Sonar 5 has arrived...

[heeb]

It doesn't exist in any shape or form on my PC (just in case someone starts screaming 'Warez User').

YOU, WAREZ USER, YOU!!!

A shame (and strange) you didn't get it working... Maybe try it on a different PC? Maybe your configuration is not OK?

[pitchdrifter]

You could always just press F1 and if there is an online help in Sonar (quite positive there is) read how its done? Takes 2 minutes to do.
Besides, the logic environment editor isn't selfexplanatory either, I'm sure you asked someone how to add multi i/o VSTis there, too.
A tool isn't supposed to limit the user, so if you encounter a challenge not knowing how to operate something, thats a quite common situation when using a new tool. Ask someone who uses it, use the online help etc..

Markus

[whyterabbyt]

Perhaps it's me?

Or prehaps the dodgy version you were trying?

Funnily enough, in comparison to your experience, Sonar was one of the few hosts where I was able to dive right in and start doing stuff without having to try and work it out. In comparison, just trying out the sequencer component in eXT for the first time, it took me ages to get a frigging thing working properly, even although I'd been using eXT since the day dot...

Some people just dont gel with some hosts. Isn't it grand that we've all got a choice

[billybk1]

HI

One thing CakeWalk might want to check is their server - I tried to download the Sonar demo for a (3rd) look but just got nowhere other than: 'can't find server' - this happened several times over several days!

Well, that is not a server problem and it does not surprise me. Why would they still have a demo available for a product they no longer sell or promote. Like this thread, it's all about SONAR 5. The same thing happened, after SONAR 4 was announced, last year Cakewalk immediately pulled the SONAR 3 demo:

http://store.cakewalk.com/

So I tried the H20 version - same problem 3rd time around ...

No sound, how do you get a vst loaded, midi keyboard not working, soundcard seems OK - but no sound, how do you load a DX synth, OH - keyboard seems to be OK - why isn't the M-Audio card outputting sound?

We are supposed to feel sympathy because you can't get the crack to work. Right..... Maybe it's the bad karma coming back at cha!

Perhaps it's me?

It could be, I have an old five year old self-built DAW (PIII 1Ghz/512MB), that I have used with every version, of SONAR (since 1.0), and have never had a problem getting SONAR to run. Still using the same Delta 66 and Roland UA-100 (USB MIDI interface)that I bought 5 years ago too. BTW, I can easily run Samplitude 7, Nuendo 3, ACID Pro 5, Vegas 6, Project 5 2.0, Sound Forge 7 and a multitude of DX/DXi/VST/VSTi plugins(hundreds), on this same setup with zero problems. Well except, I do run into a CPU wall, every now and then, but hopefully with the release, of SONAR 5 x64, I'll be upgrading to a screaming 64bit machine, (XP64/EM64T/8GB), in the near future.

[xylyx]

xylyx your not only missing the whole point (it hit you
in the back of ya head too), you cannot add something
which is not there.

It has nothing to do with 'like don't like', so don't
act like a baby with that primetime baby-line.

Numerous users have said why/what they don't like
about Sonar, and for a reason. Customization is great,
too bad the gui start sucking the second you add one (1) thing.

Come to think of it the 'look' reminds me of some sort of suburban WordPad gone Tokyo.

Wow! How do I reply to an intelligent response like this one? How can I miss a point when all you seem to have to offer are opinions? Anyone who has to resort to insults in order to make their 'point' is usually lacking any kind of cogent argument in the first place. Seriously, if you can't respond in a decent, sensible manner, then please don't bother at all...

[saturdaysaint]

One more attempt, simply because I really don't see much of a difference worth noting between the vaunted Nuendo/Logic/Samplitude interfaces and Sonar's GUI. Also, my preferred way of working is a little more stripped down than some others, so maybe it'll give you an idea of the flexibility available.

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b35/e ... ckview.jpg

Note that I don't use toolbars, navigator, or even the transport since I have the shortcuts mastered (and can bring up a consolidated tranport with F4 for some functions). Also note that I've hidden several tracks and envelopes with the press of a button, because I like to work with only the necessary tracks onscreen unless I'm doing larger arranging (I bring back all the tracks with another keybinding).

