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Upgrade for Sonar XL just as good?


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Hey all, I'm going to be getting SonarXL soon but I have discovered something in my research on the price. If you buy Home Studio 2002 first, then upgrade to SonarXL through cakewalk you can save about $80.00 to $100.00 bucks. Not a whole lot of cash but enough to notice, for me at least. :D What I'd like to know is if there are any drawbacks to upgrading instead of getting XL to begin with. Are there any weird glitches that pop up from doing an upgrade that wouldn't be there if you'd just installed the full XL version to begin with, that sort of thing. I'd like to save the cash but not if it is going to cause problems. Plus I can afford Home studio now. Maybe I can get that now so I can start learning the software and how to use the Soft Synths (which is mainly why I want XL to begin with), then upgrade to SonarXL in a couple of months when I have the cash. Sounds like a plan but I won't do it if an *upgraded* version of sonar isn't as stable as a fresh install of the full program would be. What say you??
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Hey Stratman: When I bought Sonar, I did so with a "competitive upgrade" package. I've been a Logic Audio user for years, and as the owner of a competing program, they gave me a break on the price. As usual, I got a "screaming deal" on it - I think I paid a bit over $200 for it - but I know it was under $250. I got it at my local "Guitar Mart". :) But Logic isn't the only program that qualifies for the competitive upgrade pricing. Acid Pro, Cuebase Ver. 3 or higher, Vegas, Studio Vision, and Digital Performer all qualify for comp. upgrade pricing. Also, if you own any Cakewalk products such as Home Studio, Pro Audio, Fruity Loops, etc. all have special "upgrade" pricing offers available. So if you have any one of those programs, you might want to look into it and save some moolah. Personally, I decided to go with Sonar instead of the XL version because I didn't think XL offered enough "extras" to justify the significantly higher price. Sure, there's some extra loops and soundfonts on a second CD, but I've heard from several XL owners that they were not all that impressed with those. YMMV. Also, the only other differences are in terms of the bundled DXi soft synths that are included in the two packages. XL has the "full" version of the Tassman soft synth, while Sonar only has a "lite" version. And XL has the "lite" version of the Revalver guitar amp emulation program, which the regular version of Sonar lacks. Since I already have a POD and a Johnson J Station, this wasn't important to me either. Again, YMMV, but those are the only differences between the two, and IMO, it wasn't worth an extra $260 (retail price difference between Sonar @ $479 and Sonar XL @ $739). Looking at the Cakewalk website, it looks like they have upgraded Home Studio to be more in line with the Sonar line, but there are some significant differences, such as lack of MTC capabilities and a limit of only two inputs and two outputs irregardless of what sound card you're using (deal breakers for me, but it may not matter to you). But from what I can see, it looks like you'd be just fine with learning on it, and I'm sure much of the functions work in a similar manner, but that's just a guess from what I've seen on their website and doesn't reflect any hands on experience with that program on my part. As far as upgrades go, Cakewalk is really cool about the way they handle it. If you bought and registered Home Studio 2002, you could then get Sonar at the reduced price. It would be the "full" version of whichever version of Sonar you purchased (Sonar or Sonar XL), and it wouldn't need to "see" Home Studio 2002 installed already in order to install "over" it, like Microsquash requires a Windows XP "Upgrade" to "see" Win 98/ME already installed in order to install. IOW, if you're worried about any problems, you could save your work to a safe folder or to a CD-R disk (assuming Sonar could "import" those Home Studio 2002 files - I don't have any idea if it can or not) and then uninstall Home Studio and THEN install Sonar. As I've said before, I was never a big Cakewalk fan in the past, but Sonar - especially with the latest 1.3 upgrade / bug fix, has really impressed me. Best of luck with your decision. Phil O'Keefe Sound Sanctuary Recording Riverside CA http://members.aol.com/ssanctuary/index.html pokeefe777@msn.com
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Cakewalk's website does a good job pointing out the differences in Sonar vs. Sonar XL. They have also been pretty reasonable about their upgrade pricing, and the copy protection is still not abusive. I went ahead and did the upgrade to XL thinking I'll want the extended features of the softsynth stuff as I get deeper into that world. And you can never have enough samples and loops, they might come in handy someday.
Woof!
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Very cool to hear :D :D :D Thanks for the input everybody. Pokeefe- Actually I'm kind of undecided as to which version I'll get. As I said the main reason I want to get Sonar is for the soft Synth support and XL comes with better Soft Synths. But in truth I'm not really a sound designer type person, give me a good pre-set that I can tweak a little bit and I'm a happy camper. Quite honestly The standard version of Sonar would probably be good enough and keep me happily twiddling for some time. I probably would be better off saving the $200.00 difference between Sonar and XL and putting that toward an anolog interface for my computer. Guess I talked myself into it :D I've got a digital interface which works fine with my VF-16 but unfortunately I can't put my VF into record standby and record direct to the computer which I thought I'd be able to do. Oh well, my bag. Will teach me to do some better researching in the future. Thanks again for the input folks, I'll let you know what I decide on. Phil.
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