Tweak's Review of Sonar

[Tweak]

Review of Sonar


http://www.studio-central.com/review_of_Sonar_3.htm

http://www.tweakheadz.com/reviews/review_of_sonar.htm

Excerpt:
I started my venture into Cakewalk with version 7. It crashed so hard at times when recording audio I think I only got one song out of it till I ran running back to Logic. Then I tried Pro Audio 9. Better, at last, but still looked like a room of Venetian blinds and it's Mixer was awful. Sonar 1 came out and I rushed to it. I was amazed by its new acid like facilities with audio loops, and its MIDI implementation. Sonar 2 hit and I hit back. OK, it's smoother, but I still truly despised the mixer and the MIDI instrument definition scheme drove me crazy. Sonar 3 is now reality and its a significant upgrade, as we expect with a "whole number" paid upgrade. I think it is worth every cent. The new improvements all work together with Sonar's already powerful features to create a unified professional functioning sequencer machine.

http://www.zzounds.com/a--3745/item--CAKSONARSTU

[jlgrimes11]

How do you like to start off. With no tracks or a certain number. Do you use patch changes or sys-ex?

[Tweak]

I start with a handful of midi tracks and an audio track and define the rest as I go.

I never use sysex unless I think I will want to replicate the song exactly in a year or so.

[Lance Blackford]

does sonar support rewire? I am thinking about purchasing the new version as my main sequencer, but am in love with reason 2.5. I start many of my tracks in Reason and then dump them to my sequencing software to use my hardware synths. I have read much literature on Sonar 3 and it sounds great, but I cannot find any info on rewire support.

[nmodi]

Not sure about Rewire, but Sonar 4 is just days away from release. If you're going to buy, you may as well get version 4. Check out http://www.cakewalk.com for answers to your rewire question.

edit: from the Cakewalk website on Sonar 4:

Support for DirectX and VST audio effects; MFX MIDI FX; DXi and VSTi soft synths; and ReWire 1.0 & 2.0 clients (Project5, Kinetic, Reason, more)

[Lance Blackford]

I still have not found info on rewire, but decided to go ahead and get it anyway. I bought Sonar producer 3 with a free upgrade to 4 for a great price. I have looked everywhere for info an rewire and cakewalk, but cannot find any. I am sure the manual will tell me what I need to know. If it does not have it, then I will just have to work around it.

[Lance Blackford]

I just found my answer after much reading. . . Sonar 3 does in fact have rewire. I found the info in tweaks review linked on the top of this page.

[lukasz]

yeah sonar 3 fixed a lot of bugs since 2, it runs a lot smoother now and doesnt get as many audio drop outs, at least for me.

[Steven mc.]

My main sequencer Is Sonar 3 as well. I love it, but A few things bug me about it though
Why on earth would cakewalk put a WRAPPER over vsts and turn them into DxI so sonar can use them? (a wrapper cloaks the Vsts real time, and turns them into DXI which takes CPU power) why wouldnt they simple make sonar directly compatible with vsts? I dont know, But if your planning on making techno and stuff running a lot of vst synths, Buy something else.
I hate the piano roll. I choose to rewire fruityloops because that app. runs Vsts and the piano roll takes a jiff.
other then that I like it, good software. altho Ive never used logic, cubase or nuendo, It sure beats Acid.

[mseerob]

link doesnt work to sonar review

[Tweak]

Fixed. Thanks!