Buy Sonar 2.2 or wait for 3.0?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Brian Cecil
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Brian Cecil

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Hi. This is my first post here, and I hopefully won't mark myself as an idiot immediately.

I've retired from my day job, and I want to get back to what I was doing 30 years ago, composing and recording music. Cakewalk Sonar seems like the best program for my system, which is:
AMD Thunderbird 1.2 GHz
Windows ME OS
384 meg RAM
75 Gig HD, 7,200 RPM (I believe)
Creative SB Platinum 5.1 with Live Drive breakout box in an empty drive slot
Nvidea 32 meg video card

I've done a forum search on a release date for Sonar 3, which indicates that no one really knows when it's coming out. So ... can anyone give me some advice about buying version 2.2 now versus waiting who-knows-how-long for version 3.0, which may (or may not) have significant improvements over 2.2? Thanks, and regards, Brian.
 
If you're ready to get it on, then get it on. Go buy Sonar 2.

I don't know of any announced release date for 3.0, nor any list of what features it might contain. Generally if it is released in the next 30 days (unlikely) Cakewalk will upgrade you for free. After that the upgrades usually run around $79 or so.

However, many "forumites" are still using Sonar 1.0 (and some are still using PA9 - Sonar's predecessor). They all do multi-tracking and midi, which is the main point. You just don't get all the bells and whistles.

In the meantime, start thinking about an additional hard drive, and a different sound card (and some cool plug-ins). :D
 
Agree with the Almighty Dachay... You should fix that in the mix....


...errr.. :confused:


What was the question again ?


Ooh... That's right. SONAR 2.2XL served me anything I need for now. Along with plugins & DXi. I can get almost about everything I want. It will be a long day til' I switch to another version/software. You might want to consider your soundcard & use dual HD (one for OS & programs, another for audio only).

;)
Jaymz
 
...and

Welcome to the best forum around the Galaxy, Brian

Have a nice days of learning, sharing idea, and...





...did anyone mention coffee ?:D
 
Thanks for your replies. I've been checking out a lot of different sound card options, and system upgrades, assuming I can climb up the learning curve to the point that I'm no longer the greatest limiting factor in my system. This forum gives me lots of good info. Homerecording.com forums are cited often on the Acousticguitar.com website as the best Internet source of info and help for (guess what?) home recording projects.

Also, I think that you two (James and Dachay) are really great. You always seem to be ready, willing, and able to help other people out on this forum. I really respect your knowledge and your attitudes.

Thanks, and regards, Brian.
 
I agree, why wait? I'm using Sonar 2.2 XL and love it, the other day I was doing a track count/ plugin test and came up with this..

32 seperate tracks (all seperate wave files)
(11 solid tracks running the whole song and 21 tracks that would come in at different points, [backing vocals and additional instruments at the chorus sections]).

32 EQ plugins (channel EQ's all cakewalk)
4 compressors (channels again, sonic timeworks)
1 reverb (cakewalk) on aux 1
1 chorus (cakewalk) on aux 2
1 EQ (cakewalk) on the stereo bus
1 compressor (sonic timeworks) on the stereo bus

That's 32 tracks and 40 plugins, the display looks really sluggish, but the song plays all the way through, and sounds right, definetely stressing the cpu, between 85-90% , disc meter at 5-15%

Tracks were 24/44.1

System .. 3+ year old Gateway
P-III 600 mhz
384 MB RAM
single 7200 rpm 20 gig HD partitioned to be two 10 gig drives
Matrox G550 video card w/ 2 17" LCD monitors
Delta 1010
Windows 2000 Professional

Of course the buffer/latency settings are pretty high, but what the hell, I think it's an awesome program if it can get me that kind of track/plugin count on my old gateway, I'm sure the track count could go quite a bit higher if I were to remove most of the channel the EQ's.
 
:eek: Gees...
How did you do that, Stryyder ? My PC is a slightly bit more powerfull than yours, but never achieve that much... 32 Track, 40 Plugins ? That sounds killer :D

Mine :
PIII 866
512MBSDRAM
dual 40 GB 7200
Nvidia M64 Pro 32M + crap 14' monitor
Delta 66 & SB Live!
WinXP Home...

It must be the LCD... I knew it... :confused: Gotta upgrade it... damn...

:D
 
James, here are my current settings,

Windows

System Properties/Advanced/Performance

Perfomance - Applications
Virtual Memory - 1024
-----------------------------------------------------

Sonar - options/audio

general tab

buffers in playback queue - 6

buffer size - 2/3 way to the right - 174.1 ms

effective latency @ 44khz stereo says 870.7 ms
------------------------------------------------------

advanced tab

I/O buffer size - 1024 (512 worked pretty good too)

driver mode - WDM/KS
-------------------------------------------------------

M-Audio Delta buffer size set to 256 samples



I hope this helps you out, it has taken me a very long time to finally get this damn thing working well.. I retired my 1/2" 16 track reel to reel when it started developing a bad crackle sound on a couple of it's channels, so I went the computer route and have gone through at least a year of trying to get it working right.. I think I'm there!!

I have learned more about the guttiwutts of PC's and Windows 98se than I ever wanted to know!

my life improved leaps and bounds 3 weeks ago when I dropped the 3 bills for Windows 2000 Professional, some of the best money I ever spent on recording... LOL! :D
 
Hi Brian,

I'd suggest to buy it now... the upgrade won't cost too much. When Sonar 3.0 comes out, will you be asking how long until Sonar 4.0 comes out? It's can be an on going question...

Porter
 
Thanks for all the replies. This is really a helpful thread for me.

About upgrading ... I like to get good stuff to begin with, get it working right, then freeze the design and live with it. Certainly with myself, the weakest link in the chain isn't the hardware, and it isn't the software, it's the organic ware -- me. I've never maxed out a guitar's ability to play good music, or a car or motorcycle's ability to cover ground quickly.
 
Brian Cecil said:
I've never maxed out a guitar's ability to play good music, or a car or motorcycle's ability to cover ground quickly.
Click to expand...

I've done the latter on more than one occasion, and all I ended up with was this big scar on my forehead. And here I am, dreading the day when my hairline recedes enough to expose my poor decision making for the world to see.

Now, maxing out what you can get out of, or rather, put into a guitar will continue to pose a truly enjoyable challenge for the remainder of our lives.

So I'd say get that Sonar 2.2 XL setup going already. Once you sort through the usual soundcard pop and clicks and distract yourself from plug-in mania long enough, you will realize you have come a long way from those cheap sounding 4 track recorders. And it's actually loads of fun.
 
THANKS, Strryder !!! I'm gonna have to try that setting ASAP. Couldn't wait to be on my DAW... :cool:

Thanks !!!
 
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