KVR Audio

masterjoe · Post by **masterjoe** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 11:31 am

Hi everybody...

I was looking at the new features and the user interface of SONAR 6 Producer Edition. In short: it looks amazing good. As I would like to abandon my old Logic 5.5.1 PC Win Version I'd like to know some things and hope other SONAR/Logic users here may answer.

(1) If you moved from Logic 5.5.1 PC to SONAR PC too, please tell me your experiences. What's cool, what's missing?

(2) Is it possible to loop MIDI/Audio sequencer objects without the need of additional copies or aliases? (Like the "loop" parameter in Logic.)

(3) What can be done with folders? Can they be looped?

(4) For audio intruments - (VSTi, DXi) does SONAR support muliple audio inputs and multiple audio outputs? How many are supported? What about the usability?

(5) Does SONAR support inplace editing? The screenshot for SONAR 6 looks like it's there.

(6) What's SONAR's automation like? Compared to Logic? Can any paramenter be automated? If not - what can be automated? How precise is automation? Is automation data loopable (see (2) )?

(7) Which performance can you expect from SONAR compared to other sequencers?

(8) Does SONAR support offline-bouncing by using the maximum available CPU power (to bounce in less than realtime)? In other words: Can I render a song in SONAR?

(9) How flexible are SONAR's audio busses? Can you route one bus to another (cascading)?

(10) Does SONAR support MP3 files? Can they be inported and can MP3 files directly be written by SONAR?

(11) Directly compared to Cubase: Which host is the better choice - SONAR or Cubase (regardless of its price)?

Thank you for your answers

Cheers,
Oli

Jason Brian Merrill · Mon Sep 25, 2006 11:44 am

I would say never having used logic (in more ways then one) that just because of the fact that it is becoming outdated on the pc platform (plugin instabilities.. from what i heard, various technologies changing) I would jump on a host like sonar.

but that is my, completely uninformed opinion. Im sure other have much more worthy things to say.

fandango · Post by **fandango** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 11:48 am

Well, a great many of these (1-7, 9, & 10) will be answered by downloading the Trial of Sonar 5.1 (or if you're patient, there'll be a demo for 6 soon enough).

http://www.cakewalk.com/Support/kb/kb2005298.asp

Otherwise, you risk making a decision based on the personal preferences of others without direct experience of the product in hand (which I imagine is what happens to all Cubase first-time buyers... )

whyterabbyt · Post by **whyterabbyt** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 12:19 pm

masterjoe wrote: (1) If you moved from Logic 5.5.1 PC to SONAR PC too, please tell me your experiences. What's cool, what's missing?

No idea.

(2) Is it possible to loop MIDI/Audio sequencer objects without the need of additional copies or aliases? (Like the "loop" parameter in Logic.)

Not sure what you mean there. If you want to loop MIDI or audio you just turn it into a loop with a single keystroke, and then drag it out for as long as you want it to loop.

(3) What can be done with folders? Can they be looped?

They're for organising things primarily. The contents can.

(4) For audio intruments - (VSTi, DXi) does SONAR support muliple audio inputs and multiple audio outputs? How many are supported? What about the usability?

Multiple outputs yes. Multiple inputs on an instrument? No. It supports as many outputs as the instrument creates, or a single stereo pair, your choice.
What about 'what about the usablity'? I dont understand what that means.

(5) Does SONAR support inplace editing? The screenshot for SONAR 6 looks like it's there.

Of MIDI? Yes. Of Audio? Yes.

(6) What's SONAR's automation like? Compared to Logic? Can any paramenter be automated? If not - what can be automated? How precise is automation? Is automation data loopable (see (2) )?

Ive not used Logic. Sonar5 supports automation curves for effect parameters and MIDI automation for synth parameters.
Loopable how?

(7) Which performance can you expect from SONAR compared to other sequencers?

No idea, but it supports multicore processors properly, which is an advantage over quite a few of them.

(8) Does SONAR support offline-bouncing by using the maximum available CPU power (to bounce in less than realtime)? In other words: Can I render a song in SONAR?

Of course.

(9) How flexible are SONAR's audio busses? Can you route one bus to another (cascading)?

Cant remember.

(10) Does SONAR support MP3 files? Can they be inported and can MP3 files directly be written by SONAR?

Yes. Yes. And yes, but you need to use a 3rd party encoder (LAME) or pay for Cakewalk's own.

