Sonar vs reaper

  • Thread starter Thread starter fivestarpacheco
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fivestarpacheco

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Hey Guys,
so i have been using sonar x3, and i like the layout and they made a great improvement from their previous versions. I was having a little trouble setting up to record , but now that i have that fixed and know the basics. I started to lay down some tracks and as i lay down more and more tracks it starts to get buggy. It will also say "audio engine dropout". sometimes when i play back audio mind you this is on the same track same wave form the volume will go from what i have to to a little lower its not too noticeable, but if your mixing you can hear it. these things will happen sometimes not all the time but enough to make me angry:mad:
I know for a fact it isnt my computer i paid a good amount of money to have it customized for my studio here are my stats
ev3xao.jpg


so what do you think guys?
SONAR OR REAPER?
 
Your computer is clearly more than adequate for the task; in fact, you have the same cpu as me! I have two of them, though. ;)

You really shouldn't have to juggle things with that setup but, out of interest, have you taken a look at the buffer settings in your recording software?
256 or lower should give adequate latency and performance. 32 or 64 can make any system get a bit sketchy, causing the odd dropout or stutter.

Also, what audio hardware are you using and are your drivers up to date?

I'm not sure what you mean about recording audio getting quieter, or whatever. Can you tell us a bit more?
 
Steenamaroo said:
Your computer is clearly more than adequate for the task; in fact, you have the same cpu as me! I have two of them, though. ;)

You really shouldn't have to juggle things with that setup but, out of interest, have you taken a look at the buffer settings in your recording software?
256 or lower should give adequate latency and performance. 32 or 64 can make any system get a bit sketchy, causing the odd dropout or stutter.

Also, what audio hardware are you using and are your drivers up to date?



I'm not sure what you mean about recording audio getting quieter, or whatever. Can you tell us a bit more?
Click to expand...


Aha steenamaroo always there to help out!
so i looked at my buffer settings not sure what i should select here
heres a picture of my sonars settings
http://oi61.tinypic.com/2n83ipz.jpg

and heres a pic of my asio settings im assuming my computer is using these settings
http://oi61.tinypic.com/v3g6yg.jpg
hope fully you can see them clearly but just in case
its saying on my interface mix control my asio buffer size is 10. ms
and on sonar its saying
input: 21.4msec 943 samples
output: 31.4msec 1385 samples
total roundtrip: 52.8msec 2328 samples

as for the track getting quiet its hard to explain like when i play back a recorded vocal track i have it at 0db as its playing the vocal will dim down a little just a little then go back up to the original volume i was listening to. hopefully how i explain it make sense lol
 
Keep in mind this was probably 5 years ago now, and i'd like to think a lot of progress has been made on the software end of things ~but~ I had all kinds of issues with Sonar. The workflow was confusing, i was constantly tweaking pretty much everything, etc. I know it wasn't so much sonar as it was my noviceness and being sort of a newb with PC based DAW's. But after reading up on some reviews and forums like this i decided to try reaper.

Loved It. Spent a fraction of the time tweaking things, it was much easier on my computers resources. But i think with those specs, resources isn't going to be an issue for you.

By and large i would suggest you just try Reaper side by side with sonar as it is Free and will cost you nothing but some time. it is really light on the free, flashy plugins, but it gives you enough to get going and there is a plethora of free plugs out there for you to go get later.

Side note: Reapers ReaEQ is INCREDIBLE. I love it.
 
fivestarpacheco said:
Aha steenamaroo always there to help out!
so i looked at my buffer settings not sure what i should select here
heres a picture of my sonars settings
http://oi61.tinypic.com/2n83ipz.jpg

and heres a pic of my asio settings im assuming my computer is using these settings
http://oi61.tinypic.com/v3g6yg.jpg
hope fully you can see them clearly but just in case
its saying on my interface mix control my asio buffer size is 10. ms
and on sonar its saying
input: 21.4msec 943 samples
output: 31.4msec 1385 samples
total roundtrip: 52.8msec 2328 samples
Click to expand...

It'd be worth nudging the buffer up slightly just to see what happens.
Someone may correct me here but it looks like it's at the smallest possible setting which would be the setting that's most likely to cause glitches and hiccups.

fivestarpacheco said:
as for the track getting quiet its hard to explain like when i play back a recorded vocal track i have it at 0db as its playing the vocal will dim down a little just a little then go back up to the original volume i was listening to. hopefully how i explain it make sense lol
Click to expand...

Oh, ok. Are the meters actually hitting 0? ie. going into the red?
I'm guessing that you either have a limiter/compressor on the master or your software has built in protection, so when your tracks try to exceed 0, everything gets squashed or limited.
Nothing should ever be near 0db in your daw. Ideally you'd want to leave soon room so that the master peaks at say, -10db.

The individual tracks would be recorded to the same guidelines but, depending how much is in your mix, you'll be attenuating them with your faders.
The more stuff you have, the more you're going to pull the faders down to keep the master at a healthy level.

Is that relevant to your situation, do you think?
 
Steenamaroo said:
It'd be worth nudging the buffer up slightly just to see what happens.
Someone may correct me here but it looks like it's at the smallest possible setting which would be the setting that's most likely to cause glitches and hiccups.



