Screen sets and PRV

When I use screen sets, e.g. press '2' to go to screen set #2, and open PRV, the controller pane on the bottom of the PRV shows all controllers (with velocity being the top) -- hence, vertical real estate for each controller is extremely small. It takes me about a minute to get rid of all the ones I don't need -- I definitely need velocity, so I keep that. 

This is a real drag to my work flow, because I frequently have to close PRV and start a new one (because track numbers in the PRV get out of sync with the track numbers in the track view).

I kind of need to use screen sets because I want to have multiple PRVs. That's because I'm working on arranging a MIDI version of Holst's Planets for synthesizer, and I want to have a PRV for the original MIDI tracks, and another PRV for the synthesizer tracks. 

Thanks in advance for your help!


Mike

Mike,
I do a lot of large orchestrations, too, and have need of the PRV a lot. There are a couple of workflows which I've found to work well with Sonar and lots of midi data.

If you only have one monitor, assign a hot key just to the PRV. Once you've got the PRV open, mazimize the window and set the controller lanes set up the way you want. then go under the View dropdown and click on "show/hide controllers" (it may be called "show/hide controller lanes" or something equally decscriptive). This will lock the controller lanes. Also, assign a hot key to the Track View. Now when you swicth back and forth, your controller lanes are remembered. If you need a new group of instruments in the PRV, you can select the relevant clips or tracks in the Trackview and re-hit your PRV shortcut, this will update the PRV with the new tracks and still leave all your controller lanes in tact.

If you hae two monitors, all the better. I have two, and I keep the PRV AND the Console View docked in the multidock and the multidock maximized on the second monitor. Each assigned a keyboard shortcut and switch back and forth as needed. The Track View is always opened on the left monitor to get an overall view and select individual clips and tracks.

But yeah, the PRV will update each time to you press the hotkey with the new tracks or clips you have selected.

I tried this workflow recently in Cubase, but I think Sonar's is set up a little better. In Cubase you can only have one controller per lane, whereas in Sonar it can be many. So I can get away with 4 lanes open, maximum. One for Velocity, one for CC1, one for CC11 and the last lane is a catch all for CC64, CC83, CC111 and maybe a couple of other events that just ON/OFF events -- nothing that has to be drawn.

Mahlon

Thanks for you reply Mahlon. 

My main goal is to have two PRVs: 

PRV 1: Show all of the original MIDI tracks. These tracks aren't hooked up to any sounds. They're just notes, for my purposes -- the definitive notes, from the original MIDI file (that I downloaded for free from Classical Archives).

PRV 2: Show all the synth (simple instrument) tracks. At the beginning of my project, these tracks are empty. As I work on the project, I copy clips from PRV 1 into various tracks in PRV2.

The only way I know how to have multiple PRVs (i.e. each showing different tracks) is to use screensets (is there another way?). So I'm using these three screensets:

Screenset #1: Track view -- all tracks.
Screenset #2: PRV1 -- original MIDI.
Screenset #3: PRV2 -- synth tracks.

So, if everything worked perfectly, here would be my typical workflow to copy notes from PRV1 to PRV2:

1) Press '2' to go to screenset #2, which is PRV1 (original MIDI); select and copy some notes from a track.

2) Press '3' to go to screenset #3, PRV2 (synth tracks); use paste-special (ctrl-alt-V) & select track # from dropdown to paste notes into synth track.

Step 2 doesn't work correctly, however, because the track numbers get out of whack in PRV2, i.e. the track numbers don't match up with the track numbers in the track view. I'm not sure what action of mine causes this. The solution for correcting the track numbers in the PRV is to close it and re-open it. But when I do that, I have to take a couple minutes to set it up again (apparently because I'm using screensets -- I don't have this problem if I stick to screenset #1 for my whole work session).

My work around is this (i.e. a change to step 2):

1) Press '2' to go to screenset #2, which is PRV1 (original MIDI); select and copy some notes from a track.

2) Press '1' to go to screenset #1, track view. Click on the desired destination track, and paste (ctrl-v).


The work around, of doing all of my pasting into the track view instead of PRV2, seems to be fine for me. With this work around, I live with the PRV2 track numbers being out of whack, and never bother to correct them be closing and re-opening and re-configuring the PRV.  The work around isn't ideal, however, as I sometimes like to copy notes from one track to another in the same PRV (i.e. PRV2). I can't do this (because of the out-of-whack track numbers). I always have go to the track view and find the destination track, then paste.

I know this is long-winded :-) I could go on and on, but one last point:

Seeing 128 grid rows in the controller pane is.... a pain! It's completely useless. How can one possibly draw velocities in a grid row that's a few hair-lengths high? And why would someone need all 128 controllers? This is a bug. I only notice it when I use screensets.

Thanks,

Can you have two PRVs docked in the Multidock? Not sure about this...

Yes but as you pointed out you'll need to lock each one for a new one to open.