Better offer than PreSonus (=regression) IMO. Presence XT and co. is a joke (wake up guys). Love "ProChannel" philosophy, now have stable audio engine (X3 and previous was a pain - many engine crashes during session, must restart X3 each time, a shame), stable on my Win7 machine (no freeze or crash) since couple of hours I'm using it (in same time I'm writting here;) intuitive, good (better) MIDI implementation, love BREVERB2, Rapture and Les Paul guitar expansion. AD2 isn't Superior Drummer 2, for sure, but it remains a good drum kit, however... Assuming it a serious product (perhaps next X-mas gift) and becomes a dangerous competitor to Studio One 3 (same pricing range). I'll must test it "deeply" to have a better opinion, though. But for now, sure I'm voting "Pro".

 

Last edited: Feb 18, 2016

Oh yea i agree with you,S1 offers a lot less.
I will see how stable Sonar is going to be,otherwise its amazing as a daw itself.
Still think Cubase is a step ahead of other DAWs though.

 

For me Cubase = (disagree about e-Licenser also true about iLok/PACE drivers who polluate our OSes), hate Steinberg upgrade policy (very expensive for major updates) despite Cubase is probably an excellent DAW, I don't contest about this, be sure. Probably for professionals (same opinion about Pro Tools), but for hobbyists... all DAWs (I mean: all) have pros and cons, exactly like computers (PC or Mac) and operating systems (Windows 7-8-10 debates).

 

Yes,e-licenser is a big turn off for many.I dont like it as well,but hey,i get to drive a Ferrari of a DAW
Yes,for pro working environment you just have to bite the bullet

 

@Von_Steyr About e-licenser, this is interessing information:
https://audiosex.pro/threads/steinberg-activation-server-down-and-out.23588/



Be sure my small and slow Ferrari (or Traban) named REAPER is largely enough for me! As I've said recently, it's enough (for me) to go from A to B.
For now, Cakewalk Platinum I'm testing continues to work like a charm, without any issue.
Handling a small 10-track Genesis "In the Cage" cover project, using mainly VSTis (stock & 3rd party plugins), one audio for vocals. Nearly sure I'll can do it also inside Ableton Live 9.6 Lite!

 

Last edited: Feb 18, 2016

Sonar Platinum hasnt frozen on you,not once when starting the program?
Yea,Reaper has to be great,i hear nothing bout praise about it.

 

No freeze or crash since installation couple of days ago. Continuous run today since around 10 hours without any problem. I'm surprising too!

REAPER have everything you need, but very poor about stock instruments (one VA synth and unusable sampler). Better MIDI features will be appreciated, too. But for 60$ - bought as version 5.04 last X-mas as self-gift, no regrets, I benefit for free updates until... version 6.99 (not for tomorrow), ugly GUI but entirely skinnable (Traban -> Ferrari), light as fear, CPU & resource friendly, have excellent PDC, stable, huge community, fantastic support by Cockos, powerful scripting (js), ugly but efficient FXs (ReaComp is simply fantastic)...

 

Last edited: Feb 18, 2016

Sounds fantastic about Reaper and for 60$ its a no brainer.
No wonder its so popular.
Good to hear you dont have any problems with Sonar,i will see what happens tomorrow,was mixing in cubase all afternoon.
So far i like it very much,quite surprised how well developed it is.

 

Regarding crashes...
This message was included in R2R release:

Before the activation, uninstall Cakewalk Command Center (CCC) if you have.
Delete following registry key :
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Cakewalk Music Software\Command Center\

Everytime you launch the Cakewalk products, it runs CCC silently and calls home.
It can deactivate your current license, well, we don't know.
R2R have solid rules to reverse or test software under offline computers
As far as you don't have CCC installed, software won't call home.

Current protection scheme have critical problem so that some users have following problem :
- After launching Sonar, it freezes for 30 seconds
- Rapture Session/Pro, Z3TA+2 become DEMO, it gets activated after 30 seconds but still have DEMO limitation
This is generally happend to offline computers.

Cakewalk uses GetTickCount64 to avoid tracing by crackers,
and verify the software signature by using WinVerifyTrust to avoid being modified.
While Cakewalk is checking license and verifying its signature, they are counting the time.
If it takes some time to check the license, Cakewalk stops checking license and becomes DEMO.

The problem is that WinVerifyTrust may connect to the internet to renew CRL (Certificate Revocation List).
When your computer is offline, WinVerifyTrust stacks until it timeouts (about 30 seconds),
and of course that 30 seconds is enough to be trapped by their anti tracing protection.

We hope Cakewalk will fix this big issue soon, but in case they don't, follow the below :

Open "Control Panel" -> "Internet Options" -> "Advanced" tab, untick the options below.
- Check for publisher's certificate revocation (Japanese : ”sŒ³Ø–¾‘‚ÌŽæ‚èÁ‚µ‚ðŠm”F‚·‚é)
- Check for server certificate revocation (Japanese : ƒT[ƒo[‚̏ؖ¾‘Ž¸Œø‚ðŠm”F‚·‚é)

Now WinVerifyTrust don't wait timeout, the protection should work as it is.



Note to Cakewalk :
How about going back to simple serial number protection?

 

Tried the last Sonar Plat again : stuck at first start.
Restarted. Downloaded a demo project.
Audio engine crashed...back to S1 :D

 

Junkie XL, Hans Zimmer? Man, they are totally overrated. Hans Zimmer doesn’t consider character, motivation, context or even the movie itself when he writes his music. He rather dictates what you supposed to feel at a certain scene. So overrated. Because those "2 major" composers write cubase make you actually use Cubase?

Deadmau5 , (his music is a piece of shit) is one of the most succesfull producers at the moment. He uses Ableton Live. All my friends do, and they write better music then all those shitheads.

Live has the best workflow, best speed when your are writing, best hardware intergration and is the most creative DAW. Sure you dont have all the beginner things focused on midi(for example like in cubase, FL Studio) which makes it easier for noobies and they dont have bare shit to do for themselfs. e.g. chords, randomnization,bla bla

But yeah, go for live , and sonar is a joke.