Sonar Blues update..enter the Reaper

[hotjams]

Ok, I spent a day looking at everything I could find on Mix boards and all the videos. This really helped me with Sonar. However, whilst having a ATT communication program installed on my new computer, at their office, they were doing it, it fried my boot sector!!! They were speechless. I was ok, because I had backed it up and had what I thought was an image of it. Not...ok..I finally got my computer back but all my data and software was gone. Not a big problem except, dummy me had thought I had emailed myself the codes to reload /register Sonar. Not.I spent a few hours on-line looking at the various DAWS and I decided to give Reaper a closer look. What I found was pretty cool.First it's small and compact, about 3 megs or so. What's really cool is that you can run this program right off of a USB drive! I'm sure they designed it that way. Very very cool.Next without thinking I was running Reaper off of one UsB drive and streaming some audio files off of another USB drive. You want to eliminate glitches? It doesn't get any better than this. You want to talk about 5k, 7k, 10k drives, they are no where close to the access times of flash media. What I found is the tracks I was rendering with Sonar where no longer "clicking" and stumbling because the hard drive was not being used.Very Very cool and I think I will write Justin the owner developer about some very cool ideas along these lines.Next I found a 425 page user's manual, pdf, with lots and lots of color pictures and examples. What's really cool about PDF is you can just keep it open on your computer whilst your working. Have a problem, use the text search. Bingo bango bongo! All my answers. This compares to my 125 page Sonar manual, all black and white and very few examples and nothing beyond the very basic. I will have to pay the additional $400 or so to get the deluxe version and manuals. Or shell out 40-50 to get some third party DVD's.Ok, it sounds like I'm bashing Sonar, I'm not. I still intend to use and learn it. However, I like what I have seen from Reaper so far, they are very "tech hip", if you know what I mean. I briefly read read somewhere that they have a "graphical" interface that shows you where all your inputs and outputs are going etc. I mentioned the other day that I would like something like this. I hope I read this correctly and they do have this feature.I suspect that Sonar has allot more overall features for Midi and notation, but for a final mix-out, this Reaper might be hard to beat. I can see myself using a few products to get to the point of final mix then moving everything to Reaper to finish.

[Mark Kaufman]

Everything I've ever seen or read about Reaper has me slapping my head.I haven't downloaded it because I'm only just now getting really comfortable with Cubase SX3...well, with DAWs in general. But from what I'm learning, Reaper apparently has no downside. It does what the expensive ones do and by several reports sounds even better.I'm convinced I will end up switching to Reaper, only later...when I'm feeling brave enough for another learning curve. But I figure once you've learned one, the others are a lot easier to grasp.

[hotjams]

is because my computer crashed and I wont be able to get Sonar up and running till Monday and I cleared this weekend to work entirely on my recording systems.Im not saying Reaper is better than Sonar. Im just saying Im impressed with Reaper so far. However I can tell that it has no where near the MIDI campabilites of Sonar or Cubase. However, as for final mix down, it maybe the best on the market.

[allends]

Jul 25, 2008, 11:31pm, hotjams wrote:I suspect that Sonar has allot more overall features for Midi and notation, but for a final mix-out, this Reaper might be hard to beat. I can see myself using a few products to get to the point of final mix then moving everything to Reaper to finish.Waa-waa-waa!!! I was looking forward to helping a (music) brother out. But good luck Hotjams! Whenever you decide to dive into Sonar again you know where to find me! -Al

[hotjams]

Hey Al...I do plan on using Sonar. It's got alot of things Reaper does not have. I will probably do alot of my creation on Sonar, using Midi. Once I got my stuff ready for final mix I will probably use Reaper. Who knows, I'm still new at this. However, like I said early Reaper is very "Tech Hip". These guys grew up with computers and music and it shows in there entire approach. There are just some amazing help forums where they have threads and in the threads dicussions with what looks like flash renderings of how to use the program with text notes, moving items. It's very cutting edge stuff. And how can you ignore a program you can run off a USB? Damn, take your whole set up with you and just plug and and go.In fact there is a trend throughout the computer industry to have your entire operating system and programs run off of a USB. Google up "computer on a stick". This solves soooo many problems that are inherent in Windows. So many problems are caused by the melding of programs and operating systems, it's chronic. IMHO, the operating system and the programs should always remain seprate.For example check out this thread...you wont believe it....http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=11887make sure to scroll down a little ways.....

[mojobone]

Hmmm....nice! I like the way Reaper behaves for recording and comping multiple takes; Tracktion apparently assumes I want to hear them all play back simultaneously. O'course that might be operator error; time to crack the manual open again!

[hotjams]

I was running 16 Audio tracks off my USB drive. I played through about 5 times and not one...NOT ONE SINGLE GLITCH, not even the hint of a glitch. Maybe that's normal for DAWS but my Sonar program was glitching on less. When I get Sonar back up and running I will try the same audio tracks and see how it performs. Not one!!!!!