Sonar 3.00... First Impressions.

V

Velle

New member
I got back from lunch yesterday, and there it was, that carton box with my name on it. As soon as I got home, I reformated my HD, Installed Windows XP, Fruitloops 4.12, My Mona Drivers, My Audigy 2 Drivers, FXPansion DXR008 Drums DXi (shame it is not bundled with Sonar 3.00 as it was in Sonar 2.00), and finally Sonar 3.00 Producer Edition.
I had no problems with the installation, everything was running smoothly. Small note, I HAVE NOT YET READ THE MANUAL.
You will experience some problems if you make a clean install, since you won't be able to install the DXi from the 2.00 version, at least I couldn't do it at the first and only attempt, and as I have stated before, I have not read the manual.

The interface is cosmetically appealing, I like the Zoom future in the clip view, it is a huge asset.
It was a little confusing, since you don't have the main outs as in previous versions, but you can figure out easily that now you have the ability to patch in a very long form all your buses, which is also really neat.
No latency, I'm using two soundcards, A Mona Audio Card for Recording, and an Audigy 2.00 for playback and midi. No conflicts, just like Sonar 2.00. I Use wdm drivers.

The Pantheon Reverb is superb.

The VSampler is also great, I tried the piano in a Midi part I wrote down, my wife almost broke into tears hearing how sweet it was.

Haven't had time to try the Sonitus FX Suite.

My time ended, since I had to go back to work, I try more things today and tomorrow's morning and let you know anything else.

Man, I am happy.
 
Sounds great! :)



But a small thing...
Velle said:
No latency, I'm using two soundcards, A Mona Audio Card for Recording,
Click to expand...
Why not use the best card for playback too? :confused:
 
Got mine a couple of hours ago :D Console view is stunning. I am running it on a laptop so screen is a little busy. I think, I'll build a DAW with 2 monitors for this baby. Opened some of my projects, I did on sonar2. Tried the lexicon reverb, sounds great. Finally fully funtionable aux busses :) It runs great with my echo indigo. I haven't recorded anything with it yet. For that I'll hook it up with MOTU 828.
 
Chris Fallen said:
I'm in the process of building my computer right now. Sonar 3.0 will be coming shortly after.
Click to expand...

That's a very good question. Moskus, do you know if the Mia will allow the DXi synths to play through?
 
Velle said:
That's a very good question. Moskus, do you know if the Mia will allow the DXi synths to play through?
Click to expand...
The output of a DXi is audio. Any card will play a DXi.
 
My bet is that if you play through the Mia, your computer would be even more stable... ;)




And... did you quote wrong post? :p
 
What do you mean that you "don't have the main outs"? Can't you just route a track to a main output pair on your soundcard?
 
Yes, you have main outs, but it works a little different than previous versions.
You can pach tracks outputs into other tracks inputs, and busses into other busses and other tracks. According to the manual, which I have somewhat read, you have infinite number of patching. This is cool. Can't wait to get home and try some more the new Sonar, and Moskus advice as well.
Peace
 
Can you guys who have it help me check whether there are new updated styles for the brush for painting drum styles?
Also, is session drummer still there?

Pier.
 
MadStrum! said:
Can you guys who have it help me check whether there are new updated styles for the brush for painting drum styles?
Also, is session drummer still there?

Pier.
Click to expand...

If not you can try this site....

http://www.vamtech-ent.com/drumtrax/sessiondrm.html

Plus you can make your own drum patterns and import them into session drummer.
If you're rhythmically challenged(like me) you can "lift" the drum tracks from exising midi files,cut it up and import that too.
Also I imported all the drum brush styles into session drummer because while I'm a big fan of SD I really don't care for the drum brush too much.
 
MadStrum! said:
Can you guys who have it help me check whether there are new updated styles for the brush for painting drum styles?
Also, is session drummer still there?

Pier.
Click to expand...

Session drummer still there, the other thing, I have not checked yet.
 
