Honestly I've been real interested in the Matrix view but have never really known how to start with it, just seems over whelming at first glance cause it's not what I'm use to.  I'm certain though if I did learn it it would be a huge help with my music creation.

TranceCanada
Honestly I've been real interested in the Matrix view but have never really known how to start with it, just seems over whelming at first glance cause it's not what I'm use to.  I'm certain though if I did learn it it would be a huge help with my music creation.

 
It helps to think in terms of musical collage. True story: When Apple dropped the price of Logic to $199 and pulled out of retail, GC decided to go with Ableton Live as their main program to push. I was talking to a guitar-playing friend at GC who said "it makes no sense to me, I don't use loops, I don't get loops at all." I said "Sure you do. Hum me the first two bars of 'Brown Sugar.'" He did. "Okay, hum the next two bars." So he did. "Hum the next two bars," and he got the point. I advised him to open the Live doc and do a find-and-replace to replace "loop" with "riff." 
 
As to triggering Scenes (the equivalent of triggering a column in the Matrix View), I said it was like you're the conductor of a four piece band, and you cue the players when to stop and start playing. "Okay - bass and drums!" "Now, rhythm guitar kick with piano." "Bass and piano, drop out" etc.
 
Once you wrap your head around the Matrix View paradigm, you'll wonder why you couldn't figure it out sooner 
 

kennywtelejazz

Zargg
Hi. I have never used it myself, but will give it a go after watching this video. Thanks, Kenny!
Seems right for some improvisation, on my end
All the best.

Hi Ken ,
 
The Matrix View is a fun workflow once you get the hang of it ...
In it's most simplest of uses , I have had many hours of fun and discovery by setting up my own little grooves to play and jam over ....
In a more concrete way , the beauty of the Matrix View is it can become a highly advanced composition tool for the SONAR user who happens to love creating their own loops in the loop construction view ...once one has created their own individualized loops from sections of their own hybrid mixtures of musical elements  they have assembled in a linear fashion in the track view  ...there is a lot of Musical freedom that can had by dropping in sections of the linear mixed in with using the Matrix View to add sections to a song  ....
This is possible because the Matrix View can be recorded in real time as it plays This attribute gives the Matrix View a very powerful musical stance as an arranging tool from that  point of view ... 
For somebody who has taken the time to learn this way of working it is very possible for them to have eliminated
a form of personal musical stagnation ....
There is more I could talk about ...stuff like setting up synths  and auditioning midi in the Matrix View ..for now I'm not gonna go there
 
all the best ,
 
Kenny

Thanks for taking the time to answer, Kenny. I have read your answer a couple of times, and it made me think of using the Matrix View as a means to merge some unfinished projects together. Taking verses, or bridges / choruses (or even parts of it), and making them into clips to use as a composition tool. Trigger parts to see if / where they fit.
All the best.
 

One other Matrix view use is as a "clip holder" for holding various files if you don't want to use the browser for temporary storage. It has nothing to do with music, it's just another interesting aspect.

Anderton
One other Matrix view use is as a "clip holder" for holding various files if you don't want to use the browser for temporary storage. It has nothing to do with music, it's just another interesting aspect.

This is so far, my intended use

Mixcraft has their "Performance Panel" . The school I teach at uses Mixcraft and the Performance panel is similar to the Matrix view. I always thought they would be an easy way to build songs and try out different arrangement ideas, and for writing TV/Film cues you could easily drop and add clips on the fly to keep the track developing.
 
Thoughts?

chuckebaby
yea, I hope I didn't offend anyone by saying "I don't know anyone who uses the matrix".
that was just my opinion. obviously im wrong. there are users who do use it.
glad you find it a creative tool Kenny. My comment was more tongue in check.

Chuck your a cool dude in my book ...we are OK I never took it personal ...
 
