What I really need is to color-code timeline measure numbers

On every one of my songs the top track is a simple midi block for one measure. I have that block duplicated out for like 100+ measures. I use it to color code sections of the song. A stretch of say 8 measures might be yellow to show where the chorus is. I just select the appropriate number of blocks and use clip color to indicate the color. The markers give me names as needed (like Chor1) etc.

It's helpful not only for me but for any performers, like say a drummer, who wants to see what's going on in the monitor from a slight distance.

Extra post 2 deleted. Oops.

Feature Request Form here (already submitted?): http://www.cakewalk.com/support/contact/featurerequest.aspx
 

vladasyn
...I need to be able to color-code the upper part of display above the tracks with measure numbers, so I can know what part I am in. Just like when we select a section and it turns darker, would be nice if we could select a section and assign color permanently for that section.  I want to have my Verse 32 measures blue, Corus 32 measures green and so on. We can color-code tracks, but not the timeline. This would be very helpful to visualize the song structure and make song less fragmented.

I put forward a similar but more elaborate idea a few years ago, as follows:
 
Keep the existing timeline as it stands, but have an additional customisable timeline. To distinguish it from the existing timeline, let's give it a different name, say the "TimeRuler". This timeruler can be divided up as required by the user to represent different sections of the song, e.g. intro, verses, choruses, bridges or whatever. Each section can be assigned a colour and a starting number which could be 1 or 0 or some offset (or even a negative number if required). It could also be assigned a name or descriptive piece of text. When zoomed out the different sections of the song would be identified by the colours. When working in PRV it would be obvious which part of the song you were looking at by the colour of the timeruler. When zoomed in it would be easy to home in on, for example, the 6th bar of the 2nd chorus.

Feature request form is not worth anything- not in my case. I have been asking to return "Undo/Redo" button for years- nothing happened- update after update.
 
Lawjava, I liked your idea, but practically it would not work for me. My songs have 60 and more tracks, so I will not be able to see top midi track at the bottom of the track list. The timeline is always visible and should be color-codable.

Yeah, I actually looked at it myself last night. It is black. lol.

As I understand- holding and playing videos is processing power demanding, so it is not the best solution.

Oh, btw, I don't think CW will add or bring back a feature that they think won't help Sonar sell better (i.e. I don't think many will be excited by the return of the Undo/Redo buttons in the Control Bar, but there'll be many who will like a color-codable timeline.) 

vladasyn
Lawjava, I liked your idea, but practically it would not work for me. My songs have 60 and more tracks, so I will not be able to see top midi track at the bottom of the track list. The timeline is always visible and should be color-codable.

This idea of dummy midi blocks in a track was suggested once before.  I tried it at the time and had the same experience, i.e. the fact that it's not visible most of the time makes it not worth the bother.

Kev999
This idea of dummy midi blocks in a track was suggested once before.  I tried it at the time and had the same experience, i.e. the fact that it's not visible most of the time makes it not worth the bother.

This is true. As soon as the project is scrolled upwards, the first "dummy/template" track is lost. I do use this technique, however. It's the best we've got. Also, doing this template thing is more than just knowing where to put the various parts of a song (e.g. intro, verse, chorus, etc.); it's useful for tracking the counts and measures if the project/song does not start at measure #1. Since there is no offset feature in Sonar (despite being requested by several people) the "dummy/template" track is the next best thing.

iirc we have been waiting for ever to be able to change the indicator so that a midi song can actually start at indicated 1:01:000 vs 2:01:000, and after all this time it is still hard to add 8 + 1 ..lol

I should also add that if you click on the marker name, it selects the space between it and the next marker. Hit Shift-L to loop verses, choruses, etc. really easily.