Cakewalk Sonar X2 Producer

I say this all the time, but here I go again -- I give reviews sparingly, usually only when a product is extremely good, or extremely poor.I started using Cakewalk products as a hobbyist musician since they started back in the mid 80s, and I've always been pleased with their software. They went from just "Cakewalk" to "Cakewalk ProAudio" before they became "Sonar".The interface of this product is excellent and extremely well designed, so well that even Apple copied it to make their Apple Logic Pro. How do I know? Because Sonar started back even before Apple Logic Pro was created, and their user interface is uncannily similar (i.e., Inspector pane on the left, track pane on the center, browser at the right, dockable views on the lower half of the screen, even the transport pane looks very similar).Being a hobbyist, composing/arranging music has been an on and off thing, and I've made about 5 complete fully orchestrated songs with Cakewalk products, and Sonar X2 Producer is simply the best to date.In 2012, I thought I'd give Apple Logic Pro a try and spent a lot of money buying the necessary hardware and software (i.e., an iMac, Logic Pro, compatible plug-ins, etc). Feature-wise, Logic Pro actually beats Sonar in loop-editing, BUT it has egregious bugs. More specifically, project files get corrupted, and this could happen anytime. Their technical support people are mostly arrogant die-hard non-technical Apple fans. When faced with a corrupt project file, their attitude is "this kind of thing happens". NO IT SHOULD NOT! I put up with Logic Pro's bugs for about 3 months when I decided I couldn't take it anymore and moved back to the PC platform and bought Sonar X2 Producer. Also, Cakewalk's technical support is FREE, while Apple charges either per incident or $500 for an annual support contract. My beef with this is that Apple will only help you if you encounter a "technical issue" or bug in their software. And they want me to pay $500/year to bring bugs to their attention??As I've already mentioned, Sonar's interface is excellently designed, and this cannot be overemphasized. While creating music, you will be doing a LOT of editing of notes and continuous controller data (like CC#11 for Expression, which I use a LOT), and Sonar allows easy editing. It has a step sequencer specifically suitable for drums where you can enter beats to the appropriate drum components while listening to the drum loop playback, multiple sound modules/"tone generators" (e.g. Dimension Pro, Session Drummer, and more), reverb modules, and their ProChannel module is great and easy to use for my mixing needs. Oddly, what I really love is the Cakewalk Analyst which shows me visually and graphically the frequency ranges of any given sound; this takes the guesswork out of mixing because you'd know which frequency range to boost or subdue for any given instrument or synthesized sound.Well, I'm not going to expound too much on the technical details since this is not a book, but I hope I touched on the salient points. This is a software made for PROFESSIONALS, so I guess that's why an amateur like me finds this product more than adequate. Even though it has chockfuls of features, it was designed so as not to unnecessarily overwhelm an amateur.I have recently been creating a new song, and I have not been impeded by bugs (except for one minor issue with the Piano Roll view, but closing it and reopening another instance of it takes care of the problem, which wasn't show-stopping at all), and I'm extremely pleased with how this product has allowed creativity to flow out of me unimpeded by technical distractions like bugs or lack of features. Very very stable product, highly recommended.

Soft synths act up sometimes and have a mind of their own. Parts you've played suddenly disappear unexpectedly. It can be infuriating.

I've tried Pro tools, Audacity, Cubase, etc. and was never happy with any of them. Pro tools (the supposed industry standard)is overpriced and not user friendly, even if you had the money I wouldn't get it, Sonar X2 is amazing, with any recording program make sure you have way more than the minimum system requirements with your PC. Audio recording is CPU and memory intensive so if you are running Sonar or any other program on an old PC you will be very limited. This by far has the most bang for your buck and I like how your user account with cakewalk allows you to re-download anything you bought through them at any time... unlike companies like IK multimeda (which I have a love/dislike relationship with. IF your PC can handle and you do heavy recording using many virtual instruments then get this. I've used Cakewalk products for a long time and they have come a very long way. do your research and you will be pleased to find that some big name bands/artists have had producers switch over from pro tools to Sonar X1 (x2 is the newest version) Check it out You won't regret it!

I have used a few daws recently but chose to stop on sonar x2. I find it the best there is. i'm using it with omnisphere, stylus and trillion and many other synths. thank you sonar, you are the best.

