It is funny.  I don't know how many of us are out here, but it seems like there are lots who would love a SONAR that works better (best!) for us loopers (Matrix, P5, etc) and draw in more than guitarists (no shame in being a guitarist before those angry posts start pouring down on my head) into the Cake family.

AT
It is funny.  I don't know how many of us are out here, but it seems like there are lots who would love a SONAR that works better (best!) for us loopers (Matrix, P5, etc) and draw in more than guitarists (no shame in being a guitarist before those angry posts start pouring down on my head) into the Cake family.

I'm the OP and am mostly a guitarist, actually.  That said, I also use a lot of synth and drum VST's, and would like to be able to record into Matrix slots and create live loops.  I just bought a super cheap, used Live 8 to tide me over in the meantime, but would prefer to only have one DAW to enjoy (and bear upgrade costs for).
 
I don't much use pre-recorded loops, so the current Matrix functionality is largely useless to me.
 
Thanks for all the up votes, folks. Let's keep it going!

I'd like to see some simple support for Matrix, too.  There's only a single blog posting that describes its use (Electronic Brain), but generally it's treated as the ugly stepchild of Sonar.  I don't get that.  
 
I'd like to see comparable flexibility in Matrix as provided elsewhere in Sonar.  For instance, there are NO interface color choices that apply to MV (Edit>Preferences>Display).  With the growing number of hardware options for grid-type control (e.g. Novation LaunchPad) the ability to send RGB colors to the controller would be a real market builder. WYSIWYG for modern controllers and drum pads.

Notecrusher
It needs to be decoupled from the TV. You can't even adjust volume or pan of a row w/o trundling over to the TV. Wouldn't it be cool if every cell had volume and pan sliders? I don't think even Live has that. 

There COULD BE a sort of solution to this problem.  Could the Inspector focus "float" to the selected cell?  That way, we could expand the Matrix View so that it fills most of the vertical space, but leave the Inspector open on the side.  It wouldn't be the same as having direct control in the MV, but it would surely be more straightforward than navigating the Track View.  Just a thought.
 

Actually, Cake needs to have an editor built-into SONAR, including for the matrix.  Put a performance (midi or guitar or drums) into a cell, top and tail it, sync it to the beat.  Most of the tools are already there, just not implemented as needed.  My idea is to perform  songs live by playing the matrix.  So I've been starting songs with various loops (prefab or heavyocity performances, etc), freezing 4-12 bars of various lines, then getting those audio clips synced back to the song temp and them using them as matrix pads. 
 
It is a rather arduous process.  It seems (to me, a non-coder) a hopefully simple process.
 
And my crack about guitarists was in fun.  SONAR seems geared toward musicians with a PC and guitar who want to do full bore band-type productions without being able to record an entire band at once. While Cake have added a lot of functionality to that basic concept, the Matrix is seen mostly as an arrangement tool rather than an end in itself. 
 
It will make a great looper tool, either for Cake or someone else.  One has only to look at Cake's own Scratchpad (for iPad) to see the possibilities, not just for recording but live performance.  Scratchpad, without the limitations of importing and the # of Pads, should be grafted into SONAR or at least a stand alone app for PC.
 

Yes, once given the proper attention the Matrix will be a natural for live performance, just like Live's session view which so many DJ's and producers use for live performance. 
 
I agree that Matrix cells should be foreground/background color adjustable like TV clips. I'd still like to see essential functions like volume and pan right on the cells themselves (there's plenty of room, no reason for the play button to be gigantic), but yes, the Inspector definitely should handle extended properties.
 
Good ideas, keep em coming!

Hey  AT ,  Don't worry about your crack about guitar players …I thought it was funny 
 
Kenny

I love guitarists.  Some of best friends are guitarists.  I even like bassists!

BUMP +1
 
A definite YES to major Matrix update. So we can all just use only one piece of software .. Sonar :D

+1
Yes, still hoping for a Matrix v2 one of these days. I've never used Project 5 but the way people are talking about it makes me wonder if a bunch if its features could be brought into the Matrix.