I started using Cakewalk WAAAY back in the day (Cakewalk 1.0 for Windows 3.1). Came on three floppy disks as I recall. I'm a guitar player, so MIDI was just for drum tracks on demos. I was an early adopter/guinea pig for digital audio on the PC and joined the Cakewalk beta test team for CWPA 4.x. Beta tested through SONAR 4 (or 5?). I played in bar bands, ran a local recording studio (DA-88s sync'd to PC), wrote music software (LUI for Yamaha DSP Factory, distributed by Cakewalk), wrote articles for ProRec.com and eventually semi-retired back to my basement circa SONAR 4. My value as a beta tester was pretty low by then (wasn't doing much recording) and I was dropped from the team. I still see some familiar names on the forum from those years.
I've been using SONAR 5 Producer Edition since then for personal demos, but to be honest, I had pretty much hung up my musician hat for the last 5+ years. Some old band mates / studio clients asked me to join their band, write and record a bunch of new material, and gig once in a while. Last hurrah for the old farts (mostly in our 50s). HAHAHAHA
So I just upgraded to X2 Producer (yesterday) and ordered the full version of TH2. I installed the 32-bit versions because I have a bunch of 32-bit Waves plug-ins that were not cheap that I wanted to use. Nearly all my work is recording live musicians playing real instruments so there is a lot of SONAR I won't touch.
So far, so good. Installation went smoothly and everything works except for the Holiday Pack for Dimension Pro. If anyone has any insight on why it's complaining that it can't find 1.5 when I run the installer, I'm all ears.
I built a new system in the fall, so I'm in good shape there. I'm running Win7 Ultimate (64-bit) with an intel i5 on an Asus P8-Z77-V mobo and 8 GB RAM. System disk is a 120 GB SSD (wicked fast). Data drive is a 1 TB, 7200 RPM WD. Segate 1TB backup drive (external). Still using a Mackie Onyx 400F audio interface with the ASIO drivers (64 sample buffer size). Everything seems solid.
So I figured this thread would chronicle my return to the studio and the upcoming recording project. Sort of like a blog, but a place to ask questions when I can't figure something out.