(11) Directly compared to Cubase: Which host is the better choice - SONAR or Cubase (regardless of its price)?

The one that suits you best.

kp · Post by kp » Mon Sep 25, 2006 12:41 pm

(9) Yes

Jason Brian Merrill · Mon Sep 25, 2006 12:44 pm

(11) Yes

fandango · Post by **fandango** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 12:59 pm

Jason Brian Merrill wrote:(11) Yes

"Would you like tea or coffee?"
"Yes thanks"

ObsoleteAcc99 · Post by **ObsoleteAcc99** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 10:12 pm

[DELETED]

topaz · Post by **topaz** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 10:16 pm

in logic you just select a part and switch on loop and it will play untill a new part (loop) is reached so you dont have to actually copy/repeat parts.

Is it possible to loop MIDI/Audio sequencer objects without the need of additional copies or aliases? (Like the "loop" parameter in Logic.)

whyterabbyt wrote:Not sure what you mean there. If you want to loop MIDI or audio you just turn it into a loop with a single keystroke, and then drag it out for as long as you want it to loop.

Brian2112 · Post by **Brian2112** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 10:53 pm

ttoz wrote:...seriously, neither is right or wrong, but you will find statistically 90% of the Logic users that didn't go to mac went to Cubase, not Sonar.

And of them, quite a few who realized their error and then went to Sonar (like me).

stag · Post by **stag** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 11:07 pm

No man, if i were you i'd be going to marroco or jamaica...mmm...waterfalls... in the desert...watersfalls in the jungle... see! that uncertitude is catchy.

marce · Post by **marce** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 11:28 pm

Maybe you can invoke this -old- offer from cakewalk to dropped logic users:
http://mixonline.com/news/audio_cakewalk_offer_sonar/

RTaylor · Post by **RTaylor** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 5:02 am

masterjoe wrote:(6) What's SONAR's automation like? Compared to Logic? Can any paramenter be automated? If not - what can be automated? How precise is automation? Is automation data loopable (see (2) )?

I've not used version six. They do have new automation features. You might try cakewalk.

You could automate stuff across a loop, render it and pull it out to the length you needed or pull it out to the length you needed and then attach an envelope to that... As to everything else... I'll second the "try the demo" suggestion. As to whether or not you should switch... Would you rather be running an obsolete sequencer with no upgrade potential or one of the best sequencers available for pc that's upgraded and improved constantly?

Sepheritoh · Post by **Sepheritoh** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 5:35 am

Just my opinion. I don;t know Logic, but worked with Sonar a long time since cakewalk pro days and every version of Sonar since v1.

The program is good, but there has never been a bug free version yet. 5.2 is probably the worst i.r.o. bugs and then support has gradually deteriorated over the years. It ground to halt up to the stage where Cakewalk does not even bother to reply to my emails anymore. Previously I was very happy to get response within 24 hours and no issue was left unresolved. Lately, since version 5 that came to a halt. My email must be filtered by their spam mail filter, as they do not even bother to say f^%$k you or nothing. Bugs in 5.2 unfortunately are mission critical for me.

I am seriously thinking about moving away. The cost of the alternative, Nuendo and the fairly cheap Sonar upgrade path is my main concern and I would probably not move as quick as I would have liked to do.

Rabid · Post by **Rabid** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 12:47 pm

Sepheritoh wrote:Just my opinion. I don;t know Logic, but worked with Sonar a long time since cakewalk pro days and every version of Sonar since v1.

The program is good, but there has never been a bug free version yet. 5.2 is probably the worst i.r.o. bugs and then support has gradually deteriorated over the years. It ground to halt up to the stage where Cakewalk does not even bother to reply to my emails anymore. Previously I was very happy to get response within 24 hours and no issue was left unresolved. Lately, since version 5 that came to a halt. My email must be filtered by their spam mail filter, as they do not even bother to say f^%$k you or nothing. Bugs in 5.2 unfortunately are mission critical for me.

I am seriously thinking about moving away. The cost of the alternative, Nuendo and the fairly cheap Sonar upgrade path is my main concern and I would probably not move as quick as I would have liked to do.

That sounds just like the complaints that 1000's of Cubase users have. Cubasenet could scare away any potential customer with all the threads of complaints. But somehow people manage to make a lot of good music with both programs.

Shall I go from Logic 5.5.1 to SONAR 6 Producer?