guitartrek

Rain - I checked out Logic 9 and was surprised how much it looks like X1 and X2 with the Arranger, Inspector, the list, the editor windows - same window management as the Sonar skylight interface.  Did Sonar get that look and feel from Logic?  Or did Logic get theirs from Sonar? 

Logic, back in 2007 IIRC. Screen sets were also something that was first implement in Logic, way back in the early days. :)




To the OP - you can't go wrong w/ Logic and Mainstage. Most of the guys I know who have laptops as part of their live rig (usually, keyboard players) are using MainStage. 

I've used Logic on a MacBook Pro for over two years now, 5 or 6 days a week, usually 8 hours or more a day. Bought the MacBook, installed Logic and I was done. No optimization, no tweaks, no need to mess w/ the task manager and to kill processes running in the background or to worry about stuff loading at startup.... 


The only times in two years where I actually had to think about technical/computer related-stuff is when running POD Farm, which is by all account one buggy piece of software on the Mac side, and when I first upgraded Kontakt to version 5. That one didn't play along well and it took a bit of tweaking.

You can try Parallels on your Mac. Then you can run both environments at the same time in the same space. I have a few Windows only programs I run (I haven't installed Sonar) and it works great...the 2 environments run in the same space.

I didn't want to turn my MacBook Pro into a Windows machine either with Bootcamp...I am very happy with the setup and it works flawlessly.

HTH

Dave

kurrykid


You can try Parallels on your Mac. Then you can run both environments at the same time in the same space. I have a few Windows only programs I run (I haven't installed Sonar) and it works great...the 2 environments run in the same space.

I didn't want to turn my MacBook Pro into a Windows machine either with Bootcamp...I am very happy with the setup and it works flawlessly.

HTH

Dave

Exactly my point. However, Doesn't parallels not allow as much system resources for the program you are running? I. E. Sonar would crash often?

Edit: And also, how would that work with installing VSTs? Wouldn't they have to bee installed under parallels? It doesn't sound like it would work to well, and would consume a lot of system resources.

You can allocate as much resources as you want/need. How would that differ from Bootcamp? You would install both Sonar and VST's under Parallels (actually on the OS you installed on Parallels). Not sure how it would be any different than installing on a Windows machine but then again, I haven't tried this setup.

You would still be running Windows - side by side w/ OS X. I personally wouldn't opt for that (or even bootcamp) unless theres something on the PC platform which you really want to run on your MacBook. And if it's all that important, you may be better simply buying a PC laptop.

kurrykid


You can allocate as much resources as you want/need. How would that differ from Bootcamp? You would install both Sonar and VST's under Parallels (actually on the OS you installed on Parallels). Not sure how it would be any different than installing on a Windows machine but then again, I haven't tried this setup.

Well it seems like it would lead to latency issues, especially with using an audio interface. Macs are known for their better use of audio than windows, and using windows over mac via parallels seems to defeat the purpose, even if it saves Sonar. I'm just wondering if parallels would complicate things to much, instead of just using boot camp. Then again, maybe I should just get a cross platform DAW like Cubase or PT for using mac. I really don't want to switch though. I like the idea, but I'm not so sure if it is practical.

You know, assuming that you may need an audio interface for your laptop, there's pretty good chances that you could find one that comes w/ a light version of software (most of the time, cross-platform) like Pro Tools, Cubase or Studio One.

If you don't need a full blown DAW, any of these might work for you.

I think that I am going to go with Logic or reaper for the mac side and then use bootcamp/sonar or parallels/sonar. I don't think i'll get mainstage because it doesn't look like it really need it. Any way, my ideal setup seems to be Macbook Pro 13", RME Babyface, Reaper/Logic (With Sonar in it's special situation). Any comments or critiques to this that I might regret?

Frankly if I wanted a computer and my goal was to run Sonar, I would definitely buy a PC. I would not try to make it work on a Mac. The Mac is a terrific machine but if I was still using mostly Windows based stuff, I'd have a Windows machine. The good news is that almost all software have Mac versions available nowadays. We know Sonar doesn't have one and there doesn't appear to be any plans in the near future, which is fine.

Something I wouldn't have thought I'd ever say...

You're buying a new Mac, meaning it'll run the latest OS (Mountain Lion). Personally, I haven't upgraded the OS - neither to Lion last year, neither to Mountain Lion this year, and Logic is as stable as it gets. BUT, a lot of the complaints I've heard seem to come from people who were using the latest OS. It may or may not be related, but it's an impression I have.

Apple adresses most of these w/ free Logic updates, but, I guess there are limits to the adjustments you can make to an application that's been out for over 3 years after the OS has changed radically a few times. 

Anyway, since there's no demo of Logic, it'd already be a leap of faith to just buy it. Chances are it'll run perfectly fine but it may not suit your workflow or whatever. So maybe give Reaper a try first and see how you like it.