KVR Audio

GaryG · Post by **GaryG** » Thu Apr 05, 2018 1:25 pm

Audio dropouts...

...the first DAW I ever laid money down for was Cakewalk Home Studio (late 90s/early 2000s?) and despite having a pretty hot system for the time (p3 1Ghz, EMU audio card etc...) I never got it to run right. Constant audio dropouts that CW support could not help with. Then Tracktion came along that just worked and I jumped ship... Since then I've obviously changed PC many times, new OSs, different hosts yet never had a problem with audio dropouts again (crackles when pushing the cpu too hard understandably but no dropouts).

So what do I get when playing the demo song pretty much instantly? Yeah. Is it the same fundamental code as all those years ago then? I guess still not a problem for most people but, well, made me Lol.

Examigan · Post by **Examigan** » Thu Apr 05, 2018 1:27 pm

Zexila wrote:Ok, first impressions, this is by far the most unintuitive DAW I ever had chance to try, quite overwhelming experience, so many stuff there, still can't find option to change piano roll grid size...

This should help:
https://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation? ... p=toc.html

https://www.cakewalk.com/CakeTV/SONAR-U ... et-Started

Obsolete236871 · Post by **Obsolete236871** » Thu Apr 05, 2018 1:30 pm

prodigal_sounds wrote:
Zexila wrote:Ok, first impressions, this is by far the most unintuitive DAW I ever had chance to try, quite overwhelming experience, so many stuff there, still can't find option to change piano roll grid size...
Not a SONAR fanboy, but in my experience, any program that is "intuitive" quickly reaches the limits of what it can do. SONAR is a DAW. It is very capable, and has a big fat manual that will tell you how to change the grid size on the PRV.

Failing that, you should find some +/- buttons on the scroll bar ends.

@prodigal_sounds

Are you trying to say that Cubase, Studio One, Ableton Live and Bitwig are not real DAWs and that they are not very capable, since they offer a quite intuitive and uncluttered user experience compared to Sonar?

Zexila · Post by **Zexila** » Thu Apr 05, 2018 1:32 pm

prodigal_sounds wrote:Not a SONAR fanboy, but in my experience, any program that is "intuitive" quickly reaches the limits of what it can do. SONAR is a DAW. It is very capable, and has a big fat manual that will tell you how to change the grid size on the PRV.

Failing that, you should find some +/- buttons on the scroll bar ends.

Thanks for the help, been demoing DAW's for quite some time now hoping to move on from Logic and I got around plenty of them without RTFM, this thing is least intuitive one I have tried, period.

chk071 wrote:I agree with Zexila though. I found Sonar pretty unintuitive when i tried X3. Most of the things can be done in 3 or 4 different ways, and the GUI is quite cluttered, and looks thrown together. It was also the only DAW i ever tried which crashed while scanning my plugins. Oh well.

Exactly.

ozmuso67 wrote:
In the end I was thinking "do I really want to spend a ton of time learning a new DAW, only to find that it doesn't do anything more than my current DAW (S1) does?"

The good news is that it has cured me (for now anyway) of thinking of switching DAWs.

Yeah, have same line of taughts, but still not cured.

Examigan wrote: This should help:
https://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation? ... p=toc.html

https://www.cakewalk.com/CakeTV/SONAR-U ... et-Started

Awesome, thanks.

dellboy · Post by **dellboy** » Thu Apr 05, 2018 1:36 pm

Looks like there are quite a few unhappy customers here who want there money back

THE INTRANCER · Post by **THE INTRANCER** » Thu Apr 05, 2018 1:41 pm

Well, getting Sonar to find plugin's can initially be a bit of slog, and if finds one it doesn't like... it stalls, however, this afternoon I've managed to get it to find both Hive & Reaktor 6 this time around

as can be seen from this screenshot here.

Having been using Studio One 2 & 3 for 3 and half years and Reason for along time before it and never actually used any version or took much notice of Sonar until now...

I'm generally really impressed at what's been delivered here, in the depth of the features, intuitiveness and flexibility in which it offers..even in it's stripped down affair. It's like Reaper but with a much more accessible way to customise it's GUI, has a similar framework of Magic's Samplitude, and the similarity of relatable functions of Studio One 3 but with extended practical and creative features that people will actually use.

And to have this for free and with constant development and updates...for the foreseeable future..it is really going make some shockwaves that other daw developers just can't avoid...I mean you have both traditional notation and video importation / exporting built right in...surround sound and I'm probably just scratching the surface... There's probably a few kinks in the software still, but all software has them to a certain extent.

ozmuso67 · Post by **ozmuso67** » Thu Apr 05, 2018 1:42 pm

lotus2035 wrote:This DAW needs a re-scale GUI option like Ableton, FL Studio.
I use a TV as my main monitor with a 2nd standard monitor below it and have to lean forward to see the details in Sonar. I'm using 1920x1080 resolution, for those out there with far higher resolutions this must be torture.

Yes I agree. Perhaps that is part of the reason I gave up on Bakewalk by CandleLabs so soon, as I am using a WQHD (2560×1440) display, and everything was sooo small. Was hurting my eyes.

