I noticed that when I drag and drop clips from my browser (after having preview set to follow the clip tempo) that they revert to the original tempo. Right clicking on it and setting it to a groove clip in the track really seems to screw it up where it sounded good on the preview. Not sure if there is a better way to keep the tempo of the clip set to the project when dragging and dropping or not.
 
Is there a better way to go about keeping the project tempo on the clip that I'm missing here?

Been a few weeks. Anyone have an answer to this?

There are a lot of variables, but here are the main ones.
 
Groove clips (Apple Loops and REX files, too) speed up better than the slow down. If there's a clip at 120 BPM, it will probably sound fine at 140. It will probably sound horrible at 100.
 
Creating really good "acidization" (the technology behind groove clips) is not trivial and is time-consuming. For example Sony's acidized sample libraries are done very well, and stretch as well as can be expected over a wide range. Others just invoke Sonar's Ctrl+L or Acid's prelminary attempts and leave it at that, which does not end well.
 
You can Ctrl+drag when slip-editing to use DSP to change duration. The drawback is that if you change your mind about the tempo, you'll have to do this again. If the tempo changes, this will not follow along whereas Acidized files will. You also have to bounce the slip-edited clip to itself to use the high-quality offline rendering algorithm instead of the real-time preview mode.
 
REX files are best for clips with short, percussive, highly defined hits but terrible with pads. Acidization can work very well with pads (I've developed n unusual technique that creates pads that work from 10-500BPM, which is definitely not the norm) but sometimes delivers as good results with percussion as REX and sometimes not. In all cases, pitch transposition is a crap shoot. You're much better off using Sonar's Transpose function.
 
In a previous lifetime, companies would pay me to acidize their files because it's such a PITA but I'd done so many I knew what I was doing, and could make things happen fairly fast.
 
You may find these helpful:
 
http://www.harmonycentral.com/articles/how-to-acidize-wav-files-in-ca-30956572
http://www.keyboardmag.com/compose---arrange/1329/tips-and-tricks-for-loops-and-beats/29601
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/mar02/articles/sonarnotes0302.asp
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep05/articles/sonartech.htm
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep11/articles/sonar-tech-0911.htm
 
 
 
 

Want to revisit this since I've been working with loops a bit again.
 
I guess my question is, why does a loops sound so good in preview set at the project tempo but take 14 steps to simply move into the track at the same tempo it was playing at? Ctrl dragging is nice but it takes time to find the exact tempo it was playing at in preview. It seems like it's needlessly complicated.

There's something about your question I don't understand. You say that preview is set to the project tempo; if you drag the clip into the track (ctrl-drag isn't necessary),you say "it takes time to find the exact tempo it was playing at in preview." However, it should play at the same tempo as what you heard in the previewbecause the browser gets its tempo from the project. 
 
If you're asking how you can change the project tempo to the clip's original, non-looped tempo, first look at the clip name, which often incorporates the tempo; then set the project tempo accordingly. If no tempo is indicated, bring the clip into the project, then double-click on it to open the loop construction window. The LC window's BPM field will show the clip's original tempo (and often more precisely than a tempo incorporated in the clip name).
 
If these options don't address what you want, please provide more detail on exactly what it is you want to accomplish.

Sorry if that wasn't clear.
 
Basically I have mine setup to preview the loop at the project tempo. When I drag the clip into the track, it retains its original tempo and does not adopt the project tempo. So if my project tempo is 105 and the loop I want to use is 110bpm (though is previewed at 105bpm), I drag it over and it doesn't adopt 105bpm like I wanted it to and instead stays at it's original 110. I'm trying to figure out how to drag the loop into the track and have it adopt the 105bpm it was previewing with so that everything stays on beat and matches up.
 
The one thing I tried doing was ctrl/click dragging it out once it was dragged into a track but it's painstakingly difficult sometimes to match the beat that way.
 
It's likely something very simple I'm missing or a setting I didn't see.

Does it make any difference if you select the clip and use Ctrl+L?   That'll loop the clip at the current project tempo.  It almost sounds as though the clips are one-shots and not setup to automatically conform to the project tempo.   Now that I think about it, I wonder if the Browser does this "behind the scenes" for these type of clips...
 

stevec
Does it make any difference if you select the clip and use Ctrl+L?   That'll loop the clip at the current project tempo.  It almost sounds as though the clips are one-shots and not setup to automatically conform to the project tempo.   Now that I think about it, I wonder if the Browser does this "behind the scenes" for these type of clips...

Good point. I haven't thought about that much, but it's possible the browser automatically does a "ctrl+L" behind the scenes so you can preview anything at the project tempo.
 
Anyway, the solution for the OP is, as you suggest, drag the clip in, select it, and type ctrl+L or right click and choosing looping from the context menu. The only possible problem with this is sometimes Sonar guesses wrong and makes the loop twice as long as it should be. In that case, double-click on it to open the Loop Construction window, and in the Beats field, enter half as many.
 
Also note that if you want really good stretching to tempo using groove clips, it really helps to know how to edit them in the loop construction window if the amount of stretch is considerable.

Ahh Ctrl+L worked brilliantly! Thanks to you both for the help. Might actually get this done on time now. :D
 
That loop construction information will come in handy, too. I don't work with loops very often but it seems like more of the side projects I've been doing lately have been requesting more EDM style music so I can imagine I'll be spending a lot more time in it trying to rip things apart.

Hey, glad that worked out!