Sonar exile needs some comfort...

Cubase
1

Greetings,

I’m thrilled to be moving to what I hope, and appears to be, a much more stable DAW (9.5 Pro) than the slowly, but inevitably, vanishing Sonar. Stability is, without question, the single most import factor for me. Features are great; worse than useless when they don’t.

Having “come up” on Sonar, and only ever used Sonar, however, I’m terrified. I’ve got ten years of Sonar experience and no clue how to compress that kind of depth into a shorter learning curve. Steinberg, Groove3, and the rest have some great videos, of course, but they’re mostly geared towards complete DAW newbies, or current Cubase users (about updates, features, etc.)

I’m not sure what I’m asking here, frankly, other than if anyone has stumbled across either a good cross-DAW set of tutorials, maybe even one geared towards Sonar users. I saw Steinberg’s very brief release on similar functionality when Sonar made the announcement, but that was more marketing than specific help.

I realize I’m likely seeking the impossible, but I just have to ask - and this IS the place to ask. Forgive my ignorance; despite my trials and tribulations with Sonar over the years, their forum users have always been incredibly kind and patient. And I promise not to nag… :slight_smile:

I do have one specific question (only because I’m stability-paranoid): having both on the same system shouldn’t be an issue, I assume(?). I can send specifics, but I’m using a custom built machine with RME MADI and an Antelope 32+, though I’m hoping the specs shouldn’t really play much of a role…

Thank you in advance, new friends!

2

I saw a video on a simple way to set up an audio track for recording when I was considering moving from Sonar to Cubase, but I have never been able to find it again. I wish Cubase (and Dorico) had some way of cataloguing what was available that was easier to reference. The generic YouTube system is a confusing disaster.

3

Tbh I’d keep looking at the videos on the Steinberg Channel - Greg Ondo’s stuff is really good and goes beyond newbie

4

I switched from Sonar this March (2018) for the same reason you did. I had used Sonar since it was on floppy disks (before it was called “Sonar”!) I had progressed all the way to Platinum when the company was sold. I also have a custom machine running Windows 10 Pro 64 bit. This forum has been fantastic and friendly, just like the Sonar forum, and has helped me with few issues that I did not understand. I really love Cubase and I have wished that I had switched years ago. So much more flexible - especially with video. It’s been rock-solid stable for me. The toughest thing for me was converting some old Sonar projects to Cubase format. Takes some time. Audio transfer was easy but MIDI transfer took some setting up. There is so much more to Cubase than Sonar - I hope you’ll love it as much as I do.

5

+1 for Greg’s tutorials! They helped answer many, many questions after switching from Sonar.

6

Another +1 for the Cubase tutorials.

I’ve been with Cubase since it started last centruy (with a few years off in the middle) but still find these videos useful. Even ones that don’t seem, at first glance, seem to be relevant often bring to light something that might be useful, give you further ideas of where to search or just help it all gel.

And most of us here on the Forum are friendly and here to help!

7

Oh, one more thing… having both Sonar and Cubase on the same system has not been an issue at all for me. You may find that many of the Sonar .dlls will work with Cubase too.