Any Sonar converts here??

MidiSwede · Post by **MidiSwede** » Sat Jun 05, 2004 4:24 am

hello all,

I haven't bought Live yet so I guess I'm a prenoob.

Just wondering if anyone here can tell me why they dropped sonar for Live.
I'm thinking seriously about making the move. I've been using Sonar since it was called cakewalk 3.0 !! I guess the real question is; Has the streamlined approach of Live made a significant difference in your success producing tunes?

Thanks, all responses appreciated.

Rob

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Jun 05, 2004 4:48 am

Hi MidiSwede

I have used Sonar since version 1 and I have been using Live since version 2. Id say I know them both in depth.

The diffrence in working practices to me is like the diffrence between showning someone a picture (live) and playing a game of 20 questions (Sonar).

As for the Live 4 update; the only way I can see me not buying the update is if its all a hoax. The only way Sonar will be loaded up in the future will be for mastering.

Moonburnt · Post by **Moonburnt** » Sat Jun 05, 2004 5:09 am

I don't know what Sonar is like these days, but one reason why you might find it useful AS WELL AS Live is that it has always been focused on MIDI, whereas I'm *guessing* Ableton are aiming for a very streamlined, intuitive handling of midi with this new release, without so many of the advanced MIDI functions (eg. event filter, sysex banks) of a traditional sequencer like Sonar/Cakewalk. Sonar has some really good features but i got sick of how clunky i found the interface, which is something that no-one could ever say about Live.

Gary · Post by **Gary** » Sat Jun 05, 2004 7:00 am

As always I find Sonar useful. I can make things happen with it. I can make things happen with LIVE. Even more so with LIVE 4. (I hope)
I don't see myself dumping Sonar by a long shot - ever!. I like to have more than one tool to get the job done. Sometimes I can't find what I'm looking for in LIVE and I'll switch to Sonar for awhile to get the creative juices flowin. If you understand Sonar 3, keep it, but stay with LIVE 4 also. I believe it will make us better!

MidiSwede · Post by **MidiSwede** » Sat Jun 05, 2004 5:46 pm

Hey, thanks for the answer guys!

I kinda figured I'd end up using Sonar and Live together. Sonar is already pretty much just a mastering tool for me. I do almost 100% of my work in Reason these days with EnergyXT as my preferred VST host. I will probably wait for the Live4 demo to decide.

Cheers!

Rob

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Jun 06, 2004 2:15 pm

i was impressed whit sonar 3, like it,start up really fast, but my method is, to get simple as is possible to get, if live 4 is Stable, for me no reason anymore to use sonar, i don´t wanna use many aplications that do the same, ... repeating , if is Stable, fast start, load the vst fast and whit no crashes, ..sure it will be just Live for many people.

cmusicmaker · Post by **cmusicmaker** » Mon Jun 07, 2004 11:52 am

MidiSwede wrote:hello all,

I haven't bought Live yet so I guess I'm a prenoob.

Just wondering if anyone here can tell me why they dropped sonar for Live.
I'm thinking seriously about making the move. I've been using Sonar since it was called cakewalk 3.0 !! I guess the real question is; Has the streamlined approach of Live made a significant difference in your success producing tunes?

Thanks, all responses appreciated.

Rob

I have not dropped Sonar for Live, as I see Live 3 maybe even Live 4 as a addition to my software studio of which Sonar / Tracktion are at the centre.

I have to say I have never got so much work done so fast in any other environment as I have in Live 3 but that is with audio. Live 4...well I have to try the beta first but Abnleton have really targeted the big boys now!

gaspode · Post by **gaspode** » Mon Jun 07, 2004 12:38 pm

Personally I think you'll end up using both much like others here... been using live since v1 and sonar since v2... and all I can say is that they both take totally different approaches to music creation. For me... Sonar is great when I know exactly where I want my music to go and to be able to record, rearrange and tweak it along the way. Live is much more off the cuff for me and I'm able to quickly group thoughts together to push a 'feeling' into a song.

Having said all that, I will be very happy (though bummed about dropping the money) to lose fruity loops and project 5 from the mix. They worked and are great apps by themselves, but I don't use them as a starting point very often for creating music. At this point they'll just be taking up space.

