Sonar X2

[Art Munson]

Have to put a plug in for the newest version of Sonar. While I really disliked X1 (the previous  8.5 was far better IMHO). X2 is everything I wanted from X1 and more. Happy camper now!

[Alan]

I just upgraded too Art. I also finally upgraded fro XP go Win7 soI could add desperately needed RAM. I haven’t dug in too far yet but my 1st impression is very good. Lanes are greatly improved. I’ve noticed a couple of hiccups with the graphis and there is already a quick fix patch out. I’ll install that today.
Time will tell.

[Alan]

Please forgive the typos, phone post
🙂

[Art Munson]

I’m glad to hear you’re enjoying X2.  I’ll be upgrading soon myself.

Just out of curiosity, what are the changes that have made you a happy camper?

[Art Munson]

I’ve only spent a few days on it but here’s what I like so far.

1.) Selecting, highlighting and lassoing clips is more logical.
2.) To move a clip you only have to grab the top of the clip. You don’t have to highlight it as before.
3.) Automation lanes are a big improvement though I haven’t quite figured out all the behavior changes for the cursor. There’s much more so check out the video above. It’s 26 minutes long but worth it.

[Alan]

I’m working on a track now and am finding the Snap to/by toggle switch very handy. That is something I use a lot. The snap increments  change automatically while zooming when in smart grid mode. I’m not sure if I like that yet, but you can turn it on or off. It may be handy though…

[Rutherford]

Newbie Alert!!!

Good to hear that X2 seems to be an improvement over X1. I’ve used Sonar since ver 4 until I upgraded to X1 and then I bailed. And as Art mentioned, 8.5 was by far the superior version. Anyways, look forward to bending some ears

a fly in the ointment.

Rutherford

[Michael Nickolas]

I”m a long time SONAR user also, worked at Cakewalk years ago. I can’t upgrade from X1 to X2 for a while. I just started a big project and I’ve learned not to make changes to my setup during an important job!

[Alan]

I’m starting to have troubles with X2. The biggest one for me is 64-bit compatibility issues.

Background: I was running XP at 32-bit with Sonar 8.5 and Reason 5. When I went to Sonar X1 and Reason 6 I found I could not open some of my old projects because of “insufficient memory.” I guess the upgrades were RAM hungry.

Last month  I upgraded my system to Win7 Pro 64-bit and doubled my RAM to 8GB (the max for my motherboard) and upgraded to Sonar X2 64-bit

X2 Bugs so far.

Non 64-bit plug ins do not play well in 64-bit. Which means ALL my old tracks will have problems in X2

From Cakewalk:

“Unfortunately it has come to my attention that this is due to Bit Bridge.  Since Bit Bridge is an external application it is treated like an external application.  That is why these errors are occurring.  If you use programs that are meant to be used within a 64bit format then this problem will not occur.  You could install the 32bit version of SONAR alongside your 64bit version.  This will keep this from happening.”

I guess I’ll need to have two versions of X2 on my machine, or scrap the 64 bit version. I’ll research that one.

Today I discovered that when I expand the take lanes, all the tracks below (higher track nunber) disappear. For example. I had a track #10 with seven lanes of takes. When I expanded the lanes, Tracks 11 and 12 were nowhere to be found! When I closed the take lanes for track 10, tracks 11 and 12 re-appeared.

I also noticed that the track inspector window randomly opens to a blank screen.

I emailed Cakewalk screenshots of these bugs. They are usually good about responding promptly.

I had a very creative session going that was completely stifled. Grrr.

My opinion is that X2 wasn’t quite ready for release.

 

[Art Munson]

One of the things I did when I went Win 7 64 bit was to keep a separate Win XP install on another drive. I have removable drive bays so I just swap to Win XP if I have to go back to older projects.

I’m having a few quirky bugs also but I’m sure they will get sorted out.

[Alan]

That is a great system Art. Do you keep a separate drive with all your sample/audio that is shared by your swappable OS drives? Is so, that seems like a really good system.

I wish I knew then what I know now when I built my system. I hope to get 2 more years out of my current system, then I will do what you did (or at least try)

Thanks Art

[Art Munson]

Hi Alan,

I have 3 swappable drives and 2 internal. Here’s my setup.

1.) System Drive – Swappable – One drive Win 7, another drive Win XP
2.) Audio Files – Internal
3.) Backup of Audio Files – Swappable
4.) Sample Libraries – Internal
5.) Extra – Swappable – I use this drive for various chores such as making backups of backups, backing up sample libraries and archiving. I rotate these drives with those I have in a safe deposit box for offsite protection.

[Author]

Posts