Hi, everyone!
 
How do I implement pre-roll on recording? This is what I'd like to do: let's say I want to record a section beginning at bar 25. With pre-roll, I set my playback cursor at the beginning of bar 25 (where my recording will start), hit the "record" key and playback begins on bar 23 (exactly 2 bars before, but this should be configurable) followed by recording being activated when bar 25 is reached.
 
Is this doable within Sonar X3?

Kind of.
Click the metronome button and set your count-in for however many measures you want it.
You would still set the Now time at measure 25, but there will be an audible click/beat during the selected measures before the timeline and recording begins.

You can also enable punch in recording at measure 25 and set the now time to wherever you want before measure 25, say measure 21 for example, and you would get 4 measure of pre-roll in this scenario.

Thank you, guys!
 
Hopefully the announced new version will have it - it's a very useful feature for flawless punch-ins.

I guess I don't understand what you want, because Sonar already will play as many measures as you want (and you can play and monitor over them) if you are punching in.  Can you further explain what functionality you are looking for, maybe in detailed steps?

Sorry if I'm not being clear - let me try again.
 
In Reaper or ProTools, for example, I can configure a feature called "pre-roll". This "pre-roll" is measured in bars or beats, for example. Say, I set the pre-roll to 3 bars.
 
Ok - now my pre-roll is 3 bars. I arm a vocal track for recording. Set the playhead cursor anywhere on the track (say bar 30) exactly where in need to punch-in.
 
At this point, if I hit the play button (or spacebar), I can hear the song starting at bar 30 (as expected). Nothing happens - the song just plays. That's normal behavior.
 
If, instead of hitting the "play" button, I press the "record" button, the song starts playing from bar 27, but recording will begin exactly at bar 30 (three bars later, exactly where I placed the cursor). That gives the recording musician 3 bars to play along the previously recorded material and results in a very easy, accurate punch-in because all I need to do is set the cursor at the punch-in point.
 
Hope my explanation makes sense. Is that available from Sonar?
 
 

As Dave mentioned it sounds like Punch Recording would likely do what you want, just in a slightly different fashion.
https://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=SONAR%20X3&language=3&help=Recording.26.html
 
 

Thanks, SteveC.
 
Yes - that's different. In the end, I can even punch in and out manually (like a tape machine). Just looking for the convenience of just placing my cursor at the exact point and not having to change any values or anything. Saves a lot of time. 

It is basically the same.  I think it really boils down to what you are used to.  I would constantly be changing the pre-roll length if it were set up that way, because usually I want to start listening at the start of the phrase before the one I want to start punching in on.
 
If its important to you, post it in the feature request forum, because I doubt it has made its way into the new version of Sonar.

Thank you.