sonar in the uk

I'm a UK user of sonar and i was wondering is this a popular sequencer to use, it is frustrating how there is not enough space in magazines given to Sonar especially in the UK magazines such as computer music or music tech do the occasional article but tend to be bloated with stuff for cubase, ableton and logic

does anyone have any thoughts they would like to share on this


It's great to see video tutorials being made by Ask and SWA for sonar 7 and I can't wait to see the level 2 dvd produced by the hal leonard corp for sonar 7 available late august i believe!!

cheers Jimmy

Yes, Sonar is the cool one.

But, there are many recording programs like Protools, Garage Band, etc.

I think I've seen some recent post that said Cakewalk was bought up by Roland, so hopefully Roland will create more cool sounds and hardwate to be used with Sonar.

Take a look at Sound On Sound magazine, they always have a feature on Sonar.

Cakewalk was bought up by Roland

Well, more like the two have entered into a more "robust" (on Roland's side ) relationship...at least that's the party line.

@ the OP - There are loads of UK users on this forum that have stated similar things, but hopefully SONAR is inching their way (well, centimetring their way for you, I suppose) into the European (and beyond) marketplace.

@ the UK users - Color, color, color, color, color, color, color!!!

Yes, Sound on Sound gives at least as good coverage to Sonar as it does to Cubase, Logic, etc.. Craig Anderton does a monthly column which is always excellent, and new releases of Sonar get full reviews.

Chris

James, there are a fair few UK users here.. so it's not so bad

some people on here have used it for a long time and are very knowledgeable . So if you run into difficulties you can ask here, but the book Scott wrote is very good in addition to the manual.

Someone did bring up that point in CM a few months back. Yep it has to do with the % of each products of their readers. I only became a sonar user after winning cakewalk pro from a CM comp. I was very surprised, as I never win anything. I like different aspects of each thing I use, reason , sonar, cubase.

Did you ever see the review of sonar 7 in CM? it got a good result, as well it was slightly cheaper and compared to other things you got a lot more. I'm sure having z3ta included helped heaps also. Although if you look a the prices at say DV... cakewalk pro is cheaper than the stand alone 7PE... and your getting DP + Rapture + project 5 on top of that as well. £250 if you can get the b-stock version of £299 if it's the brand new one. The others aren't as cheap or if they are about the same price, come with far less.

the things they show, you can apply to each sequencer without a load of difficultly, was the answer they gave in the mag.

It's partly to do with cakewalk being not based in the UK or Europe I guess. For us, to contact them is normally email only. Although I wish they would set up a secret msn or skype number registered people could use that aren't US based. Phoning them is not really an option cost wise and well a lot of us use 2 pc's .. so using that method would be pretty straight forward.

I've bought music tech a few times, I don't rate it and found the disk content misleading in the sense of say for reason stuff "2 gb of samples" YES... but same thing x2 ..eg.. a 16 bit + 24 bit version of the same thing.

For me Future music is a bit high-end expensive gear, so I buy it rarely.

have you bought the sonar power book? that will show you a lot of things, but may be if your going to upgrade to 8, there might be a new version of that coming out in hhmm I dunno when? (I can't speak for Scott)

http://www.find-dvd.co.uk/bookPrices.aspx?book=1598634429

will show u the cheapest price.. £2 cheaper than I bought it.

for all the sonar 8 conspiracy crew , this is interesting and the release date >
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1598638211/findhotelinth-21

In particular Computer Music gave Sonar a bigger thumbs up than either Logic or Cubase in the last round of reviews (although it was close with logic). Many of the articles in Computer Music give examples done on Cubase or Ableton Live, however many of those articles are also "generic" in that the information provided could be used on just about any sequencer.

As for them using Cubase, its quite simply because the majority of the readers have , or will have had experience with one of the Cubase programs (very often on a cracked version).

With regards to the videos (The SWA one that is) , your welcome.

