Introducing the new SONAR: New lineup, new features, plus membership

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beatmangler443 wrote:
AROSSA [Cakewalk] wrote:New SONAR "Dorchester" is now available for download.

See what's new in "Dorchester at: http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/SONAR/Whats-New
Why should I pick sonar over studio one with no subscription and free updates?
Cakewalk's new model isn't in reality much different than their old one. They tended to do a new release each year with an associated upgrade cost. Now, as before, you can just pay the one time price (which is cheaper than monthly) and you own the product and a years worth of upgrades and features for all time. So, the out of pocket cost is not really different if you upgrade every year.

I think the advantage of this model is that instead of working on bug fixes and at the same time, working on a new version to put out in a year or so, the developers can better incrementally do this all along the year while working on the same program. Plus, features and bug fixes are done a little bit at a time, so perhaps it avoids having at any time a new version with lots of bugs to track all at once. It also means (i assume) that there won't be the usual software issue of "I own the old version and I have a terrible bug, but they're not updating it anymore because there's a new version!"

I just recently took the plunge for Sonar Platinum after sitting it out since it's release in January. They showed me they really would actually be delivering new content and fixes each month and they (and AudioDeluxe) gave me a great price to upgrade.

I also own Studio One V.2, and it certainly has it's merits. I might get the upgrade when it goes on sale sometime down the road. In general, I find Sonar fits better with how I work. Plus, I (like a few on this board) saw lots of erratic CPU use particularly with Kontakt in Studio One. That's been a long-standing issue, but it was never addressed. For v.2, it apparently won't be addressed so I'm S.O.L. on that one.

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jsp1979 wrote:The Drum Replacer is a separate item in the Command Center. So, you might have to install it separately.

It's in the dropdown menu with Sonar Platinum.
thanks dude

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msorrels wrote:They have fixed things, but to fair they have also broken things...
No kidding. The latest update just broke drum maps. :roll:
vespesian (sean)

You're in an amazing state - so stay there.

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They really need to add a QFE process to their monthly release system. Quick Fix Engineering teams/systems have been pretty common for software developers for a while. You can't have customers be "down" for a month (or more) until your next release. You need another team that can pull any main dev onto a QFE fix and then roll that out in a matter of hours/days. With modern source code control and a good build process you really can fix exactly a single issue and re-release without changing anything else. No feature creep, everything code reviewed and tested. Even a small company can do it. There is some pain at setting things up (you have to have all the build tools under version control for example) but once the system is in place you could ship new builds every couple of minutes if you had to. Even a slightly more casual version can work with a small group.

Given the official responses on the Cakewalk forum, it may well be a month before they fix any of the issues they added with Everett. They broke the toolbar customization the other month and made everyone wait a month for a fix, I couldn't believe that one. I doubt they will fix the problems with 32bit plugins and drum maps. Without a strong QFE process their membership system (it's not a subscription) is a problem. There starts to be no way to get a stable build, since they don't seem to do "during-the-month" patches. To get a fix for one thing means you have to accept a bunch of other features and new regressions.

But sadly I'm still in the boat nothing else is really better for me. Studio One was close before though, perhaps this new release changes things, might have to re-give it a look.
-Matt

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Cakewalk should come up with their own ideas and stop biting presonus studio one.
CTO Matthias Juwan:
"When you see a Studio One feature in a competitor product, do you feel pride or anger?

For me, this means that the competition fears us. It's exactly what happened with Cakewalk when they launched Sonar X1: it was a bit annoying because they used the same colors, the same gray, the same blue... But this only means that we are attracting their attention and we are becoming more important, which is in the end a good thing. When Logic 8 or 9 was introduced, the window layout changed. It was one or two years before the first Studio One version, and we got scared because this Logic version looked pretty close to what we planned to do... As if they had peeped through our window...! But in the end, certain things are just logical and evident."

http://en.audiofanzine.com/general-sequ ... o-one.html

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beatmangler443 wrote:Cakewalk should come up with their own ideas and stop biting presonus studio one.
CTO Matthias Juwan:
"When you see a Studio One feature in a competitor product, do you feel pride or anger?

