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Cakewalk Software SONAR XL (Windows 98SE/Me/2000/XP)

SONAR is the industry-standard for audio and MIDI production, used daily by thousands of musicians, composers, DJ/remix artists, engineers, and producers involved in CD recording and mastering; scoring and posting for film and television; and music for the Internet. SONAR XL provides all of the capabilities of SONAR, plus additional DXi soft synths, audio loop libraries, and a SoundFont library. Learn More...

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Overall User Ratings

Overall:
* * * * * * * . . . 7 out of 10
Features:
* * * * * * * * * * 10 out of 10
Quality:
* * * * * * * * * * 10 out of 10
Value:
* * * * * * * * * * 10 out of 10
I Want It:
* * * * * * * . . . 7 out of 10
Sound:
* * * * * * * * * * 10 out of 10
Support:
* * * * * * * * * * 10 out of 10

Individual User Ratings

Overall:
* * * * * * * * * * 10 out of 10
Features:
* * * * * * * * * * 10 out of 10
Quality:
* * * * * * * * * * 10 out of 10
Value:
* * * * * * * * * * 10 out of 10
I Want It:
* * * * * * * . . . 7 out of 10
Sound:
* * * * * * * * * * 10 out of 10
Support:
* * * * * * * * * * 10 out of 10

Feature:
I find the overall interface, audio tools, ACID loop support, integrated synths, and deep MIDI editing the most useful features. The bonus plug-ins in XL are very useful. I'm now using it's rewire support to work with project5 and Reason, and that is also working well. Least useful would probably be the light version of the Live Synth Pro because after a month you can only use small size SF banks. It would have been better with VST support, but I have the adapter for that and it works fine for me.

Quality:
I found a few bugs in the initial 2.0 version, but now that 2.2 is out, It's been smooth sailing.

Value:
I wish this were around 10 years ago when I spent thousands of dollars to get about 1% of the capabilities found in Sonar.

Desirability:
The features make it sexy, but I guess it could look a little sexier. Does that really matter though?

Sound:
Sonar is a transparent audio application. What I mean by that is it doesn't color my audio when I record. Well that is unless I want it to :)

Support:
I haven't really needed service or support so I guess that's the best it could be.

Overall:
I'll keep this until Cakewalk releases version 3.0.

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