Heck If I can manage it... I might have a good excuse to get a mac and go live/reason... and keep sonar as my studio 'brain' on the rest of my systems... hrmmmm

cmusicmaker · Post by **cmusicmaker** » Wed Jun 09, 2004 7:03 pm

gaspode wrote:Personally I think you'll end up using both much like others here... been using live since v1 and sonar since v2... and all I can say is that they both take totally different approaches to music creation.

Very different... although the features are similar(audio and midi) but Live 4 is far quicker at allowing a user to simply create music without stopping the music.

The work flow is so much quicker.

gaspode · Post by **gaspode** » Wed Jun 09, 2004 7:45 pm

Well the 'quicker' workflow is as of yet to be seen, and will likely vary from person to person.

On the other hand... the more rumour and speculations I read about here I'll likely continue using Live as my primary work program and possibly be able to live without a lot of the other cruft...

Gilboe · Post by **Gilboe** » Wed Jun 09, 2004 7:50 pm

I don't know if I can ever get as fast on Live as I do in Sonar. (Right now I arrange in Sonar with Reason Rewired... then I export all the audio tracks as omf and mix in Logic 5.51)

However, what does have me excited is the ability to maybe get more done on my laptop while I'm out. My laptop does fine with Reason, but not so well with Sonar as well.

Michael Gilboe

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 2:06 pm

Sonar was the only music app in my kit up to about 4 years ago. At that time I started traveling the US a lot so I bought a laptop and Reason. I never really have liked the way Rewire "work" in Sonar. I haven't used the two together too much other than Sonar as a mastering platform. Even then I generally use a hardware DAW.

To me Live does present an "easier" interface for audio/rewire recording. Rewire implementation in Live seems light years ahead of that in Sonar. If the MIDI out functionality in Live4 can compete with the sequencer in Sonar then mastering would be the only use for Sonar. If the VSTi hosting is smooth then Live4 with energyXT will be a great combo too.

Sonar is capable of doing everything Live can do. Ultimately only the interface is different. I guess the question comes down to whether or not having Sonar just for mastering is a waste of money and Sonar's features.

Thanks again to all,

Rob

MidiSwede · Post by **MidiSwede** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 2:10 pm

Anonymous wrote:Sonar was the only music app in my kit up to about 4 years ago. At that time I started traveling the US a lot so I bought a laptop and Reason. I never really have liked the way Rewire "work" in Sonar. I haven't used the two together too much other than Sonar as a mastering platform. Even then I generally use a hardware DAW.

To me Live does present an "easier" interface for audio/rewire recording. Rewire implementation in Live seems light years ahead of that in Sonar. If the MIDI out functionality in Live4 can compete with the sequencer in Sonar then mastering would be the only use for Sonar. If the VSTi hosting is smooth then Live4 with energyXT will be a great combo too.

Sonar is capable of doing everything Live can do. Ultimately only the interface is different. I guess the question comes down to whether or not having Sonar just for mastering is a waste of money and Sonar's features.

Thanks again to all,

Rob

hehe

Somehow I got logged off when I posted this. Just letting you know it was me and not a mysterious guest.

Rob

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 5:15 pm

Gary wrote:As always I find Sonar useful. I can make things happen with it. I can make things happen with LIVE. Even more so with LIVE 4. (I hope)
I don't see myself dumping Sonar by a long shot - ever!. I like to have more than one tool to get the job done. Sometimes I can't find what I'm looking for in LIVE and I'll switch to Sonar for awhile to get the creative juices flowin. If you understand Sonar 3, keep it, but stay with LIVE 4 also. I believe it will make us better!

I agree with Gary - I like having more than one tool for the job. THe issue with me is interface and speed. I don't like things overly complicated and I want to get to work fast. Of course sound is the premier priority. But if I have an idea I'm working in live and i come across a limitation, I'll try it out on the MPC, and vice versa. 99% of the time if I make a track in Reason, I replicate it using and MPC 1000, S6000, and if need be some synths, but I'll use Reason to help get me out of a rut because its so flexible. It's good to have variety, I think.

Any Sonar converts here??

Any Sonar converts here??

Re: Any Sonar converts here??

Whelp...

Re: Whelp...

:P