Feature Request: Auto Pre-Roll option. Please vote up if you think you might like this!
As a musician and more often as a narrator, I have the desire to interrupt recording to immediately correct a flub. This is especially important when doing long-form narration. Most self-producing narrators use a technique they call "punch and roll" to eliminate the need to go back through the whole recording (which can be hours long) and edit out mistakes. It is much more productive (and profitable) use of time to be able to correct them on the fly.
The most-recommended tools in the voice-over industry are Pro-Tools and Reaper, mainly because both have the functionality I'm proposing for Sonar. Since I have been invested in Cakewalk software for over two decades, I would rather not have to use something else. It would be also be good for Cakewalk to be able to compete equally in the voice-over space, as something better than Reaper and arguably better than Pro-Tools. :)
In Sonar, It seems I have four options to do this, none of which are optimal...
- Reset the Now pointer to just before the mistake and press R to resume recording at that point immediately. The problem with this is the probability of the keyboard noise or my movement will be picked up on mic, and I have no idea how well the previously-recorded section flows into the new one.
- Same as above, but use metronome count-in to delay recording. This solves the keyboard/body movement noise issue, but I still don't know how well the edit flows. Using this technique seems to encourage coming in slightly early, (perhaps the time-bomb ticking of the metronome raises adrenaline) which means the pacing of the edit is often rushed, or the beginning cut off entirely.
- Scrub back several seconds before I want to start re-recording, hit space bar to listen to the previous recording up to the point where I press R at the right instance to begin recording. This is really old-school! It solves the pacing issue--I can listen to the good material, get into the groove, then manually punch in from then on. The problem with this is the key noise issue, as well as the probability of a poorly-timed press of R causing the beginning of the new recording begin cut off, or the end of the edit coming too early.
- Use Auto Punch: Set the Now pointer to where the recording is to begin, click the Set Punch Points To Selection button, click the Punch-Out time, type 999999-Enter to set the punch out time to virtual infinity, click the timeline to a point several seconds before the punch-in point, press R. This usually gives me the results I'm looking for--I hear the material before the punch to get into the pacing, then carry on with the next phrase. But the amount of mousing and keying around every time you need to do a retake is crazy and tiring after reading several chapters of a novel. The only problem occurs occasionally if I come in too early before the punch-in point--the beginning is cut off.
The feature I'm requesting is really simple. Sonar needs a Recording Preference setting to automatically play back a set amount of the audio prior to the point recording begins. The workflow becomes much easier.
Just stop, go back to the point you want to start re-recording and hit Record. You hear the end of the good recording to get back into the groove and resume tracking!
The below mockup shows the Auto Pre-Roll option, with a spot to specify the amount of time (measures, beats, seconds) to play back before recording is engaged. The feature would work whether Auto-Punch was enabled or not. If Auto Punch is enabled, it would provide an automatic playback of that many measures/beats/seconds before the Punch-In time. If Auto-Punch was disabled, it would provide automatic playback of that amount of time before the recording begins at the NowTime point.
Finally,
please start recording audio immediately upon pressing R during the pre-roll, and just set the starting edit point of the new clip(s) to the punch-in (or starting Now-Time) point. That would ensure that any early starts wouldn't be lost permanently, and it would add lead-in material to possibly crossfade if desired. (
PT does pre-roll that way)
While tape-style punch-in is considered by many to be too "old school" and very counter to the ideals of NLE production, remember that lately everything old is new again. (I just read today that the fastest growing music delivery format is vinyl!!!) Many producers are firm believers that some of the more demanding practices of the "old days" made musicians "up their game" producing stellar performances. This is a feature I'm sure many musicians would wonder how they got along without it once they got a taste of it.
Keep up the great work, CW developers! Love the PC2A! Hopefully a Fairchild is in the works too, but I'd love to see pre-roll first :).
Thanks!
-Bob