Phyl said:
I run SONAR on a similar machine and had similar problems when ever I used soft synths and plug ins like reverb. It doesn't take too many of these "tools" to being the system to a halt.
Here are some thoughts.
1. For those having problems with LivesynthPro try either of the best two samplers out there HALion and Kontakt. Both play SF's. In fact I often take Akai 1000 format samples and translate them to SF using CDXtract. This way I am not CD dependent when I need t reload the samples. I really like Kontakt. They have a demo to try at the Native Instruments web site.
2. I believe that those who try to use Sonar as a "do all" app is going to have trouble. Just because it can run softsynths and plugins doesn't mean it does it well. If you are into softsynths (like I am) buy Fruityloops for $99 and use that program for sequencing and either export the seperate channels as WAVs or buy the FXpansion wrapper and run Fruity as a VSTi in Sonar.
Here is an example: I run a Athlon 1600 XP with 728 (orwhatever the real number is) meg DDR ram a Terratec 2496ewx card and Win2k. I created a monster dance song in Fruity that has 22 channels and 40 some patterns. I have gobs of plugins running in this program. Almost every channel has a delay on it. There are 4-6 different instances of reverb, tons of eq and distrotion and compression and Autotune. I max out my computer's cpu on this song in 2 places. I get crackling noise and it slows down. Basically I built up the song until the CPU couldn't take it anymore then render each channel to waves and now its in Sonar for the final touches and mixing. The point is this: I am at the breaking point with this song in Fruity but it is waaaaay more complicated than what I could have done in Sonar. The reason is that the Fruity plugins are really cpu easy. They are optimized for Fruity. You can even tell the plugin to not run if it is not in use. This makes a huge difference. There is just about everything you need with the Fruity plugs and they sound great. As a matter of fact if I want to get real fancy in applying fx to a one shot wav, I open it up in Fruity and f*ck with it, then render it and insert where it needs to be.
Fruity has a Soundfont player that is Fruityized and cost about $35. It rocks. Right now I have 10 different instances of it running in Fruity. They each have different orchestra samples from the Garritan collection for Gigastudio. I converted them to SF and load them up in Fruity. I believe I have about 400 mb of samples loaded in this song. Works like a charm. I have that and Kontakt running a Steinway SF and I have 17 drum samples loaded in using the basic Fruity sampler. At a poly count of 50 my Fruity CPU meter spiked at 40% but hangs at around 30-35% in that section of the song (the finale). Standing still the CPU is at 5%. There are no plugin fx in it mostly because the samples already sound live.
You could do somthing similar in Orion Plat. but I hear that it doesn't sync at all with Sonar. I may be wrong on that . Orion Plat. costs more money too. I believe it's $200.00 usd.
Remember this about Fruity: 1. It's not just for dance music. 2. Despite it's name and interface it is a "pro" program. There are lots of musicians selling CD's that were made entirely in Fruity. 3. Fruity is a European program. I find the Europeans to be very focused on sequencing. Fruity is a wonderful sequencer. 4. Alot of what goes on in Fruity is NOT all Midi. You don't need to assign midi channels at all in Fruity. It's fully midi capable if you need it. This simplifies things for me since I'm no Midi freak. 5. Fruity has a plugin where you can use a force feedback joystick as a vibrator that's controlled by the audio.
crazy.
IMHO Sonar rules in audio recording/mixing/song arrangement and is great at sound editing and looping. But Fruity rules in the software syth studio/sequencing area. These two together are a KILLER combo.
jack
