this seems to be a good idea... it is another way of doing things... and a good suggestion... the nice thing about Sonar is there are many ways to do things.  I use the punch in/out periodically and it works great, when combined with loop points... can vamp/"comp" on a new harmony add on for as long as I want...
 
it does take 30 seconds to set up; WOW!  I remember the old patchbay days so this seems quite reasonable to my old brain.  However, adding a user definable automatic pre-roll also sounds great and glad we got a feature request... 
 
Dok... you seem to love to convey your "doubts" about how the bakers conduct their business... You know NOTHING about this and it is a sanctimonious ego drivin opinion you constantly interject into many of your comments...if you look at things narrowly enough, and selectively enough... you can reach any opinion about any thing on this planet...  I think it takes away from any valid points you make. 
 
 

If you haven't already, this feature can be voted at http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/3297261

irvin
I think you're mis-understanding what "Pre-roll" does or what it's used for. You only use it when actually recording, not during the time used for preparing to record (like putting headphones, getting to the vocal booth, eating a sandwich or hitting G FORCE buttons on a guitar - none of that has anything to do with the actual process of recording...lol...).

 
I understand what it does. What I'm saying is I set the punch points, set the Now time to give me sufficient time to do what I need to do, start playback, then go prep while it's playing back so I'm ready when the punch starts.
 

It's a global preference setting (1 bar, 2 bars, whatever). You can set it and leave it alone.

 
See, that's my problem. I have tried this functionality in other DAWs, and overall found it more trouble that it was worth because I would need to go into preferences all the time to adjust the pre-roll for the reasons given above. Now, if someone was engineering for me, it would be a different story because I could tell them when I was ready, and they could start recording with a fixed pre-roll. But except for rare circumstances I record by myself, far away from the computer to avoid computer noise, and out of range of non-wired remotes. So while I can see where a fixed pre-roll time tucked away in preferences could be useful for some people, it's not helpful to me.
 
OTOH punch points combined with loop recording is ideal for what I do...I can have a really long one-time pre-roll, set the loop points to give the optimum amount of pre- and post-roll once I'm in the overdubbing process, and lay down punch after punch. 
 

Vastman
Dok... you seem to love to convey your "doubts" about how the bakers conduct their business... You know NOTHING about this and it is a sanctimonious ego drivin opinion you constantly interject into many of your comments...if you look at things narrowly enough, and selectively enough... you can reach any opinion about any thing on this planet...  I think it takes away from any valid points you make.  

Read my comment again, I've said nothing about how Cakewalk conducts it's business. My views are simply from what has been released so far on Platinum. It's no big surprise you disagree with it, the only thing I would add is that, unlike you, I'm not going to yak on about how invalid your opinion is, as everybody is entitled to one.

Doktor Avalanche
...rather than improving/fixing existing meat and potatoes, day to day functionality/workflow (we appear to be back to the good 'ole Roland days).

You're entitled to your own opinion, but the hundreds of fixes between the last X3 update and now have been specifically about improving/fixing existing meat and potatoes elements of the program. As to workflow, that's been the point of many new features...Mix Recall, VocalSync, clip export, relative video path, drum replacement, the new control bar, FX stacking, expandable sends, and synth recording all come to mind as features that either save time or simplify workflow.
 
If you think there's a resemblance to the "good 'old Roland days," install X2 and the X2a update for a reality check 

Doktor Avalanche
Well I totally see the OP's point here, and I totally see other people points as well, as it's just another way to do something... the OP here has a point however....
 
1. Place playhead anywhere you want.
2. Hit "Record".
 
That seems pretty useful to me, and no doubt it won't be useful to others. There will be other's who don't need to use it of course, fair enough, but that does not mean the OP request is invalid, esp when other DAW's have implemented (or so it appears).

Anyway as this is a feature to improve workflow (at least for some), I doubt there's ever going to be of much interest internally, as it seems the priority is back to bolting on new features (and USP) so the spec sheet looks good in marketing, rather than improving/fixing existing meat and potatoes, day to day functionality/workflow (we appear to be back to the good 'ole Roland days).

