Through the years one simple feature has gotten lost & I'm hoping it's back now. You used to be able to adjust the tempo while listening to the metronome without having to be in record or playback mode. It was sort of a preview of the beat. Is there a way to it now or is it still a forgotten feature?    

I don't recall that this was ever possible. It certainly is not now.

brundlefly
I don't recall that this was ever possible. It certainly is not now.

Believe it or not, this was a feature back in the old DOS days when Cakewalk was midi only. I can't remember if it got lost when they first went to digital audio or not but I'm pretty sure it wasn't there in the pro audio version before Sonar. Don't laugh but it was in a version back 1991 because I used it all the time recording midi. I always thought it was an oversight & would be back in the next version but it never happened. I guess I was the only one who found it useful at the time but i used on almost every song i recorded.  

This is so timely.  Just yesterday I was wishing Sonar would do this so i could adjust the metronome without having to go into record mode.  Should be pretty simple for the bakers to do.

The metronome does not require record mode, just have the metronome enabled during playback (CTRL+F3). The track view options menu setting "Stop at Project End" will need to be disabled for empty projects or for playback past end of project.

scook
The metronome does not require record mode, just have the metronome enabled during playback (CTRL+F3). The track view options menu setting "Stop at Project End" will need to be disabled for empty projects or for playback past end of project.

Thanks,
I didn't know you could change the tempo during playback. It does work in playback mode but it's still not as good as it used to be on the fly. You can't hear the tempo change until you enter one number at a time and then listen. You should be able to hear the change while you're hitting the plus or minus tempo button so you can fine tune the tempo. That would be ideal.     

Plagiarizing myself from a previous thread, here's how i like to set an initial tempo:
 
- Disable Stop at Project End in Track View Options if it isn't already so you can run the transport in an empty project.
- Start playback with no click sounding, count off a couple-few measures in your head, and stop the transport on the next downbeat.
- Shift+M to open Set Measure/Beat At Now, and enter that measure and beat.
- SONAR will set the tempo to make the specified beat fall on the absolute Now time where you stopped the transport.
 
This gives very accurate results in a new project with low latency where the transport start/stop is almost instantaneous. Note that SONAR will also insert a matching tempo at the beat you set. It won't matter unless you go changing tempos later, but you can delete it if necessary.
 
This works especially well when setting a tempo for someone else. You can just ask them to count or beat a tempo and start/stop the transport on their count.

It's nice to know about these work-arounds but we shouldn't have to. Cakewalk has a great product but to not have a simple metronome feature like this has got to be an oversight because they used to have it years ago. We're talking about something that could probably be coded in an hour.   

Just for kicks I decided to write my own metronome tonight. It didn't take that long & I only program as a hobby.
If you want to check it out:  http://oldnewtimer.com/metronome.html
There are a ton of free ones out there on the web but i just wanted to try it myself. It's a little rusty but I just wanted to have a better understanding of how easy it would be for Cakewalk to add that feature.

1. In the browser, preview a drum or other percussive loop at the host tempo.
2. When you change the tempo, hit enter after making a change.