Timothy Connelly

I am a longtime Cakewalk/ Sonar/ CbB guy. I am about to get a new machine, I need to clarify something about the New Sonar. So, buying the subscription to Bandlab (Membership), gets you access to Cakewalk Sonar? Any additional expense, or am I "all in" at $150/year? It's not some "here, buy Bandlab membership, and that will 'give you permission' to buy Sonar additionally" deal, is it? I'm at the perfect place to do this, I just have to know whether to shop other DAWs. $150 is pretty reasonable, but it gets less so if there are multiples of that.

Thanks for the input guys. I guess I was a little tired, (or just not being forward-thinking) when I posted. I just wanted to know if it is possible, not ideal. It's been 10 years now since my last daw. As I understand your advice, I should stick to the two-drive approach (OS on 1 and Audio on the other, like my current system). I don't really have any sample files issues to contend with, and I plan on using an external drive(or drives) for backups and misc. files. M2 is the way to go for fastest throughput throughout the system? So, robust power supply, 2 M2 drives, fast processor( thinking i7 13th gen.),32G RAM, and LOTS of USB ports( I have a lot of peripheral gear). Are graphics really a concern? (I don't currently do video, and if that changes, I can always address). Does that sound like a realistic jumping-off point? Jim, I may take a look at your site. I am not a builder, and if I can't easily find an off-the-shelf PC that I can modify I may have some business for you. Thanks again!

I'm in the market for a new PC. In this day and age, is it really necessary to have 2 drives, or can I get away with just 1 big one?

Great explanation and basic implementation. Mike at Creative Sauce is great at explaining what's going on without getting newbs too bogged down in the minutia.

I have to vote for the last one. I've been using Cakewalk for decades and still haven't plumbed all the depths. Some parts are so arcane and esoteric that my fusion/jazz combo oriented mind just can't wrap itself around them.

Pete, did that work for you? Vernon, I am very interested in upgrading from 4 studio to 5 studio. Have you hit any snags, other than the one you mentioned?

anyone else? have any experience with the latest/greatest?

Thanks to all. As I've done my research, I've come to the conclusion that it may be a little early in the game to upgrade. i7 3770 still seems to have a couple of years of life left in it. The issues I have with off the shelf systems is the stupid bloatware that comes installed on them, and inflexible at times expansion options. Premade DAW computers are expensive, (I should know, I have one) so I'm leaving the option to just upgrade to new mobo and cpu open. What I'm ultimately looking at, as I do research, are what pitfalls can I avoid by steering clear of certain mobos and cpu. Ryzen looks promising but I've never used AMD products. I have a 650 watt PS. Do you HAVE to liquid cool these faster cpu's like Ryzen or i7 latest gen.?

PS if I can upgrade my old machine, then I can possibly get UA Apollo Twin. My wife might freak if I buy a 1700-2000 $ machine, but wouldn't blink twice if I use my current machine and do the "necessary upgrades" to keep it relevant.?

thanks to both. Like I was saying, my system still performs, i7 3770 is quadcore 8 threads 3.4 ghz. I know that soon, I will want to be taking the next jump. That's why faster CPU, more memory, more current mobo is intriguing to me. Cores seem to be the way that current cpus get their extra juice. My system is approx 8 years old (that's what buying ahead of the curve or close to it can do). I have room for more ram. I guess what I'm concerned about is Ryzen vs i7 (or others worth considering?) The only thing I ever did, on the current machine is install a SSD operating drive.(that was as much about space as it was performance) So, if YOU were considering upgrading, what would YOU get (Ryzen,i7 ,i9)? Heard or experienced any issues with processors? mobos? The 32 gigs of ram is to future proof my upgrade. (I get plenty of juice from my 16gigs, considering what I do, if I'm going to go the upgrade route I'll throw the extra ram in now)

midi buffer settings? If I'm understanding you right, you are experience your wierdness when recording midi using Silk as amidi controller?

I have a sweetwater creation station CS 400 V2. It's not unusable yet (still works pretty good with about 20 tracks of audio, a couple of synths, numerous plugins, typical small band project) I really don't want to buy or build a completely new system, but think my next upgrade step should include a new mobo,CPU and probably 32gigs of RAM. Right now I have 16gigs of RAM and an i7 3770 quad core with8 threads.SSD for main disk 7200 rpm HDD for audio drive. It gets tricky when I start to record toward the end of a project. I have to start being judicious about whether I use FX bypass , mute tracks, render synth tracks etc.What CPUs are you using, as this will point the direction for all others. Alas, i7 3770 uses LGA 1150 socket type, so I'm at the end of the road.Can't just drop in a faster cpu. What are you folks using?

agreed, it's just an observation I've made with my gear. I don't recall a time when I had to "fix" it.

Do you have each vocalist on his/her own track? If so, send all to a bus and do what msmcleod says. Or, not sure if this is possible or not, but select all the vocal tracks and normalize. Worth a try. Not at my DAW right now.

I don't know if this is necessarily "true", but it has been my experience that the input device has a say in this as well. If you choose a stereo input on my komplete audio6, it "looks" at both inputs. If it just sees one (like a guitar plugged into it) and you just record it raw to reamp later, it shows a stereo track with one side doing nothing, because nothing is going in to it and komplete audio 6 expects to see something going on. Just a thought...