OP: Check out Sound on Sound as suggested by ChrisByrd

Jinga8: Sorry but you seem to have missed a "U" or two from your spelling of Colour

Stuart, do you buy any of the mags and which ones? I subscribed to CM as well in the long term it's far cheaper. Although I still buy the specials , theres a new one out at the moment but alas my normal news agent hasn't got it in stock.

I regularly read Sound on Sound, Computer Music and Music Tech mags. Each one is useful for something.

Sound on Sound is aimed at higher end users, however many of the articles can apply to any user. Its by far the "heaviest" read. It always contains a lot of good information, and its reviews are very informative.

Computer Music is more geared to the home musician it shows a lot to do with techniques for particular music composition. Its also a great resource and champion for many of the freeware plugins. Its still amazing that you can get a DAW up and running with just the CM disc and its also fairly well stocked with plugins. Comes with a lot of samples every month, these can be useful, if you have a need for them.

Music Tech, seems to try to stradle both the pro user and the serious amateur. It frequently has reviews of pro end gear, like £1000+ microphones for example. The tutorials are perhaps a bit more geared to the mixing side of things with more tutorials leaning towards recording techniques, rather than compositional techniques (like in CM). Its perhaps the least popular of the three, but I actually like it, in that although it contains less content (usually) than the other two, it also provides some good insights into mixing techniques that are bit more geared towards someone like me.

As I said each one has its own merits, and a lot of them depend on what you do. To speak generically, I would say that CM is geared towards the home musician, Sound on Sound more to the professional side of the market, and Music Tech to someone running a Home Studio. Of course thats very generic, so dont be surprised if someone has a different take on this.

Sound on Sound is by far the best, IMHO. Also, their product reviews are very neutral. It's almost unknown to read a negative review in the other two mags, everything's always just marvellous and wonderful, which doesn't make me feel altogether comfortable with their editorial independence. As someone else mentioned here, SoS has been doing detailed articles on Sonar for literally years. You can buy all the back issues on DVD and the price of that would be worth it just for the Sonar articles, I would think.

ORIGINAL: jinga8

@ the UK users - Color, color, color, color, color, color, color!!!

No need to shot so lod...

I agree Sond on Sond (or here) is prolly the best bet.

Sonar in the UK, please don't mind the funny accent.

I dumped Cubase for Sonar 18 months ago and never looked back.

If Logic had not gone to Mac,I would have stayed there but you know where you are with Sonar.

Also,out of all the forums dedicated to ANY sequencer,Sonar wins hands down,no contest.

You will get straight answers and no bull here,as they say,it's a no brainer.

Alan

I'm uk based and happy with what i'm doing with it

ORIGINAL: John

Sonar in the UK, please don't mind the funny accent.

as for accents in films ..hhmm

dick van dyke's... -11000000000000000
Renée Zellweger +100

Alan, a lot were the same and a few that I know that were always fans of apple REALLY hate the new logic and how it's changed. One is even thinking of switching to PC, if I had said that to one of them 2 or 3 years ago he would have laughed at me. He would only keep the mac for final cut pro.

Everyone north of Watford and west of Reading has a funny accent...

And any one South or East is just.....well....French..

ORIGINAL: jinga8

SONAR is inching their way (well, centimetring their way for you, I suppose)

Excuse me but we do inches here and lots of other lovely imperial measures too including a compact and elegant gallon. Rewrite history, spell colour how you like, annihilate the "H" from "Herb" but don't foist the centimetre on our proud island nation. That's the job of Brussels.

Halfway seriously, though, to the OP: two contributors to this thread from Guildford must mean that Sonar is not a poor relation to other DAWs.

Laurence

Eventually, we'll probably have to accede to every euro/metric lump of crap Brussels throws at us but I can comfortably guarantee none of us will ever go into a boozer and order a '0.568261485 litres' of the landlord's best real ale.

You blokes have me rolling on the floor. Cheers from the new world to you all.

