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SONAR PLATINUM or CbB


Belthus

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Hi all, just a quick question in hope of getting various opinions from those that have used both.

I have SONAR Platinum which I have used for a few years (just as a hobby), however the time has come to reformat my PC, so I thought it a good time to ask the question.

Should I go forward using SPLAT or CbB?

Not too bothered about existing projects, but I did like using some of the soft synths in SPLAT, but to be honest I mainly use Native Instruments (Massive etc), Serum, Iris, Hybrid etc these days.

As mentioned, nothing is mission critical, I just enjoy losing time being creative in my own way.

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You should install SONAR Platinum, and then install Cakewalk By Bandlab. This will allow CbB to "see" all the extra plugins and features that come with SONAR but are not bundled with CbB.

At this point, you should definitely start using CbB. It's basically the best and latest version of SONAR Platinum in all but name.

Edit: I forgot to mention, CbB is 64-bit only, so if that is an issue because you're using SONAR 32-bit for some reason, then you might want to stick with that. If you're running 64-bit Windows OS, there is no reason not to migrate to the 64-bit CbB, at this point.

Edited by Colin Nicholls
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Thank you Colin, excellent advice and something that wasn't obvious (possibly its mentioned elsewhere).

I made the jump to 64bit quite a while ago, but will double check that my soft synths are all 64bit anyway. 

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The advice to install both is good.

Personally speaking I find that the Bandlab version takes longer to open, crashes more often and is generally less tolerant of my "while playing" scooting around the UI on my old win 7 pc than Platinum ever was. I'm trying to embrace the new, but the day I revert back edges ever closer.

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3 hours ago, paulo said:

...I find that the Bandlab version takes longer to open, crashes more often and is generally less tolerant of my "while playing" scooting around the UI on my old win 7 pc than Platinum ever was. I'm trying to embrace the new, but the day I revert back edges ever closer.

Trying to embrace the new on an "old Win 7" PC is perhaps pushing your luck a bit too far....

I think it's fair to say that most users are seeing better performance and stability with CWbB over Sonar Plat when running on Win 10 (or even Win 8.1).

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4 hours ago, paulo said:

The advice to install both is good.

Personally speaking I find that the Bandlab version takes longer to open, crashes more often and is generally less tolerant of my "while playing" scooting around the UI on my old win 7 pc than Platinum ever was. I'm trying to embrace the new, but the day I revert back edges ever closer.

I also wonder about the reliability of playing projects made in older versions of Sonar in the newer Cakewalk. They always say it's backward compatible but weird things can happen.

The test I guess, is whether new projects begun in Cakewalk perform better than  projects transferred over from Sonar.

 

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10 hours ago, Tezza said:

 

I also wonder about the reliability of playing projects made in older versions of Sonar in the newer Cakewalk. They always say it's backward compatible but weird things can happen.

The test I guess, is whether new projects begun in Cakewalk perform better than  projects transferred over from Sonar.

 

This should be very reliable, and if there's an issue with opening older projects, we'd be glad to take a look into it. Typically I've found the biggest problem with opening old projects is the availability of old plugins that don't run on newer versions of Windows. The actual project data should load just fine though.

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10 hours ago, JonD said:

I think it's fair to say that most users are seeing better performance and stability with CWbB over Sonar Plat when running on Win 10 (or even Win 8.1).

I never suggested that wasn't the case. Just giving my experience from a W7 perspective as the OP didn't specify his OS

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3 hours ago, paulo said:

I never suggested that wasn't the case. Just giving my experience from a W7 perspective as the OP didn't specify his OS

I'm on win 7, I can't say I get crashes or it is slow. I've also got an old 4th gen i5. I upgraded some parts of the computer, gave it a big SSD for samples, smaller one for OS but kept a 7200rpm HD for recording audio and a new DVD drive, I kept the original i5 cpu and the 8gig of ram because I couldn't see a reason to upgrade them.

Zero latency on vocals and guitar because I use the UR44 direct monitor DSP and use pedals with the guitar. Amp sims and VST instruments are acceptable with latency, I can go down to 64ms or even 32 if I shut some of the tracks down which I don't need to record that part anyway. I have my DAW offline without unnecessary motherboard drivers loaded or any wifi or Antivirus installed.

You shouldn't be getting crashes at all, even if you are on win7. I use Cakewalk with komplete ultimate 10, some other synths and a few other third party FX plugins I am weaning myself off of. I also have Studio One V3 (moving away from), Mixcraft 8(nice to play with occasionally), and Cubase Pro 10 (bought as an experiment, currently battling with it). They all run fine on my system. I don't have a problem with the stability of DAW's, it's more about the interface, the workflow and whether or not it can be an "all in one" system requiring fewer third party FX plugins.

I think when people are getting regular crashes, unless they are really overloading things, then it is probably hardware related, like using a single hard drive or lack of ram/incompatible ram sticks, a laptop mobile CPU or something really weak, then it's badly maintained computers which haven't been cleaned or defraged or windows reinstalled for years, then its the internet with wifi and antivirus, all horrid things as far as I am concerned.

 

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4 hours ago, paulo said:

I never suggested that wasn't the case. Just giving my experience from a W7 perspective as the OP didn't specify his OS

Yes sorry, I will get around to adding specs to by Bio.  I am on Windows 10, and SPLAT ran without issues for the most part prior to my recent reformat and re-install (I like to do a complete OS install every 2 years if possible).

While I can certainly re-install SPLAT, it just seems like a good opportunity to get CbB up and running, also I would consider SPLAT to be "Legacy" software given its no longer receiving any development or updates to address possible Windows compatibility issues in the future.

After trying various other DAWS, I still think SONAR is the best based on my personal use and requirements, I am just grateful that Bandlab have given myself and everyone else the opportunity to use a version of SONAR going forward.

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To get all the plug-in bundled with Platinum, it must be installed. Some of the plug-in installers check for the DAW. Because, CbB updates the "shared" folders, it should be installed after Platinum. To save space, skip the Platinum tutorials.

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28 minutes ago, scook said:

To get all the plug-in bundled with Platinum, it must be installed. Some of the plug-in installers check for the DAW. Because, CbB updates the "shared" folders, it should be installed after Platinum. To save space, skip the Platinum tutorials.

Thanks Scook, I have the core SPLAT installed and Plugins including "Boutique FX Suite" etc.

Is the Platinum Instrument Collection also shared, as Z3TA+ would be nice to have, as well as some of the other options such as Rapture Pro.

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Yes, ALL of the content bundled with 64bit Platinum and any older 64bit versions of SONAR work in CbB. Any other products purchased from Cakewalk such as Rapture Pro will work too. Think of CbB as an updated version of 64bit SONAR Platinum without all the plug-ins because...that is what it is.

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  • 1 month later...
59 minutes ago, Scheffer said:

Hello everybody,

Is it the same with Sonar X2 (effects and instruments) ?

If that is the latest version you have yes install it and than install Cakewalk.  Also if you have Sonar 8 on disk or DL and want Pantheon you can install it by itself. 

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Thanks you, John.
I began with Sonar 4, and upgraded up to X2.
X2 came with almost everything i need for mixing : EQ(s), COMP(s) [i bought PC2A and PC4K Channel Comp and Exp/Gate],
Reverb(s), Limiter (Concrete Lim), etc, so i stopped upgrading (i was also very busy with photography during last years...),
so this is a very good news.

Edited by Scheffer
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