Cakewalk Sonar Refuges: what's next?

[flugel45]

Just because development has stopped doesn’t mean it no longer works.

Exactly.

Not exactly. It also means no more bug fixes. So if a Windows update kills any functionality in Sonar, you'd best have a backup image to restore to. Most users don't. That surprises me, but it 's true.

Also, and more importantly, Sonar activation only works as long as the CW server is up. We know two CW employees have remained for the time being to keep things running -- but for how long? Two months? Six months? No way to know.

It's only sensible to take some precautions now, and be prepared to jump to another DAW if Sonar suddenly becomes unavailable. I'm not saying you should stop using Sonar. I'm still using it myself... but have also purchased Studio One, and hope to be reasonably fluent in a couple months.

I sincerely hope Sonar keeps running for years... but I'm not going to leave myself unprepared if it stops.

[dreamkeeper]

http://blog.presonus.com/index.php/pres ... ade-offer/

[Zexila]

Just because development has stopped doesn’t mean it no longer works.

Exactly.

Not exactly. It also means no more bug fixes. So if a Windows update kills any functionality in Sonar, you'd best have a backup image to restore to. Most users don't. That surprises me, but it 's true.

Also, and more importantly, Sonar activation only works as long as the CW server is up. We know two CW employees have remained for the time being to keep things running -- but for how long? Two months? Six months? No way to know.

It's only sensible to take some precautions now, and be prepared to jump to another DAW if Sonar suddenly becomes unavailable. I'm not saying you should stop using Sonar. I'm still using it myself... but have also purchased Studio One, and hope to be reasonably fluent in a couple months.

I sincerely hope Sonar keeps running for years... but I'm not going to leave myself unprepared if it stops.

Whatever works for one.

[pekbro]

I've never been especially motivated to give Mixcraft a try for some reason. And I am a DAW collector pretty much, having 10 of them.

I have to ask. Do you use them or are they archived for posterity?

I do use them, some more than others no doubt. Most of them, I've had for many years actually. I've never subscribed to the pick one DAW and stick with it thing. They each affect my creativity differently, I enjoy and am quite familiar with all of them.

[lingyai]

I've never been especially motivated to give Mixcraft a try for some reason. And I am a DAW collector pretty much, having 10 of them.

Having worked maybe 2,000-3,000 hours in Cakewalk products since the late 90s (maybre a third of those in Platinum) and maybe 100 hours in Studio One v2 and v3, I'm finding Mixcraft 8 Pro, after about 10 hours demoing so far, very inuitive, stable and generally impressive.

I no longer believe that there is one all-functional DAW for me, they all fail in some respect, so I'm kind of resigned to having to shuttle clips / stems between 2 or more in some cases. I can see doing an awful lot in Mixcraft though. I'd actually say it's more inuitive than Studio One, which is saying a lot. In my first two hours with Mixcraft, I figured out a lot, only had to refer to the manual once. Just clicking and right-clicking around will get a Sonar user pretty far.

The only letdown I've hit so far is learning that, while Mixcraft supports midi-generating VSTs (like Cthulu, EZKeys, and Kontakt, when set to share midi with the outside world), and lets you record the resultant performance output as audio, it apparently won't let you "print" the generated midi by recording it, as Sonar and S1 let you do. Instread it only records the midi trigger notes, not the arpeggiated etc. midi output. Kind of niche, but something I like doing. (If you have EZKeys, there is a workaround, sort of.)

[pekbro]

I'm sure Mixcraft is a fine DAW, I'm still not super interested. To put it into perspective a bit, I am also uninterested in Cubase. Perhaps I finally can say I'm good on the DAW thing. Even though I did lose one with Sonar, I pretty much only used it for video work anyway. It was just such a monster program, it could eat massive amounts of video without breaking a sweat.

[chk071]

I no longer believe that there is one all-functional DAW for me, they all fail in some respect, so I'm kind of resigned to having to shuttle clips / stems between 2 or more in some cases.

I think this is rather an issue when you switch between DAW's. I used to switch between Cubase and Studio One, and always missed the one or the other thing in either that the other one has. Since i only fire up Studio One now, it's hardly an issue anymore for me. They're all decent, and, most likely, they get the job done. If you only focus on the shortcomings (there's specifically one person in this forum who does, and claims that every DAW on the planet sucks), you'll never be happy with anything, and never get anything done. Seriously, it's all rock solid, richly featured software, and the amount of features all the DAW's have these days is pure bliss, and rather comfort, than anything you "need", or must have to make music.

[Topcheese]

Yeah and their only response to something that should have been there is that it's not coming until at least V9. I can't really knock them because I believe they've already done an impressive job with the software, but it just bugs me to no end that I can hear the arpeggiated data, but not record it.

