My Sonar Daw is in the basement. Some clients CDs are long (35 minutes to export).
It would be neat if Sonar had a choice of notification methods when it is done or dies
with an error. I would like to beep, play a wave, email me etc when done.

That's all. I need to go see if the export is done yet.

Seems simple enough.

Edit: It wasn't done yet. Close, Like a minute left but ya know........

im not sure if its been mentioned or if i can post here

Better Plugin Manager

plugin manager that hides or puts an asterisk by plugins you already have (or by the new plugins that you just added) in the preset that is loaded. so when adding plugins you dont have to waste a lot of time trying to sift through all of the plugins you have and then add the just new ones to your preset.

ORIGINAL: Frets

Well, here's one more I forgot to put in:

Ideas Hub -- This is a feature of Sibelius 5 and I would LOVE to have something like it in Sonar. Say you're working on a project, and you come up with a chord progression or lead line or riff or whatever, basically any "idea" -- but it doesn't work for that particular song, but you want to keep it. Well, you copy that phrase into the "ideas hub." Then later, you can go through the ideas hub and search through all your "ideas" for use in other projects. And--here's the best part--when you drag something from the ideas hub into another pjoject, it plays in that new project's key and tempo. This should work with both audio and MIDI clips. You would never loose another idea! The ideas hub should be searchable, so when you're looking for a particular thing it's easy to find. It would also be nice to have a "quick access" to the ideas hub from your desktop without opening Sonar if you want to pop in something quick when you get a random melody in your head or whatever.

-Frets

outstanding!!! i'd personally like to see a fade in/out knob on instruments like dropzone (like on fl's basic sampler channel) but i'd like to see it b4 8 is released.

I wish I didn't have to pay for upgrade stuff I already have, don't want, or need

I wish I didn't have to look somewhere else

My $0.02

Instrument tracks. The current system is rather clumsy.

Cary

for the guy wanting to check his pc in the basement, setup remote desktop facility - if you have a laptop then you can remote in and check if its done. thats how i do it.

Now something I have argued over - when you have an audio clip and you perform a slip edit - i want a snap on it's original position so you can easily go back to it (instead of right clicking on the clip and clicking apply trimming after exceeding its originl length (doesnt work if you dont exceed its length)).

Hi All,

I would like to see an upgrade to the cheezy "Playlist" window.

How about dusting off the "Playlist" window used in Cakewalk Audio 5!

My 2 cent,
Zip

I would like to have a $hit detection alarm to buzz and maybe smack you on the head for when the music your recording is just that, $hit
Cj

1: I like the idea of a Groove Matrix built into Sonar.

_____________________________


2: I also like the idea of a totally new GUI (Interface) more simplified such as:

a sparse, clean look that is less chunky, less uncluttered and all graphics are extremely optimized for better overall performance. The point is... Big Chunky Graphics can weigh-down a program. The whole GUI needs to be far more sparse with all the necessary settings/options placed in a floating "Main Properties Panel" that can be resized or docked.

Example:

A complete new re-designed interface. "One window" with a multi-purpose "Properties Panel" that can be resized or docked anywhere.

All the menus also available on the Properties Panel.

Clever Properties Panel... whatever you click-on, whatever area you are working on the "Properties Panel" will change accordingly displaying all the required settings and menus. Everything you need to make adjustments is in all the "Properties Panel". This will speed up the workflow ten-fold.

A very powerful Plugins Manager, File Explorer with Audio Audition of Samples and Loops, and a Mixer that looks like a Neve Console with "True Panning" all these elements are in the "Properties Panel" but another neat feature is the ability to "Separate" those elements...

...the option to separate main elements from the "Properties Panel" so that elements such as the Mixer, Plugins Manager and File-Explorer can be display separately on it's own and resized, also particularly handy for dual monitor setups.

