Switching from Sonar to Cubase: Experiences?

[Bassballjg]

Moderately OT, but this seems as good a time as any to ask something I'm curious about. What is it that folks do with the piano roll and why is it so important? I ask because I never edit MIDI, except to quantize when I get close enough. I just play my part til I get it the way I want it to sound/feel.

To explain, I view Sonar as an audio app that conveniently includes sequrencing, and I try to make my workflow as much like how I did things with a keyboard workstation and ADATs as possible, but using the computer is much more economical. I guess I have an if it ain't broke don't fix it attitude about methods, and never did understand MIDI editing, and have always been a very, very shallow MIDI user. I play bass, I play with and record people playing together live in the studio. If I have any complaint about Sonar, it's that I can't just patch a soft synth into an audio track and record my live playing as audio but have to record MIDI then bounce.

On topic, I wish you well in making the decision about Cubase v Sonar. I haven't upgraded to 5 yet but will, and for the new synths and the audio features like VVocal. Personally, I've never been able to make head or tails of Cubase. I think that peole fit with DAW's accroding to how their brains are wired, it makes sense to you or not, right away, and I think it best to stick with that initial intuitive reaction. They all do more or less the same things, and you customize your sound with third-party plugs anyway, so the only thing that really matters in a host is do you get it, does its design conform to the way you think.

For example, I've never gotten a single sound of any kind out of Tracktion because its famously intuitive, user friendly interface is the DAW equivilent of trying to read a Chinese newspaper to me. No slam on Tracktion, I'm just saying that my mind does not work the way that it does. My Cubase experiences have been almost as bad, but more like reading a German newspaper, in the same alphabet so I can make out a little and the languages being more closely related some things are familiar. We all have our equivilent experiences, and so I don't, and I'm sure that the audience does not, care what app somebody uses to record. Cakewalk has always made sense to me, out of the box from the get go, like reading in English even including reading something I don't understand whch is an easier challenge to face in a language you know. I'd rather spend my time making making music, and following a learning curve with rather than against the grain. I suggest that, no matter which program you choose this is the metric by which to make that decision.

[Sepheritoh]

The piano roll has different use for different styles. I like to do orchestrations. I know the right way would be to do it in Sibilius or similar scoring program. I am lazy and do it directly in Piano roll as my orchestrations will never be played by a real orchestra. Some things I can play in, but many things are just impossible to play in by keyboard and I enter it note for note in the piano roll.

[pseudonoise]

Currently I own legit versions of: FL3, P5V1, P5V2, Sonar 5 PE, Absynth 2, Battery 1 & 2

Frankly, If I want to demo Cubase before I drop another half G (crossgrade), I think I have the right.

That said, I think that I will probably be doing that (provided I don't see the instability issues everyone is telling me to expect).

Really, Sonar and Cubase are so similar but every little element of Cubase seems to have a little more. Hard to explain, but it's always there.

[bduffy]

I switched from Sonar 2 to Cubase SX 1 about 3 years ago. Now it's funny, because the things that won me over are less true now, and the thing that I missed the most about Sonar - the Piano Roll - is now so different that I much prefer Cubase's Key Editor now. With each upgrade (we've kept up with Sonar upgrades at work, I still use it occasionaly) the Piano Roll has really changed, and for the worse , from what I knew and loved before.

Now call me crazy, but hasn't the grid always had a bug, not always matching the Snap choice? I remember that from way back.

Don't get me wrong; Sonar is a great app, I'm not a Sonar-basher, not by a long shot. Lord knows Cubase has its faults! But I find the last two Sonar versions less reliable than previous ones. I have trouble stabilizing Sonar 4/5 on a fast computer, whereas Cakewalk Pro Audio and the 1st couple Sonars - running on 3-600mhz - ran like a dream on WDM drivers on an SBLive. That was something that I loved about Cakewalk, it was just so windows-native and solid.

But I switched to Cubase, with its insanely slow loading time and the often crashy world of ASIO, to get the big, powerful mixer, intuitive automation and to submerge in that wonderful world of VST/VSTis. Now, of course, Sonar has really caught up, but at what cost? As it becomes more like the competition, I see less of what won me over in the first place. You tend to imprint on your host, and if it isn't feeling right, then it may be time for something else. For instance, I've been eyeing Live 5 lately as an open-quick-and-create solution. But I'm in way too deep...

So there's my experience, FWIW.