The only letdown I've hit so far is learning that, while Mixcraft supports midi-generating VSTs (like Cthulu, EZKeys, and Kontakt, when set to share midi with the outside world), and lets you record the resultant performance output as audio, it apparently won't let you "print" the generated midi by recording it, as Sonar and S1 let you do. Instread it only records the midi trigger notes, not the arpeggiated etc. midi output. Kind of niche, but something I like doing. (If you have EZKeys, there is a workaround, sort of.)

[tonedef71]

I ended up switching to Studio One. Loaded the trial over the holiday weekend, setup my hardware as external devices and created a template for it, then just started digging in to how everything works. It actually handles my hardware in a much more straightforward way than Sonar did, and remembers how I've mapped MIDI I/O which was always problematic in Sonar. Granted it doesn't have instrument definitions, but I'm not really concerned with any of that -- my JD-Xi and Ultranova have solid editor/librarian apps I prefer using anyway.

I've found far more that I like better in S1 over Sonar than not -- once I understand how each function is designed to work, that is. Anyway, Presonus announcing the $150 crossgrade price sealed the deal for me, just picked it up off JRRShop with the group buy discount for $126.65.

On Saturday, I purchased the Studio One 3 Pro offer at 50% off from JRRshop and got a bunch of freebies with it, too:

The Cakewalk crossgrade offer was not available at the time, which is a shame because I could have saved $42. Good thing I did purchase from JRRshop -- I contacted JRRshop customer service about the dilemma, and Uncle E took care of me!

[SCprogfan]

I had a card sitting around forever that had a download code for Cubase AI, so I'm going to give that a try. It came with some Yamaha hardware I had purchased several moths ago. I'm not worried yet that Sonar will suddenly stop working for me, but it does seem like a good time to learn about another program, especially since it's not going to cost me anything extra yet. I only make music as a hobby, and it's usually new-agey, space music these days, more sound design and experimentation than anything else. I imagine that practically any DAW will work well enough for that, but I am becoming a little more interested in the PreSonus with the new crossgrade deal. What bothered me the most about the Cakewalk situation was that I only found out about it by reading it on these forums over the Thanksgiving holiday. I used to get marketing and product update emails from them all the time, but they never sent any notification regarding their closure. Crazy!

[tonedef71]

What bothered me the most about the Cakewalk situation was that I only found out about it by reading it on these forums over the Thanksgiving holiday. I used to get marketing and product update emails from them all the time, but they never sent any notification regarding their closure.

It was the same situation for me, too: no warning from Cakewalk; first I had heard of the bad news was here at KVR.

[mumpcake]

I think it's interesting that there doesn't seem to be a consensus on which DAW to move to. You have a lot of people who think the obvious choice is Cubase, and a lot who think its a POS. Same for Studio One, Samplitude, Reaper, Mixcraft, and everything else in the mix. You even have a lot of diehards who will stay on SONAR until Windows breaks it.

[Zombie Queen]

You even have a lot of diehards who will stay on SONAR until Windows breaks it.

It was my initial idea, I am very reluctant to learn a new DAW, what a waste of time. But it all boils down to whether CW will remove C/R (as they vaguely promised), I thought I will wait a while and see. But it becomes clear that Gibson has the same plan, they are not going to do anything, until something happens, when most likely they are not going to do anything either. This is the worst of all scenarios from user perspective, as it turns Sonar into a time bomb. Maybe it will go off, maybe not, if it does you will find out when it does.
So time to face reality and look for a new DAW. This time my major requirement is no C/R, no dongle. Maybe I'm a freak, but when 20 years from now I will want to open an old project, I want to have a chance. At this point there's not much choice, counting major DAWs it's Reaper of FL Studio. It look like Reaper to me.

[apondinthestream]

. At this point there's not much choice, counting major DAWs it's Reaper of FL Studio. It look like Reaper to me.

Reaper can be agonising until you actually embrace the way it works - you have to get in to using the actions and scripts and sws extensions and making your own toolbars. That can be intimidating at first, but is actually fairly straightforward once you start. Get into using those and Reaper becomes great to use. (downside is finding the action you want can be difficult - which is where the forum comes in)Incredibly flexible and powerful and efficient.

FL Studio is utterly different in design to Sonar or Reaper. I have it, and I think it looks an excellent program but it comes from a completely different approach to music making. I have never been able to feel comfortable with FL, but as I said before, it looks like it is great within its own domain.

[EvilDragon]

Note that schwa, one of two Reaper devs, hinted at ARA coming soon in Reaper, which might be another boon for certain Sonar users looking to switch.





(BTW, ex-Sonar 7 user here, went to FL Studio, then Reaper, stayed with Reaper because it's much more flexible and does things the way I tell it to, rather than other way around.)