As far as I am concerned, Pro Channel is anything but a "pro channel".  You want a pro channel? Great idea... how about making one that allows you to use any VST in any order in it.

Er..... you can.

With my anemic system, I find I can do so much more with PCs than VSTs which seem to eat up my RAM/CPU faster.  And ultimately, I find the PC modules VERY musical... and, they work for me very well.
The PCs just seem so well integrated into Sonar, in my humble opinion of course.

Don't get me wrong.. I DO have a few favorite VSTs too.   :-)

stevee9c6


Not using pro channel at all.  In fact, I don't enable the view. I did try it extensively but far prefer the variety of other source VST's. I have all of the Slate VST's, UAD2 quad with 20+ UA vsts', Kush UBK, A ton of Softube, Ozone5, all most everything Voxengo has ever done, a few Waves VST's and other odd's and ends. Of course, I still have outboard gear from Lexicon and TC.  As far as I am concerned, Pro Channel is anything but a "pro channel".  You want a pro channel? Great idea... how about making one that allows you to use any VST in any order in it.  Basically, this is what I do with effect chains presets.  For example, my standard bass preset is two VST's... UA VOG-LA2A.   I understand that "pro channel" may be a time saver for some, but it locks you into a preset VST pool controlled by Cake.... and that is marketing, not a pro approach.

Are you still running X1 by any chance? 


X2 is different (in lots of ways )

If you can load different developers vst's in prochannel and it works properly, I have not figured out how to do this.  I know that the softube cake specific plugs will but I am unaware of anyway to set up Slate, UAD, et al...   What am I missing here? I am not the first person to comment on this. Yes...  I am using X2

"What am I missing here? I am not the first person to comment on this. Yes... I am using X2",,,,, if you go to add or replace a plug-in, in pc in x2, you'll have the option of adding an fx chain, then you can add vst galore, with as many instances of vst or fx chains as your system can handle ,,,, steveeee you'll be kicking your self lol

FastBikerBoy


I have and just remembered why I don't use them any more unless I have to....

I'm currently working on a project where I need to use the Sonitus Compressor on several tracks and I've just proven that my own theory on the PC ergonomics is correct. I'm trying to tame the peaks on a guitar track and wondering why on earth the compressor isn't working.

In desperation I start to reduce the threshold all the way down and hear the drums being squashed down to nothing. Yep...... I've got the wrong Compressor window in focus.

Back to the nice convenient prochannel as soon as possible for me.

I think this is more indicative of an area where Sonar should improve, rather than showing where it excels at something. What I mean by that is: Studio One and Logic both have excellent plugin menus that 1) tell you what track your on and 2) allow you to navigate from effect to effect from the plugin menu. It's been a while, but I'm pretty sure you can even navigate to different tracks. That means you can do all your navigating without ever having to look at the Console or Track views just from plugin menus. That'd be a huge plus to Sonar.


Frankly, I think Pro Channel has a couple of major problems:


1. The majority of PC plugins are mediocre at best. The 1176 is "eh," the SSL Comp is "eh," the EQ is "good, but nothing magical" the saturation knob is "bleh," the Console emulator makes me really appreciate all the work that went into VCC, Breverb is good. Haven't used anything else, but I'd rather not compromise my mixes by using sub-par PC plugins when I have much better plugin alternatives.


2. Portability is non-existent. Great, so I nailed a sound using Pro Channel plugins, but now I want to transfer that project to Pro Tools or another host...if everything on that channel was a VST/RTAS/AAX plugin, I can just save the preset and reopen it in whatever DAW I want to move to, and recreate the channel strip. Can't do that with Pro Channel plugins because they are a...


3. Closed Platform. If Pro Channel as a format only works in Sonar, then it's a closed format and I have no interest in that. It's a bad direction for DAW's to go in. Imagine all DAW's had unique plugin formats? It would completely fragment the marketplace. I just can't, in any good conscious, support closed plugin formats within a DAW. See #2 for why openness is important.


4. Loading VST plugin effects into a Pro Channel is buggy. I've had crashes and multiple parameters getting assigned to a single plugin. Not cool. I'd rather just use the plugin as an insert effect in the bin. I like the idea of FX Chains, but again, the closed nature of it is disappointing.

stevee9c6


If you can load different developers vst's in prochannel and it works properly, I have not figured out how to do this.  I know that the softube cake specific plugs will but I am unaware of anyway to set up Slate, UAD, et al...   What am I missing here? I am not the first person to comment on this. Yes...  I am using X2

Just drag and drop from the browser..........

No... they do not display correctly. That is doing what I am already doing sans Pro Channel with effects chains. Everything that Cake sells as a VST can be set up as a module in this which displays with a useable  control panel.  You can not do that with other VST's.  I understand what you are saying,but the only way it would make sense to me is if you can create a module out of any VST that displays like the CW products.  That will never happen as Pro Channel is a dedicated marketing tool specifically designed to sell cake vst's and third party vst's that are ported and have a financial arrangement with cake.   I am not being critical of the corporate side of cake/roland. I understand it.

i can't seem to get any of this stuff to work anymore...

I fail to understand the difference between double clicking on a VST in the PC or double clicking on it in the FX bin.

You can create your own interface using the FGX chain GUI, if you mean an auto creating interface, I shudder to think of the possible combinations / work involved in that.