How the heck did you make those 90 deg turns in the volume envelope without a node in the angle ? Inquiring minds want to know !

When you hand-plant automation, you are given the option of four different transitions: jump, linear, slow and fast. (Other DAWs give you more options than that, but you can create all of the other curves using just those 4 basic shapes so it's really not much of a limitation.)

Whenever you specify anything other than a jump transition, SONAR has to interpolate the intermediate values during playback in 50ms intervals, which incurs CPU overhead that can be avoided by using jumps when you don't actually need a smooth transition. And you don't need a transition if the change occurs during silence, such as between clips or between phrases in a clip.

Jumps can also be used creatively. I have inserted them into choir pads underlying real vocals to put emphasis on individual "words". Same with string ensembles and solo strings to simulate dynamic playing. My screenshot is of a faux-guitar solo, in which liberal use of automation is intended to make the part sound more expressive. A guitar library can capture the raw sounds of a guitar just fine; it's the expressiveness that's missing from most fake-guitar passages.

Mike, sorry once again.

bitflipper

How the heck did you make those 90 deg turns in the volume envelope without a node in the angle ? Inquiring minds want to know !

When you hand-plant automation, you are given the option of four different transitions: jump, linear, slow and fast. (Other DAWs give you more options than that, but you can create all of the other curves using just those 4 basic shapes so it's really not much of a limitation.)

Whenever you specify anything other than a jump transition, SONAR has to interpolate the intermediate values during playback in 50ms intervals, which incurs CPU overhead that can be avoided by using jumps when you don't actually need a smooth transition. And you don't need a transition if the change occurs during silence, such as between clips or between phrases in a clip.

Jumps can also be used creatively. I have inserted them into choir pads underlying real vocals to put emphasis on individual "words". Same with string ensembles and solo strings to simulate dynamic playing. My screenshot is of a faux-guitar solo, in which liberal use of automation is intended to make the part sound more expressive. A guitar library can capture the raw sounds of a guitar just fine; it's the expressiveness that's missing from most fake-guitar passages.

Mike, sorry once again.

 
 
Thanks for explaining Dave. I had never even noticed the jump option before or if I did, I couldn't think of a use for it. But I see it now in the add nodes dialog.  It really would make sense to use it based on the information you provided.
 
I'm sorry too Mike.