Sonar X2 Impressions

[Pliplo]

Originally Posted by fooman

I might be misunderstanding you, but do you have the option set to group all tracks recorded? So all your drum clips are all grouped, so selecting the kick in lane 1 selects the rest of the drums in their respective tracks in lane 1.

I am actually not a fan of the new take lanes. I prefer layers as crossfading is easier and when you minimize the new track lanes (so all you see is the actual main track part) it looks like a confusing collage of clips.

Is there an option that does that? So when im at the 6th take all the drum tracks are automatically grouped?

[fooman]

Originally Posted by Pliplo

Is there an option that does that? So when im at the 6th take all the drum tracks are automatically grouped?

Most definitely. Under preferences, go to the 'record' section, its the last checkbox. In x1 at least. If u have things that are already recorded you can select all relevant tracks, right click one and 'group selected tracks' or something along those lines.

[Pliplo]

Originally Posted by fooman

Most definitely. Under preferences, go to the 'record' section, its the last checkbox. In x1 at least. If u have things that are already recorded you can select all relevant tracks, right click one and 'group selected tracks' or something along those lines.

Found it! And i found hardware insert plugin too! Those 2 were the things i liked more working in pro tools... I just didnt know how to do them right!

Im downloading X2, gonna test it tomorrow! Hope it sounds good...

[hello people]

Originally Posted by Paul in SoCal

Most definitely. Vista wasn't that bad, just too demanding for the hardware of the time, especially when people upgraded their old XP computers. I remember people bitching and moaning because Vista would behave oddly on their machine with 512 mb of RAM...

Then of course came Apple spending gazillions to make people believe the troubles with Vista were 100 times worse than they were. The rest is history.

Windows ME, on the other hand, was an unmitigated disaster from the start that was never quite fixed.

Ah an interesting insight...thanks

[ChuckC]

I never touched X1 and stayed with Producer 8.5.3, I jumped to Producer X2 a few days after it's release, Got a few crashes but after the 803 patch it has been stable as hell. Nice system, I am getting used to the changes and liking it a lot. I am not a fan of the console emu's personally as it just sounds to me like it's pushing the high end. If I want that... I'll do it with the EQ on purpose and to the extent required for the sound I am going for.

The Pro Channel, comps and EQ are nice but take some time to get used to as opposed to the sonitus stuff.
Mixes are coming out clean. I am pretty happy with it.

[kennychaffin]

Curious, what interface do you have?

Edit: Never mind I see it is Propellerhead's Balance interface ....

You'd think they would have tested it with Sonar or gotten it certified of something if they are serious about being in the interface business. Hmmm...

Originally Posted by KevWest

I had to jump off Sonar after X1d. I can't understand how I can have a driver conflict with my audio interface Cakewalk knows about it and cannot do anything to fix the conflict apparently.
.....

Something as simple as rewire not working or me getting pops and clicks anytime I open a plug in due to my audio interface I use is not acceptable to me. I've been told to buy a new interface but I bought this thing for $500 less than a year ago......

[PeterAdams]

I am a very angry former Sonar 8.5 user. I was so mad that I could not get Sonar 8.5 to work that I will never ever buy anything from Sonar even if the company came out with a cure for old age.

Specifically, the program took hours to set up and was never stable. Here is how I compose (or at least used to compose). I use Finale to input music (think pen and paper) because I am a lousy pianist. I have NO MIDI device for importing information. Then, I import a MIDI file into Sonar to create WAV files. I then select my soft synths, and hope that the computer gremlins are not pissed off with me today. If they are, my I7 Dell either crashed or just goes nuts. The synths I use are compatible with Sonar 8.5. So, I contacted Sonar and followed their instructions, and hours later still had nothing to show for it. Either I'm incredibly stupid and cannot following the company's directions or I'm stupid to believe that Sonar gives a damn about its customers. F-. I'm saving my money to buy Pro Tools. I don't want to do it, because I'm not composing massive scores for Hollywood. Maybe Finale will come out with a soft synth package that is better that Garritan.

The latest reviews of Sonar X2 do not impress me enough to buy it. Perhaps, someone will post a review that answers my concerns.

Peter

[rksguit]

Originally Posted by PeterAdams

I am a very angry former Sonar 8.5 user. I was so mad that I could not get Sonar 8.5 to work that I will never ever buy anything from Sonar even if the company came out with a cure for old age.
Peter

I have X2 on an April 2011 dell xps laptop i7 2630qm that I bought as a newb[to computers and daws]and its running so good[with an N.I KA6 Interface,I don't even use my overclocked i7 2600k desktop anymore[but I'm glad I have a spare],I built when I was having,what turned out to be"user error" issues with X1.

If cakewalks coming "cure for old age" won't satisfy,a look,I doubt anything,except Logic X on 13 new "2013" Mac Pro's would suffice,and even then,I'm not sure,as ATM,they're as "real",as a cure for old age.

[fooman]

I still haven't used X2 for anything because mixing in it is impossible with the metering issue.

I'm a pretty long-time Sonar fan as well. This last release left a very sour taste in my mouth. I understand there's bugs, but normally they release a patch real fast for known bugs (not a quickfix for edge cases from what I understand) .

Next time I'll just use what works until there's more positive feedback.

