A few comments about Sonar....

[DavidK]

It indeed is pretty cool. I have been nursing an arm injury and cant play violin right now, so I have had some time to really get to know it.

For cakewalk Pro 9 folks, the upgrade is worth it just for the new interface. Doing everything from one screen is very cool, very simple. Having playback meters on every channel? How could PA9 NOT have that? Very cool, and a must, of course. They seem reasonably accurate.

Some questions:

1. I have not learned how to do the "envelope" editing yet (next thing I will learn). If I use the Console mixer automation, is it more stable than the PA9 automation? (Had some trouble there)

2. I dont think I can use WDM drivers (Windows 98, and a Darla24) Do they make much difference? I dont use any DXI synths.

3. Do you guys use the FX3 plug-in? I have been toying with it, lots of fun. Does anyone have a good setting for midi drums (turned into audio already, of course)?

4. Is there a "chart" somewhere that shows which plug-ins are CPU hogs, and which are not? I have been trying to record some tracks with my Alesis Quadraverb, but that thing is really noisy. I only have a Celeron 566, so conserving is crucial to me. Cheers

 

[AlChuck]

I can only offer a partial answer, but I'll post anyway just to take the opportunity to say, "Get well soon!"

To chime in on question 2, re WDM drivers, theoretically they are supposed to run in Windows 98SE, but it seems that all the card manufacturers are trying very hard to suggest that it's not possible, which tells me it's problematic at best, and since it's an "old" OS, no one wants to invest much time and money into clearing up the issues.

The advantage is mainly greatly lowered latency compared to MME drivers. But this is only an issue with playing DXi synths in nearly real-time and applying effects and monitoring them in nearly real-time...

 

[heinz]

envelopes take all of about 10 minutes to learn and are way way better than trying to use consoloe automation/recording of fader movements. First they are fully parametric, while in PA9 fader movements were recorded as a series of midi events (!). Plus, for quick or global changes they are a godsend. My advice is to skip right over console automation and spend a few minutes with envelopes, super super nice.

 

[Teacher]

i've 'HEARD' that drivers do have a hand to play in quality for example mme drivers make the audio i guess u would ssay take the 'long' way home while wdm takes the 'shorter' way home...and most would say do the least amount of processing to the audio as possible when its in the comp...i guess take that for what its worth

as far as CPU hogs i'd say the efx that u'll find ya self using the most compression, reverb, and eq hog the most cpu resources(at least i find myself using those the most besides a tape simulator)

 

[Paul881]

Hi David, sorry about your arm, or was that an excuse to put off adding yer new hard drive

I think the guys have answered most of your questions, I only have win 98 and therefore, MME drivers which work fine as long as I avoid Dxi synths, otherwise I get latency. Thats why I am going to put win XP on my system in a couple of months time, use it as a dual boot DAW and use it only for audio.

Envelopes are something I have only just become acquainted with, unbelievable, wish I had learnt about em months ago. It will take you ten minutes to learn, Dachay posted a step by step tutorial about a week back.

And all the fx I have used/seen/demo'd are CPU hogs, but I didn't score them.