Sonar X3! Wow!

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I have bought it yesterday night/early morning!! and for $29!!!
Hit me so I know that I'm not dreaming!

Acutually, I woke up in the late morning and I had the question in my head: "Was it a dream that I bought Sonar X3 for $29?"

Of course not baby!! :D

What shocked me that it is not crippled in the major tools!! Step Sequencer is there, matrix, midi effects and standard mixer with unlimited tracks (whatever they are).
This is like the Sonar studio few years ago (if not better!)

Although I have and love my S1 producer, but I miss these integrated midi tools. I also want to use the matrix (something like Ableton Live) for trying ideas. I have never tried this way of composing but it seems nicer than recording and copy/cut and paste all the time to try another midi take.

I know it is not perfect, but for me it is an unbelievable value for the money. I have used it before, so I'm not stranger for the workflow. The 1920x1080 resolution is IMO the minimum for this DAW to be used comfortably. I liked the GUI in the surface, and anyway this is what I would look at 99% of the time (I won't dig deeper and deeper into the 90's menus!)

I don't seem to have a problem. The audio driver is ok, and all my plugins are working (64bit only) and didn't have stability issue yet.

I don't have the pro channel, additional audio effects, and instruments like in the Studio or Producer edition, but the supplied audio effects are fine and I don't need more than a standard mixer.

I hope it will make me write songs at last! OTOH, I will wait S1 V3 to see how the midi is. If they will keep it for Guitar players mostly, then I will keep using Sonar or upgrade to a higher edition if required.

Thanks to the posts in the market place, I have entered the holiday discount code and got it for $29 instead of $49 for registered users. :party:

Well, I wanted to give my first impressions about it and remind the others (who is looking for a great value for money like me and don't care about brand loyalism!) that I think only 2 days to go for this discount.

Back to the matrix to see what can I do with it :band2:

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updated to the x3 producer from x2 pro.
sonar finally makes some kind of sense to me. I like X3.
Pity the reference manual is 2000 plus pages long.
Yikes!
I'm tired of being insane. I'm going outsane for some fresh air.

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I have spent in the past a great deal learning it (Ver 4) even though I had a good background with emagic logic and cubase before using it!. Sonar might take some time to get used to it.

For now, I like a lot what I'm seeing. It is a busy interface, but this doesn't bother me anymore. I don't need the manual except for some new things for me like the matrix ;-)

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It is a good route they took, not stripping everything of root functionality in base version.

It will appeal to those that have the most stuff in instruments and plugs, and have an attractive price entry level.

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im still confused as to why theres not more fuss made over this. A full 'uncrippled' daw for next to nothing?

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As far as I can tell from

https://www.cakewalk.com/products/sonar/versions.aspx

The only features missing seem to be AudioSnap, SMPTE/MTC, their Surround Bridge plugin support, and support for the ProChannel format. Plus there are a few less plugins, and no included Melodyne (although the integration of it is still supported via ARA)

For that price, its pretty impressive.
my other modular synth is a bugbrand

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I can't use the matrix in its current state! It is like chopping or cutting the last note. The drums loops look like jumping in the end :-( I hope Cakewalk would fix it in the future to be usable.
Except of this, it is a beautiful program and rather stable if you don't use its own old instruments! :hihi: I managed to crash it with just trying to play the piano in TTS-1 ! I don't need it really but I was just curious to revisit old friends. But I found some nice surprises like SD3, SI Bass and SI String which are running really stable.
I couldn't find a way for NI Studio Drummer mapping, so I got my hands dirty by writing the notes in a new drums map. I didn't need to write or load anything for BFD Eco, Geist and of course Session Drummer. The notes already written when opening the midi clips in the piano roll.

I like a lot the midi column in the inspector. It has the scale, Input quanitize and Arpeggiator. The cpu usage is very good. Better than Cubase and on par with Studio One (if not little bit better). I felt it like Logic 9 in OS X. It shows all the cores being used even if there is one hungry synth.

After all, it has so many good things! I haven't tried everything yet.

P.S.
Some might thing this is the full Sonar! it is not! It is the basic Sonar, before they called it Essential, now without a name! The other editions are Studio and Producer. This one is supposed to compete with Cubase Elements (IMO it is better than Cubase Elements with about the half price!).

