I’v been away from recording for a while, and last worked about a year ago with XP and Sonar 5PE. I now have the free trial download of 8.02 and am pretty amazed at how well it’s all working. What used to consume 40% of resources at 30ms now consumes less than 5% CPU at 10ms. I’m using a $450 Acer computer with Intel brains and 3 GB of RAM. Pretty cool.

The sound quality is much better than what I was getting before as well. Still using the same sound card, too. Pretty impressive over all. The upgrade from S5 is $250, so it’s a good deal as far as upgrades go.

I’ve had no clicks or pops, no IRQ conflicts, no drop outs or anything other than music. Hard to believe after all the crap I’ve gone through with the previous set up.

Anyone else having good luck with this?

Bob

Update - Spent the $$ on the upgrade to 8PE and couldn’t be happier. Everything loaded without a hitch and it’s working fine.  Loads fast and really sounds great with low latency and no problems.

Hi spongeBob. Listen ,can u tell me if in cakewalk sonar u can record u’r voice as well because i make music and i would like to have o music software that can olso record my voice olso not only instruments. Thanks .U can sent me an e-mail at

Yes, you can record your voice and any other audio data into Cakewalk Sonar.  One way is to plug a microphone into an external or an internal sound card.  I have an external M-Audio product that works pretty well for me.

I am very very happy and long time Cakewalk / Sonar user.
Sonar 8PE works perfectly with XS and firewire interface.
Couldn’t be happier.

I am using also Cubase AI4 but just for importing XS song files / converting XS songs to midi file. Ok, it would be nice if I could import XS songs straight to Sonar without using Cubabe for conversion. But I’m happy, it only takes minute or so to do the conversion with Cubase. Then I am able to continue the work with the amazing Sonar.

tuquoque - 12 March 2010 07:24 AM

I am very very happy and long time Cakewalk / Sonar user.
Sonar 8PE works perfectly with XS and firewire interface.
Couldn’t be happier.

I am using also Cubase AI4 but just for importing XS song files / converting XS songs to midi file. Ok, it would be nice if I could import XS songs straight to Sonar without using Cubabe for conversion. But I’m happy, it only takes minute or so to do the conversion with Cubase. Then I am able to continue the work with the amazing Sonar.

I don’t understand how you need Cubase for this...I have been able to create songs on the XS and send the MIDI and Audio data to Sonar at the same time all on different tracks. Something I have not been able to do with AI 4.

Sonar will accept all track data based on the inputs you set up in on the track...I put Sonar in external clock mode hit record and play on the Motif and all the data plays and records to Sonar…

HOWEVER....I had to set Sonar’s MIDI clock down from the default 960 NPQN in order not to have the play back timing messed up. I set mine to 192. It can probably go higher But I definitely could not get good results from Sonar at 960.

Kingfrog - 11 April 2010 01:06 PM

tuquoque - 12 March 2010 07:24 AM

I am very very happy and long time Cakewalk / Sonar user.
Sonar 8PE works perfectly with XS and firewire interface.
Couldn’t be happier.

I am using also Cubase AI4 but just for importing XS song files / converting XS songs to midi file. Ok, it would be nice if I could import XS songs straight to Sonar without using Cubabe for conversion. But I’m happy, it only takes minute or so to do the conversion with Cubase. Then I am able to continue the work with the amazing Sonar.

I don’t understand how you need Cubase for this...I have been able to create songs on the XS and send the MIDI and Audio data to Sonar at the same time all on different tracks. Something I have not been able to do with AI 4.

Sonar will accept all track data based on the inputs you set up in on the track...I put Sonar in external clock mode hit record and play on the Motif and all the data plays and records to Sonar…

HOWEVER....I had to set Sonar’s MIDI clock down from the default 960 NPQN in order not to have the play back timing messed up. I set mine to 192. It can probably go higher But I definitely could not get good results from Sonar at 960.

Good for you. My wife is using a $500 Notebook and Sonar 4 seamlessly..However I suddenly am having audio dropouts using three or four tracks in Sonar 8 on a Q2660 running XP....The CPU and Hardrive are showing 3% yet the audio engine is stopping.

Kingfrog - 11 April 2010 01:06 PM

I don’t understand how you need Cubase for this...I have been able to create songs on the XS and send the MIDI and Audio data to Sonar at the same time all on different tracks. Something I have not been able to do with AI 4.

You can record midi data from XS to Sonar but you can not import native XS songs with mix settings. Import function is much faster if you for example have several song versions you want to continue editing in DAW. Just try it and you know what I am talking about.

tuquoque - 11 April 2010 01:33 PM

Kingfrog - 11 April 2010 01:06 PM

I don’t understand how you need Cubase for this...I have been able to create songs on the XS and send the MIDI and Audio data to Sonar at the same time all on different tracks. Something I have not been able to do with AI 4.

You can record midi data from XS to Sonar but you can not import native XS songs with mix settings. Import function is much faster if you for example have several song versions you want to continue editing in DAW. Just try it and you know what I am talking about.

OK I think I get you… I was able to send Xcellent Session up to Sonar in MIDI and Audio...As far as the Mix settings..I am not sure what you are referring to..Please elaborate,

Also if you could. List I/Os you have set up in Cubase AI, Thanks

tuquoque - 11 April 2010 01:33 PM

Kingfrog - 11 April 2010 01:06 PM

I don’t understand how you need Cubase for this...I have been able to create songs on the XS and send the MIDI and Audio data to Sonar at the same time all on different tracks. Something I have not been able to do with AI 4.

You can record midi data from XS to Sonar but you can not import native XS songs with mix settings. Import function is much faster if you for example have several song versions you want to continue editing in DAW. Just try it and you know what I am talking about.

OK I think understand what you are doing..You want to create songs on the XS send the audio tracks to Cubase then import them into Sonar for further editing with mix settings?