ORIGINAL: Jonbouy
Everyone north of Watford and west of Reading has a funny accent...
And any one South or East is just.....well....French..

even the whole "Watford" thing is an issue.. it can be past Watford (so technically I'm a northerner some of the year) or past the Watford gap.. far further on up the M1.. and past where I stay some of the year. I always bring my passport, just in case I'm not allowed back into London though

where's "Wembley" ? technically NOT London since it says Middlesex and the post code for that. Same thing with area's they change the name..e..g... west hampstead.. either right on the border of cricklewood or kilburn, to try an add a few £'s to the sale of a house

I used to find it odd when I was setting up my Word Processor... "British English" or "American English".. there should just be one setting with English.. (ya know with the words COLOUR and CENTRE etc correctly spelt )

Trade magazine articles usually only cover advanced stuff.

http://www.eqmag.com/

http://mixonline.com/

wow, an army of uk sonar users it seems, yes computer music was pivotal in me going down the sonar route and not other DAw's such as cubase, Also I agree sound on sound do, do justice to sonar with their regular articles, and i must thank stuart for the newly wonderous video on Rapture any plans to do one for Zeta+ as the modulation matrix on this synth throws up so many possibilities and it stills sounds as good as many other cutting edge synths out there, I'm often told off in WHsmith for spending to much time browsing the all above mentioned music tech magazines desperately vying for more input and knowledge

yes scott's book's are excellent as well!!

the future's bright for Sonar

p.s anyone aware of the 10 week course being run at Walsall college in the UK (west midlands) on recording with Sonar 7, they have a Roland music academy there, it runs from september onwards, I think i'll be having a butchers at that

Hey anothe UK user here Londonite.

Check out the tracks inmy signature their from my bands EP and were recorded edited and mixed in Sonar, bless it. I moved over 2 years ago from Cubase and have never looked back.

I have to say Sound on Sound have always reviewed SOnar and given it some very objective reviews, it was probably the review of 5 that first got me interested, I then ummed and arred, but Audiosnap in 6 persuaded me to jump ship, and I am glad I did, it was worth it jsut for AS. Its now an integral part of how I work.

G

ORIGINAL: epillarbox

ORIGINAL: jinga8

SONAR is inching their way (well, centimetring their way for you, I suppose)

Excuse me but we do inches here and lots of other lovely imperial measures too including a compact and elegant gallon. Rewrite history, spell colour how you like, annihilate the "H" from "Herb" but don't foist the centimetre on our proud island nation. That's the job of Brussels.

Halfway seriously, though, to the OP: two contributors to this thread from Guildford must mean that Sonar is not a poor relation to other DAWs.

Laurence

Brussels - HAHAHAH (I think - explanation below)
A few years back, I was in Paris for some meetings then a tour of a manufacturing facility about 2 hours west of Paris. We had a limo full of Parisians, me and one of my colleagues. As the business chatter died down, the conversations became more social. At some point, they turned to movies "What is your favorite movie?" "Do you like comedies?" In the midst of this converstaion, someone asked "Did you ever see The Pink Panther?" "Yes" I said - starting to get a bit uncomfortable as to where this was headed - me being one of those blasted Americans. "What made the Pink Panther so funny?" I was asked. Ugh - this was the question I was worried about. "Inspector Closeau" seemed like a better answer than "That bumbling French detective."

So - the questioner replied "Yes and you know what they did when they translated the movie into French?" I gave up. "They gave him a Belgian accent!!!"

So everyone in the car died lauging except for me and my colleague. I have never completely understood, other than I guess the French think the Belgians are a bunch of euro-rubes.

There is really nothing useful as it pertains to Sonar here, but seeing as my MG friend and the dude who looks like my ex-wife when she is angry are both brits and the MGA guy brought up Brussels, I had to add this otherwise meaningless diatribe.

Another UK user here.

I only bought my first DAW last summer, after doing several weeks/months of research decided on SONAR - not least because of the lure of this forum!

As for the Imperial/Metric debate - I find it totally amazing how you buy and spec timber in the UK.

