Well...
So I spent 2 or 3 hours really trying to nail takelanes this evening and I'm finally starting to understand how they work and getting to like them.


Sidestep...
I think my previous issue with takelanes was my own stupid fault, I should have always had comp on whilst recording. I notice there are a number of possible issues with takelanes and overwrite/sound on sound record mode on, I'll leave that to another thread suffice to say I don't understand the logic at all with takelanes for these recording modes.


Back to the subject...
Anyway back to comp record and takelanes. After playing with this functionality and finally getting a grip I realised that how playback of takelanes are being displayed, it looks like SOLO should switched on, on the lanes, whilst playing back and it isn't. Now that caused me confusion, so without further ado, here are the steps in more detail so I can clearly show what I mean:

STEPS
New Project
Add a new soft synth track. (Insert -> Soft Synth -> Dialog appears, please ensure only Simple Instrument Track is ticked and not MIDI source)
Press record (in comp mode) and loop a part five times
View the take lanes
Select a clip and press SHIFT + Spacebar to audition.

EXPECTED
SOLO button should be displayed next to current take lane being auditioned.
The comping lane at the top should have SOLO displayed for half the button (like write automation record on one control only) to indicate a solo is going on a takelane.

ACTUAL
SOLO button is not displayed next to current take lane.

NOTE
The same situation exists if you navigate and preview other clips around the takelanes with the arrow keys. The solo light should switch on whenever a takelane is live, and switch off when it is not (in effect the solo button should follow around with the current auditioned track) and this is not happening.

ALSO NOTE
You could argue this is a sort of special "magic" SOLO and therefore this does not need to be indicated (as it is in a takelane), however I suggest this is not so, please follow these steps. (a) Record another track of music (b) Select Dim Solo at the top. (c) Repeat the original steps on the original takelane and you will hear the other track in the background. This will disappear if you don't have DIM SOLO on. So this should prove the point that SOLO is going on, it's just not being indicated.
----------------

I hope this makes sense?

Any comments?


Thanks...

Alex, are they audio take lanes you are having trouble with?
 
I setup an audio track, looped 3 measures with punch record, set tempo to 290 and hit record. I was able to take 8 take lanes. I am able to solo each take.
 
I am able to solo the take lanes without seeing the solo button issue. I have run into another issue that I will report in a separate thread.

Hi Conley

Are you able to follow my steps? The issue is not hearing solo, its seeing the solo buttons. You've got to be speed comping though with the keyboard...Otherwise my steps work as intended I think . Thanks for the reply!

Can anybody check out my steps?
Thanks..

Hi Alex,
 
The speed comping mechanism does not engage the solo buttons on the take lanes. It is soloing any selected clip, not the lane itself. This is expected behavior. Basically, it is an override for the clip's mute state, if it is muted. 

Hi Dan, thanks for replying...!
 
I understand the technical perspective in terms of your C++ coding what you are saying is true, but from the UI perspective how do I manually SOLO a clip with my mouse, and then how would I solo another clip in the SAME takelane when they are in different places on the timeline? In effect really what you are doing is SOLOing a takelane - right?
Wouldn't you agree this would be a lot better that it was indictated what you were hearing?
At present there are no visual indicators here as to what is going on (like you would normally expect), and I'm suggesting this could be one of the reasons for confusion.
 
Please see this point in my original post:
 
You could argue this is a sort of special "magic" SOLO and therefore this does not need to be indicated (as it is in a takelane), however I suggest this is not so, please follow these steps. (a) Record another track of music (b) Select Dim Solo at the top. (c) Repeat the original steps on the original takelane and you will hear the other track in the background. This will disappear if you don't have DIM SOLO on. So this should prove the point that SOLO is going on, it's just not being indicated.
 
Cheers...

CakeAlexS
Hi Conley

Are you able to follow my steps? The issue is not hearing solo, its seeing the solo buttons. You've got to be speed comping though with the keyboard...Otherwise my steps work as intended I think . Thanks for the reply!

Can anybody check out my steps?
Thanks..

Alex, if I was able to solo the tracks, I would presume that meant I was able to see the buttons. ;)
With that said, I had sound on sound as a default. I changed it to comping as a recording default.
 
You did not state if you armed the midi or audio track. I armed the audio track.
 
I was able to record 5 takes and after recording hitting CTRL-SPACE played the top clip only. All other takes were muted, as expected. I was able to see and select each of the take SOLO buttons.
 
I did run into a problem where speed comping did not woirk as expected. After pressing CTRL-SPACEBAR playback started as expected, but the up and down arrows did nothing to advance or try the previous takes. The arrows only navigated the actual tracks and not the takes. Then I figured I needed to highlight the take itself. When I selected the actual take, the arrows no longer advanced or went to prior tracks. The arrows also would not go to post or prior takes either. So it looks like speed comping may not be working for me as it is designed.
 
Perhaps there is a difference in our recording settings. Let me know if I can try anything else.
 
 

Guitarmech111
I did run into a problem where speed comping did not woirk as expected. After pressing CTRL-SPACEBAR playback started as expected, but the up and down arrows did nothing to advance or try the previous takes.

Speed comping is Shift+Spacebar. Ctrl+Spacebar just toggles normal playback between Pause and Rewind to Now Marker modes.

Thanks for the clarification!
 
I am able to go up and down the take lanes when SHIFT-SPACEBAR are pressed. I am also able to see the solo buttons and select each take. So what am I doing wrong?

When you do Insert -> Soft Synth -> a Dialog appears, please ensure only Simple Instrument Track is ticked and not MIDI source, that way you will only have one track (not MIDI + audio). I updated the original post to make this clear. The issue isn't about selecting or clicking on SOLO buttons (not in the steps), it's trying to get across that they should automatically be turned on and off when you press SHIFT + Spacebar when auditioning, at present this isn't happening.
 
Thanks for trying...
 

CakeAlexS
Hi Dan, thanks for replying...!
 
I understand the technical perspective in terms of your C++ coding what you are saying is true, but from the UI perspective how do I manually SOLO a clip with my mouse, and then how would I solo another clip in the SAME takelane when they are in different places on the timeline? In effect really what you are doing is SOLOing a takelane - right?

If I understand your question correctly, I think there are two elements to consider. First, comping has a "mute" orientation, not a "solo" orientation. It's a subtle difference, but one which seems to have influenced the design decisions to which Dan refers.
 
Second, I understand the concept of showing which track is being soloed when you speed comp a clip, but the clip itself is highlighted, so you do have a visual indication. However, another issue is suppose you have multi-clips selected in one section, then want to audition takes in another section. When you finish auditioning the takes and go into standard playback mode to hear the results of your edits, Sonar would have to know that you are in standard play mode, but trying to initiate standard playback only in a comping context. In other words, Sonar would need to know you are still involved in comping as opposed to, for example, starting playback outside of the area you were comping, and then disable solo only within the Take Lanes you're working with so you could hear all the multi-clips. It seems that given there's a visual indication of the clip you're auditioning, an additional solo indicator wouldn't be worth the effort required to figure out a way to make sure it turns off automatically when you don't need it any more.