dual DAW - opinions please

E

et MA

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Question

I run logic 4.8 on my PC with an ST audio C-Port as my audio/midi interface

Although I liked logic - they bailed on me with the Mac thang and 4.8 doesn't support VST plug ins

Another issue is I want to build an additional system for my bedroom when I don't feel like dragging my sorry ass to the basement and the Logic CD wont install on my laptop - not sure it works with XP blah blah

So I want to change to perhaps sonar or cubase that I want to load on both systems ( is there a dongle? if so I should be able to ferret it back and forth, no?) Please no morality discussion here ;-)

I will continue to use the Cport in the basement so I need to buy another audio interface for the upstairs machine.

Question - I have a laptop I could use - how are the USB interfaces these days - latency etc? I have heard the firebox works well but I have no fire wire interface on the laptop although I bet I could get a PCMCIA adapter for it. Problem is , the laptop has a 5200 RPM drive - will that cut it? I generally only record one channel of audio at a time. I like to use samples triggered by midi which seems to have some latency associated with it.

I could
a) build a new system with 7200 RPM disk and lots o RAM
b) buy a 7200 HD for the laptop and hope for the best or use the 5400 RPM
c) buy a PCMCIA adapter for fire wire and use the firebox

2nd Question - is there a better choice for software knowing my intentions and setup? I know DAW SW is subjective, but my requirements might make one outshine another. What is important to me is being able to use both systems on the same project, no worse audio quality than what the CPort provides, low latency, software that plays nice with samplers, and software that will play nice with my audio interface(s).

Price is not really an issue , but this IS a hobby setup.

Check out


and


for tunes I did in Logic peace out
 
As far as your laptop is concerned, what are its specs: processor, ram, etc... I would get a PCMCIA firewire adapter, and then get an external hard drive for audio if your going the laptop route. The Firebox would be an excellent choice, and they actually just lowered the price $100.00 to $299. Pretty Sweet.

As far as software, I'm not sure what all you do with it, but I just bought Cakewalk Sonar Home Studio 4 (Their $100 version) and it has been great so far. I used Sonar 4 Producer Edition a lot at the computers at school, and had bought an interface and was hauling it up there to do recording and stuff. I'm a grad assistant for the School of Music, so I pretty much have full access. (lots of late nights, but I didn't care cause I was a night owl anyways) Well, I'm married now, so the late nights are a little more curtailed, and I didn't want to spend the bundle of dough on Producer Edition, so I checked out the Home Studio version. Turns out it has all of the features that I used on the Sonar at school, so I haven't missed anything, and the setup and interface, and audio engine are pretty much the same. I am missing some of the effects plugs though, but I am demoing some Voxengo and PSP plugs and might buy a couple for my needs. Check it out. Could save you some money to spend on other equipment, depending on how much you truly want to spend. Sonar 4 and Home Studio don't have dongle, but I'm not sure if the new Sonar 5 will. I'm pretty sure that Cubase does, but I've never used that software, so I can't say for sure.
 
Thanks for the input - I didn't consider an external drive for the laptop - that might do the trick - worth a try anyways. I read some mags on cubase and sonar over the weekend and it seems Sonar is better for me. Is there an upgrade path from Home to producer if I think I ned it after?
 
Yes, they have an upgrade path from pretty much any version to any version. One nice thing about home studio is that it still has all of the DirectX and VST capabilities of it's bigger brothers. So for effects you could always get other plugs. So far the Voxengo plugs I've tried out are quite nice. And I actually saw a thing on Cakewalks web site that offer a couple of Voxengo bundles at a cheaper price to cakewalk customers. I will probably be jumping on that.
 
Well, I'm a Logic turned Cubase guy, and I've used Sonar (and yes Logic 4.8 supports vst plugins...If yours doesn't, you don't have them installed in the right location).

Yes Cubase uses a dongle, Sonar doesn't and that's a plus. Between the two packages I like Cubase, but Sonar has for sometime included the Sonitus FX bundle (Which I acquired many moons ago before Ultrafunk sold the package to cakewalk). The Sonitus bundle is one of the best out there period, and hands down the best bundled with a sequencer on the market today. Cubase for me has been far more stable than Logic was (and Sonar too, from what I read on the Cakewalk boards...You'll want to snoop around there too). But my nephew uses Sonar 3 in his studio, and it has treated him quite well, and of course now you get all the new freeze functions, etc.
Cubases only drawback, no sidechain facilities yet (Still need to outsource some of my cubase stuff to logic for this reason, and of course the killer Emagic instruments :) ).
 
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