dubdisciple
The ability to bounce arpreggiator to midi notes that can be edited. Arpreggiators are great but can be stiff and monotonous. Being able to instantly render out all that is heard from pressing one note or chord opens a lot of flexible ways to edit and add variety.

Mind.....blown. How?

I'm a groove clip looper lover.. And a bounce clipper
I love the media browser , grab a loop a sample drag it into the time line , right click on the sample or cntrl L it . Drag it out for sequencing , or Bounce it to clips, cut it up with another sample then bounce that to clips than groove clip it again , drag it out 8 bars then bounce that to a clip ..
For me Bounce to clip and groove clipping goes hand in hand for me.. This is a feature I use relentlessly.

Great thread..

If you use Melodyne to fix pitch and timing, while you are there, use the amplitude tool to fix notes that are too loud or quiet so you don't have to over-compress. You can highlight and change groups of notes, too.

Anderton
My favorite underrated plug-in is the Sonitus Multiband compressor. Not only does it have the limit feature so you can do "maximization"-type compressing (as long as you don't take it too far), but if you don't use it as a compressor by setting the ratio at 1:1, it's a great multiband crossover - insert it in the effects bin and solo a band to process only that range of frequencies.

There are other great uses for the Sonitus Multiband as well.
 * De Esser - Just tune the high frequency band to where the problem is and compress
 * De Plossive - Just tune the low frequency band to where the problem is and compress
 
The great thing about using a multiband comp for plosives, is that you can leave the low frequency untouched until a plosive comes along, and kill it with compression rather than need to change the EQ of the rest of the material.  Also works great for wind noise suppression.

+1 for PerfectSpace

benjaminfrog  I'm gonna go with the percussion algorithm in Melodyne (so I can see the blobs linearly) in conjunction with the volume tool. I use this all the time now for leveling vocal tracks - way more transparent than compression alone. I used to do this by splitting vocal tracks up into a bunch of clips and changing the gain of the individual clips. Now I can just adjust the volume of the blobs in Melodyne and, what's even cooler, they are resized to represent their new level, whereas the waveforms of clips stay the same size unless/until you bounce them.

Side note:  Using the volume envelope tool in Melodyne or V-Vocal is very cool, and using gain control on individual clips is also handy, and has its place - all for sure.

I'm wondering, though, why you used to split vocal tracks into a bunch of clips to use the clip gain when a continuous volume envelope on the vocal track is so much easier and faster-?  For the segments that don't need pitch correction, you can still do a lot of accurate volume work without compression necessarily being needed.

Even if you don't have a control surface or keyboard with sliders, it works fine to work with a fader in real time with "record automation" on.  And of course envelopes can be done by hand too.

Here's a vocal track with a hand drawn envelope quite obviously bringing soft bits up and loud bits down:



And here's a good corrective volume envelope, also on a vocal track, recorded in a single pass.
 


Ears are the best guide for the results of any volume work, but if you're wanting a visualization of a track's volume, the waveform preview is a great tool - I often use that on individual tracks and buses.

--Just wanted to point out that there are methods much less time consuming and clumsy than snipping into clips and using clip gain.

Randy B.
 
 

Exactly. I like to adjust the gain pre-compressor. If that can be done with track automation, I was unaware and that's good to know. Though, generally, I find clip automation simpler than track automation, anyway.

noynekker
As trivial as this may seem, it's something I use on every midi editing session:
 
Using Keyboard command "[" and"]" (square brackets) to enter +10 or -10 increments in the Event Inspector, Note Properties data fields.
. . . it also works for entering + octave and - octave entries.
 
This has always worked in Cakewalk products, even though it is not assigned in Keyboard Shortcuts.

Similarly, if you right-click on a "+" or "-" scroll button, it'll jump by +/- 12. For example, highlight a midi clip, Transpose, then right-click on the + scroll button to transpose an octave (12 steps) up.

benjaminfrog
Exactly. I like to adjust the gain pre-compressor. If that can be done with track automation, I was unaware and that's good to know. Though, generally, I find clip automation simpler than track automation, anyway.

Record your automation, then send the track to a bus with the compressor on it.
 
Regards,
Dan

Anderton
I also need to give a nod to the draw tool for generating waveforms for automation. It's not just that you can create waveforms (tremolo, anyone?) but that it's so easy to vary the height and phase. The random option does instant sample-and-hold effects, which is also cool. I hardly ever see anyone mention this feature.
 

I use this one often with holding down ctrl to make cycles twice as long. :-) That way you can get a 2 measure cycle.

this is the stuff

dubdisciple
The ability to bounce arpreggiator to midi notes that can be edited. Arpreggiators are great but can be stiff and monotonous. Being able to instantly render out all that is heard from pressing one note or chord opens a lot of flexible ways to edit and add variety.

Automation on arp parameters can help (when they work).  But the 'hidden gem' feature here is the potential to customize your own arpeggiator sequences.  I'll shill my own freebies again here, but strictly as examples:
 
Alesion ARP Presets  Alesion Pattern Construction Kits
 
It should be easier in Sonar X to create your own / convert to .ptn files as the basis for arpeggiator customization (without having to resurrect Project5 as a translator).  Granted, there are a lot of shipping .ptn files in the Sonar package.  I just haven't found those to be the most useful for mining the deep potential.

About the Sonitus multiband:  Using other tools, I have never been about to find the right frequency to cut pops or to reduce sibilance.  I know in theory, but can't ever seem to get good results.  Suggestions?
 
*I have sometimes eliminated pops with very tedious and careful wave trimming, but that is not ideal and it is hard to get just right.

