Redo just deleted notes in PRV that I had previously only changed the velocity of...

that one was scary...

But I'm noticing that ctrl-z just did the same thing???

Keni


Hi Ben...

Just wondering...

Would it be possible to add a file dirty/clean status indicator? Probably not in the same realm as the shortcuts, but it's a constant reminder for me that I miss in full screen mode...

Thanks...
Keni

Hi Keni,
Added to the list. Tricky, but not impossible. A number of things like this are achievable, but there is a small performance hit. I suspect it will be negligible, but I need to do some more work to see if it's worthwhile first.
Thanks,
Ben

[Edit: Some or all of the following suggestions/ideas may not be possible. I'm looking into it ATM. I don't want to promise more than I can deliver!]
 
Some info for the current beta testers (and anyone else interested):

Suggestions already received:

1. Add a 'Save As...' button.
2. Make SX1H run Sonar if it's not already running when SX1H is executed (or find a way to auto-start SX1H).
3. Add a preference option to auto hide the Multidock on SX1H startup.
4. Add 'note' buttons (whole, half etc) as in Sonar 8.5.3.
5. Add a file dirty indicator to the toolbar if Sonar is in full screen mode.

Some interesting things I'm already looking into:
1. Different snap-to settings depending on which view is active (ie. quarters when in Track View, 16ths in PRV). I'm painfully close to managing this, but one last (important) step eludes me. It may not be possible, but I'll keep trying for now. Won't waste too much time on it because it's almost certain to be addressed by Cakewalk soon anyway.
2. Global screensets. Again, really close to figuring this out, but one stubborn last step remains!
3. Allowing users to choose any existing menu item to add to the toolbar. I already know how to do this with about 70% of menu options, but it's a lot of work, and likely to be addressed by Cakewalk soon, so I'm not sure how much time to spend on it.
4. 'Skinning' Sonar. Already figured this out, and it works well, but each 'Skin' needs a lot of work (there are loads of images to change), and requires a different DLL to be compiled.

Known problems & limitations:

1. SX1H is only really suited to mouse control. Keyboard support has not been added (or tested) so as not to conflict with Sonar keybindings.
2. No automatic enabling/disabling of buttons depending on context. For example, the 'Paste' button is not greyed out if there is no data on the clipboard ready to paste. This doesn't seem to have any negative side effects though, as the buttons just don't do anything if there
is nothing to do.
3. Only tested with the English version of Sonar. How it works with non-English versions remains to be seen. [Edit: Someone using the German version of Sonar has reported it works OK.]
4. The Preferences dialog needs OK/Cancel buttons. Currently, there is no way to undo preference changes except by undoing them manually (ie. you should be able to make several preference changes, then click 'Cancel' to undo them all).
5. Input focus. If the Sonar window is currently selected/focused, then tooltips won't appear on the SX1H toolbar. Likewise, if an SX1H toolbar button is pressed, input focus remains on the toolbar window, and does not return to Sonar. This will be fixed in an future release,
but only seems to be a minor niggle for now.
6. Toolbar button customization is currently disabled. This will be added soon.
7. The 'welcome' screen allows you to edit the welcome message, although doing so has no negative effects.
8. When loading SX1H, it brings the Sonar window to the foreground (if it isn't already). However, if Sonar is minimized, it stays minimized, though Sx1H still runs properly. A minor niggle.
9. In 64 bit Sonar, BitBridged plug-in windows are not visible if Sonar is in full screen mode. The plug-ins continue to work as normal, but you just can't access their property screens until you restore Sonar to normal size.
10. No jbridge testing has been done so far. It is unknown whether jbridge'd plug-ins will work properly, especially in full screen mode.
11. SX1H is supposed to remember its screen position so that it starts in the same place the next time it's run. A report has been received that suggests this doesn't work as intended. It may also be possible for the toolbar to be positioned off screen in certain rare circumstances, although I haven't been able to reproduce this recently so it may be fixed. For now, this can be rectified by resetting SX1H preferences via the SX1H icon in the Windows system tray.
12. Browser features (expand all folders, change colours) don't work if the Browser is docked in the Multidock.
13. SX1H needs an icon! At the moment it just has a generic Windows application icon.
14. Close all open projects but leave Sonar X1 open. Run SX1H - crash!
15. The Preferences dialog is resizable. It should have minimum size so no preference settings can be hidden.
16. No help documentation ATM.
17. You cannot show/hide the Multidock when Sonar is in full screen mode.
18. Teleport server error on closing a project when a Bitbridged plugin was open that was fixed by X1 Helper. It was a simple Windows option dialog for close or wait.
19. The screen doesn't always reflect the removal of the Multidock until it's clicked on. Possibly something to do with full screen mode.

