Sonar 5

Recording Techniques, People Skills, Gear, Recording Spaces, Computers, and DIY

Moderators: drumsound, tomb

Ethan Holdtrue
takin' a dinner break
Posts: 198
Joined: Mon Nov 14, 2005 11:23 pm
Location: Moshachusetts
Contact:

Sonar 5

Post by Ethan Holdtrue » Tue Nov 15, 2005 12:27 am

I just got Sonar 5 P/E up and running on my new comp. I was wondering if anyone else out there has it and what they think of it?

caz
gettin' sounds
Posts: 140
Joined: Thu May 08, 2003 12:30 pm
Contact:

Post by caz » Tue Nov 15, 2005 6:44 am

E.,

I am still using Sonar 4...does it seem worth the upgrade? What can you tell us about it?

{csmr}
casimercasimir.com

User avatar
Phiz
buyin' gear
Posts: 503
Joined: Sat Sep 25, 2004 5:21 pm
Location: San Francisco

Post by Phiz » Tue Nov 15, 2005 7:01 am

I've been on version 4 for a while and I'm quite happy with it. I tend to skip every other upgrade to keep my microphone and preamp fund flush.

hammertime
re-cappin' neve
Posts: 722
Joined: Sat Nov 13, 2004 9:17 am

Re: Sonar 5

Post by hammertime » Tue Nov 15, 2005 9:42 am

It looks pretty fucking cool. I have version 2.2, and I must say, I'm about to shell out a couple of hundred bucks for the upgrade. I've been trying to decide bewteen Cubase, Sonar, and Pro Tools (I have all three). The 64 bit thing kind of confused me a bit though. I guess you need a special version of Windows xp (xp 64), and preferably a 64 bit mobo/cpu to take advantage of it.
Ethan Holdtrue wrote:I just got Sonar 5 P/E up and running on my new comp. I was wondering if anyone else out there has it and what they think of it?

Ethan Holdtrue
takin' a dinner break
Posts: 198
Joined: Mon Nov 14, 2005 11:23 pm
Location: Moshachusetts
Contact:

Post by Ethan Holdtrue » Tue Nov 15, 2005 10:12 am

Apearently it runs the best on XP x64 (which I have but, am not running). The problem is that no one is currently supporting their breakout boxes with x64 drivers. I have contacted Echo Audio and Motu, about when they will have some available, and bolth are working on them but do not expect to have any available till either late Dec or next year. So unfortunetly that will throw a bit of a wrench onto the works if your looking to run it at it's full potential.

Sonar 5 ships on a DVD this time rather than a CD-rom, which is another thing you may have to plan for if your looking to upgrade. But if your recording at a sample rate higher than 44.1 and saveing your files as bundels then you probably already have a DVD burner to make backups.

One other thing you will have to plan for if your thinking of upgrading to Sonar 5 is that Cakewalk states they are only suporting XP (bolth 32 or 64) this time. However I can assure you that it will run on winblow$ 2000 if you install service pack 4.
(http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/do ... efault.asp)

As far as using Sonar 5... Well, I've only had it for a day and I'm running a whole new rig which I'm still trying to get use to. I know you guys are interested in getting the scoop on it, so I'll post again later tonight after I get to play around with it more.

hammertime
re-cappin' neve
Posts: 722
Joined: Sat Nov 13, 2004 9:17 am

Post by hammertime » Tue Nov 15, 2005 12:54 pm

I hope they're still dongle/pace free. That's one of the main reasons I'm not upgrading my Steinberg stuff anymore, even though I like they're software.
Ethan Holdtrue wrote:Apearently it runs the best on XP x64 (which I have but, am not running). The problem is that no one is currently supporting their breakout boxes with x64 drivers. I have contacted Echo Audio and Motu, about when they will have some available, and bolth are working on them but do not expect to have any available till either late Dec or next year. So unfortunetly that will throw a bit of a wrench onto the works if your looking to run it at it's full potential.

Sonar 5 ships on a DVD this time rather than a CD-rom, which is another thing you may have to plan for if your looking to upgrade. But if your recording at a sample rate higher than 44.1 and saveing your files as bundels then you probably already have a DVD burner to make backups.

One other thing you will have to plan for if your thinking of upgrading to Sonar 5 is that Cakewalk states they are only suporting XP (bolth 32 or 64) this time. However I can assure you that it will run on winblow$ 2000 if you install service pack 4.
(http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/do ... efault.asp)

As far as using Sonar 5... Well, I've only had it for a day and I'm running a whole new rig which I'm still trying to get use to. I know you guys are interested in getting the scoop on it, so I'll post again later tonight after I get to play around with it more.

joel77
audio school graduate
Posts: 19
Joined: Thu Aug 14, 2003 8:40 pm
Location: United States

Post by joel77 » Tue Nov 15, 2005 1:00 pm

[quote="hammertime"]I hope they're still dongle/pace free. That's one of the main reasons I'm not upgrading my Steinberg stuff anymore, even though I like they're software.
[/quote]

Yes they are free of such protection schemes. I came up from 3.1.1, but haven't had a lot of time to analyze it yet. I can say, it seems to sound better. A different audio engine?

