deanesque wrote:I mean ACTUALLY WORK. i.e. I don't waste hours of my life troubleshooting but instead actually get work done in ReWire mode with Sonar in 64bit mode. Sibelius 7 will not work for me..
If it truly does I will upgrade.
BACKGROUNDI do everything on a 2.8-GHz 8-core Mac Pro with 20GB of memory running Mac OS X 10.8.2 (Mountain Lion) in the sound isolation studio, and I augment the Mac Pro with a MOTU 828mk3 Hybrid external digital audio and MIDI interface, which is used to connect microphones, real instruments, and MIDI devices to the Mac Pro . . .
Sonar X2 only runs on Windows machines, so I cannot run it here in the sound isolation studio, but so what . . .
So what! There is more to answering your questions than just providing some insights into whether Sonar X2 implements enough of ReWire 2 to be useful in a practical way . . .
Understanding ReWire with respect to operating system platforms requires knowing a little bit about the history of two companies (Propellerhead Software and Steinberg), where the key bit of information is that at one time they were working cooperatively on the idea of developing interoperability software, but somewhere along the line they had a disagreement and went their separate ways, where the Steinberg folks developed Virtual Studio Technology (VST) which is based on the general concept that Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) applications can be enhanced with VST effects plug-ins and VSTi virtual instruments, which certainly is the case . . .
In contrast, the folks at Propellerhead Software developed a complete, self-contained digital music production system called Reason, but they also developed ReWIre as an industry standard technology which allows digital music production applications to intercommunicate and interoperate for purposes of working with digitally generated audio, and among other things ReWire is one way to interface Reason 6.5 to DAW applications like Digital Performer 8 (MOTU) and Logic Pro 9 (Apple), as well as Cubase 6.5 (Steinberg), but with the caveat that Cubase 6.5 only does 32-bit ReWire . . .
From this perspective, there are two general systems in the Windows universe, where (a) Reason 6.5 is the self-contained system and (b) the other system comprises all DAW applications, hence there tends to be a general reluctance in the Windows universe for DAW applications to give much attention to ReWire, because implementing and supporting ReWire tends to introduce customers to Reason 6.5, so when a DAW application in the Windows universe implements and supports ReWire, the vendor does this to a certain degree at the risk of losingcustomers when they discover that Reason 6.5 is vastly fascinating and very productive . . .
Over in the Mac universe, the reality is that nobody gives a hoot about protecting turf, so everything just works, at least with DAW application which either are or at one time were available only for the Mac. The dual platform DAW applications provide varying levels of ReWIre implementation and support on the Mac, and for this reason I only recommend DIgital Performer 8 and Logic Pro 9 . . .
OPTIMIZING YOUR VALUABLE TIMEThis is very important, but it tends to be given short shrift due to the ongoing problem which occurs when otherwise sensible people become acolytes of one of the 10 major religions (Atari, Android, Chrome, iOS, Linux, Mac OS X, PlayStation, Wii, Windows, and Xbox) and for all practical purposes lose the ability to make sensible decisions regarding the optimal strategy for doing digital music production at the dawn of the early-21st century
Beginning in 2001, I discovered something truly fascinating, which soon led to a profound epiphany, which is the fact that stuff works on Apple computers without requiring one to mess with a bunch of technical computer nonsense, so instead of having to mess with technical computer nonsense, when you do everything on the Mac you can focus on doing digital music production, which in the grand scheme of everything is a very useful bit of information . . .
It is just the way it is, and none of it is my fault, either . . . THOUGHTSOne of things that happens when Windows folks begin considering the possibility of doing ReWire is that the perspective regarding NOTION 3 and NOTION 4 is that their Windows DAW applications are perfect, so if there are any problems, then the problem must be caused by imperfections in NOTION 3 and NOTION 4, which generally is a bunch of nonsense, because NOTION 3 and NOTION 4 follow the ReWire and ReWire 2 rules, and NOTION 3 and NOTION 4 are good neighbors in the ReWIre and ReWire 2 neighborhoods . . .