Pretty much all of these are very minor concerns, and most of them will be addressed soon. I'll post again with an update soon.

[Edit: Please review post #35 (2 posts above) before posting any bugs/feedback. Thanks!]
 
Well, it seems that the feedback so far is fine (some minor niggles but no show-stoppers). As a result, I've decided to make the current version available to anyone else who wants to test it. Unless anything significant changes, this version seems stable enough to become the first beta version. If you want to give it a whirl, you can download it here:

http://www.staton.co.uk/downloads/sonarx1helper_v0.9.0.0.zip

Simply extract the files to a folder on your PC (there are only 3 small files in the zip file), then run Sonar X1. When Sonar has started up, run the extracted 'SonarX1Helper.exe' file. If all is well, you will see the new toolbar appear, along with a 'welcome' message.

Please feel free to post any bug reports/feedback here. If you have any bug reports, I'd appreciate as much info a possible so I can try to reproduce it. Please bear in mind the existing suggestions and known problems a couple of posts above before reporting anything.
 
Hope you find it useful. If not, just delete it, no harm done!

nprime


Wow.

I think everyone who finds this software useful owes Ben a beer.

I would love to be a fly on the wall at the CW offices right now, "Look, a user is fixing all the stuff we didn't get right!"

It's interesting. It could go one of two ways:
 
1. We don't need to bother adding/fixing that because some user has released a program that does it.
2. We really need to add/fix that because some user has released a program that does it.
 
I suspect it won't really make much (if any) difference as far as Cake are concerned. They will keep putting out updates every so often, and, one by one, the features in my program will (hopefully) become redundant.
 
It's a weird thing to spend a significant amount of time writing something that you hope will become obsolete sooner rather than later!
 
[Edit: I forgot option 3 - 'Some user has written a program to do what? Meh. Who cares?'. This is probably the most likely option on second thoughts.]

lorneyb2


Is there anything special to do to uninstall it?   I would like to retry the install again and do a listen on the hard drives to see if it they are running on the first time through.

You indicated there are no registry entries so I was just going to delete everything in the folder, reboot and then do the install again.  Is that correct?

To uninstall, just delete the files you extracted from the .zip earlier - simple as that. It's the same version I PM'd you about before though lorneyb2. No need to delete and reinstall. A new version will be available probably over the weekend. To update it, simply copy the new files over the old ones. It's deliberately easy to install and uninstall.

benstat

nprime


Wow.

I think everyone who finds this software useful owes Ben a beer.

I would love to be a fly on the wall at the CW offices right now, "Look, a user is fixing all the stuff we didn't get right!"

It's interesting. It could go one of two ways:
 
1. We don't need to bother adding/fixing that because some user has released a program that does it.
2. We really need to add/fix that because some user has released a program that does it.
 
I suspect it won't really make much (if any) difference as far as Cake are concerned. They will keep putting out updates every so often, and, one by one, the features in my program will (hopefully) become redundant.
 
It's a weird thing to spend a significant amount of time writing something that you hope will become obsolete sooner rather than later!
 
[Edit: I forgot option 3 - 'Some user has written a program to do what? Meh. Who cares?'. This is probably the most likely option on second thoughts.]

I admire you attitude. I hope option 3 is wrong, because that would be the incorrect response on their part.

Cheers!

Keni


Redo just deleted notes in PRV that I had previously only changed the velocity of...

that one was scary...

But I'm noticing that ctrl-z just did the same thing???

Hi Keni,
I would say this of course, but SX1H simply triggers the 'Undo' menu option in Sonar. It doesn't try to undo anything at all by itself. I suspect this is more an issue with Sonar than with SX1H. Your comment about Ctrl-Z doing the same thing says it all. However, I have been wrong before! If you think that it's definately something to do with SX1H then please let me know and I'll look into it.
Thanks,
Ben

I can't tsee this as much of a bother to me, but when the multidock is hidden, scrrens that have been assigned to it don't open at all and I must first close full scrren, then reveal the multidock and finally open the multidock...

As I don't use anything that's left in the multidock, it won't matter to me...

But for some they may like it if there's a way to force docked screens into float mode?