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how is automation delay compensation support in x3?

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@ EnGee: Nice that you're happy with it. I also bought it for cheap, and wasn't too satisfied i'm afraid... it crashed a couple of times, even when i added Cakewalk's own synth, Zeta 2, the included plugins seem to be stone old (still DX!), and have quite clumsy GUI's, and Sonar's GUI feels quite cluttered. That said, as you said, apart from the lack of the Pro Channel, it doesn't feel limited at all, and i wished my main DAW had such a step sequencer too, though it could be a bit easier to program. Nonetheless i decided to uninstall it, Cubase is just better in almost everything imo.

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gamecat666 wrote:im still confused as to why theres not more fuss made over this. A full 'uncrippled' daw for next to nothing?

Agreed. There really is nothing else so feature packed for that price (reaper arguably but Sonar has a commercial license for less).

I can't comment on stability as i haven't had a chance to test X3 yet

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chroma wrote:how is automation delay compensation support in x3?

I tested X2 thoroughly in this regard, and the only problem is automating effects with large delay *themselves* can be out by the delay time.

Anything around said fx, busses, other tracks, all 100% in sync. In other words, sonar works precisely in this regard like pro tools, reaper, cubase and S1.. they all have this minor "problem". Very easy to work around and honestly who would be automating a 600ms delay linear phase EQ anyway? it was just for testing purposes

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EnGee wrote:P.S.
Some might thing this is the full Sonar! it is not! It is the basic Sonar, before they called it Essential, now without a name! The other editions are Studio and Producer. This one is supposed to compete with Cubase Elements (IMO it is better than Cubase Elements with about the half price!).
This may be so but to me the most crippling aspect of a DAW is track limitation and output limitation and basic Sonar has none. Most of my audio plugins are external so the extras in the higher packages really offered nothing to me. Those factors made it a very compelling offer to me at $29.

I went ahead and did it and I'm going to try it out. The download is HUGE compared to Reaper. We'll see if that translates to more functionality and better workflow (not that Reaper's is bad or anything....)

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what the heck is going on with their home page.

If you click on the "whats new" video you get this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzaVd6zl2bA

https://www.cakewalk.com/products/sonar/default.aspx
Aiynzahev-sounds
Sound Designer - Soundsets for Pigments, Repro, Diva, Virus TI, Nord Lead 4, Serum, DUNE2, Spire, and others

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Hm, works as expected here...

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chk071 wrote:@ EnGee: Nice that you're happy with it. I also bought it for cheap, and wasn't too satisfied i'm afraid... it crashed a couple of times, even when i added Cakewalk's own synth, Zeta 2, the included plugins seem to be stone old (still DX!), and have quite clumsy GUI's, and Sonar's GUI feels quite cluttered. That said, as you said, apart from the lack of the Pro Channel, it doesn't feel limited at all, and i wished my main DAW had such a step sequencer too, though it could be a bit easier to program. Nonetheless i decided to uninstall it, Cubase is just better in almost everything imo.
Thanks, but my happiness didn't last for more than two days!!!

I had today all the kind of strange and weird proplems that I have never experienced in any DAW (including Sonar 4 and 7 before)!

Ok, I gave up with the Matrix (although this was a main reason to buy it really!). I cleaned the Matrix and closed it. Then I inserted a Geist track, then a Fusor track and I already had a Kontakt (Studio Drummer) track. I muted Kontakt and then played a midi clip from Geist, then when I click the Fusor track, it starts to play by itself! I'm sure all the midi routing was default! It happened also in the Matrix! I clicked a cell belong to Geist to play, then all the three instrument were playing (Studio Drummer, Geist, and Fusor) :o So, really Wow! I haven't seen this ever!

I will start a new project and see how it is going. I am not into workarounds or finding a solution ..etc. I would just leave it like I left Cubase Elements (which has only one problem, cpu spikes especially with Kontakt like it is telling me "I really hate Kontakt, out! out!"

I have only Sonar from cakewalk installed in my laptop! I already uninstalled the Z3tas with Rapture.

It should be flawless after the x3d patch!! Oh well, glad I didn't spent more and bought the Studio version! I will wait for X3e and X3f if not X4a for another $29 maybe?

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