Opening CWPA9 project in Sonar

J

jrich

New member
I just bought the Sonar upgrade because I found CWPA9 severely lacking in for what I needed. But, I need to finish my mixing in like 3 weeks, and the shipping from Cakewalk will take 5-7 days.

Because of this, I'll have to start my mixes in ProAudio9. I'm assuming that I can open these in Sonar, right? My question basically is how will they open? Will they open the same as in ProAudio, simply with Sonar's interface? Or will I have to adjust anything?

I'm not too worried about having to remix some stuff, I just want the files to line up correctly, and hopefully, the fx that I have used might come back up.

thanks,
josh

ps...For those of you who ordered the upgrade, did it really take that long to ship?
 
If you install SONAR such that its wave folder is still in the same place, the files should all open with no intervention on your part.

I'd back up all that stuff beforehand if I were you, though. You should be doing that anyway.
 
Thanks

But I'm still a bit confused. I did my recording in a different program, and had all of my songs saved to separate folders, etc. I decided to switch to Cakewalk because I had better control over mixing (which it didn't, but w/ Sonar will)

So all I did was rebuild my project in Cakewalk, grabbing the audio files from the folders they were already in. Then I saved the Cakewalk .wrk (or whatever the extension is) file into that same folder.

So I don't exactly know what you mean by "so that its wave folder is in the same place" I haven't really explored Cakewalk's file/audio saving properties, does it have its own preset folder for saving files? I might have changed something but can't remember. Sorry for my ignorance, but Cakewalk to me just isn't as intuitive as other programs I have used (even though its name implies it should be)

Thanks,
josh
 
When you imported or placed the wave files within PA9, it is likely that PA9 made a copy of them and placed the copy in it's Data Directory (using some obscure name like ccpuidx.wav).

When you open the PA9 project file in Sonar, it will be looking for those files. And, it will be looking for them in SONAR's Data Directory. If you use the same default Data Directory for Sonar as you did for PA9, it will find the files without any problem. Otherwise, you will have to "tell" Sonar where the files are located.

However, if you want to make your life real easy, just open the project in PA9 and save it as a bundle (.bun) file. Then you can open it in Sonar without any of these issues. Sonar will just make its own copy of the waves from the bundle file and put the copies in it's own Data Directory.

Bottom line is you should not have any "serious" issues opening PA9 files from Sonar. (Just remember you can not go the other way, though).
 
Thanks Dachay.

I plan on moving to Sonar and not looking back, so that isn't a problem.

I'm sorry if these are rudimentary questions, but I got Cakewalk as a bundle so I don't have a manual.

What is the difference between the .wrk file and the .bun file, and also, what is this data directory? Will it still be linking to my files where they are placed, or is the data directory a new holding place for these files?

I guess I can just look it up in the help if you don't feel like answering. I just don't understand why there can't just be the one project file, which links to the audio files wherever they are located. In Vegas I had my audio files in like 5 different folders per project and it was as easy as going to a (maybe not the most efficient but the organization was imperative at the time)

I think I'm gonna have to do some reading to understand the Cakewalk file saving technique.

thanks,
josh
 
The file management system in Cakewalk/Sonar has been complained about by many. So much so that they fixed it in Sonar 2.0. Sonar 2 does allow for per project directories.

To answer your questions:
1. A .wrk file contains no audio. It contains all the settings, effects used, and pointers to where the audio is located, but no actual audio. Therefore, if you were to save a .wrk file and take it to another computer, you would be SOL. A .bun file is the entire file - settings and audio. Therefore, when backing up a project you want to back it up as a bundle, which contains everything in the file.

To make matters more confusing, since Sonar 1.3.1 there are no longer .wrk files (they are now .cwp files) or .bun files (they are now .cwb files). However, Sonar 2 will still read .wrk and .bun files.

2. The data directory is where your actual audio data is located (i.e., the .wav files of your music). As I said before, if you import a .wav into Sonar, it makes a copy and puts it in your data directory. Essentially it ignores the original wave file and uses the copy.
 
Thanks a lot Dachay.

That cleared everything up for me. I'm hoping Sonar arrives early this week.

josh
 
If I had only just read the manual or asked here first...

I learned this the hard way. I had several PA9 pieces that had been saved as .wrk so any addins on audio were out the window when it came to Sonar. Having to re-record stuff due to the incompatibilities of the software really sucks.
 
"2. The data directory is where your actual audio data is located (i.e., the .wav files of your music). As I said before, if you import a .wav into Sonar, it makes a copy and puts it in your data directory. Essentially it ignores the original wave file and uses the copy."

Maybe the key word here is 'import'. If you point the data directory to the original project's data folder, it just opens it from there (I hope), as opposed to using import. I'd hate to think it would need to be copied, that would be huge.
(let's verify this. Maybe I got a brain clog.)
wayne
 
dachay2tnr said:
Bottom line is you should not have any "serious" issues opening PA9 files from Sonar. (Just remember you can not go the other way, though).
Click to expand...

Actually, I did it. I don't see why people would WANT to do this, but I tried it once and it did work.
 
mixsit said:
[BMaybe the key word here is 'import'. If you point the data directory to the original project's data folder, it just opens it from there (I hope), as opposed to using import. I'd hate to think it would need to be copied, that would be huge.
(let's verify this. Maybe I got a brain clog.)
wayne [/B]
Click to expand...
mixit - I think we may be talking about two different things. I was actually referring to the IMPORT command. The command you use to bring a new wave file into an existing Sonar project. In that case, Sonar does make a copy and puts the copy in your data directory.

It seems you are talking about the .wav files that were recorded as a part of the original project. In that case, yes, you only need to point the data directory to where the .wav files are located. However, in that case you are not "importing," you are really just opening your project and telling Sonar where the audio is located.
 
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