Hi. How do I change the indicator for the end of my song file? Any time I mixdown tracks, the mixdown takes about 10 mins because Sonar thinks my song is about 19 mins long. My actual song is 4 mins long. There are no tracks or files that extend to the 19 min ending. How can I change the ending time of my song so each mixdown doesn't take forever. Thanks

Well first you need to check that you've actually set Sonar to "Stop at end of Project". There's a setting for this.

Secondly, you need to ensure there are no Midi or audio events past the 4 minute mark fooling Sonar into thinking that the song is longer than you intended.

Easiest way to check is to go into your Event View, pick "all tracks" and scroll down to the end of the list. Delete anything not required.

These will usually be envelope nodes but hidden/archived tracks have been know to catch people out.

If none of this works, then I suggest you put an "End" marker in yourself, then you can use this to determine your export end point.

The way I find the mysterious events off in the hinterlands is to press ctrl-end to bring me to where Sonar thinks the end of the project is. Then I search around for whatever event might be there. Usually it's an envelope node of some sort. Delete it--assuming that it's really not needed, then repeat until all the unneeded events are gone.

Alternatively, I put a marker where I want the end to be then I do a ctrl-a to select all, and then adjust the selection to the beginning and end marker. Then the export will just include that selection.

I've been begging for an End-of-Song marker (and Start-of-Song) for years. Noel even said it was a good idea, so I thought for sure it would be in versions 7, 8, 8.5 and X1. Never happened. 

What I usually do is insert my own "Start" and "End" markers. Then, when I export, I press Ctl-A to select all tracks, go to the "Start" marker and press F9, then go to the "End" marker and press F10. This eliminates the need for subsequently trimming the output file.

But there is a downside to simply ignoring SONAR's notion of where the song ends like this, which is that there is no way to avoid it when freezing a track. I had one project that SONAR thought was 30 minutes long. Unfortunately, it included a mult-timbral soft synth that required a slow bounce, taking a whopping 90 minutes to freeze!

As Steve notes above, unending projects have some kind of event out there past the end of the song. If you can find it and delete it (automation nodes and MIDI events are the most common culprits) you can trim the project back. But I've had projects where I looked and looked and could not find anything at the point where Ctl-End took me to. 

Here's how you deal with that situation: 

1. Mark the real end-of-song by inserting a marker there
2. Press Ctl-End to jump to where SONAR thinks the song ends
3. Delete all automation nodes under the Now marker
4. Press Ctl-A to select all tracks
5. Press F10, then jump back to the "End" marker and press F9
6. Go to Edit -> Delete, make sure all options are checked except "Markers", including "Delete Hole". Click OK.

Ahhh. Steps 4-6 are something I didn't think of. Nice tip, bit.

Zoomed way out so I can see the whole project, I place my cursor at the end of the song, sweep backwards to the beginning. Takes 2 seconds, always works. RB

Thanks everyone. Deleting the nodes way out there in 20 min land did the trick.

I do what Randy does too! Works for all sorts of tasks like dragging a clip.

I have the exact same problem I have every thing from going through the event list, marker list, and deleting tracks, to highlighting and deleting unused areas. Nothing works. Look at the event list and you see that the last event is at 75:04:101 but CNTR-END shows that my end of song is after 91. Is there a way to correct this problem in Sonar 8?
 

 

Sorry, nope. Just follow the procedures described above when you export. Determine where you want the song to end and insert a marker there labeled "End". Do the same for the beginning of the song. Press CTL-A to select all tracks, then go to your start and end markers and press F9 and F10 respectively, then export.
 
I prefer to specify where the song ends anyway, so that I get neither blank space nor truncated reverb tails at the end. Sometimes, I have to do the opposite of your problem, and tell SONAR to go a little bit past where it thinks the song should end.