Sonar working out?

  • Thread starter Thread starter JuicyMaggot
  • Start date Start date
Sonar has some good improvements over Pro Audio 9. I have tried a few of the others, Cubase, Samplitude, Etc., but I truly like Sonar better. Probably because I have used it the most, and I am used to it. However, when I bought Sonar XL, I felt the same way I did when I upgraded to Pro Audio 9 from 8. I felt like I got screwed with the almost useless 2nd CD you get. I don't know what they pay their Marketing guy, but they need to give him a raise. He damn sure did his job. On the web site they told you all the great stuff about Sonar, but left out the fact that you have to have a Pentium 50 for it all to work. Anyway, I realize that all these programs have their quircks, and you can point out something bad about any one of them. Over all, I like Sonar. I just wish thsy wouldn't stretch the truth like they do.
 
Hey djc, so the XL in SonarXL sucks? Why?

I got the Pro audio 9 Deluxe, and the Deluxe is the biggest waste of money I have ever seen, so I was hoping Cakewalk would get it together with SONAR deluxe, but I guess not, eh?

BTW, when you said Pentium 50, did you mean Pentium 500mhz?
I have been looking into upgrading to SONAR, but I have:
Celeron 566
128 ram
Windows 98, which means I cant get the wdm drivers, correct?

Oh wait, I get it: Pentium 50 is sarcasm. Dang, I am the most sarcastic person on the planet and I missed it, I shall bow my head in shame.
 
Once burned...

Then burned again. I bought deluxe (at least I wasn't alone) and then I bought XL. When I (pre)ordered it, they indicated that there would be more stuff than they actually ended up delivering.

Of the "extra" stuff you get with XL, the only thing worth a hoot in my book in the Tassman full. Its a neat softsynth, and worth the price difference by itself - if you want to do softsynths.

If not, the other stuff is crap, and can similar alternatives can be obtained for less.

WDM does not work in 98.

A celey 566 is marginal for softsynth support, but the rest of SONAR has similair sys reqs to PA9.

Bottom line: If you want Tassman, XL is worth it. Otherwise, save the dough (you still get a non editable tassman with the plain version)
 
I too bought the XL upgrade (and the Deluxe when I went from version 6 to version 9) -- I figured it was worth the money for the Tassman synth alone, not to mention the Revalver, the Sound Fonts, and the loops. The last two were very disappointingly in very scant supply. I have yet to really try out Revalver and see if I really like it at all compared to my POD -- I didn't like it on already-recorded tracks, but those were not very pristine recordings, kind of like micing a n amp and sending it into another amp and micing that -- probably not a great recipe for marvelous tone. So far all I can get out of the Tassman are little bleeps; I downloaded a tutorial from their website but I have yet to go through it. I am still chicken of mucking with my system to change to WDM drivers for my Delta 66 and SB Live. (By the way, schwa, WDM does work in Win98SE. If you upgrade 98 through the System Update feature, you'll have SE without having to buy an upgrade CD...)

Aside from all that, I'm getting used to the user interface, I like it a lot so far. In fact I just finally de-installed Pro Audio 9 last weekend...
 
.....I do feel though, now more than ever, that I need a bigger monitor.
 
i'm happy wit it....effects are topnotch love the interface i'm happy with it, but then again i have nothing to compare it too cuz cakewalk was the only thing i've used
 
i'm happy wit it....effects are topnotch love the interface , but then again i have nothing to compare it too cuz cakewalk was the only thing i've used, when i went to the studio i seen pro tools in action for a bit look like sonar or should i say sonar look like pro tools
 
Poor man's pro-tools....

Hey Teacher,
Haven't you heard? Sonar is a poor mans pro-tools for PC :D. I've also heard that the PC version for Pro-tools is riddled with problems.
And Alchuck,
Is it true that there are no WDM drivers for Win 98? I'm running Sonar with Win 98 and have been experiencing major latency. Tell me more about that upgrade to win 98 se and WDM drivers. Be on the lookout for another thread from me in the near future because I have a SB live and just ordered a Delta 66 and may need some guidance after installation.
 
I don't really know more. I've just read that if you periodically use the Windows Update feature (should be in the top of your Start menu and also is under Tools in IE) with Win98, your OS will be the same as Win98SE. Maybe you should check out Microsoft's website. Or maybe some of our more expert Windows gurus here can step in more definitively.
 
i dig the playback meters

the only thing i didn't like about cwpa9 was that i could not see the levels during playback unless i sent the tracks to different outputs (i have an 8-channel d/a/d). so the playback meters were worth the price to me.

it has taken me some time to get use to the envelope feature, but i'm getting the hang of it now. i was so use to pulling up the event view and making fine volume/pan adjustments by hand.

oh, what i HATE, HATE, HATE is that i can't choose for myself what is displayed in the track view. the switchable tabs for: fx, i/o etc.. are ok but i liked being able to control the width of the fields in cwpa9.
 
In regards to the question about WDM drivers for 98SE..it appears
that none of the audio card manufacturers are gonna make drivers for 98SE ..everyone is gearing up for the new OS
Windows XP..in other words prepare to upgrade your OS
or be left behind..according to the Sonar rep..MME based drivers
will be virtually obselete with the new OS and the audio
manufacturers are aware of this..Ive checked with Motu, Echo,
Aardvark,M-Audio, and RME.

Ive decided to run 98SE without the WDM until XP is released
in OCT. and may wait until I know the bugs are fixed. From all
perliminary indications this is gonna be a big step up as far
as the Windows OS is concerned. If you already have Windows
2000..you are already set as far as the WDM drivers are concerned. I am simply avoiding upgrading OS,s twice.

As far as the XL deal..i was impressed with the software synths
somewhat ..but what was dissappointed when I found out that
most of them only support 44.1k sample rate..I can't deal with that.....they do sound quite good but Im tracking my vocals at
at least 48k and have began doing them at 96k..

By the way, Sonar seems to operate just as as good or better
than PA 9.03 on the 98SE. Although I was not able to playback
96k recordings in PA9 ..I can do it with Sonar not many tracks
though..between 9 and 12..anyone having similiar dealings?
 
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