Don't know about anyone else but I have over a hundred projects in differing phases of completion.

I think it would be handy if, upon save of a project, a 15 - 30 second quick bounce happens off the master buss and gets saved in the project's cwp folder, not the audio folder, in maybe an mp3 format (it can be a low bitrate, it's just a preview file).

Why?

I was looking for a project that I haven't opened in over a year and if there was a preview mp3 available, it would be quicker to locate the project rather than open each project until you find the one you're looking for.

Options in preferences would be the length of the preview mp3 and whether it is an autoplay in the file open dialog box, if it's not set to autoplay, a play button in that open dialog box would be available if a preview file is available.

Thoughts?
 

gustabo
...upon save of a project, a 15 - 30 second quick bounce happens...

 
Maybe it would be better as an option when closing a project. I wouldn't want an export to start every time I hit Ctrl-S (which is often).

I meant for this to be an optional feature that can be turned on or off through preferences...

I realise that. I would probably make use of this feature if it were available. Maybe the option could be presented in a dialog box displayed when closing a project.
 

I would think you could select the first 30 seconds of a project you are creating, and export the entire mix - it goes to the C:\Cakewalk Content\Audio Library by default.  (I subsequently moved this folder to a data drive, but wherever you have it, it would be the one I suggest you use for this.
 
So do the above as you create new projects, and then later, as you are previewing projects, you could simply play through these short audio clips, all located in the same folder above (or put them in a sub-folder within the above default folder).
 
And for your existing 100 or so projects, you could devote some measure of time over a few days, or however you wanted to give time to doing it - and go into each project and create short audio clips as described above - in effect building the audio clip preview library after the fact, but then they would all be out there for later when you need to come through and preview projects.
 
So - using the above approach, you can accomplish what you are seeking to do right now, and then you would be positioned thereafter because new projects would include the steps to add a preview audio clip for them.
 
Does that work for you?
 
Bob Bone
 

Bob Bone,
Yes I realize that I can do it manually which is what I'm in the process of doing, I just think it would be a great feature/addition to Sonar.
I spoke to a few recording studio buddies and none are aware of any daw software that creates a preview file automatically. Everyone of them thinks that it would be a great feature to have.
Just my .02

I didn't mean to sound like I was shooting down the notion of having that feature - sorry for any confusion.  I think it is a fine idea.
 
I just meant that you could do what I described NOW, versus having to wait for the Cakewalk developers to agree to build such a feature, but to also implement it.
 
Bob Bone
 

I think this is a great idea, but I suspect the current tech isn't really up to making it work smoothly. At some point in the future, where processors and drives and everything can do a fast bounce that's near-instantaneous, that's when we'll see it.

If it's an option like the option of showing the file open dialog box at startup, it can state that creating a preview file will take a little while to create while saving the file.

I agree in that it would only be available on "Closing" a project.

Maybe an option alongside of "Close" would be "Close (Create Preview).