upgrade from hs2004 to sonar 4 producer?

[Tillamook]

Here's my stuff:

Athlon 1800+
1000 megs ram
WinXP
nice biostar MB (can't remember exact model, but it's fairly recent)
Maxtor 7200 HD for audio
WD HD for non-audio
Audiophile 2496

Mackie 1202vlz pro
Shure 57
AT 3035
Radio Shack 58 clone that sounds pretty good!

I mostly just record myself, vocal, acoustic and elec guitar, bass, midi keyboard, bongo drums, etc... I have no commercial aspirations, just doing this for myself. At this point I don't do any loop construction, waveform editing, groove clip grooving, etc...., I pretty much just lay down tracks and tweak them only with effects, eq, and dynamic adjustments, export them to a wave file and move on.

So.. my questions are:

1. Will there be a slowdown in computer behavior due to Sonar's heftier system requirements?

2. Will I hear a substantial difference in audio quality? Keep in mind I've got a pretty nasty case of tinnitus and I'm 50 years old.

3. Will there be an improvent in effects quality and sound generating software? I like Edirol, for a few things, the piano is good enough for me, but I'd like to get a decent sax sound and maybe better Hammond B3 imitations. I'm not especially thrilled with the effects that come with HS.

I'm pretty happy with HS2004, it's got one glitch I can't get rid of, looping causes it to dropout, but overall it fits my needs pretty well. However, I have a little dough I can be frivolous with and I'm debating between things like different mics, some EH effects boxes (memory man, electric mistress, etc..), maybe a DMP-3 pre-amp, or upgrading to Sonor 4.

Thanks in advance for any input,

Bill

P.S. One minor annoyance with HS is that it won't default to a certain directory for saving audio. Whenever I save a song, I have to click about six times to get to the proper directory on my audio drive. The global audio folder selection in Options, seems to not matter in this instance. I may be missing something obvious here, I haven't really sat down with the Help system and tried to figure it out, but if you've got a quick suggestion, please let me know.

 

[manning1]

on folders - did you do this ?
i use a differnt pkge to you , but heres my method.
before starting a new song - in win i have a songs directory, and i set up a brand new sub folder for the song. then when i open the new session (blank tracks) i save immediately to that folder before starting recording.
THEN i do the recording of the tracks.
am i making sense ?

 

[punkin]

I'm an ex HS user myself. I did the whole migration thing from hs2002 to 2004 then SONAR 3 then finally to SONAR 4. Check out this thread; https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=136948

So far I've been a happy camper. The SONAR bundled effects, the per-track EQ and the organization folder thingy put this product into a good bang for the buck category for me even more the case when comparing the HS product to SONAR 4.x. You can't beat the upgrade price.

As for the PC load...I can't say that I've noticed much of a difference except when going from 3.x to 4.x...maybe a slight improvement. My PC's are both built well into the over-kill though. I like the Hyperthread support too.

Hope this helps.

 

[Tillamook]

Manning:

I wasn't very clear in describing the situation. Here's how I work: I keep a song called "Practice" that I use as a template, with blank tracks. I fire up the the computer, open up "Practice" hit record and play whatever I feel like playing, be it practicing or noodling around, looking for ideas. If it turns into something I want to keep, I "save as". When the "save as" dialogue screen comes up, it wants to save both the project and audio files on the C: drive, when I have Global Options set to place audio files on the D: drive. I probably shouldn't have mentioned it until I've dug around in the help screen, it's a pretty insignificant problem, but I appreciate you taking a stab at it. The reason I don't do it your way is because I'm never sure I'll need a new folder, the session may just turn out to be practice, with no saving necessary.

Punkin:
Thanks, definitely helps.

 

[punkin]

I do the same from time to time...open a new project called "new project". I keep coming back to it...if I come up with something I want to keep, I'll give it a "real project name and save "as".

What I meant about the folder options is a project/track managment feature within SONAR 4 which is nice for working multiple tracks and takes to keep the screen from getting so cluttered.

Have a good evening.