Hi, guys. Today is the day I install X2 and I figured I might as well do one of my real time "reviews". Some folks seem to like seeing the step by step descriptions I do and it helps me think as I go along. Also I usually get much needed insight from more knowledgeable users along the way and it really makes the process smoother and more pleasurable for me. Yanno... cause I like you guys. ;-) Anyway, I do not work for Cake (or anybody for that matter). I'm just a schmoe trying to fight my way through the DAW world. I guess I'm not a COMPLETE beginner anymore but I've only really been doing this since May and just completed my first song with X1 a couple of days ago so I most definitely am still a beginner. My general computer knowledge is decent but I'm self taught so my terminology and methods might seem a little unorthodox and some concepts still elude me. I have however managed to get every piece of gear and software I've purchased up and running relatively quickly. I hope this ends up helping some folks and at the very least provides a bit of entertainment for ya'll. Cheers.

So I downloaded all of the X2 files (except for DimPro because I already have it) the other day. I used Firefox as always. I use AdBlack and NoScript. I did NOT disable AdBlock and in NoScript I only allowed the Cakewalk domain. The download seemed to work fine with those settings. It took about 3 hours over broadband and I was getting an average of 1MB persecond. For those of you planning on using Internet Explorer to download you really should consider using FireFox or Chrome instead as they have built in download managers. If you have no choice but to use IE there are free download managers on the web and many folks here have recommended the ones they use so check out the other threads. There was an issue where IE was stripping out the .exe part of the install files which was making install impossible. The fix was to manually type the .exe onto the end and there were a couple of other fixes. I think Cakewalk may have remedied that problem on the download page but I'm not sure. Again there are tons of threads talking about this issue.

As usual after every download finished I right clicked the file in the Firefox download window, selected "Open Containing Folder" and in the window that popped up the file was highlighted (if it isn't be sure for the next step you are selecting the correct file... it is easy to copy two of the same file and leave one out). So I right clicked the file > Copy. Then I went to the desktop, created a new folder named X2 and pasted the file in there. I do this to keep all the files accessible and organized and the added benefits are that you can use that folder to extract to and if you want to make a disc back or something you easily copy the folder and toss it where you want. So now I've got all the downloaded files in my X2 folder.

As usual I want to read the install documentation. I open my folder and open the file labeled Sonar Installation Instructions. It's a nice little note thanking me for buying X2 with a link. Not very helpful itself but I guess the info might be getting updated so they kept it online. I generally don't keep my DAW online so I'm just gonna manually type the URL into my laptop browser. This what came up... http://cakewalk.com/suppo...tion_instructions.aspx

lol... Okay that page is just giving the download directions... which I've already done (and I actually read that page before my download) but anyone who hasn't downloaded yet really should take a look at it. At the bottom of the page there are links to what the download files of the various X2 versions contain. This can help you decide what you need and what you don't (for example if you already have Dim Pro and don't want to bother downloading it).

So the ACTUAL installation instructions are in the "Documentation Folder" labeled Readme_EN (or select your preffered language). This doc has a bunch of stuff in it regarding known issues and method for installing Dim Pro but I won't go into that. The main things I want are the general install procedures. Here they are. You must be logged onto your computer as Administrator (or an account with administrative privileges) for the installation. Disable any Anti-Virus software (make sure you are not connected to the internet before doing this and remember to turn it back on before you reconnect). So that's it for what I'm doing but if you are installing Dim Pro be sure to take a good long look at the instructions for that. It looks... um annoying but important.

So I use Microsoft Security Essentials on my DAW system. When a program tells me I need to disable my AV I open MSE, go to the Settings tab and select Real Time Protection. Then I uncheck the box that says "Turn on real-time protection". I'm not sure if this qualifies as actually disabling MSE but I've never had any problems. MSE is however a pretty friendly and no intrusive AV for a DAW. Obviously different AVs have different methods of doing this but I've also done this on Avast in the past and again it's a setting somewhere called Real Time Protection (or something to that affect).

Alright... so I'm ready to do this thing. I make sure to close out all open programs and documents so I'm just looking at the folder on my desktop where I save the downloaded files to. So I right click on the first file with the actual X2 icon beside it labeled 01_Read_This_First. Nothing happened... or so it seemed until I moved my open folder out of the way. Underneath it is a dialog asking me if I want to overwrite the German X2 Documentation PDF. Weird. I'm just going to click Yes (not Yes To All) and see what happens. Okay so it's just overwriting the read me files. I have no idea why it is doing this. I haven't downloaded anything extra since the original download and the files that are being overwritten are dated Sept 9th and replacing them with files that are again dated Sept 9th. Whatever. I'm just gonna click Yes To All. Now a new folder pops up which has all the original Read Me documents I described earlier but I also have the PDF Sonar X2 User Guide in multiple languages. It is a 52 page document and has an Installation section at the start so I'm gonna take a minute to read that.

Hiya Beep,

Reading your blog :) So far, so good heh? I had a few little problems here and there, mainly with Rapture, but all sorted now. I didn't install DimPro either. And I use MSE like your good self. I used to use Norton but as good as it might purport to be it just takes over your pc and you can never turn the damn thing off.

I look forward to reading about the rest of your adventure :-D

Talking of manuals, don't forget to download the big one once you've finished installing and tweaking X2.