_____________________________


3: Audio Snap? BAH!! Cakewalk should "Put the Horse before the Cart"

The future is definitely going... "Auto" the keyword here is: Auto Audio Quantizing but simplify the process with very simple yet clever advanced quantize options/settings that can also be saved as "Project Templates" or "Custom Quantize Setups" for quick recall.

Cakewalk needs to focus even more on "Keeping the Creativity Flowing Fast" to "Get The Ideas Down Quick" NO-Interruptions!! NO-Fiddling with Timing Issues!! Because the SONG is far more important!!

I'd like to see a new capability of Session Drummer that allows one to define a drum kit more generally than Session Drummer 2 does. Specifically, there are dozens of good hardware MIDI drums with sampled audio as output and with many more variations per drum than the General MIDI drum kits allow. And they can be recorded (both MIDI and audio) into Sonar to produce samples/loops, which can be used in Session Drummer. One can even record the MIDI and edit them to set a series of MIDI Velocities to use to record audio from the same drum hardware back into a Sonar audio track, which can be subsequently parsed into velocity-ranged .WAV files to give multiple samples per drum. Of course, one has to produce the SFZ files to setup the multi-samples, but that's not too difficult.

The issues is that MIDI drum hardware may use more note numbers for a particular drum than GM drums provide.

For example, suppose that one wanted to define a complete Latin percussion kit for Session Drummer. The PAD 9 is currently the only place where Bongos, Congas, Cowbells, and Timbales can be placed and that is limited to 12 MIDI NNs. The GM drums are limited to 2 bongo sounds, 2 conga sounds, and a cowbell plus 2 a-go-go bells.

For example, instead of being limited to only three conga sounds (MIDI NN 62-Mute Hi Conga, 63-Open Hi Conga, and 64-Open Lo Conga), one might imagine allowing Heel, Toe and Slap Hi Congas, and Bass Lo Conga as well. Similarly, there are at least 6 useful Bongo variations, at least 3 types of frequently used cowbells (Bongo, ChaCha and Timbal bells) each with Mouth and Body sounds that are different. And there are another 10 or so sounds from the Timbales (Cascara Hi Cascara Lo, Rim Hi, Open Hi, Mute Hi, Hand-struck Hi, Rim Lo, Open Lo, Mute Lo, Hand-struck Lo). I count about 29 sounds that would have to be fit into PAD 9 of Session Drummer 2, which only has 12 MIDI NNs assigned.

What would it take?
1) Session Drummer would allowed each pad to be assigned to specific MIDI NNs of the user's choice.
2) Session Drummer would have a Define Drum Kit application that would (a) allow user to select wave files for each drum category in the kit (b) assign each of the wave files to specific MIDI NNs and MIDI Velocity ranges (c) create an appropriately located folder set for the kit and copy samples to the respective folder(s), (d) create the SFZ file for each drum category in the kit, and finally (d) re-label the Pads with an icon selection provided to the user.

What might the pad assignment look like? (1) Congas, (2) Timbales, (3) Bongos, (4) Cowbells, (5) Hand Percussion (Claves, Maracas, Guiro, Tamborine, Shekere, Cabasa, etc) (6) Tambora, (7) Cymbals, (8) Woodblocks, (9) Bomba (bass drums), (10) ... .

Perhaps the same could be done for the grooves/programs, but not being familiar with how one might create these for use with Session Drummer, I have no specifics to discuss.

BUILT-IN DIAGNOSTIC TOOLS

Here's another wish for the list. I'd like to see a report tool, in which the user could select the items/details to report, and could then view or print the report. This would be useful in diagnosing issues with one's project. Consider the following:

How many times did you have something working in one project and it didn't work in a subsequent project because of one "insignificant" detail you overlooked? Going back and forth between the various windows in the two projects to find what is different is both tedious and frustrating - its easy to overlook some miniscule detail. Having printed reports side-by-side of selected the parameters in each of the two projects would facilitate finding any differences.

