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| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review: ( 10 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 22 found the following review helpful:
 Complete DAW with no need to buy Expensive Plug-ins and ReWires Jan 01, 2011
By Rupert
Cakewalk has taken the ethical and professional step of centralizing the key functional needs of the sound producer, music hobbyist, or professional musician and engineer into one highly functional, affordable and simplified Digital Audio Works package. With the heritage of straightforward hobbyist-friendly user interfaces by the skilled hands of CakeWalk developers, this package steps boldly into the professional realm in terms of track standardization and management, streamlining of CPU loading and GUI, and incorporation of plug-in functionalities which could formerly cost an additional $3500 for the discriminating sound developer.
V Vocal replaces what one might formerly have to buy from AVOX AutoTune for $500 in terms of pitch and wave form correction
Dimension Pro 1.5 rivals the best of $400 Synths plug-ins with thousands of high quality instruments and programs interfaced easily with all MIDI devices.
TruePianos (Amber) - a Steinway Piano Synth which is the most quality and emotive piano expression I have used in a DAW.
Guitar Pro 4 LE - Guitar Amplifier and Effects emulation, with the leading package in that realm normally costing $200
Beatscape - A beat manager which replaces a ReWire style package costing $400 replete with hundreds of modifiable beats and programs.
ProChannel - simplified onboard track effects bin which reduces system effects CPU load and eliminates the need to purchase $200 external basic effects
Sonitus Effects - which rival overpriced/over ego-ed and horribly supported WAVES effects at $1700 and $200 per year for 'support'.
The list goes on and on. This coupled with a support and user forum backup which is highly touted in the user industry. Every single time I go to the Sonar/Cakewalk user forums, I either get immediately the resolution to my challenge, or I get the next logical step to try, within minutes in many cases - from some of the most well mannered and intelligent sound engineers I know.
The User Interface is intuitive and can be standardized into several different window/screen configurations and saved by the user to recall on the fly. I could keep going, but you have to try this package for yourself.
Overall, I am highly pleased with Sonar X1 and the mechanisms behind this excellent release.
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
It does everything...well Sep 07, 2011
By Maestro Y
I've played with quite a few DAWs, including Cubase, Reaper, Ableton, and StudioOne. I have been neither able nor willing to leave SONAR, because, IMHO, it simply offers the best workflow. Some highlights:
* ProChannel. You've got really high-end compressors, EQs, and tube saturation integerated into every channel. And by high end, I mean high end. The SSL-4000-like buss compressor does a really sweet job of gluing mixes together. The 1176-like compressor is great at extracting that extra punch out of the drums.
* Dimension Pro - A whooping ROMpler included. The orchestral stuff is not great, but the pianos, the organs, and synths - pretty sweet, bordering on awesome.
* Vocal Strip and Percussion Strip plugins - great all-in-one channel strips for, surprise, vocals and percussion.
* Piano roll view - IMHO, it's the best one in any DAW. First, there's a feature that used to be called "drag quantize", and is now the "timing edit" tool. With it, you can select a bunch of notes, hold down a key, and drag the mouse up. As you drag, the notes will move toward the nearest 8th/16th/32nd/etc. note, and you can let go just at the point when they're close enough not to mess up the timing, but not close enough to sound mechanical and rigid. Other highlights, compared to other DAWs, include the ability to edit all the events on one or more tracks at once, without having to worry about clip boundaries. Compared with Reaper and StudioOne, this is a godsend, especially if you're into classical-type music and/or film/game scoring.
* The UI is intuitive. The ribbon-like interface (called the "Control Bar") is much easier to learn than many other DAWs, since all the functionality is laid bare in front of you. I would suggest, however, learning the keyboard shortcuts instead of relying on the the control bar, since it will both make you more productive, and allow you to hide the control bar and free up more real estate.
I do have my small share of gripes. The inability to freeze all the tracks at once, the inefficiency of the customization mechanism of the control bar, and a few others. No DAW is perfect. But every year, Sonar seems to get closer and closer...
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
Worth every penny Jul 30, 2011
By Dr. Jekyll
I love Sonar X1 Producer I'm new to the whole DAW and plug-ins and everything else that people use with the Music. I used to just play Piano and that was it, but then I discovered a whole new world and a new way to make music. I love using Sonar and I also bought Kontakt 4 when I bought Sonar X1 Producer they both are awesome. I can't say more great words about Sonar if its your first time getting into the whole DAW stuff and recordingyou have to get this one its awesome.
2 of 3 found the following review helpful:
DAW's don't get any better than Sonar Jul 03, 2011
By hwy
Sonar X1 Producer edtion is awesome! I've been using Cakewalk products for years now - right from "Home Studio" version 2 to Sonar 5 Studio edition and now Sonar X1. It's been an amazing journey - i've been able to indulge in my passion for music with results far exceding my expectations. This new version X1 is the best yet - the ProChannel strip available for every track is worth every cent of the upgrade price - Sonar makes me sound like a Pro - right from the first input to the final product.
They baked a delicious cake Mar 30, 2012
By LookInwards
Sonar X1 is like that cake in the oven, that takes a little longer to cook than one would like, but in the end is delicious. Last year's release of X1 was a much anticipated event, with Cakewalk rolling out a whole new GUI called Skylight (and rearranging the buttons and workflow somewhat to the chagrin of some Sonar 8.5 users). Another huge feature with this release is ProChannel, which is Sonar's version of a console strip with EQ, compressors, saturation, and other features embedded on every track by default. And since it's release, Cakewalk has expanded the ProChannel platform, adding limiters and specialty compressors as add-ons with the Producer Expanded package.
As an early adopter, I will say that the early release of Sonar X1 did express some buggy behavior, particularly with AudioSnap and V-Vocal, that was frustrating to experience as a user. These things happen, but Cakewalk's response to these issues has been stellar. On their very active support boards, it's not uncommon for Cakewalk employees to post (even the CTO!) there. They instituted frequent patch cycles to release fixes along the way, instead of just waiting for the next major version release. In short, you can tell development on Sonar is very alive and active.
During the last two patch releases, Sonar has become like a tank on my PC. Solid. My only real complaint is that they don't make a hard copy of the manual. Someone else covered that with the Sonar Power book series. I don't think about Sonar much anymore, because the focus is on music production. The DAW is just there, doing it's job.
The inclusion of tons of plugins in the Producer suite is a great bonus, as well as the Dimension synth. It's possible to take a project from gain-stanging all the way through mastering with just the default plugins. The 1176 and SSL4k modeled compressors sound particularly serviceable. I would guess the plugins included in Sonar are worth 75% of the cost of the product, and a big savings over DAWs like ProTools that expect you to purchase expensive production suite add-ons. Sonar really does more for your money.
Overall, I'd give it 4.75 stars, docked a bit for a rocky start. Really a great DAW that can scale with a user as they get more sophisticated. Beginners might want to try reaper or studio1, but Sonar is built for the long haul.
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