JohnEgan

Anderton
Yes, and like all audio stretching, it works best when speeding up. 

Totally awesome tip, I just did whole song with DSP method, I never realized it was that easy to audition audio songs at different BPMs.

 
Glad it worked well for you! For more information on auditioning audio at different tempos, check out "How to Change the Tempo of an Entire Project" on page 282 of The Big Book of SONAR Tips. This describes how to apply Fit to Time with stretching to process all the audio files in a project (the Groove Clips and MIDI Clips adjust automatically).
 

That's a good idea, and might indeed explain why more people aren't savvy about MIDI FX. But because the simple instrument track is essentially an audio track, I don't know if it would be possible to include a non-audio FX rack along with the audio FX rack. 

That's a cool sounding little box and an easy enough project, I think I may just take you up on that!
 

I'm liking the sound of this one. Thanks!
I get a real kick out of making these.

Thats really cool - and it does sound great thanks craig!!
 

Week 163: How to Be a SONAR Power User
 
No, I’m not going to trot out the old joke…
 
Q: What’s a “power user”?
A: Someone who reads the manual!
 
…because a program like SONAR is so deep, you may need to use only 20% of what it can do - and you don’t really need to read about the rest. But, you do want to be a power user in the aspects that matter the most to you. And you certainly want to know the program basics and what options are available, so you can choose which options are most important to you. Here’s what I recommend.
 
1. Click on every drop-down menu in every view, and look at every item in the menu. If you don’t know what something does, click on Help, and use the search or index function to find the topic.
 
What got me thinking about this was a long-time user who was unhappy that deleting a clip also deleted automation…but it doesn’t have to, if you know that “Select Track Envelopes with Clips” is under the Track View Options menu. And if you want to know whether notes are lining up with the grid, you can place the Vertical Grid Lines in front of clips instead of behind them (you’ll find this under the View menu).
 
Or maybe you’ll see a View option like “Fit MIDI Content” but have no idea what that is. Choose Help > Documentation, type Fit MIDI Content into the search box, filter the results for your SONAR version (if you're using the online help)...and raise your SONAR IQ.
 
Ever check out the drop-down menu for a Row in the Step Sequencer? There are all kinds of useful options in there. And if you dig down deep enough in a step sequencer row’s drop-down menu, you’ll find the delightful Step Play Probability—just the thing to make repetitive percussion parts far more interesting.
 
Even better, note that many of these menu items are eligible for key bindings.
 
2. Right-click to call up context menus, and look at every item on the menu. You never know what kind of context menu options will show up. For example, did you ever check out the split options that are available when you click on a clip and choose “Split”? It’s a pretty comprehensive dialog box. Or if you don’t know where a Clip came from, you can right-click on it and choose “Associated Audio Files.”
 
Sometimes you’ll also find duplicated functions. For example, if you want to access the row options in the Step Sequencer, you don’t have to select a row, go to the Row drop-down menu, select another row, go to the Row drop-down menu, etc. Just right-click on a Row, and all the Row options are at your fingertips.
 
3. Go through Preferences to know what every preference does. Preferences are key to SONAR working properly, so make sure you know what all the options represent. If you don’t know what something does, well, there’s a Help button. Extra sub-tip: Often you’ll see a question in the forum from someone asking what to do when experiencing audio dropouts. My answer: When the toast notification pops up that says there’s been an audio dropout, click on its Help button and go through the recommended solutions until you find the one(s) that works. When I experienced dropout problems at one point, that’s what I did…problem solved.
 
4. Key bindings speed up your workflow. Analyze the way you work, then translate some of your common motions into keyboard shortcuts. For example, I often change gain with vocal phrases, and sometimes use normalization. So, I made keyboard shortcuts to bring up the menus for Gain changes and Normalization. I can whip through a vocal file to even out levels so fast it would make your head spin—and I don’t need to add much compression afterward, either.
 
5. Try out options you haven’t tried to find out what they do. Let’s take “Fit MIDI Content” as an example. At first, I thought it didn’t work because I was expecting the PRV and inline PRV to zoom in or out as appropriate to fit all the notes within the PRV. But after playing around, I realized it fits MIDI content by zooming vertically. This turned out to be real useful for seeing if keyswitches in Kontakt (that can be a much lower pitch than the part itself) were present for the notes being played.
 
