Why I got rid of sonar...

[moskus]

Okay, you have to tweak the hell out of computers for them to work, but what you gain when you do that, pays for it many times.

Stand-alone recorders have lousy GUIs, simple/poor effects, aren't upgradable, etc, etc, etc. Basically they suck compared to a computer. I know, I owned one and have tried to use 3 or 4 others.

If your friends want a copy of your CD, then good for you. But that doesen't necessarily mean that it's an incredible good CD (production and sound-quality wise). I mean, all my friends wanted a copy of my first CD, but that CD sucked.

You're just stating your opinion, just as I am here. Don't talk like you have the ultimate truth. And I'm damn sure that if you talked to us first, we would help you get your computer up and running with excellent quality.





And by the way, it should be:

The choice comes down to two simple options
MIDI > buy Sonar
Audio > buy Sonar

 

[PH68]

It seems that this posting of mine is getting lots of replies & views.


As it's posted in the Cakewalk Forum I didn't expect anyone to tell me to dump Sonar... If they had they are probably now posting in other forums & not this one.



Thanks to all who replied with the useful technical info.
Nothing I didn't already know, or have never tried, though.


As to Moskus' comment about my CD (and no, it's not my first attempt). I never said I would give my friends a copy, even if they insisted. I do insist CD's given away to be a damn good quality. The point I was making was that even some "cloth-eared" people have noticed how bad the audio quality is when recorded on Sonar.



Inspite of all that has been said I will still own (and keep) Sonar.
As, I think, I said earlier.
Do I get V.3... er, I'll try and get this one sorted first.



I do, however, find the comments on USB audio interesting.
Even more so now that Cakewalk & Roland (Edirol) have got together.
Does this mean Roland will/should improve it's Edirol stuff??... or Cakewalk becomes more insistant on using Edirol stuff??!!
Who will pull who's strings as time goes by. Hmm... a question to ponder in another posting maybe?



Despite all that's been said, and I thought I made my case clear, I still need a laptop. I will be upgrading mine in a few months time anyway. What spec should I be looking for???
Some one out there must surely be using Sonar on a laptop...

 

[DavidK]

The point I was making was that even some "cloth-eared" people have noticed how bad the audio quality is when recorded on Sonar.

You have obviously never been to the mp3 clinic. There is some awesome-sounding stuff there that was done on Sonar.
If you know what the hell you are doing, SONAR can sound like a million bucks.

 

[dafduc]

USB sucks for audio, period.

USB 1.1 sucks for audio. USB 2.0 has potential - nearly as fast as FiWi. the new boxes are just starting to come out...

Daf

 

[moskus]

The point I was making was that even some "cloth-eared" people have noticed how bad the audio quality is when recorded on Sonar.

Well, this is comes under my user-category: "It's not the programs fault, it's the user".

The program itself doesen't do anything with the soundquality. That's more dependant on your soundcard.

Maybe you could post some songs on the net?

I'm totally behind DavidK's comment!

 

[brzilian]

USB 1.1 sucks for audio. USB 2.0 has potential - nearly as fast as FiWi. the new boxes are just starting to come out...

Daf

The USB 2.0 protocol still hogs too much CPU time and is very inefficient when compared to Firewire or PCI (PC-Card is basically the same thing as PCI)

Actual real world thoughput is more like 200-300Mbps rather than the claimed 480Mbps in the spec.

 

[ignition]

There is an issue with USB audio and windows XP, which you need to download a patch from microsoft to fix. When I used a USB soundcard on my old laptop, I had similar issues (pops/cracks/etc). Just do a search for the patch and install it, should fix everything.

travis

 

[kgbjamin]

Lappy tops Lappy tops!!!

Hey PH68,
One key factor that pivoted my decision on which laptop to buy was hard drive speed. I had a hard time finding one with a 7200 rpm HDR when I was searching for one a couple of years ago. With 7200 rpm being the optimum HDR speed for audio recording at the time, I purchased a SONY VAIO for this factor. At the time SONY was the only reputable manufacturer that I could find that had LAPPY TOPS with 7200 rpm HDR that I could find. Most other's posted a 5400 rpm in the specifications for their products including HEWLETT PACKARD.
I've successfully ran Sonar with DXI & VST soft synths and an external midi controller on my 1.13 GHZ Viao with 512 ram. I have to admit I didn't go the full route and purchase an external sound card for recording. I relied on my desktop for this or sample CDs. When it comes to mastering I usually finished on my desk top too. I was away from home for about six months last year and managed to crank out a bunch of songs this way underway. So don't give up on Sonar it's probably your puter cause it's like
J Argo always says A.C.K.U.S

 

[Khompewtur]

from personal experience sonar isn't an extremely well written program in terms of stability....it can do alot of shit...and is very user friendly IMO

I'm gonna second this. I just upgraded from CW 9 to Sonar 2.2. Cakewalk used to handle everything ok processor wise.

Sonar is pushing the limits of my processor (2.33 ghz) and it's crashing or freezing pretty frequently but I'm also loving the new features (i hated Sonar for the first week because i was scared of change, now i'm lovin it!)

Short list of things i love about Sonar

- i just mixed a song with 8 tracks of Fruity drums and i didn't even have to convert any of it to an audio file, it just mixed it in realtime. Sweet - this translates to an hour or two right there.

- the fact that you can drag the corner of any audio clip and do "quick fades" I LOVE THIS FEATURE. At first i was like "what the fuck is that!!!??!" but i will reiterate "LOVE THIS FEATURE"

- Toggling of effects in tracks/busses/master from the Mixing Board!! SHit it is so cool to be able to do that!


- NON-DESTRUCTIVE EDITING. Delete part of an audio clip. Change your mind??? NO PROBLEM!! Drag-extend the clip and the audio is still there! YEAH!!


Downsides i'm having is it's crashing due to CPU! I guess once I hit 20+ real time f/x i should lay off ehh??