Auto merge of Midi when loop recording

No, not automatically. Sound on Sound just means the previous takes are not muted so they'll all playback as one, audibly, though they remain separate. SONAR will not add new data to an existing clip in any recording mode, but you can merge them yourself after the fact by selecting the whole track, and using Bounce to Clips.

Yes, Cakewalk worked that way in '89, too. 

There seems to be a bug when doing midi loop overdub recording as well. I'll do a video when I get time and show you.

Thanks for your input. It's interesting to hear how others work and I can see the flexibility of working that way. Although I still feel having the option to auto merge would be good as well.
 
One thing I've noticed is that when I've recorded for example the kick drum. When it loops back to the beginning not all the kick are playing back. It's only when I stop record and press playback that I can hear all the recorded  kicks. I made a video showing what I mean .
 
Edit : Looks like I can't past a screencast link..
 
I would be interested to know if you can reproduce this apparent problem .  Or maybe it's a setting I'm missing .
 
 
 

I've seen some people (in other forums) cite this issue as their first reason why they don't like Sonar and uses their current daw. I think Cakewalk can acquire new users by adding the option to switch the behaviors. So, I think you should submit a feature request (oh, I guess sharke already did ).

Jlien X
I've seen some people (in other forums) cite this issue as their first reason why they don't like Sonar and uses their current daw. I think Cakewalk can acquire new users by adding the option to switch the behaviors. So, I think you should submit a feature request (oh, I guess sharke already did ).

How do you submit feature requests?

OK the problem I've been describing happens when you have input quantize enabled. I just did some more tests. When I recorded a kick drum in loop mode with input quantize enabled some of the kick were not sounding  . But as soon as I disabled input quantize the problem disappeared. So it must be a bug.

Adralicus
OK the problem I've been describing happens when you have input quantize enabled. I just did some more tests. When I recorded a kick drum in loop mode with input quantize enabled some of the kick were not sounding  . But as soon as I disabled input quantize the problem disappeared. So it must be a bug.

It's very unlikely that Input Quantize would affect anything while recording as it isn't applied until after you stop. It's basically just an automatic post-record operation.
 
Try increasing your MIDI Prepare Using buffer to 500ms if it isn't there already. Recent versions of SONAR default to 250ms which is too low for some systems and results in dropped notes on playback.

I'm guessing that the connection to Input Quantize is that having all the note events exactly on beats (causing some to be simultaneous) is what's causing the dropped note on playback. You can check to see if you get the same result by recording without Input Quantize, and then manually quantizing with the same values. If that's the case, you can try slightly higher Prepare Using values; some systems need 650 or more, but you shouldn;t have to go higher than 1000. You can also try quantizing to something less than 100%, and see if that helps.

Okay. Sorry I didn't try this earlier. I am able to reproduce the issue. With Input Quantize enabled, some notes from each take are being dropped on each subsequent loop until I stop recording and play back; playback after stopping plays all notes as expected. And recording without Input Quantize enabled does not exhibit this problem.
 
Also, it appears that quantizing is being done on playback of previous takes while looping so I think SONAR must be using something like a live MIDI FX to do this. There are known buffering issues when looping with MIDI FX in place, so I don't think there's going to be a workaround oither than disabling Input Quantize. I never use Input Quantizing so I've not run into this before, but I would be surprised if this problem didn't already exist in X2a.
 
EDIT: Confirmed the problem it existed in X2a and earlier versions, but didn't seem quite as severe in SONAR 8. It's also sensitive to what the quantize resolution is, and how far off your hits are. Initially, I was deliberately playing way off the beat in order to see what was going on, and have since found that if I set Input Quantize to a high resolution and/or play with more precision that the problem is much less severe or even non-existent. Conversely, some combinations of resolution, pattern and precision can result in almost every hit being dropped.
 
Time to visit the Problem Reporter.
 
 
 

Are you going to submit a bug report or shall I?

Do you think there's a chance that auto MIDI merge will be in X3e? I'm really finding the lack of this a a huge drawback in using Sonar for midi.
 
Cakewalk seem to have acknowledged the input quantize problem so hopefully that will be fixed at least.

Hi there,
I guess it's down to habit really. Ever since I started with Cubase on the Atari around 1989 I've been used to auto merge when doing overdub midi recording. But I guess you're right that using the "Flatten Comp" is pretty quick to use. Maybe I need to spend more time getting used to using layers/lanes. Thanks for you input it's appreciated

In SONAR conventional MIDI clip boundaries are defined by the start of the first event, and the end of the last one. If you convert the clip to a Groove Clip (right-click or Ctrl+L for Groove Clip [L]ooping), SONAR will pad it with empty space to start and end on measure/beat boundaries. If it doesn't fill the measure as expected,  you may have to correct SONAR's estimate for Beats in Clip in the Groove Clip section of Clip properties in the Track Inspector

I hope the next version includes the option to auto merge midi when loop recording:)