Upgrade Advantage?

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Mike62Jazz

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I am currently using Sonar 3.1.1 Producer on a P4 2.66GHZ with 1 GB of ram, Windows XP Home SP2. I interface through a Firepod.
Is there any advantage to upgrading to Sonar 6, studio or Producer, for a guy who doesn't do any midi or video? I do use session drummer every once in awhile, but mostly a "Hit record" and go kind of person. I still haven't learned to use all of the features in Sonar 3!
I am currently finishing up a 9 song project that was started 7 yrs. ago on Sonar 2.2xl. It was just basic tracks w/ reference vocals. Coming along nicely in Sonar 3.
 
i don't see a need for you to upgrade. sonar 3 has per-project folders right?
 
I had thought about upgrading, myself. Looked at the stuff that is included in 6 that isn't in what I have.

“... SONAR is out to be the host with the most. A slick new interface adds fast zooming and mouse wheel support; Active Controller Technology remaps your MIDI controller on the fly to provide immediate command of soft synths; AudioSnap is a suite of cutting-edge groove, beat detection, and quantization tools; and VC-64 is a killer vintage compressor plug-in.”

I downloaded the demo. Checked it out for a while. I either had no need for the new features, or the features did not work as I would like them to. The quantize and audiosnap did not work well for my needs. The compressor does a good job, but I already have others that I think do just as well. I'll stay with what I have, for now.
 
crosstudio said:
i don't see a need for you to upgrade. sonar 3 has per-project folders right?
Click to expand...

Yes, it does. I haven't moved anything from the default folder, however. I probably should do that. Any advice?
 
I you do lots of takes and track editing S6 is way better than S3.Track folders,automatic crossfades,clip muting,individual clip sends,you can do it all with 3,but it's much faster with 6.
I'm sure there's other stuff I'm forgeting.
 
tkingen said:
Do you have use for V-Vocal or the new VC64 compressor?
Click to expand...

I don't know. Are those two features worth the price of an upgrade?
 
Native VST support, ACT and Audiosnap would be reasons enough for me...
 
Thanks for your opinions, folks. I decided to take the plunge and upgrade. It's on its way. As an interesting side note, I have to have a DVD drive to install the program. Did not have one in my machine so I bought an external DVD-R that I can swap between my studio & home computer. Given the amount of data a DVD disc can hold, I assume I'll have other uses for it as well.
Any opinions on importing a project from 3 to 6, when I'm right in the middle of it?
 
Mike62Jazz said:
Any opinions on importing a project from 3 to 6, when I'm right in the middle of it?
Click to expand...
Yeah, burn a backup copy of the project on your new DVD burner before doing anything else. :D
 
Mike62Jazz said:
Thanks for your opinions, folks. I decided to take the plunge and upgrade. It's on its way. As an interesting side note, I have to have a DVD drive to install the program. Did not have one in my machine so I bought an external DVD-R that I can swap between my studio & home computer. Given the amount of data a DVD disc can hold, I assume I'll have other uses for it as well.
Any opinions on importing a project from 3 to 6, when I'm right in the middle of it?
Click to expand...
I have both installed on my computer and they save in their own folders,if I recall correctly,S6 is backward compatable to S3,no further because of the bussing capabilities.

So myself,I've had no trouble going back and forth,although any new Cakewalk plugs will not open in 3.
 
dachay2tnr said:
Yeah, burn a backup copy of the project on your new DVD burner before doing anything else. :D
Click to expand...

Okay, I burned a backup copy of my project files to CD-R after switching over to "per project". The files are only 1MB + or - in size! When I open them from CD, I get a box saying "no audio" data. Obviously, I missed something in the backup.
when I open a project, go to file, project audio files, I get all the audio files in the project, which are 450MB or so. Path listing is: Project File Name: C:\Cakewak projects\No Place(song title).cwp
Project Audio Folder: C:\cakewalk projects\Audio
Global Audio folder: C:\cakewalk projects/Audio Data

These are all wav. files, with the first one being around 345MB. The rest are all tracks added since first importing from Sonar 2.2xl, which add up to the other 100MB (for instance).
Do I need to backup using Bundle files? That may have been the way they were originally imported. It's been a long time and I can't remember.
I ultimately want to have a complete backup of each Project (song) before I Upgrade.

