Sonar annoyances

I've just spent the last couple days using X1d hard core pumping out 2 remixes. Only a single crash with Maschine. That i can live with, since auto-save works really well.
...but heres what i cant live with:

• the snap level when working in piano roll mode defaults to the project view (typically a measure). i want it to go to 1/16th notes or 1/8th notes. old old old Sonar (6 maybe?) used to remember my snap level in piano roll. furthermore, it seems that piano roll can be small at the bottom of the screen while the track view shows ~100 measures. it seems they are capable of working at different zoom levels. this is REALLY annoying.
• for what i can tell, editing automation couldnt be any more troublesome. again, correct me if im wrong but can i only edit the envelope(s) OR the audio? not both at the same time? again, i used to be able to freely click on envelopes which overlapped and as long as i hit a node, i could move it. now i have to go to the track info on the left, toggle to event automation, pull down to XXX then pull over to YYY.
• as a sidenote to the above, it seems like it always copies the envelope with the audio. i used to be able to turn this off freely. can i do it anymore?
• i know this is an old "wish list thing", but when editing audio, i used to be able to double click on the audio clip and it would automatically zoom to that in almost full screen. i cant figure out how to make it do anything but the loop view, which isnt what i want to do. 
• mp3 export takes forever. a 3 minute clip on my 8 core xeon should take a few seconds to export and encode. instead, it takes several minutes. FLAC on the other hand, is faster than exporting .wav. is this a codec thing? can i tweak it somehow?

soundsubs

mp3 export takes forever. a 3 minute clip on my 8 core xeon should take a few seconds to export and encode. instead, it takes several minutes. FLAC on the other hand, is faster than exporting .wav. is this a codec thing? can i tweak it somehow?

This I can't explain - I just exported a 4 minute song to an mp3 via Lame x64 on my quad core AMD system in about 20 seconds, maybe 30 at most.  

soundsubs


thanks for the replies... i JUST activated the mp3 encoder in sonar (for $19)... i wonder if i need to tweak it?

Ahh - that is one difference, I'm using the free Lame x64 encoder - you can see how to configure it in this thread.  Perhaps it has better performance.

http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?m=2463788 


Note: Lame is at version 3.99.5 now so the instructions reference a slightly older version, but the links still work.

soundsubs


I've just spent the last couple days using X1d hard core pumping out 2 remixes. Only a single crash with Maschine. That i can live with, since auto-save works really well.
...but heres what i cant live with:

• the snap level when working in piano roll mode defaults to the project view (typically a measure). i want it to go to 1/16th notes or 1/8th notes. old old old Sonar (6 maybe?) used to remember my snap level in piano roll. furthermore, it seems that piano roll can be small at the bottom of the screen while the track view shows ~100 measures. it seems they are capable of working at different zoom levels. this is REALLY annoying.

Better still you can now have several default snaps. To do so set a variable in the ini file (Preferences-->File--->Initialization File) IncludeSnapInScreenset=1 That will allow you to use different snaps per screenset. Once you have all of your screensets set up with as many different snaps in the various views save it as a template.

• for what i can tell, editing automation couldnt be any more troublesome. again, correct me if im wrong but can i only edit the envelope(s) OR the audio? not both at the same time? again, i used to be able to freely click on envelopes which overlapped and as long as i hit a node, i could move it. now i have to go to the track info on the left, toggle to event automation, pull down to XXX then pull over to YYY.

Shift clicking is the secret to speed here. Shift+left click on something (envelope or clip) will switch the edit filter to that element. (a pop up on ghosted envelopes would help there though). Shift + right click will swap between the last two edit filter states. If all else fails press T or click middle mouse button for easy access to the edit filter via the TooHUD. See this video for more info.

• as a sidenote to the above, it seems like it always copies the envelope with the audio. i used to be able to turn this off freely. can i do it anymore?

You can set the behaviour in the "Copy" dialogue box. Call it up by using Main menu Edit-->Copy... uncheck the automation option.

• i know this is an old "wish list thing", but when editing audio, i used to be able to double click on the audio clip and it would automatically zoom to that in almost full screen. i cant figure out how to make it do anything but the loop view, which isnt what i want to do. 

An already zoomed in screenset as in this video is a one button press method that is very quick for general editing, and my preferred way. Press and hold Z (Zoom tool) drag select area and release will zoom in quickly if you prefer that method. Double click behaviour is set in TV menu Options-->Click behaviour--->Double click but zoom isn't an option.

• mp3 export takes forever. a 3 minute clip on my 8 core xeon should take a few seconds to export and encode. instead, it takes several minutes. FLAC on the other hand, is faster than exporting .wav. is this a codec thing? can i tweak it somehow?

HAve a look at Preferences--->Audio----->Config File and change the BounceBufSizeMsec, mines at 350.