I remember taking a cakewalk for dos manual with me to bed at night to study many years ago. While others were working with consoles tiny hardware displays and tons of wires cakewalk was way ahead of the curve. Now that PC's have really come of age with 64 bit chips all those years of learning this software is paying off big time.
I've been using Cakewalk products fro some time and the sound you record in is the sound your DAW will plays back. Sonar is a powerful program, priced right and you don't need proprietary hardware to use it. I use an FA101 by Edirol, Fostex Monitors and an XPS 420 quadcore computer which gives me all the juice I need to work my projects. And you're right, you dont want to wait until college to get into modern recording, you'll be behind the pack. Spend the hours learning the basics now.
@aicentre1 It's ussually good to have a 32 track mixer if you are planning to do a lot of unique live recording. If you're aiming for digital, you normally just need a good digital mixer with a lot of mixer track so you could differentiate your sounds when you record.
@cheapspace For example, I would like to rout channels in any way I want (as I do with ProTools). When I try to rout the audio of a midi track that has a very heavy virtual instrument (so that I can have more RAM available for more virtual instruments), it automatically transforms the audio track to another MIDI track. If there is a way for that not to happen, I havn't discover it yet. What I tried to say here is that for a new name, they should have done more than just upgrading the UI.
It's an amazing release no doubt, people who used to work on consoles in real studios knows how cool some of these new features are, the console is redesigned on classic Solid State Logic channels which is something I always dreamed in a DAW: a compressor/eq/tube saturator by default on every single channel. Yes the browser and plugs drag n drop feature reminds to PreSonus Studio One but so what? It's a good feature.
Also ProTools 8 was redesigned with many picks on Sonar's flexibility and interface. I love ProTools and Sonar as well, way better than Cubase etc... Live and Fruity Loops are great softwares but the purpose is slightly different.
did he say he "have to be here" or "happy to be here" :D Yeah, based on that presentation it seems that you really have to focus on the interface - and not the music. Go Ableton Live with its clean interface.
can somebody help me? I am having weird problems with a Sonar 4 Producer Project 32 Bit opened in X1 64 and 32 Bit... crackling espacially in the bass etc ... does anybody know something about that? thank you so much!!
How does it sound? is it Phat sounding now being thaT it got a new channel and bus compressor,is it musical? like to see a video of it in action. I have Logic 9 and this looks Hot!
I agree. Sonar X1 is a MESS. It cut my productivity down by 75%. I spent most of my time figuring out things and the features within features within features if you get what I freaking mean.
Why didn't you guys SHOW the actual context driven part of the interface that would show how it works faster and presummably faster? I'm not trying to be overly critical here, but so far just about all DAWs have failed at being truly streamlined in usage compared to hardware work-flows. It basically means software drowns its user in features, but forgets all about the actual work-flow. Things should be hands-on and dedicated, not all over the floor and require months of training to remember. :-)
The interface on Sonar X1 is to die for, however be wary about upgrading now, or if you plan to purchase soon. Sonar X1 is buggy as I'll get out, and the "fix" that's out reeks havak on ASIO drivers. There's another "fix" for the ASIO problem, that I have been unable to get to work. Bottom line, once they work out the bugs, this is IMO the most flexible and full featured DAW on the market. The problem is that this is nowhere close to market ready.
Good Idea....but this DAW is a buggy mess and can give you even more problems when you try to revert back to 8.5.3. A serious reinstall of 8.5.3 was necessary to get back to production. Nice idea but this release was very premature and needs a lot of work before it can be considered usable.
I remember taking a cakewalk for dos manual with me to bed at night to study many years ago. While others were working with consoles tiny hardware displays and tons of wires cakewalk was way ahead of the curve. Now that PC's have really come of age with 64 bit chips all those years of learning this software is paying off big time.
Those workflow enhances will definately speed mixing for me for sure looks great!
They are Genelec 1029A active monitors, quite old, the new ones have a more rounded look.
I've been using Cakewalk products fro some time and the sound you record in is the sound your DAW will plays back. Sonar is a powerful program, priced right and you don't need proprietary hardware to use it. I use an FA101 by Edirol, Fostex Monitors and an XPS 420 quadcore computer which gives me all the juice I need to work my projects. And you're right, you dont want to wait until college to get into modern recording, you'll be behind the pack. Spend the hours learning the basics now.
finally a more ergonomic environment. can't wait to check out the demo!
my thoughts too. I had one of these bad boys for years of gigging and it was great fun.
