(CW sent me the $20 last-day-reminder .... so I bit the hook)

It took all afternoon to download.  I haven't installed it.  I'm assuming this is the best DAW software available ... for my genre(s).  I post-poned till now so you guys could work out the bugs.  8.5.3 remains very venerable for me.
Any warnings, thoughts, etc. now should be greatly appreciated as I'm getting ready to install it on 2 comps.


If nothing else, I can at least crash the X2 forum and see how you guys are making it.

8.5.3 to X2 will be a bit of a learning curve. I would suggest not uninstalling 8.5.3 and just installing X2. The two will co-exist and if you have issues while you are becoming familiar with X2, your familiar 8.5.3 will still be there if need be. And dont forget the X2a patch. Good luck! 

Firstly I would update to X2a straight away.  I   had a few issues with the initial release, but X2a has been stable as a rock for me.
 
Secondly watch Seth's video on "Transistioning to X2" on Cake Site and watch the videos on Groove 3 "(ree with your 30 pass from the content club) soon, as the change in layout and workflow is HUGE.
 
I moved from Sonar 6 to X1 and was lost for a while, but stick with it, as X2 is fantastic.  Hope you enjoy it as much as I and many others do..
 

Thanks Millzy and Jb101,

Yeah, I'll never uninstall 8.5.3 and will update to x2a.  Hopefully the 3rd party VSTs and everything will share appropriately.

I'll probably only use X2 for brand new projects ... and/or transport 'final-stems' and such only ... out of 8.5.3 for X2.

I've post-poned installation until computer issues (like my faulty SSDs in Raid 0) are worked out.

> "I'll never uninstall 8.5" - words to live by. Get ready for a long and frustrating un-learning curve. If you were really fast with edits & workflow in the old 8.x interface, be aware that they changed EVERYthing. Some love it; I found that it slowed me down sooo much that I probably sound like a real bummer these days. : ) Good luck.

I'll probably only use X2 for brand new projects

This is, in my opinion, a very sensible course of action.

The only problems I've had with X2 (& X2a) has been with projects started id X1 (or earlier)

For brand new projects, X2a is, at the moment, 100% reliable & stable

There are bugs, but none of them are showstoppers and there are workarounds for all of them (as far as I can see)

If you are running win 7 already then you should be fine. If you're on XP let us know and don't install X2A!

I'm afraid I agree with ed97643 about some workflow changes but there are also major improvements as well. For me the biggest slow down is the new smart tool which seems geared for touch screen operation. Selecting non contiguous objects is also more difficult than 8.5. I'm hoping Cake will take note that not all users are pleased to be lead by the nose into the touchscreen future at the expense of current mouse operation.

Having said that overall I enjoy working with X2A. Ideally I'd like the best of 8.53 mouse operations in the X2A interface but with 8.53 layers.

Thanks Maxsax, Bristol_Jonesey, and ed97643,


I'll take your thoughts to the bank on this.