Joel

Ethan Holdtrue
takin' a dinner break
Posts: 198
Joined: Mon Nov 14, 2005 11:23 pm
Location: Moshachusetts
Contact:

Post by Ethan Holdtrue » Tue Nov 15, 2005 8:08 pm

Well the new trick is you HAVE to register it... unless you make an image of your drive and restore to it every 29 days... but that's not fun.

Ok heres some things I found interesting in my somewhat limited messing around with it tonight:

1. Selectable Normalization - You can choose exactly how normalized you want to make your tracks.

2. Automatic peak and clip detection - Sonar constantly plots where your peaks and clips are so you know where to punch in and out.

3. It has all the goodies that sonar 4 has + a few new midi things that I don't ever use, and a vocal corrector. I haven?t gotten a chance to mess around with the vocal corrector much but from what I have done it seems pretty sweet. I can see it having more applications than just vocals too...

User avatar
mingus2112
re-cappin' neve
Posts: 710
Joined: Wed Aug 13, 2003 8:53 am
Location: New Jersey, USA
Contact:

VST

Post by mingus2112 » Wed Nov 16, 2005 12:43 pm

don't forget native support for VST plugins and instruments. That was the seller for me. No more having to run that cakewalk vst adapter program every time you get a new VST plugin. I don't know HOW native it is "under the hood," but the headache it saves makes me feel more comfortable with it.

-James

mjau
speech impediment
Posts: 4023
Joined: Mon Sep 29, 2003 7:33 pm
Location: Orlando
Contact:

Post by mjau » Wed Nov 16, 2005 12:48 pm

joel77 wrote:
hammertime wrote:I hope they're still dongle/pace free. That's one of the main reasons I'm not upgrading my Steinberg stuff anymore, even though I like they're software.
Yes they are free of such protection schemes. I came up from 3.1.1, but haven't had a lot of time to analyze it yet. I can say, it seems to sound better. A different audio engine?

Joel
How does it sound better? I'm still on 3.1.1, but have thought about getting the upgrade.

User avatar
campironwood
ass engineer
Posts: 47
Joined: Thu Aug 14, 2003 4:27 pm
Location: Portland, OR
Contact:

Post by campironwood » Wed Nov 16, 2005 5:15 pm

I think it sounds better as well. I'm not sure why. Older mixes that I have pulled up seem to have more separation and depth than before (i know those are dangerous words when referring to mixing in the box)

My biggest new discovery is the options within the export window. It is much easier to export each track as a a separate file, and to do weird other things when "bouncing to disk". It has new options like "Entire Mix- No FX", " RAW Broadcast Wave Files" , "What You Hear" , and "All - Ignore Mute / Solo".

Pretty cool when backing things up or exporting tracks for use in another DAW.

You can also import various bit rates and it keeps track of everything, no un-necessary conversions or dithering to match your current project settings.
Some of the new midi features are really cool as well...

The stability so far has been pretty good, but I have had a few unexpected crashes. Mainly when dealing with DXi synths or when inserting a new track during playback.
Knowing Cakewalk, they will probably have a patch soon.
I'd recommend the upgrade. Especially for those still using versions before 4.0.
A lot has changed for the better.

-morgan

hammertime
re-cappin' neve
Posts: 722
Joined: Sat Nov 13, 2004 9:17 am

Post by hammertime » Thu Nov 17, 2005 11:58 am

Yeah, I download the 4.0 demo, and it seems like alot of my objections with Sonar 2.2 have been answered. Personally, I think I'd be perfectly happy with 4.0, but 5.0 has alot of new cool stuff. I'm going to order it with in the next week or so, and throw Cubase in the trash. I also think I'm going to get that Tranzport thing, because all those little buttons in Sonar give me mouse carpal problems.
campironwood wrote:I think it sounds better as well. I'm not sure why. Older mixes that I have pulled up seem to have more separation and depth than before (i know those are dangerous words when referring to mixing in the box)

My biggest new discovery is the options within the export window. It is much easier to export each track as a a separate file, and to do weird other things when "bouncing to disk". It has new options like "Entire Mix- No FX", " RAW Broadcast Wave Files" , "What You Hear" , and "All - Ignore Mute / Solo".

Pretty cool when backing things up or exporting tracks for use in another DAW.

