Keyboard Macros for Sonar - Is this the answer at last?

Some folks on this forum will know that I've been screaming out for a proper keyboard macro capability in Sonar for years ...

I've tried out many demos (Macro Express, etc) but none of them, for various reasons, have really delivered to my satisfaction - most seem to record not the actual keystrokes but a pixel reference on the screen, so if you later change your screen layout, the macro doesn't work.

But at last I think I've found something different.

It's called AutoHotKeys and it's free. I must say it isn't too intuitive and takes a little while to get the hang of (well, for me, quite a long while actually). But so far I'm impressed. It records the actual keystrokes and lets you go deeep down inside dialog boxes to set parameters, etc.

You can find it at:
http://www.autohotkey.com/

I'd really appreciate it if anybody else who's interested in this area (Susan G maybe?) would take a little time to download it, play around with it, and share their thoughts.

Thanks,
Geoff

Hello Susan ....

Thanks for getting on to this.

I think you're right about the context menu thing - I haven't really been along that path yet very far though. My main experiments so far have been getting into dialog boxes and changing parameters there - eg set latency to 2.3 for recording, 25.8 (or whatever) for playback. It seems to handle this well (once you've figured out what you're doing), but these are all dialog boxes invoked from the main menu.

I suspect that what we are both searching for is the Holy Grail of software, but let's not give up.

Best,
Geoff

Geoff you ol' so-and-so.........how the heck are you????? Drop me an email.....would love to do some catching up.....

Hey Susan ...

Check out "Perfect Keyboard". It's very user friendly and seems to fit the bill nicely. I've got some really good results, quickly and easily:

http://www.pitrinec.com/pkindex.htm

There's a Lite version at $19, Pro at $29 and Advanced at $79. The free download trial is unrestricted for 30 days. I'd say the Pro version is just the ticket! I've even managed to get it to pick up Context menus in macros!

If you like, we can communicate about this off-forum (you can email me from here) since we seem to be the only two people in the entire world interested in this (unbelievable! ). Or on forum if you prefer!

Best,
Geoff

Na... we're lurking. Everybody needs good macros.
Macros used to be good, usable and mature under DOS, but seem
to be a lost art in Windows.

- Remember Sidekick?

As I´ve said in some other threads, I am using Contour Shuttle Pro because it allows me to program macros easily and on the fly. You can program as many layouts as you want and point them to an app (Sonar, for example), and all will appear in your system tray as soon as the Windows focus is on that program. You can then click select one, or use a hot key. What I like about it is that you can asign several macros (or key bindings) to a single button and cycle through them as you repeatedly press it. This way I select tools in PRV using a single button. Combined with screen layouts and their keybindings I use a single button to scroll through different layouts for specific tasks. For example, a button for PRV layouts cycles through several window arrangements, including (or excluding) Event View, Markers View, Sysex View, Staff, etc. I only use (and need to remember) that button, and press it until my two monitors show what I want to see. I have another one for Loop editing, another for Track View and another for Console. This way I have a default Shuttle Pro layout for Sonar ("Sonar default") that allows me to navigate through the app very fast using a few buttons.

This is useful enough, but you can also do something like creating a macro for Sysex View that opens a sysex bank, goes to the eighth byte, and makes it "00", closes the bank and moves on to the next one. If you then asign it to the jog wheel, you can click on a long file of hundreds of synth patches in sysex format like I have for my Kawai K5000S, or Waldorf Micro Q, and change their memory slot adress so they all load in the right place in whatever multi I am creating in seconds just by turning the jog wheel, allowing me to use Sonar as a pretty simple and efficient patch librarian.

Since Shuttle Pro keeps macros in a macro library, and you then assign then to the device´s controls, and you can enter edit mode without leaving the app you are working with, and changes are operative inmediately without closing or reloading anything you actually can reprogram it as you need it. This is very useful, because for some repetitive tasks like, say, converting a big library of short midi files in midi groove clips, asigning macros for parts of the process to buttons that are close and in a particular sequence allows you to do that kind of "housekeeping" things incredibly fast.

ORIGINAL: glazfolk
since we seem to be the only two people in the entire world interested in this (unbelievable! ).

Like bitman said, we're lurking. I'm just waiting for you two to come up with the ultimate solution, then I'll install it.

Geoff,
I've added endorsement to your post on the "'Sonar 6 Feaures" thread.
I really hope someone at Cakewalk is reading these suggestions because they could really steal a march on the competition by incorporating a User Tool Bar with the ability to assign macros to user icons. It seems ludicrous to me that e.g. I have to click four times to change velocity on a selection of midi notes. Let's keep hoping!