Oh, ok. Are the meters actually hitting 0? ie. going into the red?
I'm guessing that you either have a limiter/compressor on the master or your software has built in protection, so when your tracks try to exceed 0, everything gets squashed or limited.
Nothing should ever be near 0db in your daw. Ideally you'd want to leave soon room so that the master peaks at say, -10db.

The individual tracks would be recorded to the same guidelines but, depending how much is in your mix, you'll be attenuating them with your faders.
The more stuff you have, the more you're going to pull the faders down to keep the master at a healthy level.

Is that relevant to your situation, do you think?
Click to expand...
So you think that the buffer size is too small? I'm going to move it see if it changes things.
Oh yea my master peak is on 0db did not know thanks. It makes sense I was cloning a track (I'm not sure if that's the right way to copy the vocal. I had two of the same vocal but on one of them I hit it hard with the compressor to get a somewhat full stereo effect. After I did that it had that flanger sound.
 
Those latencies are pretty outrageously high. 52ms round trip? Wow. I'd be annoyed with anything above 4 or 5ms each way. What audio interface are you using?
 
Tadpui said:
Those latencies are pretty outrageously high. 52ms round trip? Wow. I'd be annoyed with anything above 4 or 5ms each way. What audio interface are you using?
Click to expand...
Scarlett 6i6 you think I could go lower?
 
Surely you could. A friend of mine uses the 2i2 and I think he was getting reported latencies of maybe 10 or 11ms each way. That's still kinda high but half of what you're experiencing.

Are you using focusrite's latest ASIO drivers? It may even be worth seeing if you have the latest firmware loaded to your 6i6.

If you're experiencing dropouts and that high of latency, something isn't quite right. The dropouts are most likely a symptom of the buffer size being too small for your CPU to keep up with. But larger buffer sizes will increase latency. And your latency is already almost intolerably high. Something isn't adding up here. It could be that the CPU isn't up to the task but like others said above, it's not a shabby CPU by any means, it should be capable of at least keeping up.

What sample rate and bit depth are you recording at?
 
ShanPeyton said:
By and large i would suggest you just try Reaper side by side with sonar as it is Free and will cost you nothing but some time.
Click to expand...

Strictly speaking. Reaper is not free. You get a free uncrippled trial. After the free trial, you are expected to either buy or stop using Reaper. However, you can continue to use Reaper, and you just get a reminder screen. It's an honour system which most people honour.
 
gecko zzed said:
Strictly speaking. Reaper is not free. You get a free uncrippled trial. After the free trial, you are expected to either buy or stop using Reaper. However, you can continue to use Reaper, and you just get a reminder screen. It's an honour system which most people honour.
Click to expand...

I know i totally forgot that part. My Apologies everyone. I did in fact honor it. 60 bucks is pennies in contrast to what you get for the expense.
 
ShanPeyton said:
I know i totally forgot that part. My Apologies everyone. I did in fact honor it. 60 bucks is pennies in contrast to what you get for the expense.
Click to expand...

Well I wouldn't mind paying $60 I just downloaded it I am about to start messing with. Let me tell you the layout is way less confusing and clutterd. They even have a layout you can choose that looks like protools and it comes with an auto tune effect. Not bad!
 
I was a long time Sonar user (4,5,6) and although I never had a system anywhere near the capabilities of yours, I had problems a lot. Audio Engine errors, dropouts, constantly having to reboot. One day I tried Reaper and I never went back except to export my files to remix with Reaper.

I still use the Sonitus FX and a few other VSTi's from Sonar 6 in Reaper. Not sure if you can still do that from Sonar X3 though.
 
Mr Clean said:
I was a long time Sonar user (4,5,6) and although I never had a system anywhere near the capabilities of yours, I had problems a lot. Audio Engine errors, dropouts, constantly having to reboot. One day I tried Reaper and I never went back except to export my files to remix with Reaper.

I still use the Sonitus FX and a few other VSTi's from Sonar 6 in Reaper. Not sure if you can still do that from Sonar X3 though.
Click to expand...
At least I'm not the only one who thinks sonar might be just a little buggy lol
I have a couple plugins like echoboy
And puigchild660 I haven't had a chance to run reaper yet a little busy, but when I do startup will it automatically read my plugins I bought or do I have to manually enter them?
 
fivestarpacheco said:
At least I'm not the only one who thinks sonar might be just a little buggy lol
I have a couple plugins like echoboy
And puigchild660 I haven't had a chance to run reaper yet a little busy, but when I do startup will it automatically read my plugins I bought or do I have to manually enter them?
Click to expand...

I believe Reaper will look for your plugs as part of it's installation. I know i had no trouble moving from one to the other. And i think if it doesn't....

Go here: Preferences Plugins VST - CockosWiki
 
fivestarpacheco said:
At least I'm not the only one who thinks sonar might be just a little buggy lol?
Click to expand...

I would say it was buggy, more particular about the system it runs on. A friend of mine has been with Sonar from the get go (which is what influenced my purchase at the start) and he's never had an issue. Even now on X3, no problems.

I just found Reaper to be everything that I wanted/needed and worked flawlessly. It was like coming home.....
 
I've used both.

Reaper was more user-friendly to me, but it's really up to each one of how he's liking the interface/shortcuts and stuff.

It's really hard to go wrong with reaper though.
 
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