View Full Version : SONAR 8 Producer
Hello everyone.
A quick question. what you think of SONAR as an DAW? its SONAR 8 Producer!
Been thinking of swith to that.
thanks!
francois_harel
12-22-2008, 12:18 PM
Dear Ryan,
I follow Cakewalk since many many years.
I took all upgrade ad Sonar 8 PE. Looks fine for me. I use it in x64 mode with PLAY x64. Although I had problem with some old version of PLAY, the latest one (1.16) works well in x64 mode.
I already made some mix with video for a small animation movie and Sonar gave me all that I needed.
Francois, Montreal
Paul Russell
12-22-2008, 05:23 PM
It's no secret that I'm a Sonar fan boy. I've been using it since it was Pro Audio and I've folllowed every upgrade to 8.0.03. Every year there is a new release and every year there's something to make me want to buy it. Now I run it mostly in full 64 bit configuration, which is one of the reasons that I use Play.
Getting some of the other plugins to play nicely in 64bit can be a problem, but NI are just about to put out a public beta of the 64 bit version of Kontakt 3. Hopefully some of the market leading laggards like Spectrasonics will follow soon. Omnisphere drags Bitbridge to a grinding halt, even on my eight core machine.
Like most open systems, Sonar suffers from trying to be compatible with everything, and certain sound cards cause it immense grief. However once you've got that sorted out, the sound of 8 is really superb, The workflow is easy and the midi editing is powerful. But then, I have been using it for a long time.
The cakewalk forum does have some good knowledgeable people in there too, which makes problem solving a lot easier.
Andrew Sigler
12-22-2008, 06:02 PM
+1 for Sonar.
The biggest issue (really the only significant one) is that many people have reported problems (since S7!) with cc11 envelopes. S8 has some nice improvements under the hood which have improved efficiency.
Is there a reason you want to leave Cubase?
A.Leung
12-22-2008, 06:16 PM
The REAL question issnt what do WE think of Sonar, its "what do YOU think of Sonar?" Choosing a work table is a very important decision and may impact you for the rest of your music making time on earth. Try them out, give 'em a run for their money. Go to friends place who has Sonar. Hell, go to friends place that has Logic, or Live, or DP. Try them ALL out. Choose your paintbrush very carefully.
Jeff Hayat
12-22-2008, 08:00 PM
...and may impact you for the rest of your music making time on earth.
Well, if you are going to post Allan, you should really consider this: what about our music making time NOT on earth? Huh? What about that???? I mean.....
Andrew Sigler
12-22-2008, 08:52 PM
Fly me to the moon...
Why not use more than 1 DAW?
ahh:) thank you guys for great replays.
Well, first of all: I just bought my self a new DAW. Then I took the main focus to have an 64-bit workstation. but, as it look like now the cubase 4 is not 64-bit supported. Then I found out that sonar is 64-bits supported.
I really love Cubase, and how it all is set-up to the user. I installed Sonar 8 Producer on my DAW yesterday. And I really have to say I didnt understand so much. The midi editing was hard, and the VST (synth-reack) was hard to understand. Thats where I think cubase is alot easier. But, as it look now I think I`ll give it a chance. I have alot of experience from other software / sequencers I`ve been working on. So, think I will addapt pretty fast.
I did'nt come to second. but, think I said what i was thinking of.
More comments of sonar is most welcome!
By the way:
Merry Christmas
Sorry for all this stupid questions. But, I have ordered a student version of Cubase Essential 4. And offcourse after I had ordered it I find out that its not full 64-bit supported (I hate it when I go to this musicshop to ask them and buy a copy and they dont really know what they are selling me. That really pisses me off!!) And on steinbergs homepage they write that its not supported to 64-bit. Do anyone of you guys here know if its possible to patch it up to be 64-bit?
Stick with sonar 8 for now. Buy the SWA complete sonar 8 video to help you learn the DAW quickly. I perfer cubase and logic over sonar myself. But I've also been using cubase 4 studio to understand the software. Once 64 bit is supported I might drop sonar or use all 3 Daw's to keep things interesting.
barlowjam
12-23-2008, 08:58 PM
Stick with sonar 8 for now. Buy the SWA complete sonar 8 video to help you learn the DAW quickly. I perfer cubase and logic over sonar myself. But I've also been using cubase 4 studio to understand the software. Once 64 bit is supported I might drop sonar or use all 3 Daw's to keep things interesting.