@aicentre1 It's ussually good to have a 32 track mixer if you are planning to do a lot of unique live recording. If you're aiming for digital, you normally just need a good digital mixer with a lot of mixer track so you could differentiate your sounds when you record.
good review, new sonar looks good.... :-)
nice an 1176 and ssl (if I'm not mistaken) inspired compressors that looks really interesting
Excellent first look! Sonar keeps amazing me! I would like to know which Studio Monitors are conected to the laptop! Thank you very much!!
@Joeteck It should if it's a plug in. or direct x
Thank you very much for the video. I can do everything else in sonar x1 but I dont know how to turn on and off the metronome! pLEASE HELP.... Bless.
@cheapspace For example, I would like to rout channels in any way I want (as I do with ProTools). When I try to rout the audio of a midi track that has a very heavy virtual instrument (so that I can have more RAM available for more virtual instruments), it automatically transforms the audio track to another MIDI track. If there is a way for that not to happen, I havn't discover it yet. What I tried to say here is that for a new name, they should have done more than just upgrading the UI.
Simba, go to Edit > Preferences > Project > Metronome. You must have a project open to do that. Hope that helps.
It's an amazing release no doubt, people who used to work on consoles in real studios knows how cool some of these new features are, the console is redesigned on classic Solid State Logic channels which is something I always dreamed in a DAW: a compressor/eq/tube saturator by default on every single channel. Yes the browser and plugs drag n drop feature reminds to PreSonus Studio One but so what? It's a good feature.
Also ProTools 8 was redesigned with many picks on Sonar's flexibility and interface. I love ProTools and Sonar as well, way better than Cubase etc... Live and Fruity Loops are great softwares but the purpose is slightly different.
does Sonik Synth 2 work with it?
@musiccomputing Will it blend? That is the question!
did he say he "have to be here" or "happy to be here" :D Yeah, based on that presentation it seems that you really have to focus on the interface - and not the music. Go Ableton Live with its clean interface.
can somebody help me? I am having weird problems with a Sonar 4 Producer Project 32 Bit opened in X1 64 and 32 Bit... crackling espacially in the bass etc ... does anybody know something about that? thank you so much!!
@naz10000 - We've seen those videos and we have come to the conclusion that if there was a big enough blender...it WILL in fact, blend.
How does it sound? is it Phat sounding now being thaT it got a new channel and bus compressor,is it musical? like to see a video of it in action. I have Logic 9 and this looks Hot!
@musiccomputing Thats a great question and I too would like to know.
yeah how exactly do you get to hear the metronome
Do you have any information for video? Any new features and additions?
@musiccomputing : Perfect answer :)
Lots of good stuff i especially like the way things are movable but I can't help seeing the influence of ableton. Not that that's a bad thing.
Great I'm getting away from logics paper sound I think theirs something to sonar no other daw has sound-wise any way or it might be me
@Fantasma25 then what exactly are the "real features"?
Can you import video in Sonar Eseential?
I still have doubts about only focusing on the UI and not on the real features of the software...
@blrrr23 - What's the question?
Would you take offence if I said that you have the image of a 21st century Debussy?
I agree. Sonar X1 is a MESS. It cut my productivity down by 75%. I spent most of my time figuring out things and the features within features within features if you get what I freaking mean.
@Autumn6
no more...
Why didn't you guys SHOW the actual context driven part of the interface that would show how it works faster and presummably faster? I'm not trying to be overly critical here, but so far just about all DAWs have failed at being truly streamlined in usage compared to hardware work-flows. It basically means software drowns its user in features, but forgets all about the actual work-flow. Things should be hands-on and dedicated, not all over the floor and require months of training to remember. :-)
Everything is messed up, we find nothing which one is used to SONAR 8.5
It is getting more crowded and complicated.This was a step backwards.
The interface on Sonar X1 is to die for, however be wary about upgrading now, or if you plan to purchase soon. Sonar X1 is buggy as I'll get out, and the "fix" that's out reeks havak on ASIO drivers. There's another "fix" for the ASIO problem, that I have been unable to get to work.
Bottom line, once they work out the bugs, this is IMO the most flexible and full featured DAW on the market. The problem is that this is nowhere close to market ready.
Good Idea....but this DAW is a buggy mess and can give you even more problems when you try to revert back to 8.5.3. A serious reinstall of 8.5.3 was necessary to get back to production. Nice idea but this release was very premature and needs a lot of work before it can be considered usable.
I've had this for a fucking year and still don't understand this shit..