SONAR/PA9 on a Mac w/ Virtual PC??

[David H.]

I am a user of both Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 and Sonar XL. I run both of these on a Windows 98SE PC. I am about to purchase a laptop that will be used mostly for non-music purposes but I would like the ability to run PA 9 and SONAR XL on it as well. I am considering getting an Apple iBook with a 500MHz PowerPC G3 processor and 128MB ram (or possibly a Titanium Powerbook with a G4 proccesor) .

My question is this: is it possible to run PA9 and/or SONAR on a Mac using the the Virtual PC software that allows Macs to run Windows applications. Has anyone ever heard of this being done? If so, what kind of performance could I expect?

 

[j]

one big plus with Sonar is the new WDM driver standard...this standard yields low latency if your sound card supports it....i seriously doubt that Sonar will perform very well on a mac with a wrapper, at least not right now. why? because WDM isn't even supported very well in the PC world right now, at least not as far as it concerns Sonar.........don't buy a mac , unless you have no choice..........or want something to put as a conversation piece on your coffee table.

 

[David H.]

J,

Thanks for the advice. However, I'm not that concerned with the WDM Driver issue for what I would do on the laptop. Most Music work would be done on a desktop PC; I really just want the ability to do some editing on the laptop. It just seems like the Mac iBook and PowerBook are superior products to the Wintel notebooks in terms of design and weight.

It may make more sense for me to go with Wintel though given that I do want to be able to use Cakewalk.

Regards,

David

 

[Rubo4]

If you want to do editing, why bother with Sonar. Get a Mac and buy Bias Peak 2.6 it's very similar to Wavelab ans Sound Forge.

 

[j]

if there is a mac you really like, then go for it....that's what it's all about anyway...........i'm kind of curious about this virtual PC software........my guess is that it wouldn't work with Sonar unless the soundcard had MME support, the alternative to WDM for Sonar.. i seriously doubt that mac hardware can support Sonar....i think Cakewalk METRO is available for mac.

 

[David H.]

I took a look at the Mac iBook and PowerBook yesterday and really wasn't that blown away by them. I'll probably end up going with a Windows laptop.

Thanks,

David