Anyways...I actually quite liked the look of it. I thought I'd just get a little bit more info if for nothing else than personal interset, and, you never know, I might one day buy a second host just for a bit of choice. Also I get sick of the host slagging recently. I can appreciate something I don't use can't I?
Anyway...first off - I quite like the overall look of Sonar. The equivalent to the inspector thingy at the left. That looks like an improvement on Cubase to me. It seems to show pretty well all the things you need without all the extra clicking. I hope Cubase4 has headed in that direction (cos I'll be buying it soon).
The mixer...again, a nice look to it, although nothing radically different to almost any host really. Hourses for courses.
Then I clicked on the image on the first product page, and noticed the Vintage Channel thingummy. It say Kjaerhus on it (a very nice GUI too, by the way. I wish Cubase plugins went more for that type of GUI). It's got Eq, a comp and probably other things I missed. Is it a similar type of comp to GCO1, GUP1 and similar Eq to their GEq? Or is it a complete rewrite for Cakewalk. In fact...I went back just now to look, and saw the mid-side stuff and de-esser. Is it the GAC then? Seems like a very good tool to have.
Personally, I think having Kjaerhus licensed plugins in your host is a good selling point. Are there other Kjaerhus plugins included?
Weeeell...most of that stuff I've already got access to, but the fact they've introduced audio to midi can't be anything but good. TBH, it's little things like that that could possibly make me buy it. (I'm not getting into any stupid either/or host war here...if I actually considered it, it would be more to use it as an external audio editor, mangler, fiddle-about-with-things app that I then transfer back to my more familiar surroundings to construct a song with).# AudioSnap™ Multitrack Audio Quantize
# AudioSnap suite of tools includes:
* Non-destructive audio quantize
* Lock multiple tracks into the same groove
* Apply seamless tempo changes to audio
* Convert audio beats to MIDI
* Slip-stretch clips to a new time or length
* High-quality time stretching algorithms including iZotope Radius™, Percussion Mode, more
From the look of most of the new features, there's nothing there that's make me want to swap from Cubase to Sonar, but sometimes, a different way of making the building blocks adds to inspiration. I suspect I could happily play around in that environment.
So...what other plugins are in there that might interest me? (I know that's a vague question that nobody but me could know the answer to...)...so more like, what plugins interest you that use Sonar?
And apart from that...simply...well done Cakewalk. It looks nice. I probably will continue happily using SX2 until I get C4, but it's good to see how well some other devs make their hosts, as well.
Any other specific points of difference that I might not know about? (As I said, most of the features are already in Cubase, but there are probably others not mentioned on the blurb page...there was a "customer requested" full feature list - but I certainly don't want to sign up for other spam from Cakewalk).
Oh...one other thing. Is there a demo? I used Cakewalk Pro Audio 8 or 9 (can't remember which) that came as a freebie with my soundcard a few years back. I like some, disliked some. But I got to know it reasonably well. But...one thing that stuck in my memory was how bloody difficult it was when I got rid of it and upgraded to SX2. I found Cakewalk stuff littered around the registry and hidden all over the place. It took several registry cleaners to clear it when I moved on. If I loaded a demo, that is a concern. Have they streamlined their uninstall stuff (although I suppose that's a moot question...if you're a loyal Sonar user, you won't have uninstalled it, eh?
)So general queries only really. I just wanted a thread to exist from a non-user to show appreciation. And I seriously would consider having 2 hosts to play around in. For a while I had the demo of Tracktion1 on my DAW and I very nearly bought it. At the time there were some specific benefits that Cubase didn't have, but somehow, Tracktion just didn't click with me...probably more to do with what I saw as midi-weakness I suppose, and a GUI that really turned inspiration off in me.
How much is Sonar6 from new, anyway? If it's the price of Cubase...weeeeeeell, that'd be one extravagance too far probably.
But even on a plugin count - if I include the synths, the Kjaerhus plugin, maybe other FX etc that I'd want...it might be a cost-effective way of buying more plugins, and as a bonus, things like audio->midi (which I still miss in Cubase).
Sorry for the ramble.