I wanted some wood for something I was building, went into the local timber yard and asked for 12 feet of 2 x 2

"Oh" they said - "we've gone metric now, you'll have to convert"

So I sat down and worked it out, and said "Ok, I'll have 3.5 metres of 50mm x 50mm"

They laughed and said, "No, what you want is 12 feet of 50mm x 50mm <doh>

Metric in 2 of the dimensions, imperial in the other.

No wonder most of us have an identity crisis.

Wow...someone told off in smiths for reading the mags...must be a first. There is Future Music as well but I would agree with Computer Music being the best. Likewise, it is annoying that they rated Sonar as being 'quite possibly the best all-round choice for PC music-making on the market' but then rarely feature it in their technique features. Sound on sound is fine but also covers live recording so not as suitable for someone working purely from a home based computer set-up. Maybe Sonar would do better if they sorted out the pricing so the UK prices accurately reflected the US ones given the exchange rate, but then Cakewalk aren't the only company guilty of that.

You can buy all the back issues on DVD and the price of that would be worth it just for the Sonar articles, I would think.

Worth checking out their web site as well at www.soundonsound.com. Type Sonar into the Quick Search box and you'll get reviews back to the first release of Sonar in 2001, plus Craig Anderton's notes, etc. I think if you're not a subscriber you can only view stuff older than 6 months though.

And yes, Sonar 7 Power! is an essential read, though I've found you do have to read it fairly closely (rather than skim through it) to get the most out of it.

Chris

Yep, the french tend to look down on the Belgians, probably becuase they had the bare faced cheek to claim that they invented French Fries. The fact that the Belgians DID invent french fries has nothing to do with it to your average Parisien.

I suggest reading a Year in the Merde which is an excellent and funny book and also a survival guide if you ever plan on visiting France, especially Paris.

G

other than I guess the French think the Belgians are a bunch of euro-rubes.

I'm surprised they did not revert to Polish accent.

I have a Greek friend (came stateside in 1974). When I asked him what do they say in Greece, like we do in America: "It's all Greek to me". He said they say: "It's all Chinese to me".

ORIGINAL: space_cowboy

There is really nothing useful as it pertains to Sonar here, but seeing as my MG friend and the dude who looks like my ex-wife when she is angry are both brits and the MGA guy brought up Brussels, I had to add this otherwise meaningless diatribe.

Neither me nor my avatar have ever been described more accurately Space Cowboy!

BTW, not a SONAR user just yet - Cakewalk Guitar Tracks is my current DAW software.

Steve

ORIGINAL: SteveStrummerUK

ORIGINAL: space_cowboy

There is really nothing useful as it pertains to Sonar here, but seeing as my MG friend and the dude who looks like my ex-wife when she is angry are both brits and the MGA guy brought up Brussels, I had to add this otherwise meaningless diatribe.

Neither me nor my avatar have ever been described more accurately Space Cowboy!

BTW, not a SONAR user just yet - Cakewalk Guitar Tracks is my current DAW software.

Steve

I can't help thinking that I and my car come out of this comparison more favourably than Steve and his face...

Laurence

i am starting to see more questions asked about SOnar over on the soundonsound forums, so it is starting to get some penetration in the market, although a) this had a lot to do with the ridiculous price Cubarse was being sold at, people thought Sonar must be a toy, until Logic lowered its price to the sme as Sonar, then people realised, nope, Steiny were just robbing them b) now that Cubase is available for only slightly more than Sonar, we'll see c) there is still a widespread thought that Sonar is rubbish at midi stuff, that it doesn't handle vsts natively etc etc, which they must work harder at displacing in the European market
but it's getting there!

Another UK user here.

Based in the Midlands and using SONAR on a professional basis in our studios. We cover a vast range of projects and SONAR works for us on all levels.

Hi there Trev, I came up to Telford a while back - I have never seen so many traffic islands that went nowhere in my life!