This is the information I found regarding Sonar (Cakewalk) and ReWire, where the Propellerhead Software link has general information and the two Cakewalk links have information specific to Sonar X2 and ReWire 2:
ReWire Tutorial for Sonar (Propellerhead Software)Sonar X2: ReWire Instruments (Cakewalk)[
NOTE: This link has detailed information on "bouncing to disk", which is the way ReWire 2 audio is recorded as soundbites, where "bounce to disk" and "soundbites" are part of the terminology of Digital Performer 8, although "bounce to disk" is a general term. For reference, "bounce to disk" is the same as "rendering" in a general multimedia context, and there are some difference in recorded tracks and soundbites, but so what . . . ]
Sonar X2: Converting Soft Synth Tracks to Audio (Cakewalk)Based on the information provided at the three links (
see above), one might infer reasonably that Sonar X2 correctly implements and supports ReWire 2, hence will work correctly when doing ReWire 2 with NOTION 4 . . .
However, I have no way to verify this, so all I can do is guess . . .
Nevertheless, if you have Sonar X2, you can download the Reason 6.5 DEMO, which is approximately 3.3GB, and then you can determine how well Sonar X2 works with Reason 6.5, where
you must be running Windows 7 to do 64-bits, which is important, because Reason 6.5 is the gold standard ReWire 2 slave application that every vendor uses to verify their implementation and support for ReWIre 2 . . .
Reason 6.5 DEMO (Propellerhead Software)Reason (Propellerhead Software)[
NOTE: This is the link to the Propellerhead Shop, where all the Rack Extensions are listed, most of which have audio or video examples. The focus is very different from using music notation to control and play VSTi virtual instruments, but you can use music notation in NOTION 4 via External MIDI staves on the Mac to control and play Reason 6.5 instruments, music boxes, and so forth and so on . . . ]
Rack Extensions for Reason (Propellerhead Shop)If Sonar X2 works nicely as the ReWIre 2 host controller with Reason 6.5 being the ReWire 2 slave application in Windows 7, then this is a good sign that Sonar X2 will work correctly as the ReWire 2 host controller for NOTION 4 when NOTION 4 is running as a ReWire 2 slave application . . .
SUMMARYWatching the following video that I made recently will provide a big clue to the realities of doing digital music production on the Mac, and I recommend it as a very productive and perhaps enlightening use of 15 minutes of your valuable time, because it is truly mind-boggling, for sure. . .
Digital Performer 8, NOTION 4, Reason 6.5, External MIDI, ReWire 2 on the Mac -- QuickTime Movie -- MOV (63.7MB, approximately 14 minutes and 45 seconds)For sure! Over the long run, if your goal is to avoid needing to mess with frustrating computer nonsense, then my advice is to get an Apple computer . . .
For reference, the philosophy in the Apple universe is that the computer is not supposed to bother the human, and this maps across the board to everything being as easy to do as possible, which is vastly important when you want to be able to focus on doing digital music production rather than on messing with computer hardware, drivers, settings, configuration parameters, and so forth, which is fabulous . . .
QUESTION: Can you do ReWire 2 productively on your Windows 7 machine with its specific sound card and drivers with Sonus X2 as the ReWire 2 host controller and NOTION 4 as the ReWIre 2 slave application, all in 64-bits? I have no idea, and I abandoned all hope of ever being able to answer that type of question over a decade ago when I switched to the Mac . . . But I can state with certainty based on verified experiments that you can do this with Digital Performer 8 or Logic Pro 9 running in 64-bit mode on an Apple computer running Mac OS X 10.8.2 (Mountain Lion) as the ReWire host controller with NOTION 4 as the ReWire 2 slave application, which includes being able simultaneously to have NOTION 4 controlling and playing Reason 6.5 instruments via music notation provided on NOTION 4 External MIDI staves, with all the generated audio being piped to Digital Performer 8 or Logic Pro 9, where all you need to do to record the generated audio in real-time on the fly is to enable the requisite tracks or channels for recording and then to press the "Record" button, which is as easy and simple as possible, which is fabulous . . .
Fabulous!