As for being unintuitive, that is one of the big strengths of Studio One. I find I can do most stuff without the manual, it all makes sense. As for an intuitive DAW being limited, I have never found S1 to be lacking - I can always do whatever I want to do with it.

FLStudio I also find to be unintuitive - all the changing cursors to do stuff, the close buttons on the opposite side, no easy way to bounce instrument tracks etc.

A DAW that is natural and intuitive is a good thing. Last night I spent my whole time with Cakewalk not really knowing how to do stuff.

Teksonik · Post by **Teksonik** » Thu Apr 05, 2018 1:45 pm

dellboy wrote:Looks like there are quite a few unhappy customers here who want there money back

Hey I appreciate Bandlab's generosity even though I've paid for Sonar and updates from version 5 all that way to X3.

It's just the bloatware and the liberties taken with my system I don't like. Uninstalled and I'm going to run a full system scan.......

VitaminD · Post by **VitaminD** » Thu Apr 05, 2018 1:57 pm

robotmonkey wrote:
satYatunes wrote:Anyone know what is included in the content version i.e. the first option when one launch the installer?
It also downloads the Cakewalk Studio Instruments installer.

Where does it house these installers? I did the 'full' download and see no Studio Instruments nor do I see the Cakewalk Effects (outside of the Sonitus plugs and Boost11) in the plugins list under 'Cakewalk' in Sonar

husker37 · Post by **husker37** » Thu Apr 05, 2018 1:59 pm

flugel45 wrote:
kb420 wrote:
robotmonkey wrote:Installed in a test machine out of curiosity. Haven't used Cakewalk for ages and was pleasantly surprised that the interface feels like it's still 1998. Uninstalled.
Lmao!!!

This is the funniest thing I've heard all day!!! Thank you for this post!!!!
How is it funny? I vastly prefer the Cakewalk GUI over Cubase's, but I would never criticize others for liking the latter, since I know it's a matter of taste.

I also MUCH prefer the Sonar GUI over Cubase, but I'm still very happy I switched to Cubase last December.

Zexila · Post by **Zexila** » Thu Apr 05, 2018 2:01 pm

Quick question, does it have Bezier automation curves?

Obsolete236871 · Post by **Obsolete236871** » Thu Apr 05, 2018 2:16 pm

Zexila wrote:
Thanks for the help, been demoing DAW's for quite some time now hoping to move on from Logic and I got around plenty of them without RTFM, this thing is least intuitive one I have tried, period.

I agree that Sonar is quite cumbersome, but I'm curious why you want to "move on" from Logic? Unless you want to try a completely different approach to music composition (like Ableton or Bitwig with it's Session View).

Or are you talking about the very outdated version of Logic, the last one that did run on Windows systems from like 2006 or so?

When it comes to classic alround DAWs, that are suitable for composition / sequencing, arranging, mixing, mastering etc. (=the whole process of creating music) then Logic (the present day version for Mac) is among the best DAWs you can get.

On a PC (since the current versions of Logic are not available) I would recommend Cubase or Studio One for the classic DAW experience. Cubase is more sophisticated, since Studio One is still in a rather early stage of developement compared to Cubase (Cubase has evolved for over 20 years, while Studio One is just some years old now and still misses some adcanced features).

Examigan · Post by **Examigan** » Thu Apr 05, 2018 2:21 pm

Zexila wrote:Quick question, does it have Bezier automation curves?

If you right click on an envelope to add a node, you can pick from Linear, Slow or Fast. Then when you move the node around, it will be curved between the two nodes (if you selected slow or fast).

robotmonkey · Post by **robotmonkey** » Thu Apr 05, 2018 2:26 pm

VitaminD wrote:
robotmonkey wrote:
satYatunes wrote:Anyone know what is included in the content version i.e. the first option when one launch the installer?
It also downloads the Cakewalk Studio Instruments installer.
Where does it house these installers? I did the 'full' download and see no Studio Instruments nor do I see the Cakewalk Effects (outside of the Sonitus plugs and Boost11) in the plugins list under 'Cakewalk' in Sonar

Installers should be in your Downloads folder what you have set in Windows. What I did was, was to let the Bandlab crap download and start the installation but when the UAC prompt popped up asking weather I would allow installation, I clicked cancel for both main installer and the instrument installer. After that you can run the installers manually.

There should be two files in your downloads: Cakewalk.exe and Instruments.exe

robotmonkey · Post by **robotmonkey** » Thu Apr 05, 2018 2:48 pm

Dee.P.Tree wrote:
VitaminD wrote:
xphen0m wrote:Did this come with the effects like LP-EQ and such?
Not sure.. I do see the Sonitus plugins listed in the drop down. The entire prochannel seems to be intact AFAICT -- I see and can use Breverb and the Bus compressor which are neat.
Has anybody tried to check what is included in this version compared to Cakewalk Sonar website for Platinum Version?

https://www.cakewalk.com/Products/SONAR/Versions

Thanks..!

Seems to be a full Sonar Platinum feature set only without any third party instruments and effects.

Cakewalk Sonar Platinum is now free!