• I'm a converted believer

  
  As reviewed by Jason Mackay on 2/19/2011

  So, this new version has gotten bogged down in a lot of talk. I'll admit, I was skeptical to try it. But I refuse to be a PT user and I've always had great results with Cakewalk's support staff. So I took the plunge... Don't listen to the forums. Try it for yourself. It's awesome. It is the DAW that I have always wanted. Also, for those still on the fence. I'm running it on a laptop PC that is far below the minimum requirements and I haven't had any problems at all. No crashes.

  9 of 9 people found this review helpful.
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• X1 Producer interface is a giant improvement over SONAR 8.5 Producer

  
  As reviewed by gregg morgan on 11/16/2011

  Cakewalk's product release paradigm is something like Microsoft's. Release the product, let the users find the bugs then fix them with patches. That's kind of a crummy approach for the user, but in the end the results are great. SONAR X1 was pretty rough when first released but now, after several "fixes" it is awesome. All the bugs I had ever seen in X1 are fixed and the system works great. Also, every time Cakewalk has made a "fix" they throw in a couple of nice extra features as a sort of "Thank you for your patience", I think. The new interface is a great improvement of Producer 8.5 and it actually takes some effort to get used to how much easier it is to use. I can't believe some of these other reviews I've read. Even with the early "buggier" versions I've never experienced any of the kinds of problems they're complaining about. My experience is that SONAR X1 Producer Expanded (the version I'm using) is a very powerful and complete DAW plus a suite of professional quality effects, mixing and mastering tools that are all you need to produce spectacular recordings. I won't say that X1 Producer is not for beginners, but if you're a beginner, expect a big learning curve...not because the system is difficult to learn or to use but because there's just so much there.

  3 of 3 people found this review helpful.
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• Who can you believe?

  
  As reviewed by Marco on 5/7/2011

  It's tough to know who to believe with these subjective reviews, but I thought I'd give it go anyway. I went through 10k in the last 14 months trying to assemble a nice home studio. It was painful, exhausting and depressing with a few high moments. I went through 5 interfaces and a half dozen software packages. There are literally dozens of software and hardware issues that will burn your time, your enthusiasm and money. 1) Make sure you have a solid machine. Win7 64bit, 12Gb Clean (tested) Memory and fast drives. I have an i7 980 Intel 3.33Ghz CPU...all purchased recently during my 14 month fiasco. I started with Record/Reason from Propellerhead...nice but limited, then I went for the industry standard Pro Tools 9...expensive, buggy, 2 minutes to open, feature poor with a non-intuitive interface. Right now I'm using Sonar X1 producer with Komplete 7 and so far I'm shocked at how refined, feature rich and fast it is. It works excellent with my Focusrite Liquid Sapphire 56 interface. I love the pro channel and their surround implementation is outstanding. Combining it with Komplete 7 and Superior Drummer 2, I have plenty of sound options and an overwhelming number of effects to insert in the signal path. The thing is, it works, it behaves, it plays nice with the harware, it's refined and comprehensive. The enormous amount of detailed programming that went into the interface is commendable. All the panes dock and float however you like. The hot keys all conform to standard windows behavior. The extensive menus are well laid out and the configuration windows are feature rich and offer musicians just what we need. This genre of software application is tough to develop because of all the variability in hardware the app must play nice with. But the Cakewalk development team has done a superb job with the hardware integration. The only way you?re going to appreciate this software is to try something like Pro Tools 9 first and then switch to Sonar X1 like I did. Then it becomes clear. I'm sure someone will disagree with me, but the difference from my perspective is like night and day. Sonar X1 is a refined and elegantly developed application when compared to the buggy, unforgiving Pro Tools 9.

  2 of 2 people found this review helpful.
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