Despite logging untold hours with Sonar, every now and then I come into the forum and someone has come up with some cool trick, shortcut, or feature that makes me go "Wow, that's really cool...I didn't know that!"
 
So I thought a cool thread would be shortcuts you love, usual applications for ordinary devices, or cool techniques that you hardly ever see mentioned. I'll kick off with one of my favorites: Using the Sonitus Delay to create stereo imaging from a mono source. I just insert it, set one channel for 0.1 ms delay and the other for 20-30 ms or so, turn down the feedback and crossfeed, and use the mix control to determine the width. I don't know why, but of all the delays I've tried for this application, the Sonitus seems to work the best.
 
Next...

 My favorite technique is a simple one that began during the days of tape recorders and made simple with digital recording.  It's a reverse reverb sound that works like this: 1.record a part,  say a vocal line,highlight it and reverse it (process>apply effect>reverse) 2. pick a reverb and apply the effect to the reversed clip 3. Reverse that clip and you'll have the reverb coming before the recorded part and the recorded part will be going forward again.  It works best when the clip begins immediately on the first beat and the reverb isn't too long or short.  It's quick and fun to experiment with.  It can really make a chorus, bridge, or solo stand out.

Great topic, Craig. I'll probably post again but the first feature that came to mind that other daws probably don't have and is underrated is the RIGHT-CLICK LASSO SELECTING introduced in X2. I hope it won't change in future versions.

Lynn, that's a nice one. You can use that trick with Delay too -- reverse clip -- add delay -- apply fx -- reverse again.
 
My favorite simple trick is to add nodes to selection for all tracks at once.
1. select all tracks - ctrl+a
2. ctrl click to select the same envelope type for all tracks
3. swipe a highlight region in the time ruler at the top
4. right click over one of the selected envelope regions in any of the tracks
5. choose 'add nodes at selection'
 
Result...
2 nodes are added at either end of the selected region on EVERY track.
 
Why it matters...
If you record lots of songs in a row and you want to isolate fader automation from song to song, this makes it easy to ensure you don't accidentally lift the volume of the bass in the last song at the same time you raise it in the current.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJiqjyJnAvg
 
 
 

This is exactly the kind of material I'm talking about...carry on! I'll be adding some more of my own.

I use the loop feature a lot. I'll record maybe 12-20 bars of a song or chord progression,  then set my loop points and play it over and over again, trying out various effects, concrete limiter, eq settings etc...I may listen to a simple recording 1,000 times trying out different things...I've been known to let a loop roll for hours and hours...
 
I'll also use the loop feature to jam along with, coming up with new parts...bass lines, percussion,  etc....sometimes I'll just spend a couple of minutes laying down a track, then spend hours and hours messing with it....it's all part of my song writing technique...
 
Here's a sample of a recording I made using the loop based writing technique described above....it was done many years ago, but still sounds cool today....
 
 
http://www.soundclick.com...&q=hi&newref=1
 
 
 
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A recent find is dragging items from the FX bin to the PC gets you an automatic FX Chain with your Effect in it.

as a heavy mobile rig user , some i instanly miss on all other :
 
X RAY

My all time favorite is the ability to record directly to a track. As odd as it may seem not all DAWs can do this.  
 
Another is freeze as implemented in Sonar.  True it was not the first to have this but in my view it has not been improved on by anyone else. Its versatile. 
 
 
 
 

Another favorite feature of mine is the step sequencer....awesome sauce.