  • Configurable Tracks
  • Unlimited Virtual Bussing
  • Confidence Recording (waveform preview highlighted in red while recording)
  • MIDI Groove Clips
  • Per-Track Input Monitor Button (quickly enable only the tracks you want - when you want)
  • Per-Track EQ (Producer Edition)
  • Sonitus Suite
  • Pantheon Lexicon Reverb (sweet!)
  • Customizable Color Schemes
  • STABLE! (like a rock so far)
All there as promised and (dare I say it?) totally awesome!

My Mackie HR824s are powered speakers and I don't want to route to them through a mixer. That introduces another point of processing and possible coloration and takes up an extra set of channels... so they run direct from outputs 1-2 on the MOTU 24 I/O. I control mixdown and playback digitally from the DAW using a Mackie Control (control surface). I have another larger set of unpowered speakers running through a 1604 analog mixer and 1400 power amp. I use these speakers to test mixes played in mono, bass contrast, and for playback in the studio as opposed to the control room.

In Sonar XL 2.2, I used to keep an aux bus enabled on all tracks, dedicated to getting playback to both sets of speakers at the same time, but couldn't figure out how to get the effects patched through to both sets of outputs at the same time.

Enter Sonar 3 with virtual bussing:

Right mouse click on the Master Bus.
Click on "Insert Send".
Select the second Main outs from the list (Output Channels 3-4 on the MOTU)
The send controls magically appear on the Master Bus.
Click the enable button on the send controls, and Voila... Two identical mixes going to both sets of speakers at the same time. Both volumes can easily be controlled right from the Master Bus.

Life just got easier!

________
SteveD
www.5adayclub.net/music/
 
Last edited:
SteveD. Life's got easier? I got my copy of Sonar 3 yesterday. Another 700 pages to read :)
I think this edition of sonar is really where those Logic, Nuendo etc.. is at :D
 
I'm sorry to report that the recording session I did today revealed some bugs and changes in Sonar that I'm not happy with:

1. Record enable button stopped responding to the DAW a couple times
2. Input Monitoring is either always on or always off -- I prefer having the Record Enable button control it (like on a tape deck - or like in Sonar XL 2.2) -- I like using the control surface without having to go to the mouse
3. Twice one track ceased to recognize an incoming signal. Saving the project and restarting the application was the only way to correct it.
4. Console view does not respond to control surface left and right movements, and is split between two windows, one for tracks, and one for busses. Again I'd rather use the control surface to scoot over to the mains and busses without using the mouse
5. Per-track eq seems clumsy and it takes longer to get a good setting. If the resource overhead is the same or better, and the quality is the same or better in a plug-in, I prefer a graphic eq.
6. Exporting to OMF version 1 causes a fatal error and crashes the application. Fortunately I do frequent saves, or it would have been all gone!

The good news is the plug-ins are awesome and work in Sonar XL 2.2! Well worth the $179.00 for them alone, but with that comes free patches and subsequent version upgrades and enhancements to version 3.0. I'm sure they'll shake the bugs out.

I was able to export today's sessions to OMF version 2 and import the project into Sonar XL 2.2 and apply the 3.0 plugs. After spending so much time looking at 3.0, returning to 2.2 felt like being home again. I think I like the 2.2 colors better too.

I'll proably try again... but it's looking like I'm gonna wait for the patches to come out before moving onto Sonar 3.

_______
Steve
www.5adayclub.net/music/
 
SteveD said:
I'm sorry to report that the recording session I did today revealed some bugs and changes in Sonar that I'm not happy with
Click to expand...
The local music store have been gotten a "preview version" of Sonar 3, so I've been toying with it all yesterday.

1) Sorry, that I don't know about...

2) I think that was a great idea. They had hooked up the Mackie Control to Sonar 3. Pressing the Shift-button and Enable Record activated Input Monitoring! That was brilliant! I've always wanted that.

3) Well, I didn't record much, so I don't know about that...

4) Strange. I could use the Shift Button to move between "track fields) and then the cursor buttons to move between tracks. No problem!

5) For easier adjusting of the PerTrack EQ: Doubble-click on it! :)

6) Strange... I've never had any problem with OMF export/import since it was introduced in Sonar 2.1... I didn't try it yesterday, though.


Seems like you're struck by bad luck. And I'm sure that if it's buggy then Cakewalk will release a bugfix during the next few weeks.
 
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