Better still, but probably a lot more work for the developers, would be a "wiring compare" function between two track chains in two separate projects that would show any differences in the wiring. (By a track chain - I don't know if there is a correct term for this - I mean, for example, the wiring of a MIDI source to an Audio Track/soft synth to Sends/Busses, outboard hardware, etc.) This, too would have user-selectable parameters/detail.

ORIGINAL: SongCraft

1: I like the idea of a Groove Matrix built into Sonar.

_____________________________


2: I also like the idea of a totally new GUI (Interface) more simplified such as:

a sparse, clean look that is less chunky, less uncluttered and all graphics are extremely optimized for better overall performance. The point is... Big Chunky Graphics can weigh-down a program. The whole GUI needs to be far more sparse with all the necessary settings/options placed in a floating "Main Properties Panel" that can be resized or docked.

Example:

A complete new re-designed interface. "One window" with a multi-purpose "Properties Panel" that can be resized or docked anywhere.

All the menus also available on the Properties Panel.

Clever Properties Panel... whatever you click-on, whatever area you are working on the "Properties Panel" will change accordingly displaying all the required settings and menus. Everything you need to make adjustments is in all the "Properties Panel". This will speed up the workflow ten-fold.

A very powerful Plugins Manager, File Explorer with Audio Audition of Samples and Loops, and a Mixer that looks like a Neve Console with "True Panning" all these elements are in the "Properties Panel" but another neat feature is the ability to "Separate" those elements...

...the option to separate main elements from the "Properties Panel" so that elements such as the Mixer, Plugins Manager and File-Explorer can be display separately on it's own and resized, also particularly handy for dual monitor setups.

_____________________________


3: Audio Snap? BAH!! Cakewalk should "Put the Horse before the Cart"

The future is definitely going... "Auto" the keyword here is: Auto Audio Quantizing but simplify the process with very simple yet clever advanced quantize options/settings that can also be saved as "Project Templates" or "Custom Quantize Setups" for quick recall.

Cakewalk needs to focus even more on "Keeping the Creativity Flowing Fast" to "Get The Ideas Down Quick" NO-Interruptions!! NO-Fiddling with Timing Issues!! Because the SONG is far more important!!

agree 1000% with the ideas and concepts in this post, especially a groove matrix for working w/ patterns.

also would love to see workflow enhancements. there is some really low hanging fruit IMO like being able to toggle the metronome on/off while recording/playing, and saving while playing that doesn't bugger the program.

Plug-in Delay Compensation BYPASS

Can you elaborate on why one would need this feature?

speaking of soloing, i am constantly wishing for a "new solo" command that would solo a clicked track and simultaneously unsolo all others. it could be done w/ say, shift click on a track's solo btn.

taken a step further, shift click could instead enable a "super solo" mode (say a red S in the green solo box) that would solo that single track irrespective of other solo'd tracks. a 2nd shift click on the same track's solo btn would put it in normal solo mode w/ the other previously solo'd tracks, while a regular click would unsolo it, again restoring other previously solo'd tracks. if a 2nd track is shift clicked it becomes the super solo track and if there's a previous super solo track it becomes normally solo'd.

both of these implementations leave existing behavior exactly as is.

It's all well and good making lists with your favourite 100 things you'd like in Sonar 8 but you are wasting your time unless it's entered HERE

1) a "select random notes" function - highlight a midi track with multiple notes and have SONAR random select some

There's already a CAL for this which you can Randomise Velocities and Positions

2) a "dissolve track" function - say you are writing a 4 note chord on a single midi track, this function would create a seperate midi track for each of the 4 notes. This can help string section sequencing quite a bit! also great for surgical drum editing!

There's already a CAL for this one as well, Called Split Notes to Tracks

5) controller data conversion - the bility to highlight a controller data pane in the PRV window and convert it to another controller data. ie: converting CC7 volume data into CC11 expression data.

There's a function already for this Called "INTERPOLATE"