Ha! ;-)

Keni


BTW... Simply making sure you've undocked and floated all such multidocked views, this becomes a non-issue...

John

Suggestions already received: 1. Add a 'Save As...' button. 2. Make SX1H run Sonar if it's not already running when SX1H is executed (or find a way to auto-start SX1H). 3. Add a preference option to auto hide the Multidock on SX1H startup. 4. Add 'note' buttons (whole, half etc) as in Sonar 8.5.3. 5. Add a file dirty indicator to the toolbar if Sonar is in full screen mode. Some interesting things I'm already looking into: 1. Different snap-to settings depending on which view is active (ie. quarters when in Track View, 16ths in PRV). I'm painfully close to managing this, but one last (important) step eludes me. It may not be possible, but I'll keep trying for now. Won't waste too much time on it because it's almost certain to be addressed by Cakewalk soon anyway. 2. Global screensets. Again, really close to figuring this out, but one stubborn last step remains! 3. Allowing users to choose any existing menu item to add to the toolbar. I already know how to do this with about 70% of menu options, but it's a lot of work, and likely to be addressed by Cakewalk soon, so I'm not sure how much time to spend on it. 4. 'Skinning' Sonar. Already figured this out, and it works well, but each 'Skin' needs a lot of work (there are loads of images to change), and requires a different DLL to be compiled.

Ben you are like Christmas all over again. All you have listed are things I was thinking about and would love to have. Thank you. I don't know what I have done to deserve this.

One small problem upon a close of a project I got a Teleport server error. I did have a Bitbridged plugin that was fixed by X1 Helper. It was a simple Windows option dialog for close or wait.

One other thing the remove of the dock didn't happen until it was clicked on. This could have been because I had been fooling around with full screen mode from the Helper.

You have to change the name of this helper to something like "X1 Heavy Duty Tools" or "Tools" for short. So it could be X1 Tools. Or "the app that saved CW's rear". Or "a blessing from Heaven". X1 Helper is just not good enough for it. "The Fixer" could work too.

You have to get the flue more often!

This could not have come at a better time.

Hi John,
Thanks for your very kind comments. It's gratifying to know that the time I have spent on SX1H has not been wasted (well, it would never have been totally wasted because I started writing it for myself anyway). But, I suppose we musn't get complacent - this is still a beta version after all! I'm still waiting for that 'showstopper' bug report that I hope will never come...
Anyway, you have spotted some real issues there (all of them, albeit minor). Consider them added to the 'fix' list.
Why didn't I think of 'X1 Tools'. Simple and to the point. Or is it too similar to Pro Tools? Maybe it's not too late...
Thanks again!
Ben
ps. Getting the flu once or twice a year is quite enough thank you!
[Edit: It's important to point out that it may not be possible for me to implement some of the things I mentioned before. It's very tricky doing things from the outside!]

Seems to work well in my German X1a language version.

Thanks a lot!

benstat

lorneyb2


Is there anything special to do to uninstall it?   I would like to retry the install again and do a listen on the hard drives to see if it they are running on the first time through.

You indicated there are no registry entries so I was just going to delete everything in the folder, reboot and then do the install again.  Is that correct?

To uninstall, just delete the files you extracted from the .zip earlier - simple as that. It's the same version I PM'd you about before though lorneyb2. No need to delete and reinstall. A new version will be available probably over the weekend. To update it, simply copy the new files over the old ones. It's deliberately easy to install and uninstall.

Gee, Ben, your generosity to do this and share this is almost making me believe in human-kind again ;)

Thanks so much.

Keni


I can't tsee this as much of a bother to me, but when the multidock is hidden, scrrens that have been assigned to it don't open at all and I must first close full scrren, then reveal the multidock and finally open the multidock...

As I don't use anything that's left in the multidock, it won't matter to me...

But for some they may like it if there's a way to force docked screens into float mode?

Ha! ;-)

Keni


BTW... Simply making sure you've undocked and floated all such multidocked views, this becomes a non-issue...

Hi Keni,
You're right. I missed this off my known issues list. ATM, showing and hiding the Multidock is not possible when Sonar is in full screen mode. I'll amend my fix list now. I expect that to make it into v1.
Thanks!
Ben
 

So far no major or for that matter minor issues. IT'S SO AWESOME to have these buttons back on the display where they belong! I'll keep testing

bapu


Man, you guys are gonna find all the bugs before I get home to try it out.

You always have been lucky!

;-)