Apart from Redditch of course

Steve

Another UK user here (in the valleys of South Wales) from Pro audio 9 through to Sonar 7.02. I did skip sonar version 4 but the feature list since 5 onwards has simply been expansive and impressive. I do find 7 slightly less stable than 6 unfortunately.
A regular reader of Computer music, Sound on sound and this Forum all of which I find very informative.

+1 for the UK Sonar User List.

ORIGINAL: Mr Clean

+1 for the UK Sonar User List.

+1.3 recurring for the UK Cakewalk list

Im from Scotland ;) does that count.

Me retelling this story does not do justice to the actual event. You should have heard them die laughing at the Belgian comment.
Oh and steve strummer uk.
Back when my ex and I were still married, one night, while she was asleep, I was gently carressing her head. I felt some bumps on her scalp. Curious, I turned on the bedside lamp, quietly sat up and looked at her scalp where I felt the bumps.

There, in numbers nearly 1.5" high (about 6cm) where the numbers 665. 665- this woman had missed it by 1. I could have sworn I heard the ah-ah-ah...ah-ah-ah... sound from the Omen just as that happened.

ORIGINAL: bapu

other than I guess the French think the Belgians are a bunch of euro-rubes.

I'm surprised they did not revert to Polish accent.

I have a Greek friend (came stateside in 1974). When I asked him what do they say in Greece, like we do in America: "It's all Greek to me". He said they say: "It's all Chinese to me".

it should say "anarchy in the uk" shouldn´t it ?

ORIGINAL: bapu

other than I guess the French think the Belgians are a bunch of euro-rubes.

I'm surprised they did not revert to Polish accent.

I have a Greek friend (came stateside in 1974). When I asked him what do they say in Greece, like we do in America: "It's all Greek to me". He said they say: "It's all Chinese to me".

in german you say: "that sound spanish to me"

ORIGINAL: space_cowboy

Oh and steve strummer uk.
Back when my ex and I were still married, one night, while she was asleep, I was gently carressing her head. I felt some bumps on her scalp. Curious, I turned on the bedside lamp, quietly sat up and looked at her scalp where I felt the bumps.

There, in numbers nearly 1.5" high (about 6cm) where the numbers 665. 665- this woman had missed it by 1. I could have sworn I heard the ah-ah-ah...ah-ah-ah... sound from the Omen just as that happened.

Ahhh - 665, the neighbour of the beast

Another very happy sonar user in the UK (birmingham to be more precise)

Sound on Sound is a fantastic magazine and I used to be a subscriber. One day a few months ago i realised I was practically addicted to it and thus didn't renew my subscription! But seriously, it is really well written but does generally assume that its readers already have a decent knowledge of the subject. I think this is a good thing, but anyone who is starting out with music tech wont find it an easy read!

ORIGINAL: robert.t

Another very happy sonar user in the UK (birmingham to be more precise)

Hey Robert - I wished you'd kept that quiet!

I've been working on the theory that the Yanks are quite impressed that I only live 20 odd miles away from the birthplace of Black Sabbath and Judas Priest - now you've gone and blown me out of the water!

Mind you, I did live in Selly Park when I was pretending to study Biological Science at the Uni a few hundred years ago.

Steve

I did live in Selly Park

I only live a couple of miles from selly park so we are pretty even!

Yep missed it by one. Ah ah ah. Ah ah ah. Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah. Dum de dummmm!

I remember Brum for all the wrong reasons... I had a nightmare customer from there when I worked in pro audio years ago. We'd setup the machine for audio.. and he'd put a load of s*** on it to slow it right down to run like a zx81..

ended up going to there to deliver it.. oh the joys of getting cut up and going around paradise circus/circle ? 2 times.

ORIGINAL: syrath

Im from Scotland ;) does that count.

Fife's in Scotland (just) ;)

Of course you count, as u are a SOnar user, which is positive, therefore you are from UK.

