Record on one computer, mix on another

[badt1mes]

Hello. I have a DAW desktop that runs Win XP and I currently record with Sonar 7. This setup is currently set up in a spare bedroom of a friend's house. Considering how old the recording PC is, my home laptop running Win 10 could probably handle mixing.

Would it be possible to record with Sonar 7 and put the tracks on a separate computer to mix with CbB or whatever the latest CW product is?

If it is possible, would I need to attach my audio interface to the second computer to get Cakewalk to work? I know with Sonar 7, if my audio interface is not plugged in and activated, the DAW software won't work.

[Jonathan Sasor]

1 hour ago, Badtimes Banjo said:

Hello. I have a DAW desktop that runs Win XP and I currently record with Sonar 7. This setup is currently set up in a spare bedroom of a friend's house. Considering how old the recording PC is, my home laptop running Win 10 could probably handle mixing.

Would it be possible to record with Sonar 7 and put the tracks on a separate computer to mix with CbB or whatever the latest CW product is?

If it is possible, would I need to attach my audio interface to the second computer to get Cakewalk to work? I know with Sonar 7, if my audio interface is not plugged in and activated, the DAW software won't work.

You should have no problem opening the projects from SONAR 7 in either the new version of Sonar or Cakewalk by BandLab. The only "gotchas" would be with any plugins with 32-bit on XP, but all the audio and project data will load fine. 

[badt1mes]

31 minutes ago, Jonathan Sasor said:

You should have no problem opening the projects from SONAR 7 in either the new version of Sonar or Cakewalk by BandLab. The only "gotchas" would be with any plugins with 32-bit on XP, but all the audio and project data will load fine. 

Thank you for the reply, this is good news. Please keep in mind, for the past 15 years of so, I will dust off my computer every couple of years and record. I normally set up mics, hit the R button and go dry, adding all effects later. With the 32 bit plugins, would I be able to record a dry mix using no effects plugins and add the 64 bit plugins later when I'm mixing on the second computer?

Also, in the past when I've opened Sonar 7 without my audio interfaced turned on, the input and output track parameters would say "none" and IIRC the tracks would not play. So I still would like to know, would an audio interface need to be plugged in to use the newer version of Cakewalk or Sonar?

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond.

[badt1mes]

On 8/1/2024 at 9:09 PM, badt1mes said:

Thank you for the reply, this is good news. Please keep in mind, for the past 15 years of so, I will dust off my computer every couple of years and record. I normally set up mics, hit the R button and go dry, adding all effects later. With the 32 bit plugins, would I be able to record a dry mix using no effects plugins and add the 64 bit plugins later when I'm mixing on the second computer?

Also, in the past when I've opened Sonar 7 without my audio interfaced turned on, the input and output track parameters would say "none" and IIRC the tracks would not play. So I still would like to know, would an audio interface need to be plugged in to use the newer version of Cakewalk or Sonar?

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond.

Disregard. Found the answers myself.

[msmcleod]

FWIW,  I've got an old Intel Core Duo Dell Laptop running Windows 7 32 bit, SONAR Platinum connected to a Yamaha 01X, i88x and Behringer ADA8000.

I've no problems recording projects (up to 24 simultaneous tracks) on the laptop and going to either CbB or the new Sonar for mix duties or further editing.

I can even re-open the project in SONAR Platinum for further overdubs, however if I think I might have to do this, I try to avoid using any of the new features missing in SONAR Platinum.  Most features are fine though, with the notable exception of the Arranger - for that I just save the arranger track as an arranger template, so I can re-import it again.

Nested track folders can be tricky too - the folders will get flattened out when opened in SONAR Platinum, but they should keep the hierarchy when loaded back into CbB/Sonar as long as you don't move tracks around.

Obviously the older the version of SONAR, the more features you'll "lose" if you save the project in the older version... and as @Jonathan Sasor says, avoid 32 bit DirectX plugins apart from the Cakewalk stock ones (e.g. Sonitus).

[badt1mes]

16 hours ago, msmcleod said:

FWIW,  I've got an old Intel Core Duo Dell Laptop running Windows 7 32 bit, SONAR Platinum connected to a Yamaha 01X, i88x and Behringer ADA8000.

I've no problems recording projects (up to 24 simultaneous tracks) on the laptop and going to either CbB or the new Sonar for mix duties or further editing.

I can even re-open the project in SONAR Platinum for further overdubs, however if I think I might have to do this, I try to avoid using any of the new features missing in SONAR Platinum.  Most features are fine though, with the notable exception of the Arranger - for that I just save the arranger track as an arranger template, so I can re-import it again.

Nested track folders can be tricky too - the folders will get flattened out when opened in SONAR Platinum, but they should keep the hierarchy when loaded back into CbB/Sonar as long as you don't move tracks around.

Obviously the older the version of SONAR, the more features you'll "lose" if you save the project in the older version... and as @Jonathan Sasor says, avoid 32 bit DirectX plugins apart from the Cakewalk stock ones (e.g. Sonitus).

Thank you for your response and the detail. When I first purchased Sonar 7 Studio Edition, I bought a separate book called Sonar 7 Power written by Scott Garrigus. The book is 4-5x thicker than the instruction manual and it really helped me make sense of a lot of stuff. According to Amazon, the last time Garrigus published was in 2014 with Sonar X3. Do you know if such a publication exists today for CbB? A lot of vocabulary used on this forum is still over my head.

When you talk about recording on one version of Sonar/CW and editing/mixing in another, are you using the CWP project file or exporting to WAV and uploading the WAV tracks into location #2? I've been doing the latter but I also don't know any better. Thanks again!

[badt1mes]

On 8/7/2024 at 11:22 AM, badt1mes said:

When you talk about recording on one version of Sonar/CW and editing/mixing in another, are you using the CWP project file or exporting to WAV and uploading the WAV tracks into location #2? I've been doing the latter but I also don't know any better. Thanks again!

Sorry for such basic questions. Yes, old CWP files work in CbB.