Hey Jab3,
I'm assuming you want to program drums like I do. Starting with a basic groove/beat that I record in real-time. Then add/edit/adjust using the tab on/off style found in Sonar's drum sequencer. Then looping as needed to map out your track/song in Sonar, and then making variants of your loop for Intros/verses/hooks/bridges/etc..
If so then this might help:
I use Sonar to do this almost everyday. I find Sonar and the drum sequencer it to be really good for this style of recording and editing.
So I start by recording my basic drum pattern in real time into any midi track in Sonar. (I do this easy, by arming a midi track to record and set it's input to "omni" - which is any midi channel) I usually apply a little quantization at this point, but once I'm fairly happy with it- I'll slip edit the clip (also I'll bounce to one clip if i need to). So now I have a complete loop section (say 2 or 4 bars). I then I change the clip into the step sequencer view (by clicking the icon on the top right corner of any midi clip, looks like little bars) NOTE: In Sonar, you can change ANY midi clip into a step sequencer clip (even previously recorded clips in Piano Roll) and vise-versa. I believe that's why they call it "view", because you can alter how you view/edit the midi data at any time.
Now to make the variants of your loop/sequence for bridges/verses/hooks/etc...
1. Make a copy of your clip. (usually I'll hold down the control key while dragging a clip to a blank area in the midi track)
2. Right click on the copied clip and select "unlink step sequencer clips" (now you have new clip that you can change/alter/edit and it won't affect any of the other clips).
3. I usually take this time to change the color of this clip to something I can recognize quickly. I like all my hooks to be blue, all my bridges are usually yellow. Then when I make copies, those copies retain the same color AND they are all linked together. (So if i make a change to the loop in one hook, all the hooks get updated). This allows me to work quick and keep the project organised.
It's important to note that by default, anytime you make a copy of a sequencer clip it's linked to the original clip. This means that if you make a change in one of the clips, all the "copied/linked" clips get updated with that change. This can be very useful when working with verses/hooks/bridges as they tend to usually share the same loop/clip.
There's some pretty useful Sonar Step Sequencer tutorials on YT. Worth the time to really get familiar with it's features and discover how powerful it is.
I really do enjoy working this way and it has helped me get projects done faster and have more fun doing it. I hope this helps.
Sergio
post edited by djserg - 2016/02/15 17:10:21