Well probably not underrated and not really my "favorite" but the Multi-Dock is a freaking life saver for me considering I work on a single screen and honestly don't think I'd really want a second screen even I could afford it (I would just get a BIGGER screen). I would like to see some improvements on it (like being able to cycle through whatever is in the dock using the arrow keys, being able to drag the tabs around to where I want them, an option to fullscreen it with a simple keybinding, etc...) but damn is it a million times easier to manage a project instead of having a million Windows floating around and having to hunt through them to find what you want.
 
As far as techniques I was told this is a little weird but I like using the Comp mode for my MIDI drums. I treat it just like I do an audio track. I slam out sections one at a time doing multiple takes with different ideas then see what sounds right, flatten the stuff I choose (or make multiple full versions) and clone the track then archive the original and delete everything except the flattened take lanes.
 
Then I listen to those and practice along or just play to my scratch tracks basing my performance on what worked from the originals. At this point I try to perform the song in it's entirety multiple times trying out different fills, turnaraounds, etc, recording each one. I might end up with a dozen performances.
 
Once I've got a bunch of decent performances or mostly decent performances I start using the Fast Comping approach (slice the song up into relevant sections, go into Fast Comp mode, use the arrow keys to audition and choose the best for that section, etc... just like you'd do with a vocal track or something).
 
I'll listen back to the whole thing to make sure everything flows properly and my splits are in the optimal spots (like if there is a fill that steps over the measure line or something but I want to use it I'll make sure I get the whole fill and then correct it later). Once it's good I flatten it down, clone/archive/delete unneeded lanes so I am working with ONE lane again (BTW I hide those original tracks too so I'm always looking at the right tracks/clips).
 
After all THAT I pop open the clip in the PRV and comb through the whole thing moving notes, adjusting velocities, getting rid of double/bad notes, inputting missed notes, etc. (this takes can take a loooong time but is worth it because Quantize doesn't work on my chaotic stuff).
 
Now I've got a good, solid drum track to write/record my bass part over top of.
 
That's about as far as I've gotten so far with my current project (first one in X3) but my next plan is going to be either go back and redo the drums live from the controller again so they compliment the newly written bass parts even more or I might just use the same take and just do my revised drum track in the PRV (to save time but I probably will do it live stating the whole process over again).
 
I can't do double kick with the pK (it only allows for one "expression" pedal which I have but it's awkward to play) and I can only play it so fast before it starts dropping notes (as well as how weird it is playing "drums" on the thing and that I'm an "okay" drummer but not as good as the material requires) so there will be parts where I'll probably wipe out the double kick notes in the PRV and then do some finger double kick in Sound On Sound mode then bounce it into the original clip or simply input that stuff directly into the PRV (but that's not nearly as fun... lol).
 
It is definitely a LOT of work but when I consider how much time I used to spend in band practices 2-3 times a week, every week, to obtain middling results on my drum parts and NEVER being able to capture a decent recording even with hours of setting up mics, mixers, moving my DAW into the band room, etc then this way is actually WAY quicker and sounds a million times better.
 
The only problem is apparently when you use Comping to work on MIDI clips like this it REALLY strains computer resources because instead of like audio clips which all use the same file from the pool every time you split a MIDI clip it creates two copies of the original because it wants to treat them as a whole new clip for separate PRV editing. This can be avoided by switching off Non-Destructive editing but that doesn't work for me. So what started happening was because I'd be working with a dozen take lanes all chopped up into a dozen or so sections I ended up with... well... a LOT of MIDI clips all being read at the same time even if only one was audible (thank you scook for teaching me about that). This gave me frequent dropouts. The solution was to CRANK my hard disk buffers and to make sure to delete or archive any unneeded MIDI clips (thus the constant flattening/bouncing/archiving).
 
So yeah... convoluted? Weird? Crazy? Perhaps but this is REALLY working out better for my drum parts than I ever could have hoped and I'm just OCD enough to actually enjoy doing it.
 
Oh and another feature that rules is the "Archive" function. If that wasn't there even my ultra high powered PC would be brought to it's knees very early on in my writing process OR I'd have to constantly be ditching material that I may or may not want to use. I prefer to just go nuts on stuff until the part is written THEN go back and delete the crap. That way my creative flow isn't constantly being interrupted... at least not by that type of thing. Plenty of other interruptions in my life as it is.
 
And if you read all that... well... perhaps you are just as crazy as I am. lol

Beepster...the Multi-Dock is a freaking life saver for me considering I work on a single screen and honestly don't think I'd really want a second screen even I could afford it (I would just get a BIGGER screen)  I would like to see some improvements on it (like being able to cycle through whatever is in the dock...
...a million times easier to manage a project instead of having a million Windows floating around and having to hunt through them to find what you want...

Hey, Beepster - Reading your post sent me out on a hunt, but I didn't bag the answer.  There Is a keybinding to step through the open tabs without using the mouse - But I couldn't find the info anywhere.  I just remember it was mentioned on a recent thread that you could step through the open tabs like that.  Hmm. - I primarily work in the PRV and keep it open, so am not concerned about the rare occurrence of needing to open another open tab.

But the multi-dock has been around for a very long time, it's not new with the X series. It just looked less clunky in 8.5 than it does now, but worked the same - Absolutely The Main Ingredient to developing a good work flow.

I can't imagine the scenario of having all those views floating around!--especially on one screen.  Crazy.

Having two screens is extremely cool, however.  Before I had a second screen, I thought it sounded like a rather over-the-top luxury that wouldn't make much difference.  It just took having the actual experience of using two screens to grasp why it's so helpful.  Now I would totally freak out if I had to go back to one screen.  Having major work spaces open at the same time, taking up the whole screen, nice and big - that's not luxury, it is a Major work flow enhancer.

ANyway - Basically wanted to give a +1 for the good ol' multi-dock, and maybe attract the attention of someone who can jog my memory about what shortcut there is for stepping through the tabs.

Randy