Anyone Using Professional Audio Sequencer via Bootcamp or Parallels?

[gvdv]

Hi,
After much hard thought and research I've decided to go Mac (Pro) for my audio sequencing (multitrack) and video editing needs.

While I plan to use Final Cut Express to for my ('prosumer') video editing needs, I had had my heart set on using Sonar Producer Edition 6 as my multitrack program (will be using an RME FireFace 400 as my audio interface).

I have heard on other forums of people successfully and unsuccessfully using PC sequencing programs like Sonar via Bootcamp, and am wondering if anyone here has done this as I plan to install XP or Vista on the Mac and use Sonar.

I'm specifically interested in any conflicts/problems/solutions, and - the main bain of recording audio on the PC in a multitrack situation when using an audio interface - would love to know about the degree of latency that results.

Thanks,

GVDV

 

[eyeteeth]

I don't have an answer or suggestion, but I am curious why you're set on using Sonar.

 

[brzilian]

Parallels doesn't support USB 2 or Firewire devices yet:

http://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/faq/4/#4-8

How can I connect devices to my virtual machine and get it to work?
Parallels Desktop for Mac doesn't support Express Card, Bluetooth and Firewire device connections to your Virtual Machine.

Parallels Desktop for Mac does support USB devices, and you can connect such devices to the VM using the "Devices" menu on the Mac menubar or by right-clicking (Ctrl+click) on the USB device icon at the bottom-right corner of the Parallels Desktop for Mac window.

You may experience problems with these particular USB devices connected to the VM:

Devices That Require USB 2.0 Support: the current version of Parallels Desktop for Mac supports only USB 1.1 devices.USB 2.0 support will be added in next major version of Parallels Desktop.
Devices Supported by Mac OS X: since Mac OS X has built-in drivers for devices, it recognizes the device and denies access to it from the VM. Some devices will work in certain cases while others won't. You can recognize such problems if when you try to connect the device, you get the following message: "device is used by another process". Unfortunately, there is no reliable way to make Mac OS X release the device to the VM if you can't remove the device driver from the system. This problem will be solved in the next major version of Parallels Desktop for Mac.

USB Modems: There is no reliable way to set up your VM networking using such dial-up modems from the guest OS.Still you should be able to connect the VM to the Internet if your modem is connected from the MacOS X side and your VM is in Shared Networking mode.​

XP in BootCamp takes a huge HD performance hit for some reason (I don't recall the details), therefore it would not be suited for multitrack recording useage.

At this point in time, I would not recommend either for DAW work - stick with an actual PC running XP.