Ryan: I've been using Sonar since version 4. I find it very user friendly and love the MIDI editing features. It's probably just a familiarity issue at this point. Maybe just take some more time and as suggested watch the tutorial videos.
I've also been wanting to check out Cubase for a while. Not for any problems with Sonar - just curious about how others might work. And it might make sense, for a variety of reasons, to have at least one other DAW.
Sonar's great though - IMO.
Yeah. I have seen the SWA and think it looks good. But, for somehow I find it hard when I shuld add a new track. Like When I load in EWQLSO VST. Then I have to first add the instrument, then midi track, and then route it to an audio track that I just added. It ruins my workflow alot. Think cubase was a little bit better on the workflow for me. But, I`ll try to get more use to it! Going to work with both Cubase and Sonar.
Cheers!
Ranietz
12-26-2008, 04:35 AM
Yeah. I have seen the SWA and think it looks good. But, for somehow I find it hard when I shuld add a new track. Like When I load in EWQLSO VST. Then I have to first add the instrument, then midi track, and then route it to an audio track that I just added. It ruins my workflow alot. Think cubase was a little bit better on the workflow for me. But, I`ll try to get more use to it! Going to work with both Cubase and Sonar.
Cheers!
Are you talking about Sonar? Just open the synth rack and click on insert Vts plugin (I'm not at my music computer now so I don't remember exactly what it's called). Then you got one midi track and one audio track with all the routing done.
Next you can insert all the midi tracks you need and route'em to the Vst plugin. Then save it as a track template or folder template (don't remember what it's called). Next time you want to use the plugin in a project you just load the track/folder template and everything is good to go.
-Ranietz-
interesting! hm.. I`m going to check that out when I sit on my music-computer next time. Will be soon! So, what you say is that it could get autorouted when I load it up. Like in the synth rack, and when I add the EWQL VST the meny comes up, then I just add 8 midi and 8 Audio?
Ranietz
12-26-2008, 05:26 AM
Yeah. Something like that. If I remember corectly Sonar will only insert one midi track and one audio track when you insert an Vst instrument. The rest you have to do manually. But if you save it as a track template you only have to do it once.
I see.. But, then its not autoroute:( but, in a way thats good to. I`ll check it out! Why dont you send me an PM in norwegian with how you mean it?
Thanks!
Ranietz
12-26-2008, 05:47 AM
I'll send you a PM later tonight when I get home. I have some dinner party things to do first. ;)
Vortigen
12-27-2008, 03:56 PM
I've had lots of assorted problems with Sonar 7 PE. Then I tried Cubase 3 LE that came with my sound card and everything worked great immediately, prompting me to upgrade to 4. Everything still works great. 64 bit is nice, but for me being able to use the damn thing is nicer.
Sure Vortigen. Still waiting for my Cubase 4 to arive. Right now I`m gonna test out FX Teleport on 3 computers here. Wondering if it would work :P I`ll stick to Cubase for sure. But, I want to check out sonar 8 a bit more before I decide to not use it..
Cheers!
jloving
12-27-2008, 07:00 PM
To set up multiple audio outs automatically just tick the box by "Create all Synth Audio outputs" on the SoftSynth Insert dialog box. On that same dialog tick "Create MIDI Source" to insert a MIDI track, but IIRC this only inserts one MIDI track. You'll have to add the others.
Save it as a track template to avoid having to set it up again.
Jon
yeah. Found it out:) Thanks sp much for the help guys!
henry sellers
01-06-2009, 09:00 AM
Can somebody do me a big favour? I'm really considering buying Sonar 8 producer but I'm a man that works better on any work station if the colours/backgrounds are nicer. Could somebody please post a few screenshots of sonar 8 in action because I can't find any on the Sonar site and the Google image search only has screenshots for Sonar 5 and lower. Thanks.
Debinani
01-06-2009, 09:32 AM
Sonar lets you customize practically every color used in the application and save it as a template - so you can have things appear however you want.
If you want screens of the default I could certainly take some (I've never played with my color settings).
henry sellers
01-06-2009, 10:50 AM
If you want screens of the default I could certainly take some
That would be great thanks.
Debinani
01-06-2009, 01:05 PM
I'm fairly certain that I haven't customized these colors from the default - though I've been upgrading versions forever and ever and ever so I may just not remember. But basically everything can be tweaked, even the individual clip and track colors.
http://www.christianholston.com/temp/sonar.jpg
henry sellers
01-06-2009, 06:19 PM
Looks great:) Thanks for uploading the screenshot. Appreciated!
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