Just applying the Coulthard/Murray rule of thumb, when they are winning they are from UK, when they lose there Scottish :)

So if you were a Cubase user, you would be from Scotland :)

ps I am a paying customer of yours, so be nice :)

+1 Based in Nottingham for about 6 months of the year and the rest in New Jersey.

I've been a UK (Warwickshire) user since Sonar 2. I first tried other sequencers but found them clunky whereas Sonar always seemed to me like a true Windows app., like Excel for example. I've also been addicted to Sound On Sound for nearly ten years now! All songs on my web site have been recorded, mixed and mastered in Sonar. I just can't begin to imagine what they'll unveil for Sonar 8 in late Autumn. The product fulfills all my needs at the moment, but I'll no doubt be tempted!

John

ORIGINAL: gordonrussell76

Of course you count, as u are a SOnar user, which is positive, therefore you are from UK.

Just applying the Coulthard/Murray rule of thumb, when they are winning they are from UK, when they lose there Scottish :)

So if you were a Cubase user, you would be from Scotland :)

ps I am a paying customer of yours, so be nice :)

Of course Ill be nice . What happens if Im both a Sonar user and a Cubase user, what does this mean.

ORIGINAL: syrath
Of course Ill be nice . What happens if Im both a Sonar user and a Cubase user, what does this mean.

I'm a sonar , cubase and reason user.. although maybe I should get Live also and the furtherest north I've been is Liverpool.. I must be very confused

ORIGINAL: Fog

ORIGINAL: syrath
Of course Ill be nice . What happens if Im both a Sonar user and a Cubase user, what does this mean.

I'm a sonar , cubase and reason user.. although maybe I should get Live also and the furtherest north I've been is Liverpool.. I must be very confused

I think Im more confused, I have Sonar/Cubase/Reason/Project5/FL Studio Producer Edition/Emagic Logic 4.5 (although the later hasnt been installed in a long time, and the dongle is missing presumed dead.

This UK you speak of, is it anywhere near Great Britain?

Jim

ORIGINAL: space_cowboy

Brussels - HAHAHAH (I think - explanation below)
A few years back, I was in Paris for some meetings then a tour of a manufacturing facility about 2 hours west of Paris. We had a limo full of Parisians, me and one of my colleagues. As the business chatter died down, the conversations became more social. At some point, they turned to movies "What is your favorite movie?" "Do you like comedies?" In the midst of this converstaion, someone asked "Did you ever see The Pink Panther?" "Yes" I said - starting to get a bit uncomfortable as to where this was headed - me being one of those blasted Americans. "What made the Pink Panther so funny?" I was asked. Ugh - this was the question I was worried about. "Inspector Closeau" seemed like a better answer than "That bumbling French detective."

So - the questioner replied "Yes and you know what they did when they translated the movie into French?" I gave up. "They gave him a Belgian accent!!!"

So everyone in the car died lauging except for me and my colleague. I have never completely understood, other than I guess the French think the Belgians are a bunch of euro-rubes.

There is really nothing useful as it pertains to Sonar here, but seeing as my MG friend and the dude who looks like my ex-wife when she is angry are both brits and the MGA guy brought up Brussels, I had to add this otherwise meaningless diatribe.

Brussels is the "capitol" of the EU.

I think the official slogan is something like: "The EU...taking up where Napoleon and Hitler left off!"[sm=rolleyes.gif]

And by that I mean...it increasingly looks like an attempt on the part of France and Germany to unite all of Europe under a single government. To its credit, the UK has resisted to some extent. They at least have kept out of the Euro.

I think the official slogan is something like: "The EU...taking up where Napoleon and Hitler left off!"

Sad but true, mind u unions are the coming thing, you have the African Union, soon the North American Union, can anyone say 1984.

Hell I am an ex cubase user, I still keep it on my machine for collaborations, becuase Reason with Cubase seems to still be the Hip Hop producers preferred combination in this day and age.

G

ORIGINAL: gordonrussell76

can anyone say 1984.

Well said. It is quite like what Orwell envisioned.

“WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH”