I’m switching from Pro Tools to Sonar.
Maybe.
I had a good long conversation with Peter from Roland Canada. Many things were discussed, particularly was there a Pro Tools feature that could be done in Sonar as easily? For the most part the answer was yes.
In addition to that, it seems to have everything I can’t get from PT.
- Delay compensation, both hardware and software
- Works on PC and ONLY on PCs
- VST plugins without a wrapper
- Multiple audio interfaces
- More audio tracks, how about unlimited?
- Macros
- Customizable hotkeys
- Nicer MIDI tools
- Step sequencer
- Pitch to MIDI conversion
- Faster than realtime exporting
- Pitch correction plugin included
- useful for hunting whales and sunken ships
- other stuff
Peter is sending me Sonar 7 Producer Edition to try out for 3 months.
If Digidesign wants to buy me back, thats another story.
Shocking news I know.
Will the internet survive?
Thats alright Jon. Sonar can have you. Only Pros use Pro Tools… Sonar? what are you hunting for whales?
Cakewalk 3.1 for scoring
Acid 7 for production
Sound forge 9 for mixdown and editing
CD Architect for mastering and burning
I do wish Sony would create an all in one studio solution. I love the interface and have been using it for 10 years. The old cakewalk is great for working with midi when you know how to read music and find the piano roll a little childish. But thats my rig. I won’t knock anyones else’s, Matt.
Use what you have… But make sure you USE what You have
looking over your checklist – Cubase could be a good option for you as well. I found Sonar to be clunky as heck when I tried it out. Cubase doesn’t have a few bells and whistles on your list but maybe some pleasant surprises for you.
i will be honest though it does have a few stability problems. but for midi and vst work it’s light years ahead of pro tools. for good reason, they invented vst!
I really hate the workflow of Cubase, nearly as bad as Logic, and I haven’t found it to be very stable at all.
I’ve been looking at some of the videos on the Cakewalk site and it looks like a bunch of features that I thought were Pro Tools only have been in Sonar for a while. Things like elastic audio its been there for years, beat detectve type stuff looks pretty easy.
Being able to use external DSP devices like Liquid Mix without having to worry about nudging tracks will be great.
Maybe some of you would be surprised if I said I actually hated PT for nearly a year (up to the point where I actually felt like I knew what I was doing).
Matt you bring up a good point.
Sonar can be used for hunting whales and finding sunken ships.
I’m going to add that to the list.
Sonar seems to be the trendy choice lately. It must be pretty darned grand.
Personally, I’m kind of pissed that Mackie never really advertised the setup that I use, because it freakin rocks. I use a Mackie Onyx Mixer and a Mackie HDR 24/96 in my studio (and live). Then when I get back to my computer, I just pull the drive out of my HDR, plug it into my computer, fire up Tracktion, and BAM, there’s my project.
That setup is ridiculously convenient for integrating a more traditional studio rig with a more modern computer rig.
Anyway, that was a long-winded explanation for why I use Tracktion, but I have been very happy with it (I also use FruityLoops for some stuff … I used to use Pro Tools as well, but that was 4 years ago).
Jon, use whatever works, but keep reading my blog
My advice is not to get too caught up in the whole “X can do this, can Y?” because most of those features don’t really matter, or are at least not as important as how well and fast you work in your DAW. Of course there are deal breakers and show stoppers: like elastic audio and no ADC in Pro Tools, amazing CPU usage and fatal bugs in Logic. I’m sure there are some in Sonar as well, I haven’t used it in many years.
Good luck!
Guys, Just wanted to point out the smiley with the toungue out in my first comment. I only use pro tools becasue everyone else i work with seems to use it. Makes things compatible. I used to run cubase but I found it caused more problems than anything. Had a good tendensy to crash and burn(no it wasn’t pirated either) Not to mention they had awful customer service. They never got back to me on anything… bastardos. As for Sonar i tried it out for a little while. I was familliar with cakewalk but found that sonar decidedto take most everything i knew and things i wantted and hide them on me. I know the pro tools. I know what it can do and (msot of the time) where to go when i need something. As Jon pointed out to me the other day…”Where the hell is latecy compensation in LE you capitalist pigs!?” ah yeah. That is all.
by the way in more shocking headlines…. “Matt switches from Coke to Pepsi… Details in the comming hour”