Anderton
You're entitled to your own opinion, but here are some facts. The hundreds of fixes between the last X3 update and now have been specifically about improving/fixing existing meat and potatoes elements of the program. As to workflow, that's been the point of many new features...Mix Recall, VocalSync, clip export, relative video path, drum replacement, the new control bar, FX stacking, expandable sends, and synth recording all come to mind as features that either save time or simplify workflow.
 
If you think there's a resemblance to the "good 'old Roland days," install X2 and the X2a update for a reality check 

I've put my full quote back in Craig, you edited out the bit where I mentioned USP and spec sheet. Most of the features you've quoted are clearly tailored towards exactly that.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not arguing that any of it should not have been done. It's always a temptation to polarise the argument on the internet to get bonus points.. There is other stuff Cakewalk has done well that you haven't mentioned.

But in the meantime the same old dull but essential functionality used in day to day workflow gets overlooked year after year, probably because it's not going to create a marketing bullet point. I think think you've been around here long enough to know what I'm talking about.

Anderton

irvin
I think you're mis-understanding what "Pre-roll" does or what it's used for. You only use it when actually recording, not during the time used for preparing to record (like putting headphones, getting to the vocal booth, eating a sandwich or hitting G FORCE buttons on a guitar - none of that has anything to do with the actual process of recording...lol...).

 
I understand what it does. What I'm saying is I set the punch points, set the Now time to give me sufficient time to do what I need to do, start playback, then go prep while it's playing back so I'm ready when the punch starts.
 

It's a global preference setting (1 bar, 2 bars, whatever). You can set it and leave it alone.

 
See, that's my problem. I have tried this functionality in other DAWs, and overall found it more trouble that it was worth because I would need to go into preferences all the time to adjust the pre-roll for the reasons given above. Now, if someone was engineering for me, it would be a different story because I could tell them when I was ready, and they could start recording with a fixed pre-roll. But except for rare circumstances I record by myself, far away from the computer to avoid computer noise, and out of range of non-wired remotes. So while I can see where a fixed pre-roll time tucked away in preferences could be useful for some people, it's not helpful to me.
 
OTOH punch points combined with loop recording is ideal for what I do...I can have a really long one-time pre-roll, set the loop points to give the optimum amount of pre- and post-roll once I'm in the overdubbing process, and lay down punch after punch. 
 

 
I don't think you are 'understanding' what the feature is meant to do or how it works. Once again, it has nothing to do with "go prep while it's playing". It's a simple way of recording quickly and accurately - but you probably know that ;-) 
 
Oh, well...until then, it's Reaper for recording. 
 
 

Doktor Avalanche
I've put my full quote back in Craig, you edited out the bit where I mentioned USP and spec sheet. Most of the features you've quoted are clearly tailored towards exactly that.

 
I wasn't arguing they wouldn't look good on a spec sheet, so no need to quote. I was referring to my belief that the enhancements I mentioned are indeed designed to improve workflow, and fixes are indeed fixing long-standing issues that have been around for a long time. You can certainly say they're not being fixed fast enough for your taste, or you can bring up drum maps again, but you can't say that long-standing issues are not being addressed. Even the staff view enthusiasts recognize that fixes are being made to functionality that hasn't been touched in years (and years).

There is other stuff Cakewalk has done well that you haven't mentioned.

 
In the spirit of what I quoted, I was restricting myself to workflow-related features.

But in the meantime the same old dull but essential functionality used in day to day workflow gets overlooked year after year, probably because it's not going to create a marketing bullet point. I think think you've been around here long enough to know what I'm talking about.

Like drum maps?  But I've been around here long enough to see that those issues are being addressed, in tandem with new features and enhancements to existing ones. I can certainly agree that it would be nice if the pace of revising old stuff could go faster, but I've also been around here long enough to know how many people are available to work on SONAR, how many hours there are in a day, and the number of people complaining that their preferred feature requests aren't being implemented and would prefer those over functions they may or may not care about. It's all about balance. 
 
I know you would be happy if all Cakewalk did for the next year was work on stability and didn't introduce new features. I understand that thinking. But I believe if CW did that, they'd go out of business because of all the "ReaProBaseOneLive has THIS feature, why doesn't SONAR?" people who are primarily interested in new features and don't encounter issues that affect them.

+1 - implement pre-roll function