mudgel...Pg 191 of the Sonar Reference manual "Audition Selection" the chapter is called "Controlling the Transport" select one or more clips and shift+ spacebar will lay them.

All these posts about the manual made me realize - Hey!  They can't be talking about the sketchy 53 page thing I have - Now I've looked at the Cake site, found the download for the Reference Guide manual, and am finally on the same page as you guys!--literally, like there's p. 191 with this nice "audition selection" tip.
 
Dang!-- Why wasn't that manual included in the initial X3 download?  Before this discussion, I literally did not even know an actual manual existed. 
 
So, all I've had is the little User Guide which is pretty much on the level of, "Push 'record' when you want to record a track.  Then, when you are through, you can push 'play' to hear what you have recorded!  See how fun and easy it is to make music, kids?" 
 
This is great to have an actual, gen-u-wine, info packed manual.  The Groove3 video tutes that came with X3 are nice to have, but nothing replaces a go-to reference manual.  I was, and still am bummed that the built-in Help guide is no longer available in the program.  Before X3, that's what I relied on constantly - So easy, while working on a project, to click Help and use the search to find info.  Now when it's just links to tute pages at the Cake site, it's pretty useless to me, since going online while working in Sonar is the last thing I want to do - It cuts off the ASIO driver from Sonar, for one thing.  IMHO, really bad move to take out those built in Help files.
 
THANKS for cluing me into the real manual - Can't believe I haven't had this before now.
 
Randy

The support pages and knowledge base may be underrated feature. I would recommend everyone peruse this part of Cakewalk's website for their version of SONAR.

The Ref Manual doesn't actually get released until after the current version of Sonar is out for a while. Likely because they are too busy dealing with the release and they want to make sure it syncs up with the final changes including the inevitable first patch or two.
 
It is cumbersome and there are quite a few errors/outdated stuff in it but it is super handy to have. However there are a TON of things in there about specific topics that are scattered around. There have been many times where I thought I had read all about something then stumbled across another entry on the same subject further on with more detail. Because of this I started just reading the thing straight through (with X2) and kept my own notes. I only ended up getting up to about page 800 so there are still tons of things I need to go through (and may restart the process with the X3 manual because I'll probably stay with this version for a while) but just putting my head down for a few weeks and reading, trying things out and jotting down my own version of how things work helped IMMENSELY. Most folks don't have the time to do that though. I literally spent six hours a day for almost a month just getting that far.

Sonar's help file is still accessible by pressing F1 as in any Windows program. The help file contains the same info as the reference guide except the latter is on pdf format.

Not only looks was Sonar x3 given a big overhaul, from my experience I believe the manual has had a lot of the extraneous info has been deleted, corrections made and generally improved.

I believe the reference guide is released with the program.

mudgel
Sonar's help file is still accessible by pressing F1 as in any Windows program. The help file contains the same info as the reference guide except the latter is on pdf format.

Not only looks was Sonar x3 given a big overhaul, from my experience I believe the manual has had a lot of the extraneous info has been deleted, corrections made and generally improved.

I believe the reference guide is released with the program.

Isn't there some kind of update process for the F1 help so it reflects the current version?
 
Good to hear that they cleaned it up a bit though. Maybe I will set aside a couple weeks to go through it line by line and create a new set of notes. Should be easier this time now that I understand things a little better. Cheers, Mudge.

This is drifting away from the topic. The Reference Guide is a snapshot of the initial SONAR help in pdf form. The help system on the Cakewalk website is the most current, the help system installed on your PC is a snapshot made from the website around the time of the update.

Sorry to drag it OT but it is somewhat related because that's where many of these useful tidbits live. Just to be clear though (then I'll shut up about it) are you saying when I installed the X3e patch it updated my F1 help files as well? Because that would be cool.
 
I do find the bulk pdf version to be easier to navigate and read straight through. If I find something weird then I just google the online help for the online entry from my laptop.
 
Cheers.

For me the user interface is the most underrated feature, namely preferences.  The preferences, especially io setup, asio buffers, and devices just makes sense to me.  There is room for improvement but compared to other daws, it works for me!!!
 
Thanks bakers!!

Beepster
Just to be clear though (then I'll shut up about it) are you saying when I installed the X3e patch it updated my F1 help files as well?

Yes, you may notice the "What's New" section contains information about X3e.

scook

Beepster
Just to be clear though (then I'll shut up about it) are you saying when I installed the X3e patch it updated my F1 help files as well?

Yes, you may notice the "What's New" section contains information about X3e.

Right on. I just skimmed that because I was in a flurry of other updates, downloads and general computer maintenance that day on top of a bunch of meatworld things. Now that I can sleep again I'm desperately trying to catch up on a ton of things that fell to the wayside during the "noisy neighbor" period. Seriously it was bad.
 
Shutting up now. Thanks.