound cards, most of which you can plug into your PC via a USB cable.  You would then plug your instruments into that sound card and headphones to listen to playback or to directly hear your instruments.

Here are a few cards by name as a starting point for research:  
- Roland DuoCapture / QuadCapture / OctaCapture
- MOTU 896 MKIII
- M-Audio Delta / Fast Track

You could conceivably use the sound card built into your PC (typically in the motherboard) but I would't recommend this.  They are less stable, less capable and lower quality when it comes to recording and playback...

Thanks, I will see what I can find! As far as the Zoom R16 is concerned, there is some propaganda on their site as far as it functionality with any DAW, but I would like to find out if that accurate or not...
 
any advice is always appreciated :)
 
                Thanks again

CrusherKodiak


Thanks, I will see what I can find! As far as the Zoom R16 is concerned, there is some propaganda on their site as far as it functionality with any DAW, but I would like to find out if that accurate or not...
 
any advice is always appreciated :)
 
                Thanks again

Hey - as long as you already own it, you might as well see if you can get some mileage out of it.
 
Let us know how it works for you.

It looks like the Zoom R16 is a full on 8 in 2 out 24-bit/96Khz USB 2.0 audio interface (aka sound card) with ASIO drivers. Personally I'd just use the R16 as my interface and route the POD audio through it as swapping interfaces (and monitor outs etc) every time you want to record different instruments sounds to me like more hassle than it's worth.

From what I just read on the Zoom R16 it appears that it will be just fine as an audio interface.
At first I was thinking that it might only offer a stereo pair (basically the Main Outs) as it's PC connection.

But it does offer 8 inputs through USB which is nice.

Like Pbognar said, you already own it so use it and let us know how the driver support is.
If it has decent drivers and works well then you're in good shape.
If not then you know to start shopping for something else.

Welcome.
Mike