Tips and Hints for Using Staff View More Productively

Sonar's staff view has limits, but fortunately, those limits only impact how music is displayed, not how it is played back.  With that in mind, the staff view can be viewed as a MIDI editor, and if you know what you're doing, you can write complex music using it.  Here are some tips:

1.  If you want five 16th notes in the space of 4, (assuming your timebase is 480 ticks per quarter note) simply divide 480/5 to get 96 ticks per note. Enter the first note using step entry and change that value to 96, and have the step recorder advance the clock 96 ticks.  Do the same for the remaining notes in the group.  Will it look right?  No, it won't.  Will it play back accurately?  Yes, it will.  Now, if you import that file into Sibelius, you'll see it exactly as it should look:  5 16th notes with a 5 and a tuplet slur over all of them.  The same holds true for 7 eighth notes in the space of 2 quarters, etc.   Sonar can play back all of these complex note groupings accurately and correctly.  With detailed sequencing of attacks, releases, articulation and dynamics--and a good sound library--you can get those 5 sixteenths to sound natural, fluid and expressive, as though they just slid off the hands of a masterful player. 

2.  If your snap function seems funky, choose the dotted whole note (the largest note-value in the drop down list) and then click on a quarter, half or whole note.  This resets the snap function.  IN ORDER FOR THIS TO WORK, YOU MUST CHECK THE BOX IN THE DROP-DOWN NOTE-VALUE LIST THAT SAYS "LAST TOUCHED" (last option on drop-down menu)

3. You can have multiple staff view windows open at the same time.  This is a great feature for orchestral scores.  I usually have at least 4 docked staff views open and locked; winds, brass, percussion and strings, and then a 5th one that I use for different combinations of instruments.  If you use the staff view a lot, this is one of the best features of Sonar.  I think the limit on the number of staves in each window is 23 or so.  Finally, Sonar does not do well with screensets and the staff view, and/or my system has a graphics bug that many other systems don't.  If I change screensets to one that does not use staff view, and go back to staff view, the instruments on the right side (track pane) will be out of order.  My solution:  I don't use screensets very often.  I use hot keys to call up whatever window I need, i.e.  F2 event list, F3 meter, F4 tempo, F6 controllers., etc.

These symphonic movements were composed in Sonar, the midi file exported to Sibelius to create the score:  www.jerrygerber.com/symphony9.htm

Jerry
http://www.jerrygerber.com

  

Good tips. Thanks for sharing

Helpful thread, thanks!

I never thanked you Jerry for the tip you gave...locking the staff view and then opening up other staff views.  I have used that everyday the last couple of weeks...so hey THANKS!
 
and konradh great tip also!  I've been using your tip in reverse.  Chords on the top staff sometimes get hung up, so I put a real high note on the first beat.  Works so well.
 
Thanks guys!