[rksguit]

Originally Posted by fooman

I still haven't used X2 for anything because mixing in it is impossible with the metering issue.

I'm not aware of any "metering issue",but hey I went 20 years,without recording,cause I couldn't get down off my "high horse",of being in an Aussie "Rock God" touring experience,and when I suddenly wasn't being recorded at 301,or CBS,I didn't have the bread to fork out for my own stuff,and just said **** it all.

Sonar [X1abcd Expanded,X2] has given me a new lease on living,so i don't quite get all the whining,when for $99 I'm in heaven.....different strokes,and I'm soo glad I didn't take the advice of 1MBP,and no software/plugins,over everything I have now,though I do now,despise my Rokit 5's.
RK

[fooman]

That's cool if it works for you. X1d works fantastically for me aside from Steven Slate plugs crashing sessions that I open now and then. But I can live with that. I can't live with no meters on random projects. It's not just me.

Forums such as Cakewalk are all bad news. Why? Cause nobody posts unless they have an issue. Until X2 I hadn't even visited the forum for a few months.

[rksguit]

Gotcha,"No Meters" would drive me nuts,but it hasn't happened...yet.

I have lost the cursor,a couple times,but thats about it,and scrolling to click open the Pro Channel,is tiresome at times,but I still don;t use many shortcuts so...
RK

[fooman]

Ya I also lose my cursor VERY rarely. I use shortcuts to save and close the app. Relaunching it is all good.

I hope that most users understand that there are bugs. Just a shame for my situation that it's a show-stopper. Sometimes when perusing the Cakewalk forum, it seems that a lot of users want action yesterday, rather than waiting for the developers to put in a fix that doesn't break other functions of the software.

I also realize it's only $100 upgrade. If it was $2k I'd be a bit more angered haha.

I'll happily use X1 until things are fixed up.

[rksguit]

X2a just out,most GUI stuff fixed,plus new convolution IR's for Perfect Space,it's a 531mb download,so someone's been working hard,anyhow all is running smooth here.Cakewalk Support Knowledge Base - SONAR X2a Update

[Clonkified]

Sonar X2 looks cool - does Cakewalk have any plans to make a Mac version?

[fooman]

Originally Posted by Clonkified

Sonar X2 looks cool - does Cakewalk have any plans to make a Mac version?

I haven't looked in awhile, but they had a job posting for a mac developer fairly recently. Could have to do with Sonar. Didn't get into details.

[clatters]

A bit of a newb to this but not impressed with X2. Went for this software as I'm using an Edirol(roland) UA101 to record my band. Seems to do random strange things like:- I record a live track with the band and save it. Then record the next track and save as 'different name'. After gig I try and open 'different name' track and original track plays. Also constantly looses fx window.
Very frustrating software.
Tried trial version of Mixcraft and seems to work much better. Feel I've wasted my money buying Roland software for Roland hardware. :-(

[Sqye]

.

Just posted in another thread here.

I'm lovin' X2a, so far! It rocks.

Fast, great GUI, stable as a rock, and lots of great features.

FWIW, I waited until now to switch from 8.5.3 on Win 7 x64.

With my two-year old i7 built by Jim Roseberry at Studio Kat, X2 rocks!

.

[DozerMayne]

So, how is stability now?

I ditched Sonar back in 2006, because of all the bugs, always a new version every week(felt like) and moved to Cubase, and had no issues.
I must admit, what I am seeing, looks and seems marvelous, but I just don't trust it. Not even enough to try a trial.

[fooman]

I bought X2 and had metering issues within 30 mins, so I ditched it and went back to X1.

X1 crashes a lot on opening Slate plugins, so I decided to update to X2a and see what's up. Turns out, all my little bugs were fixed in that update and no more crashes thus far.

However, track lanes are terribly implemented. Really bad. If you fold a track up, you see the first clip recorded. Even if it's muted. So lets say you fold up a track to get some screen real-estate or whatever, and you want to do some automation or a little slip-editing... well you can't sometimes on the parent track (largest possible view of the waveform) because a muted clip is being shown. This is one of many issues with tracks lanes as-is.

[SAnthony]

Looking to install X2 over the weekend. So far X1d has worked well and I have spent a limited amount of time on PT10. I have had my share of headaches with both software packages, but have been fortunate enough to work out most of the problems. Lately I will say I am favoring X1d over PT 10 mostly due to support (or lack of) issues. In the past 3 years I have changed interfaces 4 times. Each of these times was an upgrade and I have to say Sonar X1 made the transition quite well each time. However my last transition was from a Mackie 1220i Firewire mixer to 3 Focusrite Saffire Pro Units giving me 24 channels of I/O and allowing me to completely interface my Harrison MR2 into the computer. Sonar X1 made the transition with no issues....However I still haven't got PT10 on board yet. And with Avid spoonfeeding it's customers with 3 months of tech support and plans to pay per incident or for 1 year of support, I'm less than satisfied with their so called customer relationships. In conclusion I will say I find that most people who do experience problems with any DAW are in a situation where they are upgrading or adapting an existing computer to a new software and more often than not the folks that are building a system turn key for a new DAW software are less likely to experience problems or at least that seems to be a trend with most of the DAW users I network with....