Sonar 4 - To upgrade or not to upgrade. That is the question.

Sonar 4: Upgrade or not?

  • Damn straight! Gimme the Producer Edition!

    Votes: 30 61.2%

  • Hmmm, I'll take Studio Edition thanks.

    Votes: 4 8.2%

  • Keep yer new fangled gadgets sonny, I'm happy here!

    Votes: 15 30.6%
  • Total voters
    49
....ok I'm still using sonar 2.2xl i was still mulling over the decision to upgrade to sonar 3...now theres 4.....kinda feels like when i bought the sega dreamcast. i feel worthless. i guess i think to slow for the economy and software makers.
 
No upgrade here,the most appealing feature to me would be the track folder thingy,other than that nothing is grabbing me.
 
D Cruz said:
Constant upgrading may be good for the economy and good for coffee table discussions, but is it worth losing all the experience and knowlege of the equipment you currently own?
Click to expand...

As far as I understand Sonar 4 will do everything Sonar 3 does in the same way plus something more. Didn't have a feeling of lost knowledge upgrading from 2 to 3. It is not like a completely other product, like Cubase.

I agree you may get little for your upgrade money, but to me it is not a big issue having a well-paid job and almost no kids at home any more.
 
After getting over my initial attitude problem with another update (and $$$) so soon I'm gonna upgrade the Prodcer Sonar4 fpr $179 - I think.

Unless I'm misinterpreting the details on the web site I like the...
1. 32bit native file support
2. Track Locking

or am I imaginging these new features... :D
 
not yet

I have barely scratched the surface of Sonar 3PE of which I have only had for a month. I can already tell that 3 will keep me happy for many many months to come, but I'm not opposed to upgrading if there's a compelling reason.

The added VIDEO thingie, almost seems like it does not belong, though I'm sure it's pretty hip, and one day I might be wishing for such a thing, but....

Surround Sound has never impressed me, and I don't own such a system now (TV, or anything).

A couple days ago, I read a user's posts about how much he has been wishing that Sonar had GROUP EDITS so that he could make one change and have it reflected in many tracks all at once. That sounded really cool - something I already have encountered and can see the value of and wish 3 had. I don't know that they made such a feature in 4.

Lastly, i gotta hope that my latest composition that I will be sending to a record company next week, will spring forth some money.... then I can afford.... a STEINWAY 9 footer. lol ;)
 
Well, the things that pushed it for me is:

- The FREEZE function! Expect me to get ice-cold when it hits Norway!
- Surround! I don't have a surround setup yet, but if I like it, I'm getting one...
- The new folder setup. Why we haven't seen this before, I don't know...
 
moskus said:
Well, the things that pushed it for me is:

- The FREEZE function! Expect me to get ice-cold when it hits Norway!
- Surround! I don't have a surround setup yet, but if I like it, I'm getting one...
- The new folder setup. Why we haven't seen this before, I don't know...
Click to expand...

The freeze function seems very well implemented too, according to some thread over at the Cakewalk forum where the cw-staff participated...
 
While everyone is here salivating over S4, I'm wondering how many feel it is going to work properly right out of the box?

I don't see any mention that the $99 (or $179) is a special pre-release price. Just wondering why everyone is so anxious to take the plunge.

I guess it's the "Be the first one on your block" syndrome. (Which I find myself suffering from as well. :( )
 
I'm waiting for my Athlon 64 as my dedicated user machine! And I'm getting Sonar 4 Pro for it, and I pretty much expect it to work right out of the box...



Read my signature and weap... :cool:
 
Of course Sonar 4 works right out of the box, but there is the occasional bug that will only get fixed later on - perhaps in Sonar 5.

Do I want to be first? Not particularly, it's just that I might just as well get the new features when they have been implemented. Wouldn't you download an update patch? Only difference is you have to pay for this one.

Video is not important, Sonar 3 already does some. In fact I made a vast improvement to the soundtrack of a 20 year old home video of me playing guitar using Sonar 3 and mastering effects on the lo-fi sound. Should I put soundtracks on dvd converted home videos, then why not use Sonar that I am familiar with? But it is not an important reason for upgrading.
 
dachay2tnr said:
While everyone is here salivating over S4, I'm wondering how many feel it is going to work properly right out of the box?

I don't see any mention that the $99 (or $179) is a special pre-release price. Just wondering why everyone is so anxious to take the plunge.

I guess it's the "Be the first one on your block" syndrome. (Which I find myself suffering from as well. :( )
Click to expand...
Well - it would be cool to be the first one on the block with a 9-channel surround dynamics processor, hehe - I wouldn't use it for a bit though. :D

But I really need the track freezing & 32bit support. I recently began using 32bitfloat/96KHz native wav files and I just can't use Sonar3 to master my tracks anymore - it pushes my little 2.6GHz P4 too hard. I've had to use Adobe Audition for the past 4 or 5 months. Audition is cool but I don't like being locked into one tool - as soon as I do then something is sure to break - or I'm forced into doing something in an unnatural position (hmmm!). Anyway I really like Sonar and all the busses, busses, busses that are real easy to configure - among everything else.

Now I can get back to mastering using both Audition & Sonar4. I'll probably begin some mixing using Sonar4 too after tracking on an old Roland VS1880 I've been using as a paper-weight for the past few years. :D
 
Freeze is basically a quick way of archiving a midi track, and the associated synth source, creating an audio track of those elements. The process is faster than archiving and unarchiving tracks. It takes the synth load off the cpu in this case freeing up some cycles.

On another note, I was just checking out the background on the POW-r dithering technology in Sonar 4. Guys, this could be THE reason for upgrading. This technology uses a hardware based algorithm, approximately $3500 for the hardware, that improves dithering down to 16 bit. This will improve on the degradation process that normally occurs when dithering down and result in improved final results. I don't know, but to me, this is extremely significant.
 
I don't do video or surround sound...right now....so that's not a big draw for me.

I DO do a lot of comp'ing and editing. Anything that speeds up that workflow is something I want badly. The combination of folders, nudging, muting and previewing clips, etc. promise to be real time savers for me.

I already have 3.1.1 producer, so I already have the Sonitus plugs. If I didn't - they'd be worth the upgrade all by themselves.

I like being able to "freeze" the tracks. Yes, you can bounce and archive - but freeze/unfreeze with editing capabilities takes it to a whole new level.

I like that it looks like it may finally have a good metronome. Of course, I've got my workflow all set with my drum machine, so it remains to be seen how much I'll use it.

I've put my money where my typing is -- I've got 4.0 on order now.

-lee-
 
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