For me, this means that the competition fears us. It's exactly what happened with Cakewalk when they launched Sonar X1: it was a bit annoying because they used the same colors, the same gray, the same blue... But this only means that we are attracting their attention and we are becoming more important, which is in the end a good thing. When Logic 8 or 9 was introduced, the window layout changed. It was one or two years before the first Studio One version, and we got scared because this Logic version looked pretty close to what we planned to do... As if they had peeped through our window...! But in the end, certain things are just logical and evident."

http://en.audiofanzine.com/general-sequ ... o-one.html
This is an odd quote. Essentially, he implies that if a later DAW is released that has similarities to a Studio One feature, they stole it. When Studio One does the same thing to another DAW, the idea involved was just "logical and evident"...not stolen.

Well-played, Presonus. :lol:

Personally, I've never thought the color scheme was all that similar to Sonar. I just assumed that greys and blues were neutral colors that were easy on the eyes.

At any rate, both are great DAWs. I use them both. The world's big enough for both of them and a whole bunch more.

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vespesian wrote:The latest update just broke drum maps. :roll:
This annoyed me. This is the first time I've ever rolled back an update that wasn't Kontakt.

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msorrels wrote: Given the official responses on the Cakewalk forum, it may well be a month before they fix any of the issues they added with Everett.
Update 1 for Cakewalk's Everett release was released today, so it took 9 days. :wink:

The forum accounts say that it fixes the drum map issue along with a few others.

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Is there no trial for Sonar any more?

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jsp1979 wrote:
beatmangler443 wrote:Cakewalk should come up with their own ideas and stop biting presonus studio one.
CTO Matthias Juwan:
"When you see a Studio One feature in a competitor product, do you feel pride or anger?

For me, this means that the competition fears us. It's exactly what happened with Cakewalk when they launched Sonar X1: it was a bit annoying because they used the same colors, the same gray, the same blue... But this only means that we are attracting their attention and we are becoming more important, which is in the end a good thing. When Logic 8 or 9 was introduced, the window layout changed. It was one or two years before the first Studio One version, and we got scared because this Logic version looked pretty close to what we planned to do... As if they had peeped through our window...! But in the end, certain things are just logical and evident."

http://en.audiofanzine.com/general-sequ ... o-one.html
This is an odd quote. Essentially, he implies that if a later DAW is released that has similarities to a Studio One feature, they stole it. When Studio One does the same thing to another DAW, the idea involved was just "logical and evident"...not stolen.

Well-played, Presonus. :lol:

Personally, I've never thought the color scheme was all that similar to Sonar. I just assumed that greys and blues were neutral colors that were easy on the eyes.

At any rate, both are great DAWs. I use them both. The world's big enough for both of them and a whole bunch more.
The problem is that Studio One and Logic are daws and Sonar not...
So you can't say that studio one copied Sonar, but you can say that Studio one copied Logic....

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Scottex wrote:The problem is that Studio One and Logic are daws and Sonar not...
No, that's not actually a problem, because its not just untrue, its ridiculous.

Feel free to provide a commonly accepted definition of 'DAW' that S1 and Logic fit that Sonar doesnt , though.
An idiot on Set Theory:
"In some cases there is an object called red that contains everything that is red. In much the same way a pot is a plate."

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Robert Randolph wrote:Is there no trial for Sonar any more?
According to Noel (CW CTO), it should be available next week.

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flugel45 wrote:
Robert Randolph wrote:Is there no trial for Sonar any more?
According to Noel (CW CTO), it should be available next week.
That's good news, thanks.

I'm impressed by the speed at which their development is going, so I think I would be remiss to not give it another try.

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SONAR Ipswich update is now available:

http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/SONAR/ ... es#Ipswich

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