Hi Geoff-

Perfect Keyboard sounds promising, thanks for the report! I haven't had time to do more than install it, but I hope to be able to work some with it early next week.

I can see, for example, where Susan G is coming from with her request that everything in Sonar should perhaps be covered by key bindings, but I doubt that that's even possible.

Well, yes, that was hyperbolic; but what I really want (and put in my "official" request) is the ability to add a key binding to at least all of the toolbar icons and menu commands -- not every single sub-menu and dialog option. That should be possible, I think.

It seems like some shortcut commands were just overlooked rather than deliberately omitted for any good reason, like (yes, here it is again!) "Fit Content" and three of the six Layers commands. Yet you can make a key binding for every one of the possible "Track | Snap To Scale | Root Notes". I'm sure some people find that useful, but that's why they call it "customization"!

I want to keep situations where I have to re-position my cursor to a minimum since it's always a distraction, no matter how slight. Anyway, all we can do is ask & see what happens. I remain hopeful!

Thanks again-

-Susan

Geoff-

Another one they left out (at least I can't find it) is a toggle for the Velocity lines in IPRV. It annoys me that those get turned on and stay on when I edit a note, and I have to mouse *all the way* over to that little drop-down to turn them off again. Aargh! Can Perfect Keyboard handle stuff like that? Not to make you do my investigating for me, but may be you already know?

And yes, I agree the bindings organization needs an overhaul.

Thanks-

-Susan

ORIGINAL: Susan G

... trying to get my "favorite missing key binding" programmed -- "Fit Content"....
-Susan

Susan ...

Some good news I think! This has to be preceded by the usual caveats that I am NOT a MIDI expert, etc, but ...

It seems to me that what you are trying to do is exactly the same as the Main Menu command Track->In Line PRV->Fit Content command?

If I'm right, AutoHotKeys, Perefct Keyboard and Macro Express can all do this by recording or writing a KEYSTROKE (not mouse) macro :

Alt-T
V
F

Then you might have to edit it (depending on which program you used and how you created the macro) to strip out the time delay between each keystroke. I've tested this in Macro Express - works like a charm.

Best
Geoff

ORIGINAL: rpcomp

I might be missing the point here so I apologise in advance. I use a Logitch G15 gaming keyboard. Has a total of 54 macro keys you can setup for pretty much anything. If this helps good, if I've missed the point, again aplogies.

Thanks for your help .... got a question for you if that's OK.

What is often bothering people like Susan G and myself is that you can't key-bind many context sensitive commands in Sonar - Susan's example is an excellent one - within a MIDI track in IPRV mode to be able to turn Velocity on and off. The only way we know is every time to click on that little drop down menu in the Track Header and then choose Velocity.

Can you program this example into a Logitech G15, without it taking the mouse back to the exact spot on the screen every time before it tries to execute the command, or without you having to manually position the mouse first - because every time you run the macro, the drop doewn menu is likely to be at a different screen location., if you see what I mean. Because if you can, I'm already on the way out the door to get me one.

Best,
Geoff

Hi Geoff-

It seems to me that what you are trying to do is exactly the same as the Main Menu command Track->In Line PRV->Fit Content command?

Yes, you're absolutely right. I'd kind of forgotten about that since I've been using the Ctrl+double-click trick on the mini-keyboard for a while now, but any of the standard macro apps can easily handle that key sequence.

I'll look at Macro Express again <sigh!:-)>. I guess the bottom line is I'm just not crazy about having another applet running on top of SONAR regardless, esp. since none of them so far seem to handle context menus very well.

It's so subjective, but I mean really, how many people need a key binding to "Help | SONAR on the Web"?. Whereas I bet most folks who do MIDI editing would love one to toggle those darn Velocity lines!

I'm just rambling/ranting, so I'll stop now!

Thanks again-

-Susan

Geoff-

It needs a complete rethink.

Yes. It makes it very difficult to put in a Feature Request with any consensus, too. I mean, I'd like this, that, and the other, and you'd like something else, and Joe or Josephine User has other commands/options they'd like to be able to bind.

What I did was just make a specific request and then generalize it in my description to include other icons and menu commands. Is that what you did, or do you have a better approach? I'm open to suggestions!

I suspect CW has seen this thread by now, and I'd love to hear their comments.

Thanks-

-Susan

- Remember Sidekick?

Wow, not till you mentioned it here! I used that thing forever it seems like. Macros are great, we need them.
Max Arwood