interfacing BR 800 with sonar can we do this?

[Glenn Mitchell]

Ok the next steps.
The first was to record several tracks into the BR, then open sonar and attempt to bring them in and edit from there.
I assumed this would be a common thing to do because it's what I did with the MBR and the Korg - only there was a conversion process. Convert to waves and then import to Audacity sort of thing.
The problem here is the tracks do not appear when I open Sonar altho the BR is connected and does control things like play etc. IOW there's no tracks to play and I don't know how to tell Sonar where they are.
How does the BR communicate the tracks to Sonar?
Is this another BR converter scenario?
Or does this only work in real-time where the BR is only used as a controller/mixer and the tracking is done thru the BR to Sonar? (I can't do this due to PC fan noise into open mics)

[64Guitars]

Lookup "Media Browser" in the SONAR manual. I think you just drag your wave files from the Media Browser into your audio tracks. I've never used SONAR though, so I could be wrong or there could be a better way.

Of course, you have to first convert your BR tracks to wave files using the BR Wave Converter.

I think you can open the Media Browser by pressing Alt-1.

[Glenn Mitchell]

Thanks again
Just wondering,  what DAW you use if you do?
I've heard both sides on Sonar. "too confusing" and "intuitive"
I still haven't discounted some other DAW like Reaper.

[64Guitars]

I record all of my tracks in the BR-864. Then I use Audacity for final mixing, editing, trimming, normalizing, and exporting to MP3. It's not as pretty or full-featured as DAWs like SONAR, Reaper, Cubase, Reason, Abelton, Audition, Pro Tools, etc., but it does everything I need quite well and it's free.

If I had a BR-800, I'd probably want to use something other than Audacity since I'd want to use the BR-800 as a control surface and Audacity doesn't support midi, so it wouldn't work. As a Linux user, I'd try some of the free open-source DAWs such as Ardour, Rosegarden, MusE, LMMS, Jokosher, etc. I've already played around with all of these just to see what they're like. But I don't currently have a need to use them more seriously so I haven't spent much time learning them. Ardour is very powerful and supports Mackie control surfaces, so it should work with the BR-800. But it's not entirely free. They ask users to pay for it, though they leave the amount up to the user. It's available for Linux and OS X but not for Windows. Rosegarden is awesome for midi sequencing and score printing. It also supports audio tracks but that isn't what it's known for and I haven't really tried that, so I'm not sure how Rosegarden compares to other DAWs for audio recording.

If I was using Windows and had a BR-800, I'd probably just use the SONAR 8.5 LE that comes with it since it wouldn't cost me anything, it allows the BR-800 to be used as a control surface, and it looks like it will do everything I'd need and more. I'd try it for at least a few months and make a good effort to learn as much about it as I could by studying the manual and getting familiar with each feature. If I then decided I wanted something more (although I think that's unlikely), I'd probably try Reaper. The price is much more reasonable than other DAWs and it seems to be a very good DAW.

When it comes to commercial DAWs for Windows, I don't think one's much better than another, so I'd base my decision on price. With any DAW, you need to spend a lot of time studying manuals, online help, etc. to get comfortable with the many features. I don't think any of them are so intuitive and user-friendly that you can just dive in and start recording without studying the manual. There are just too many interrelated features for that kind of immediate productivity. But if you're willing to put the time and effort into learning the DAW, you'll soon become familiar enough with it that you can start concentrating on your music instead of the software. And once you're familiar with one DAW, it's fairly easy to switch to another because a lot of the features are the same. Although, I don't think there's much benefit to switching once you've invested a lot of time in learning a particular DAW because, like I said, they're all pretty much the same. I think most people switch DAWs because they don't have the patience to learn the one they've got and they think another will be easier. Unfortunately, I don't think it works like that. They're all equally hard to learn because they're all loaded with many features. Actually, I shouldn't have said they're "hard" to learn. I should have said they're time-consuming to learn. But I think it's time well-spent. You'll not only learn how to make the most of your DAW, but you'll learn a lot about audio principals and recording in general.

[TPB]

While not familar with the boss I am okay with sonar, You will open sonar select new project click on a audio track not midi then under the file menu you select import audio go to where your tracks are located select them and they will be imported as a wave files. You should be able to mix and do what you have too.
Tim

[Glenn Mitchell]

Thanks once again 64
These strike me as wise words coming from capable experience. I am committed to learning Sonar and would likely continue to do editing in Audacity in the meantime just to get some productivity mixed in with the learning curve.

Thanks TPB. I think you are saying I would export the files from the BR with BRWC and import them with the Sonar media explorer or browser function?

[Oldrottenhead]

having acquired a br800 i am now in the process of getting a laptop to use exclusively for music production. got my eye on one
http://www.3000rpm.com/acatalog/IBM-Lenovo-Thinkpad-T410-Intel-i5-2.40Ghz-Laptop---8Gb---Wi-Fi---Webcam---Win-7-1.html

my intention being i can use the br800 as an interface with sonar or the like.

am curious as to how you got on with your br800 and the daw you went with.

[Glenn Mitchell]

Yes I still use my BR800 as the interface for Sonar. (I now have the Sonar platinum version. Very nice)
I don't do complex recording setups so the 4 inputs is lots for me.
I bought a couple of mics (SM7B and a 57) for my vocals but the onboard mics are still very nice, particularly for stereo acoustic guitar.
I needed to make a custom COSM fx as the presets were coloring the input for the mics too much.
I just use a touch of noise suppression and a touch of limiting.
Oh and I solved the above problem of going direct to Sonar. You don't need to make a wav and import.
Also midi is not much of an issue as Sonar can convert audio to midi with a simple drag and drop
Have fun.