Sonar 6 PE vs Acid Pro 6
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Posted on May 21, 2007 01:34 pm
Lexalotacus
Mamma Jamma
Member Since: May 20, 2007
So I just got a copy of sonar 6 producer edition but havent messed around with it too much yet.
I've been using Acid Pro 6 for like a year and a half now so Im pretty good with it...
Are any of you guys really good with sonar and maybe familiar with acd and could possibly tell me if Im wasting my time with sonar 6? I keep wanting to look for a step up from acid but I have no idea where to go... is sonar6 PE better or just different? ugh... so many DAW's to choose from these days... no wonder everyone says pro tools is the standard, its just easier to stick with one... so many...
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May 21, 2007 01:49 pm As mentioned in your other thread. I don't think Sonar PE is a step up from Acid, just a sideways step.
Ask yourself a question. What is it that you want that Acid cannot give you. If the answer is nothing then you have no reason to change, your comfort with Acid will greatly outweigh anything you get from Sonar.
If there is something you want then make sure you can't already get it from Acid and then review where you can can that thing.
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
May 21, 2007 09:25 pm Um, if its Sonar 6 PE there are about 100 reasons to switch. But the key is as tonyoci stated, are you comfortable with Acid? If so then there are really no reasons to switch unless you are heading into the professional recording, arranging and mastering world. Sonar 6 PE by far the easiest full on DAW to learn. But all you need to do is open the manual and follow the tutorials and they will teach you everything you need to know about it and all its goodies.
And for the 1000 time, everyone does not say PT is the standard. Digidesign and their loyal followers are the only ones saying that. Studio's like mine using Sonar, Cubase, Logic and several other apps do not say that, nor will they probably ever. Honest answer from me is even if Digi tossed a free HD system my way it would take second fiddle to my Sonar rig. Partly from being familiar with it and partly from having used their software since the very first program they issued.
Sonar 6 PE comes with a large amount of software synths, drums machines and pluggins that will take you all the way from beginning to end product. And it as well gives you the tools to do much finer work then Acid ever would. You need to remember Acid was a loop based application, and in some ways still is. Although they have upped the usability of Acid it still does not contain the major league tools found in the other dedicated DAW software.
And honestly, you have listed in several threads now several different high end applications. Several thousand dollars worth I might add. Why on earth would you need to spend that kind of money if you are not sure what exactly you want to do with it?
May 21, 2007 11:50 pm I understand, and thanks for the sincere replies.
Im really wanting to dig into sonar 6 PE but my sigmatel sound card doesnt support it, the bottom line is I need a desktop so I can get top of the line soundcards in there.
I understand what you mean about the whole industry standard debate. I also see alot of professional tools in other programs that I dont see in acid and I simply want to take it to the next level.
Oh by the way, Im not spending thousands on software, just trying to learn as much as possible and have as educated of an opinion as possible.
Thanks again guys, I love this forum, cant get enough!!
May 21, 2007 11:54 pm So I was also wondering since im going to start learning another DAW asap just to evolve a bit as a amatuer producer ;)
Has anyone used cubase sx3? I just scored a copy but Im not sure if its a good one to start learning. (looking for a profession grade DAW)
Let me know if Im crownding the forums by the way I just get exited talking about this stuff!:)
May 22, 2007 09:13 am Cubase and Sonar are very much similar apps, they do pretty much the exact same thing PT does. When choosing a DAW most any of the big players in the space will do the same thing. So when looking, trying out their demos and such, it's not so much looking at what features they have (cuz it's 95% the same) but more looking at which one feels best to you, seems to work the most logically and and all that.
Oh, and you said something about a Sigmatel Sound Card...if you wanna go to the next level, a better sound card would help more than getting a new DAW over Acid.
May 22, 2007 09:16 am Oh, and if you want to step up from Acid, why not look into Sony Vegas...it would present you with a similar interface and all that seeing as Vegas is just Acid's big brother, the more "professional" platform from Sony.
May 22, 2007 11:29 am Dan, Vegas is absolutely not Acid's big brother. Vegas is a primarily a video product and does not include many of the audio features of Acid.
I also get quite frustrated at people saying Acid is not a top line product, I'm not sure what else it needs to qualify. There is no question to me that Acid is significantly better than Cubase. I'm not familiar with Sonar at all and all that extra stuff is great but Acid is incredibly easy to learn also and has all the tutorials etc. I would probably agree that if Sonar is considered level 1 then maybe Acid is level 2 but I don't agree that there are 1000 things in Sonar not in Acid. It's all in what you know and what you've learned.
Lex, I hate to tell you this but you already have a fantastic soundcard, it's called the Toneport UX2. That is the card you will be using for music. I also have a sigmatel card in my laptop and I don't use it, the Toneport does all the soundcard duties.
As Dan said, most of these products have 30 day full functional demo's available so try them out and see how they feel to you. If you can get going quickly on something that's a very good sign.
May 22, 2007 11:36 am Yeah, Im gonna try to set up the toneport as my sound device, I just need to take a minute to figure out how to do that. Thanks
May 22, 2007 11:41 am oh, I didn't see that he had a UX2...jeezuz, and you are using as Sigmatel integrated thing? Change that immediately!
Yeah, you are right, Vegas does lack a lot that Acid has, just not much that I ever actually used, so I could be wrong there...the generations of the product I used they did share an interface style and usability concepts, so my other points are (or were) valid...however, Vegas is still a capable audio production solution, I used it for a while myself on a few projects and it was a very capable solution for things we did on those projects.
Admittedly, I don't have a real in depth knowledge of either product though.
May 22, 2007 12:44 pm For years Acid only allowed a single track to be recorded at a time, while Vegas allowed multitracking (which was an odd choice in a video v audio product). Once Acid when multitrack they focused the audio attention there and the video attention on vegas but fundamentally they are very similar with Vegas adding more of the video features.
May 22, 2007 01:04 pm Yeah, thats why I steered away from Acid, cuz of the one track limit, but they lost that limit now, which does lend a lot to it's "professionalism" so to speak. I liked Vegas cuz I could use it for anything.
Video products all had sucky audio, audio products all had sucky video, Vegas was the closest thing to both...I had high hopes for Adobe buying Cool Edit and perhaps making a better product with CoolEdit and Premiere being married, but that doesn't appear to be happening...
So now I sit with Pinnacle for video, import it into Sonar and sync to it...
May 22, 2007 01:30 pm does acid do sequencing? and vst-i's? i havn't touched acid since it came with my first external cd burner (2x) that i bought back in '98...so i'm sure it's come a long way...back then it was pretty much a multi-loop player that could time stretch and pitch shift. and how about routing? can ya setup busses and what not?
just curious.
