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06-27-2014, 06:58 PM
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#1
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Ontario, Canada
Posts: 1,459
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Sonar users...what is your workflow with Reaper?
I know work-flow is very subjective but there are some here using both Reaper AND Sonar.
I downloaded the Sonar X3 demo and spent a few hours trying to see how Sonar might fit into my work-flow with Reaper...improved audio/editing in Sonar came to mind...but I'm stumped.
Drag and drop for audio/midi doesn't work and exporting/importing seems more trouble than it is worth.
What is your work-flow using Sonar and Reaper?
__________________
The future ain't what it used to be. Yogi Berra
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06-27-2014, 09:34 PM
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#2
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 2,019
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gerry P
I know work-flow is very subjective but there are some here using both Reaper AND Sonar.
I downloaded the Sonar X3 demo and spent a few hours trying to see how Sonar might fit into my work-flow with Reaper...improved audio/editing in Sonar came to mind...but I'm stumped.
Drag and drop for audio/midi doesn't work and exporting/importing seems more trouble than it is worth.
What is your work-flow using Sonar and Reaper?
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I can't stand Sonar's workflow.
I used Sonar for years before REAPER. Every few years I break down and buy a new version of Sonar. I haven't tried X3, but I own X2 Producer Edition. It is insane to me that you still have to define track-types, and deal with the "synth rack" BS, and tool/menu/view idiosyncrasies... 10 years ago, that stuff was par for the course in DAW-land, and Sonar was one of the better ones.
REAPER has its own frustrations and learning-curve, but its flexibility makes Sonar feel like trying to steer a car through a system of switches and levers, instead of a steering-wheel.
Cakewalk has excellent support, and they are unmatched in terms of the quantity and quality of included "extras" (plugins, sample-sets, etc) for the price. Sonar also offers a lot of deep and powerful midi functionality, and some slick integration functions. There are also people who swear by its workflow, but for the life of me, I can't tell what they see in it.
Any complex tool has a learning-curve. But REAPER, once you learn it, makes sense. It's all drag-and-drop, right-click, double-click, move things around... Sonar is... just weird. Buy it for the freebies.
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06-28-2014, 12:31 AM
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#3
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 293
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Hi Gerry,
I used Sonar for several years and left it for Reaper two months ago. My reasons were that Sonar had become bloated with features that I never used, and I was impressed with how easy it was to do simple things like inserting a VST with an arpeggiator in Reaper. This was always problematic in Sonar.
Sonar is a good product, but Reaper can be customized to suit your workflow in ways that Sonar users can only dream of. Custom menus, the Actions, totally different-looking themes... none of that exists in Sonar.
Also, the average version upgrade of Sonar costs more than double the price of a new purchase of Reaper. Another thing I really like about Reaper is that my PC can do so much more than it did with Sonar - more tracks playing, more instruments playing, more effects running. Reaper has yet to crash on me, which is more than I can say about Sonar.
Another major workflow-related issue is that organising your VST's and media things are WAY more flexible in Reaper. Sonar has many constraints that bog you down in this area. As for dragging and dropping stuff into your tracks, Sonar and Reaper are just about identical in this regard.
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06-28-2014, 05:11 AM
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#4
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Ontario, Canada
Posts: 1,459
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Quote:
Originally Posted by yep
...Sonar also offers a lot of deep and powerful midi functionality, and some slick integration functions. There are also people who swear by its workflow, but for the life of me, I can't tell what they see in it.
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Midi was where I thought I could improve things in my workflow...I thought perhaps I could drag and drop some midi takes from Reaper into Sonar for editing. That didn't seem to work.
Exporting midi files from Reaper and importing into Sonar seemed, as you suggested above, like using "switches and levers" to steer. I finally gave up and started this post as I honestly don't see how I could integrate Sonar into my current workflow.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Plazma
Sonar is a good product, but Reaper can be customized to suit your workflow in ways that Sonar users can only dream of. Custom menus, the Actions, totally different-looking themes... none of that exists in Sonar.
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Yes, that was a bit of an eye opener...I kept thinking "Is Reaper that much more ahead in this area".
But I know there are some who have integrated Sonar and Reaper together into their workflow. From what I have seen, Sonar's editing capabilities would have to be a level above Reaper's for this to be feasible.
I was a Sonar user up until X1, which was not stable on my system but X3 didn't crash in the 3 hours I had both it and Reaper opened and playing projects while trying various methods for integration.
__________________
The future ain't what it used to be. Yogi Berra
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07-01-2014, 11:32 PM
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#5
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 2,019
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gerry P
Midi was where I thought I could improve things in my workflow...I thought perhaps I could drag and drop some midi takes from Reaper into Sonar for editing. That didn't seem to work...
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Sonar is not BAD, per se, it's just awkward and weird to work with in a lot of ways, and has a lot of legacy artifacts from the days when DAW meant "MIDI sequencer" and MIDI Sequencer meant software that was made to trigger and sequence files, instructions, samples, and sounds from a "sequence" or instruction-set.
If you come from a MIDI-intensive background, things in Sonar might make more sense. And Sonar has a lot of deep functionality and power on the midi side that is hard or impossible to do in REAPER.
But reaper works a lot more like a tape-machine, and is, I think, much easier and more flexible when using it as a modern DAW.
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07-02-2014, 02:58 AM
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#6
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Lincoln, UK
Posts: 7,924
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Quote:
Originally Posted by yep
Sonar is not BAD, per se, it's just awkward and weird to work with in a lot of ways, and has a lot of legacy artifacts from the days when DAW meant "MIDI sequencer" and MIDI Sequencer meant software that was made to trigger and sequence files, instructions, samples, and sounds from a "sequence" or instruction-set.
If you come from a MIDI-intensive background, things in Sonar might make more sense. And Sonar has a lot of deep functionality and power on the midi side that is hard or impossible to do in REAPER.
But reaper works a lot more like a tape-machine, and is, I think, much easier and more flexible when using it as a modern DAW.
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REAPER is a bit like PT in that it started life as an audio-based DAW and acquired MIDI later (long time ago, but in that order).
Although DAWs are like cars in that they all end up looking similar, the MIDI-sequencer-turned-DAW does tend to follow a certain evolutionary path, and the MIDI featres are usually extensive -and solid.
It wasn't too long ago that PT was berated for its MIDI capabilities. If you're a MIDI power-user I think maybe you ought to consider familiarising yourself with an alternative/additional workstation for the extended MIDI feature-set anyway.
I can't say if Sonar is that tool, I think it's very workflow subjective. Personally REAPER covers my MIDI needs, but I'm a relatively light user.
I never liked Sonar's non-transferrable licence conditions, but that's a different issue and a moot point now...
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