SONAR 7 - HERE IT IS !! Woo Hoo!

[cramseur]

SONAR 7 Producer Edition

[cramseur]

Why no special one month forum for us??

[Reptil]

not enough bugs?

[theblue1]

Originally Posted by Reptil

not enough bugs?

I asked the same question (why no forum?) last week... but I was joking. Let's face it, when you put out clockwork upgrades every year, you don't generally turn the UI upside down, there don't tend to be many bugs -- and those that are are almost always (almost) fixed within the first couple months... it's legitimately not really big news, as a rule. Although it seems like there are always a few new features (particularly in the Pro edition, which I always get) that get the faithful buzzing, AudioSnap and Vintage Channel probably being the big ones last year.

As someone who'd lurked many a Logic thread (the drama! the controversy! the workarounds!) over the last year or two -- I was genuinely excited for our Logic loving/hating brothers. Logic 8 really looks like a big deal for them, bringing that powerful but decidedly quirky app into a more "modern" profile and market position and bringing them features us Sonar, Cubase, and even PT users had had for quite a while in some cases. That was legitimate news -- and the expected flurry of posts was clearly evidence a special forum would benefit the rest of us by keeping jillions of Logic threads out from under foot in those giddy days after its release.


So, in a sense, Sonar is a p.r. victim of its own success and stability. Kind of like a Toyota. Getting quietly better. (At least we hope it is. Haven't had to buy a new car in a while.)


Anyhow, I've got myself on schedule to update this spring, so I'm trying to contain my bursting excitement and enthusiasm.

[cramseur]

I'm waiting to get my new DAW before installing SONAR 7 (should be coming this weekend), so I haven't had the chance o put it through it's paces yet.

I sorta knew the answer but it also seems that here, SONAR is treated like a red-headed stepchild.

[Geert van den Berg]

Originally Posted by cramseur

Why no special one month forum for us??

Logic 8 was kind of a special release, it took such a long time to get released.

Then Nuendo users started asking for a special Nuendo forum, but as you can see it's not as crowded as the Logic forum, it might be because not many have a copy of N4 yet, so maybe it will change, but personally I didn't find it very necessary, on the other hand, it's still fun.

You can still discuss Sonar in this forum...

[Steved]

Great and informative video on the new features of SONAR 7:

Sonic State - News (Video Item) AESNYC07: Sonar 7 New Features Video, Brandon dishes out another great demo

[andsonic]

Yeah I'm with my Sonar brothers and sisters.
Samplitude 10 is out. But for all the reasons above and there is so few of us, and we have our own forum (It's called the Mastering Forum, just kidding it's at samplitude.com), we're not flooding the airwaves of Gearslutz.

Is it AES that brings out all these software updates

[Reptil]

Originally Posted by Steved

Great and informative video on the new features of SONAR 7:

Sonic State - News (Video Item) AESNYC07: Sonar 7 New Features Video, Brandon dishes out another great demo

looking more and more like the midi of logic

[taturana]

that was a cool video.. thumbsup

can´t wait to get my upgrade!

[B-San]

It's a beautiful thing using all my outboard simultaneously!

[JimNdave]

Wonder how it works with the tranzport?

[natpub]

Originally Posted by JimNdave

Wonder how it works with the tranzport?

perfectly

[taturana]

i´ve been working with S7.01 the past week and it´s great... and it´s working flawlessly... and i am recording a movie soundtrack... a huge 62mins 8GB file... and video sync is perfect at all times...

oh yeah...

have yet to try the new goodies... today i´ll try the sidechaining function, i need to use a comp as a ducker... so let´s see how that goes...

[taturana]

Originally Posted by DivineChemical

Hehe... I wonder if Logic can export individual tracks yet or not? I had to transfer a bunch of files over to Sonar from Logic a while back, and the process was so viciously evil... freezing tracks and then finding the folder they were frozen to, and then copying them... I swore off Logic that night.

the funny thing is that exporting individual tracks on sonar is very quick and easy...

[theblue1]

Originally Posted by Geert van den Berg

Logic 8 was kind of a special release, it took such a long time to get released.

Then Nuendo users started asking for a special Nuendo forum, but as you can see it's not as crowded as the Logic forum, it might be because not many have a copy of N4 yet, so maybe it will change, but personally I didn't find it very necessary, on the other hand, it's still fun.

You can still discuss Sonar in this forum...

[bold added]


Golly, thanks, Geert!




Seriously, though, as I pointed out above, I think there were plenty of good reasons to put up a special Logic forum for this release -- the previous ordinal release had had so many bugs and other problems and this release was not just long-awaited by a lot of people inside and outside the then-current Logic user base but it appeared to be a major sea change that might well have fouled up the board for months if this release had been as troubled as the previous. Kudos to Apple for pulling off a relatively trouble free overhaul!


As I pointed out, Sonar does not inspire much drama as a rule.

Look how long after Sonar introduced its 64 bit processing engine and its 64 bit OS release that those issues (so often erroneously conflated) took to make waves outside the Sonar community... the next version of Sonar was just about out before the rest of the DAW using world had awakened to those sea-change signaling events.