Trying things is also a great way to learn things you didn’t expect to learn. I’m always surprised at the forum posts that ask questions like “What happens if I do this?” Just “try this” and find out—you’ll probably learn other tricks in the process.
 
6. Save a pretty complex project with different data types as a “Test Project” (or use the Demo projects now included with SONAR if you’re in a hurry). That way you can try things and check out new features without worrying that you’re going to mess up a real project.
 
7. Read the Tech+Music eZine. It tells what’s in the latest update. So does the documentation, but the descriptions in Tech+Music sometimes go into more detail, and include real-world examples of how to use a feature.
 
I already know what some of you are saying…”but I don’t want to spend time learning a software program, I just want to be able to push buttons and have everything be epic.” But it doesn’t work that way. Just as learning a musical instrument requires practice, so does learning a DAW. Fortunately, you’ll find that spending just a couple of minutes learning some new feature when you have SONAR open will yield rich dividends after a fairly short period of time. Besides, the more you know, the more fluid you’ll become with the program…and often, 5 minutes spent learning will save you hours in the long run.

Good Day
I guess I'd consider myself one of the 20%'s (or less), and have only stuck my toe in Sonar's water, . 
Cheers

ljb500
I find stuff out completely by accident,

LOL, same, probably for a lot of us, and the more I learn the more I realize how much I dont know.
 
Cheers

AllanH
... 
8. Visit the helpful Sonar user forums, and make sure to locate the "search" function.
... 

Terrific idea. I would suggest that one use Google to do the search. This forum's search capabilities are on the opposite end of SONAR's capabilities. To use Google (assuming it's your default search engine), type the following in your browser's address bar:
 
site:forum.cakewalk.com "what you're searching for"
 
your search term(s) without the quotes.
 
For example:
 
site:forum.cakewalk.com Kontakt output name problems

mudgel
It's a great exercise for learning how to use help and I'm not talking about searching the forum but the Online Helps files.

Me as well, more so to answer question for myself, LOL, often its a matter of even knowing what question to ask, or how to ask it. Often by simply writing down a question, by the time Ive written it out Ive realized how to answer it myself. Similarly nothing better than trying to teach someone new to DAW recording to find out what you yourself know and more so dont know.
 
Cheers 

Anderton
Week 122: Clean Up Your Console View

Yea ... but want to have a totally different set of tracks in TV that in Console?
Yes I do and need to.

I often have only midi showing in TV and almost never have anything other than audio in Console.
I do, however, often use 6 to 8 locked Screensets on larger projects and TV and Console are rarely the same tracks.
Why?
It's so easy to type a D to bounce between the midi and the audio for 1 or 2 instances of Omnisphere.
Or CTRL+SHFT+Arrow Left or Right to get to the same midi tracks in PRV.


Locked Screensets - Nothing but what I need in Console but different in TV is my standard.
Set 1 is always everything in TV and CV but from set 2 and up I get into specific instrumets/sections
and can just type a screenset number or a D to get to what I want.
I never have that box checked on track manager. It most always cuts my options in half.

When I do this I dredge up obscure bugs and incorrect/outdated documentation.
Find a reliable workflow that works for you and stick to it.
You're either making music or you're beta-testing.

Thanks, Craig 
Yet another good tip. I can see myself using this technique.
All the best.

Great tip & technique Craig.
 
Will be trying this one out tomorrow!

mrpippy2
Hi Craig, a couple of questions about this tip: Would there be any advantage to using the Sonitus MB on a sampled bass, like Dim Pro's "Dull Bass" or any basic synth patch from a softsynth? I seem to think those patches are pretty well EQd and compressed within the synth.

 
It depends. For example, the Gibson Bass Expansion Pack I did for Rapture is totally neutral - no EQ or compression on the samples. The main reasons for doing so was to retain the characteristic sound of the basses, and also, to have a "neutral canvas" for processing. I took the same approach with the Midtown Guitar expansion pack. So, these can definitely benefit from processing in the sense that any recorded signal can benefit from relevant processing. However, if the person designing the samples went for a processed, plug-and-play sound, then adding processing might detract from the sound. 
 

And if so, would the best approach be to bounce the midi track to audio and then insert the Sonitus MB in the FX bin of the audio track?

That's what I would do, because I like to convert virtual instruments into audio at some point. But others prefer to trigger the instrument with MIDI all the way through to the mixing process, and just insert the processor in the instrument's audio output.