My introduction to The Matrix View was way back in early 2006  VIA Cakewalks Project 5 ..
I used to rewire P5 into SONAR 5 SE and then later on into SONAR 6 PE ...
The truth is, if it wasn't for P5 , I wouldn't know Jack $hit about the Matrix View
have a good one ,
 

BombayCharlie
Mixcraft has their "Performance Panel" . The school I teach at uses Mixcraft and the Performance panel is similar to the Matrix view. I always thought they would be an easy way to build songs and try out different arrangement ideas, and for writing TV/Film cues you could easily drop and add clips on the fly to keep the track developing.
 
Thoughts?

That's a cool program
I have Studio Pro 7 ...use it all the time as a real cool playground for midi guitar orchestral type music ...it makes a real nice quick sketch pad for getting ideas down fast  ....
The Performance Panel is very good as long as you are doing audio only
The one thing they need to do to improve the overall functionality of Mixcraft Studio Pro 7 including the future Mixcraft 8 is to add the function of having a proper way to audition midi ...
That is the weakest link in the program The browser needs to support proper midi audition ..
 
all that aside ...I still like the program a lot ...
 
all the best,
 
Kenny
 

The Matrix View in SONAR is great for coming up with fast drum parts ...
These drum grooves can be used for jamming , songwriting , practicing and what ever else you feel like doing ...
 
I just opened up a new project and inserted 2 drum plugs with built in midi patterns VIA the synth Rack ..
Since I'm not on my main PC that has Addictive Drums 1 &2 .
I used Session Drummer 3 and the  M T Power Drum Kit 1 ...
 
 
Over on your end , if you decide to follow along , please feel free to use what ever you have for drums and prefer
 
Now here's where the real fun happens .....load up your kits ...
 
Bring up SONAR's Matrix View and audition some of your patterns in each of the drums VST interface ....
When you find a beat you like , just left click and drag the corresponding midi from the GUI of the drum plug over to the Matrix View and place it in a cell....

 
Once the clips are placed on the Matrix , you can start triggering the individual cells ,  the whole row , or any combination of cells you have patterns loaded in for both kits loaded in The Matrix ...
 
In this example ,  I'm using track 1 in The Matrix  for Session Drummer 3 . Track 2 is for my secondary kit the  M T Power Drum Kit 1...
 
You may notice in the other pics that this does not correspond to my actual audio tracks numbers 
This is what I got and I'm rolling with it since The Matrix  has decided to help me keep it simple ...
 
All routing can be changed after the fact by using the drop down arrow ..The drop down arrow can be found on the left side where this instrument description is in The Matrix .
 
One of the thing I like to do is to mix and match drum patterns from the 2 different drum instruments ..
Since I'm dragging the beats out of the GUI 's of the Drum Plugs . Who says I have to use Session Drummer 3 beats only in session drummer or vise a versa 
 

 
I may have both kits playing the same beat ,  I may have both kits playing different beats ...or even just one kit with one beat for the corresponding row and cell ... 
Remember , you can always choose individual cells any time you want as far as playing or not playing the cell goes...
When you factor in that you can start by hitting a row that contains a group of cells and while that row is playing you can also trigger other individual cells in other groups  ...or even mute them ...the variations can reach large numbers .
 
This way of experimenting can be fun and you may find yourself coming up with lot's of new interesting beats just by using The Matrix  ...
 
When you have 2 kits playing the same beat you may find that it can be synergistic or you may find that you may prefer to use each drums mixer to mute or solo different drum elements until you come up with a unique tailor made drum sound that's totally yours ... 
Another thing to consider , if The Matrix View is somewhat new to you ...
Don't sweat it if you decide to arm it and have it place your performance as a recording in SONAR's track View ....
One of the beauty's of getting acquainted with using the Matrix View is once a performance has been recorded over to the track view...it is very easy to see logically what you have recorded as a Matrix View performance ....
If it turns out some of your "having fun is way too busy " you will find that you will have a very clear visual representation of each clip in the track views time line ....it will be very easy for you to edit out what you don't want ..In my pic I left it as it was ....
 
The recorded content shows up as groove clips . Each and every different source clip may have a different color and depending on the source the clip , the clip itself may even have it's name and pattern number embedded  ....
 

 
The important thing is to enjoy yourself and have fun while learning and creating ... 
 
hope this helps ,
 
Kenny