こんにちはです(*'ω｀*)♪先月こちらを購入させて頂き、これから本格的に使用していこうという者ですw以前日本語verを使用したら上手くいかず、今回は英語verを…という感じで(^^;wまだ使い始めですが、今のところ申し分ない…いえ、それ以上の良さです(о'∀`о)✨英語なんて出来ないし…なんて思いつつだったのですが、そこは一緒に購入させて頂いた説明本を見ながら初心者らしく過ごしていますw本当に購入してよかったです(*'∀｀)まだまだ始めたばかりですが、いまから楽しくやりこんでいこうと思います。本当にありがとうございました( ・∇・)w

機能の詳細は別サイトを参照して頂くとして，個人的に感じたところを何点か記載します。●使用感SONAR本体よりも，付属のプラグインの豊富さと強力さに目がいってしまいました。この値段でこれだけ入っているのはかなりお得だと思います。操作方法が掴めれば，これだけで結構凝った作品が作れます。SONARは4あたりから使っていますが，X1になってインターフェースががらっと変わり，X2で落ち着いて来た感じがします。個人的にはスマートツールが使いにくい，ウィンドウがドッキングされたデフォルト表示も使いにくい（解除すればいいだけですが）…など，旧来のIFになれてきた身からするととっつきにくいですが，これはこれでアリかな，と思います。購入前に一度，楽器屋とか電器屋のデモを触ってみることをオススメします。●パフォーマンスX系になってからですが，かなり重たくなっていると思います。オーディオトラックにPROCNANNELが合体されているせいですかね。。オフにしても軽くなるわけではないので，オーディオトラックが多い曲だともたつくかもしれません。i5 2500kではスムーズに動きませんでした（動きはしますが，描画とかがぎこちない）。今は8コア16スレッドのXeonで快適に動いていますが，MultiProcessing Engine を有効にしても8スレッド（物理コア数）までしかスレッドが立っていないように見えます。。仕様かもしれません。●安定性使っていて，ここが一番の問題と感じました。32bit版はいいとして，64bit版はまともに使えない印象です（他の皆様は使えているかもですが）。BitBridgeの安定性が特に悪く，任意のタイミングでクラッシュしてみたり，SONARを終了してもBitBridgeのプロセスだけ起動しっぱなしの時があります。挙動不審な感じですので，64bitのVSTプラグインだけ（＝BitBridgeを経由しない）使うようにしましたが，他の部分でも謎の動作をします。例えば…・ConsoleEmulatorを差すとBitBridge経由で起動される（小さなウィンドウでフロートした状態）。かつConsoleEmulatorのエフェクトが当該トラックに効かない。挙げ句，ConsoleEmulatorのウィンドウを閉じるとSONAR自体がクラッシュ。（x64）・z3ta+がときどき“ガガガーー！！”と爆音を発する（x86/x64）・各種Envelopeが効かない時がある（x86/x64）・LP-64 Multibandの表示がバグり，各帯域のGainなどが反映されない（x86/x64）・Cycloneがあるとき突然，音を出さなくなる（x86）……等。このあたりは改善願いたいです。X2aでも直っていませんが。英語版なので，問い合わせが面倒なところが痛いですね。

すばらしいＤＡＷ・作曲ソフトだと思います。プラグインシンセがこれ以上ないほどに収録されているし、使えないシンセがまずない。コレを買ってしまえば、ある程度の領域までの完成度に持っていく事も可能です。操作は慣れが必要な部分も多いですが、中学校レベルの英語がマスターできているなら、後はほとんど慣れで対処できます。付属のヘルプファイルはまったく使えないので、「SONAR X2 完全攻略ガイド」などの本を参考にして、やっていけば行き詰ることは少ないと思います。

並行輸入品ということで、製品マニュアルやインストール時、ソフトのインターフェイス(メニュー)まで、すべて英語表示になります。私は、他のローランド製品についてきた SONAR X1 LE でこのソフトに慣れていたこともあり、スムーズに移行できました。機能などは通常版と変わりませんので、半額以下で買えることを考えるとお得だと思います！

正規輸入版と並行輸入版の購入を比較検討していましたが　やはり価格が決め手となり　こちらの商品を購入しました。当方　中学生並みの英語力ですが　特に慣れてしまえば英語表示も気になりません。この価格でProducerが手に入ります。満足です。