You can also import various bit rates and it keeps track of everything, no un-necessary conversions or dithering to match your current project settings.
Some of the new midi features are really cool as well...

The stability so far has been pretty good, but I have had a few unexpected crashes. Mainly when dealing with DXi synths or when inserting a new track during playback.
Knowing Cakewalk, they will probably have a patch soon.
I'd recommend the upgrade. Especially for those still using versions before 4.0.
A lot has changed for the better.

-morgan

soundsubs
studio intern
Posts: 27
Joined: Thu Jul 03, 2003 5:50 pm
Location: GB
Contact:

my thoughts on S5 PE

Post by soundsubs » Fri Nov 18, 2005 10:32 am

I thought i'd chime in here and post some info.

im a looooooooooong time cakewalk user (dos days) and ive owned every sonar since sonar came out. i like it. i dont understand cubase or logic or any other software really. i use it for studio recording--- ie "real" bands, as well as my own stuff, which is primarily midi.

i have been holding off on the s5 release since i had heard some not so great things about it, and moreover i read that there wasnt much added to it. last night i attended the sonar5 class here in colorado and i brought it home. for $169, it was a no-brainer. i see that others have covered some things, but i'll tell you whats new and sold me on it, in no particular order.

-the perfect space Impulse Reverb is REALLY REALLY good. i have used SIR forever, and i think im going to switch. you can load your own wav impulses in there and use them, and you can edit a LOT of parameters within the envelope of the IR, so thats good. you can mess with panning, enveloping, filtering, etc.
-the newly added roland groove synth is basically a roland MC series, with all the sounds. some are good, some are not so good. to have this all digital though is great for me.
-newly added softsynth "psyn" is pretty good.
-newly added pentagon I is better.
-the v-vocal is great. really really great. finally, it lets you stretch audio like melodyne, or autotune like, well, autotune. you can anchor points and drag the audio so that it really becomes malleable. this is a lot handier than you think. i hate it when people say "so you dont have to actually be a singer anymore" because thats not the musical use for it for me. to be able to change a syllable, word, or phrasing realistically is really powerful. yes, i know other editors do this already but for cakewalk to put it in is good. no, it doesnt sound perfect, but if you want to fix words in a line (or other audio for that matter), this is it.
-to tell you the truth i dont know about the 64-bit audio engine. i suppose i could render a before and after, but...
-the audio metering is really good. seems like a dumb thing to be sold on, but they look a lot better and get brighter as the signal increases. yes, you can switch back to the old style segmented ones that look good too.
-the ability to QUICKLY add a dx/vst instrument is good. you can now basically right click and it inserts an audio track with synth and midi track with the assigned instrument.
-dont be fooled by the "built in" vst support--- it looks like the fxpansion gui has just been ported in. i have lots (100?) of vst plugins, looks like they all work.

just some initial thoughts.

---shane

Ethan Holdtrue
takin' a dinner break
Posts: 198
Joined: Mon Nov 14, 2005 11:23 pm
Location: Moshachusetts
Contact:

Post by Ethan Holdtrue » Tue Nov 22, 2005 2:34 pm

I still havent had a chance to record a actual band yet, but I have done vocals over an old s4 project and man was it nice.

hopefully next monday or so I'll give a report on how it works out tracking drums and maybe a guitar, as I start to get some biz back (studio was down since Oct 6th cause I blewup a power supply in my comp).

Ethan Holdtrue
takin' a dinner break
Posts: 198
Joined: Mon Nov 14, 2005 11:23 pm
Location: Moshachusetts
Contact:

Post by Ethan Holdtrue » Tue Dec 06, 2005 10:54 am

Well I recorded my first band with Sonar 5. They are a Joke band called 'Stars Fell On' and in a way kinda remind me of 'Crotch Duster', only more of a tough guy Hardcore band with less changes (I'll post a link after it's been mixed down and mastered).

I was pretty impressed with S5's clarity, I think there is a bit of a audio differance between 4 and 5, and it is for the better. Even old mixes on my old system seem to have a little more 'life' in them once loaded into S5.

There seems to be more headroom as well... but it's hard to tell exactly, seeing how I also switched from a Echo Layla (pci) to a MOTU 896 (firewire) at the same time.

The one thing that I don't like about S5 is how all the sound files are stored in project folders, and where S4 and earlyer were all dumped into the same folder. Well your probably thinking "ummm... how is that bad?" well if your like me and you are trying to save time by cutting tracks and paisting them into a pre-existing song (rather than sitting there and re-patching FX for a group of songs all for the same project) you are going to wait a while while all your waves are coppied over, and you are going to loose a bit of drive space if you don't remember to clean your audio folders through each song. I'm sure there is an easyer way but I havent figured it out yet cause I just havent had the time, and I get lazy from time to time.

I'll post more later...

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 75 guests