Having used CW/Sonar since 1996 when Win 95's includsion of OS level multirack audio and enhanced MIDI made modern Windows DAWs a practical reality (OS-level features that wouldn't be added to the Mac platform for another 6 years!) I've seen CW's flagship mature and grow and -- as I investigated other DAWs, there were features I liked -- but they were usually added to Sonar before long (those clockwork updates!) and the relative lack of bugs and version-to-version stability cut WAY down on the drama angle that made the convulsions around Logic (and the recent Cubase 4 update) such vicarious fun to watch.

It makes sense to devote extra, dedicated space to products which have had such a troubled, tumultuous release history.

[taturana]

Originally Posted by theblue1

[bold added]


It makes sense to devote extra, dedicated space to products which have had such a troubled, tumultuous release history.

sure, why talk about stuff that actually works?

this new upgrade is awesome... not miles above the last ones... but full of new goodies which work flawlessly...

midi editing is a lot better... the magnifying glass on track view is too practical... and outboard adc and other top functions puts it in a very high place regarding ANY other DAW...

it wasn´t a big change... they made what was already very good even better...

can´t wait for 8.0 ...

i tried it on a big job and it worked perfectly...

[Absolute]

Originally Posted by DivineChemical

I know, I was shocked to find out that you had to take so many extra steps in other DAWs by comparison.

The biggest shock is going to Protools after using VST DAWs. Before the newer versions of protools is was like going from windows to DOS. It wouldnt have been such a shock if it want so hyped as the best though

[matt thomas]

Originally Posted by taturana

the funny thing is that exporting individual tracks on sonar is very quick and easy...

well I'm not saying either program is better, but logic is easy as, just select them all and export them to a seperate folder. Done.

The only snag is that the tracks have to be single continuous files. I just add a bit of silence at the beginning of each track and paste all the regions to it, to make one file per track.

Its all over in a few seconds, its hardly difficult.

I'm sure sonar is great too, but I just wanted to clear that up

as you were

narco

[matt thomas]

Originally Posted by DivineChemical

It's that way now, but that's a relatively new feature for Logic. The point being made was the Sonar has been able to do that for years, and even easier than Logic is now... 'Export' 'Tracks' 'Done'

Its been the same since I started using logic 10 years ago

You're right it doesn't have a one click "export tracks" (and it should) but my point is that it is very simple and quick to do anyway

narco

[theblue1]

Originally Posted by narco

well I'm not saying either program is better, but logic is easy as, just select them all and export them to a seperate folder. Done.

The only snag is that the tracks have to be single continuous files. I just add a bit of silence at the beginning of each track and paste all the regions to it, to make one file per track.

Its all over in a few seconds, its hardly difficult.

I'm sure sonar is great too, but I just wanted to clear that up

as you were

narco

So, if you have 60 tracks as so many people have these days, and, say, half of them are comprised of 15 clips each... how long does that take?

It looks like Logic 8 streamlined many things but a lot of the ways of doing things in Logic always seemed like a big, convoluted headache to me.

Each DAW has its strengths, of course, and if you are used to using one over another, sometimes the grass can look pretty brown on the other side of the fence.

_________

Someone above mentioned the superiority of Pro Tools' summing engine... that's something of a new one on me.

I'm more used to PT users arguing endlessly about whether or not their bounces sound like what they hear out of the speakers. I don't stake a position in that fight but I do know that Sonar's summing engine is the result of a massive overhaul two versions ago that brought the first 64 bit summing engine to a major DAW (although Mackie's Tracktion edged them out by a year or so with their own 64 bit engine).

And even users who don't use the 64 bit engine all the time can still benefit from its processing by using it for mixdown bounces -- while using the less CPU-intensive 32 bit engine for realtime work.

__________


It's always amused me that -- perhaps because it's the only major Windows only DAW -- Sonar has often been marginalized by many -- even as its features continued to grow and its workflow became more streamlined, release after relase. Also, of course, its releases have tended to be much less buggy and bugs have been fixed much more quickly than DAWs like Logic -- which traditionally has been one of the DAWs most plagued by problems that never seemed to be fixed. Kudos to Apple for finally starting to get things in order in the Logic house, the new version looks like it's played a good game of catch up to the other DAWs -- but it had a lot of catching up to do.


I'm certainly not saying Sonar is the best at every facet of modern DAW use -- I think all the DAWs have certain strengths -- and when you're used to doing things one way and not another, any other way of doing it can seem like a hassle. But I'm kind of over the sort of ill-informed and singularly ill-founded elitism that's dismissed Sonar so often in the past. It wasn't warranted in the past and now it looks increasingly like an absurd position. My 2 cents.

[matt thomas]

Originally Posted by DivineChemical

I think I know what you're talking about now. That method only allows you to export them in their native format though as far as I know. Like, you can't change it from SDII to .wav, .aif, or .mp3.

yes, if you do it in the arrange window.

if you use "select used" in the audio window you can do whatever format you want.

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to take over this conversation, I'm outa here now..

narco

[theblue1]

Originally Posted by narco

yes, if you do it in the arrange window.

if you use "select used" in the audio window you can do whatever format you want.

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to take over this conversation, I'm outa here now..

narco

[bold added]

Of course, I can't speak for others, but I think you worry too much. We Sonar users are used to getting the proverbial no respect... You've been a very polite guy offering a sidebar. Just my take (and I do have a high tolerance for chaos).