Hello,
 
I'm new to the board, but I've been lurking for years....a lot of great advice on here. Been using Cakewalk since Cakewalk Pro 3.0 circa 1992. I've recently been getting into some heavier film scoring, and worried that I might be running into CPU issues soon. So....I am looking at a third monitor just for the video portion. The manual for X2 says that I could use a "Firewire DV Device", but I can't seem to find anything concrete on the internet as to what "devices" are available out there. Does anyone here have one of these, and if so, could you please refer me to a few options?
 
Basic Specs:
 
i7 2700K
32GB Ram
Win 7 Pro
Sonar X2
 
Thanks in advance!

I have a Canopus ADVC 110 that I use to use a lot,  but it sits on my shelf.  It looked good,  but i think I had issues finding individual frames. It killed my work flow.  It has been a few years,  a few Sonar versions and a few computers ago so I'm glad you posted this.  I might fire it up and try it again when I get a free day.  Sonar X2 has better scrubbing so it might be worth looking at again. 

I currently use 3 monitors and score to picture a lot .  One monitor is a an old TV that i connected with $50 USB adapter.  The resolution is low, but that is fine for me 'cause my clients usually send me low-res ruff cuts to score.  

What i do is drop my clients video into Sony Vegas and render sections that need music.  I try to keep the sections under 15 minutes.  I do mostly Documentry TV style stuff so between commercials is rarely more than 10 minutes.

Vegas renders MPeg-1 files for me very quickly (quicker than real time).  I do this to prepare the picture and make sure Sonar has a video file it plays back with little trouble and small hits on the CPU.   

By the way---welcome to the forum.

I too, have been a Cake guys since 1992 and 3.0

I've tried different methods for using Sonar for scoring to picture. The method that I've found that seems to work the best for me is using a separate computer for serving the video. I'm currently using a Mac Mini with an instance of Reaper syncing HD video. Reaper is used as a video slave only, and it works very smoothly for this purpose.  Sonar sends MTC and Reaper syncs the picture and outputs to a separate monitor. You don't even have to edit the video to match the length of your cues, just load the entire video and adjust the MTC offset in the Sonar project to display the correct segment of the video for the cue you are scoring.

bentleyousley


I've tried different methods for using Sonar for scoring to picture. The method that I've found that seems to work the best for me is using a separate computer for serving the video. I'm currently using a Mac Mini with an instance of Reaper syncing HD video. Reaper is used as a video slave only, and it works very smoothly for this purpose.  Sonar sends MTC and Reaper syncs the picture and outputs to a separate monitor. You don't even have to edit the video to match the length of your cues, just load the entire video and adjust the MTC offset in the Sonar project to display the correct segment of the video for the cue you are scoring.

I've always thought I'd try something like this, sounds very interesting.  I could very easily do this now with a virtual midi app.
 
How do you zero in a certain Frame?

Hey JS -
    I score within Sonar as well, and your computer has much better specs than mine.  I would like to try a slave set up but havent got around to it yet. 

    To get around the processing issue of big orchestral projects with video, I will set up my markers, hit points, make meticulous notes with the video running.  I then delete the video from the project, write music with my markers and notes as a guide, then reinsert video and check things out.  When everything is as I like it, I delete the video for the mixing process.

    Like Jimbo, I also use Vegas to chop the video into segments for scoring.  Please advise if you do find a good 3rd party slave for video.   

Thanks a lot for the suggestions, much appreciated. Jimbo and Mike, I was looking at Vegas for chopping the video....looks like its a good option.

Mike: I also do heavy orchestral stuff, your method sounds like it might work for certain projects....clever idea.

I don't really want to go down the slave route (yet). Just more technical things to sort out, let alone getting another computer. However, I've also been thinking about adding VE Pro on my single machine to take the load off my VST's.

Cheers