Object-based editing

Hi,

When sequencing percussion-based MIDI parts I like to use Sonar's 'Linked Clips' feature - but also I find myself running up against it's limitations quite often. I was interested to see the Sonar 5 spec talking about object-based editing so I wondered if it will help address these limitations?

Here are some of the situations where I find Linked Clips inadequate in Sonar 4:

• In the Piano Roll view, you can't see the clip boundaries - so when you add new notes (or drag-and-drop existing ones), it's not entirely predictable which clip they'll end up in or whether they'll create a new clip
  
• There is no "pool" of available clips - if you want to use a clip you made earlier, you have to hunt around your arrangement looking for an existing instance, which may be a long way from where you want to add it
  
• There's no easy way to make a backup of a track containing multiple groups of linked clips. For example, prior to making destructive changes you might want to make backups of a track at various stages in its development in case you need to revert to those backups later. The problem is you only have two choices: 1. make a backup in which the clips all link into the original track - but then it's not an independent backup, and if you change a clip in the new track then the backup changes as well - or 2. make a backup track containing unlinked clips - but then it's not a true backup either, because none of the clips in the backup track are linked to each other. There is no way to just make an INDEPENDENT copy of the whole track that maintains its linkedness within itself. This limitation only occurs if your track contains MORE THAN ONE GROUP of linked clips. If it just contains ONE group you can get by by selecting the backup track and chossing New Linked Group, but it's not a one-step operation.
  

Anyway, for these reasons and others I switched to Project5 for programming complex object-based percussion sequences. Here the situation is much better in terms of object-based editing, but I keep running into other limitations in Project5. So far I haven't been able to find a happy medium.

tj

Here the situation is much better in terms of object-based editing, but I keep running into other limitations in Project5.

I hope Cake get one of these right