With the addition of inline editing and a docked view at the bottom of the screen (where I can drop the tempo map, mixer, loop explorer, synths, effects and MIDI editor), I'll be doing all my work in this one, IMHO extremely uncluttered view.[/img]

[billybk1]

...my preferred way of working is a little more stripped down than some others, so maybe it'll give you an idea of the flexibility available.

http://www.geocities.com/ejdrouillard/trackview.JPG

Hey saturdaysaint,
I like the way you have your SONAR template setup, in the .jpg pic. If you don't mind, could you email me the .cwt file (I assume you have saved it as a .cwt (template) file, for this particular layout.
I would like to add a few of my own personal customizations and then add it to my .cwt collection, for future use.
I agree, if you take the time, you can easily customize the look of SONAR (layout/colors etc...)to fit your personal style and workflow. There are even color scheme presets (you can also create your own), that mimic Nuendo and Pro Tools, if thats your flavor.

[WillieJenkins]

saturdaysaint and billybk1,

stop adding to those of us who are actually showing our templates and actually proving how good the sonar ui actually is, you're making it harder and harder for the people who've never actually used sonar to complain about things they know nothing about!!!

[lawapa]

Does anyone know if the Sonar 5 P upgrade requires the sp2 for XP? I run S4p,P5-ll on a p4 2.8 gig machine and Vegas 6 on an AMD 64 I think the AMD machine is sp2 but I got it preconfigured for video and Vegas. So I loaded nothing into it but V6 and SoundForge. It's got V5,V6 and SF6 and works like a charm. Sonar 5 is a must have for me but I'd like to use it to it's potential.

[munchkin]

I'm going to give the demo a try before upgrading. Sonar 5 will offer docking of windows which is the way I work in ACID so I could get a lot of what I need opened in the main window and just resize each docked window when I need to.

I wish Cakewalk would consider improving the features in the loop view along the lines of Live 5. The loop editing in Live is very flexible. I would also like to have ACID's chopper feature in the loop view. I know we can insert audio and midi effects into clips now but it's much easier to have more edit features in the loop view.

Maybe that's a Sonar 6 upgrade?

[jazzrich9]

so here's my, "I haven't done nearly enough research on this yet today" question for the day...

how is it that the 64 bit processing is available on 32bit computers, as is claimed in the "New in Sonar" section... and does this mean if I'm using 32bit windows, but have say and athlon 64 processor, Sonar magically cuts through all of that crap to take advantage of my 64bit processor?

Doesn't seem likely, but anyone have some thoughts.

[saturdaysaint]

I like the way you have your SONAR template setup, in the .jpg pic. If you don't mind, could you email me the .cwt file (I assume you have saved it as a .cwt (template) file, for this particular layout.
I would like to add a few of my own personal customizations and then add it to my .cwt collection, for future use.

Thanks! Actually, it's not a template - I just have the navigator and all toolbars turned off (though I occasionally use the large floating tranport, which you can toggle with F4) and sometimes use the track inspector (toggle-able with "I") when mixing. The color scheme - which I switch regularly between Cakewalk's nice presets and then modify out of boredom - is a barely modified preset.

IMO, much of the clutter in the advertisements, and I think it's fair to call it clutter, are the GUI features for beginners (the toolbars and navigator, which experienced users only need for pretty huge projects IMO). As Sascha Frank was saying, it's important to have some features hidden or customizeable for workflow; I'd argue that Sonar works like the reverse of Logic - instead of making you work to find hidden features, Sonar's default settings make you work (much less hard, IMO) to clean up the GUI features you don't need.

[whyterabbyt]

Its prefectly possible to do 64-bit maths with a 32-bit processor. In fact you could do 64-thousand-bit processing with a 32-bit processor.

You don't really think the ZX81 or the Commodore 64 (both 8-bit) could only handle numbers up to 255 do you?

Think about it; you only have ten fingers, but you can handle arithmetic on numbers much bigger than that. How? Basically, by breaking the numbers into 'chunks' and dealing with one chunk at a time... that's sort of what computers do. A 32-bit processor can use multiple 32-bit chunks to do 64-bit processing. A 64-bit processor doesnt need to, though.

[jazzrich9]

whyterabbyt, thanks for the clarification... just wasn't thinking about it right, in part because I think many software manufacturers have been lazy up until now, using the OS to call to the 64bit processor, but that's more a fault with uncreative windows developers.

cheers.

[kp]

saturdaysaint: that's pretty much how I've got mine (or any other application for that matter - hate toolbars, hate toolbars, must remember my medication, hate toolbars), except I've gone for a bluer/greyer colour scheme.