Thanks in advance
 
From your description it sounds like you are not using "per project" audio storage. I would strongly recommend that you consider doing this in the future. Right now it appears the audio from ALL your projects is in one single folder.

As such, in order to sort things out, you probably want to back up using bundle (.cwb) files. Bundle files will incorporate the audio.

Once you've backed everything up, you can switch to using per project storage, this will put the project and all its associated audio into a single directory. Then in the future, when you need to back up, you can simple drag the entire folder (directory) over to your DVD burner.
 
I actually did change over the old projects we've been working on to "per Project". I think I may have missed a step. I did it, per the manual, for changing "older products over to Per project files. However, it says to: check per project in Global options, open the project, Save-as, change the name if you want (I did), specify new folder location & path (I didn't), Ok. I watch the wave files being transferred. The manual then says: You now have two identical projects.
I believe, since I didn't change the folder, I now have identical wave files in both, Audio & Audio Data. I wasn't sure how to create a new path or folder, so I left everything in Projects. How bad did I screw up?
BTW, thanks for the help.
 
When you have per project storage set up properly, your folder structure should look something like:

C:\Song1 - this will hold the project file, e.g., song1.cwp)
C:\Song1\Audio - this will hold all the wave files associated with the project.

Then when you back up, you can simply transfer the entire folder Song1 to your DVD. This will bring over both the project and the audio.

If you wish, you can also create a folder to hold ALL your projects, such as NewCD. If so, then the storage would be as follows:

C:\NewCD\Song1
C:\NewCD\Song1\Audio

and Song #2 would be

C:\NewCD\Song2
C:\NewCD\Song2\Audio

This works pretty easy with new songs; however, it's a little trickier with existing songs. It sounds like you did it right, except for naming the folders.

Let's say you are working on a song called Pretty Woman. If you want to convert it over to "per project," first make sure "per project audio storage" is checked in Options>Global>Audio Data. Then do File>Save As. In the file name box, change the name to Pretty Woman 2.cwp (this is not completely necessary, but will help you to distinguish between the old project and the new one). In the project name box, change it to C:\Pretty Woman 2 and in the Audio Path box, change it to C:\Pretty Woman 2\Audio.

Make sure the "copy all audio with project" box is checked off, and then hit save.

Obviously, if you have two hard drives, you can save the projects to your audio drive (D:\) rather than your root drive, but hopefully you get the gist.
 
Thanks, I think I get it. My problem was, I didn't change the file path names. I left them in projects folders, the default. So when you change the file path, you are actually adding a folder, Right? Also, after doing this, should I delete the files in the old default "project" folder? It should be another identical folder. I'm hoping not to make this worse! ;) I'm not very good at working my way around a computer.
Also, whats up with the data folder? should I do anything with those files (as they pertain to each song)?
Besides feeling rather inept with the computer, I am also not very good at explaining myself in text.

Thanks again!
 
Mike62Jazz said:
I'm not very good at working my way around a computer...
Click to expand...
That being the case, I strongly suggest you get everything backed up on DVD, and insure that you can restore from them before you start deleting anything.

In essence when you do as I instructed above, your audio (wave) files will be copied over to the new folder. So the old ones are redundant and no longer needed. However, I assume you have met Murphy and his Law. :D
 
dachay2tnr said:
That being the case, I strongly suggest you get everything backed up on DVD, and insure that you can restore from them before you start deleting anything.

In essence when you do as I instructed above, your audio (wave) files will be copied over to the new folder. So the old ones are redundant and no longer needed. However, I assume you have met Murphy and his Law. :D
Click to expand...

Thank you Very Much! I made a new folder on the C: drive named (cd title) and did everything you said. I have each song (project) saved "per project" in sub folders and it worked! I burned to CD each project (none were bigger than 695MB) as backup. All is good. Now I just need to get the guts to delete the projects, and relevant audio, in Cakewalk Project files. I now have duplicates in, at least, two places. ;)
 
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