Hello Forum,
 
Is there any way to find out the peak and RMS values in a clip/track without having to play the whole thing?
I've looked through the menus and searched the help file for 'analyse' and 'analyze', but nothing seems to be listed.
 
Thanks all,
 
Lee.
 

Throw the clip into WaveShop

You can set your meters in Sonar to display both. 

Thanks for helping scook and John.
 
I would like to select a clip and have Sonar analyse it without having to play the track. I set my meters to display both, but I have to do that for every new project. Haven't found how to make that default.
 
Have I really got to use free software to do what a premium DAW cannot do? What a crazy notion. Thanks for the link. I'll check it out.
 
I was thinking about Sonar in particular, so I guess the answer to my question is no.
 
Thank again and all the best,
 
Lee.

John's right that you can set the meters to display both, but that isn't the same as scanning to find the max peak or the average RMS over time.
 
Personally, I use some RME tools to measure sound in different ways.
 
One way to find the loudest moments in your recording (peaks not RMS) is to let the track play through a master bus where the Preview Wave Form is on the master bus. Then you can expand the wave form.
 
If you want more help, you can push the volume fader on the master bus until the moments you want to catch are clipping. Then you get a red vertical line where the clips occurred.
 
If you are impatient, you can bounce to tracks to see the wave form generated for the entire track faster and hunt out peaks that way.
 
None of these ideas are really what you want which is an analysis of peaks and RMS of your track over time (like a 3D view with frequency, amplitude and time as dimensions). Cakewalk did offer a deal on Blue Cat Plugs... Here's a link where I asked about them...
http://forum.cakewalk.com/Im-curious-about-Blue-Cat-plugs-m2886368.aspx
 
So another link to plugins that might help you is here...
http://www.meldaproduction.com/
There are some great videos at MeldaProduction.com that show how to use their plugs.
 
In general, I have been slow to pick up plugins that analyze over time. I use my ears for that. It's a good way to learn (not the only way).
 

It's not hard to set up a project template that has any settings you like. 
http://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation/default.aspx?Doc=SONAR X3&Lang=EN&Req=Templates_KeyBindings.2.html#1105441
 

Thank you for the links, gswitz.
 
You are right, I would like to be able to click a clip and it show me the peak and RMS of the clip. No fancy 3D required. Wave Shop, suggested by scook does that. I'll look into Blue Cat and Melda Production to see what they're offering.
 
Thanks again,
 
Lee.

gswitz
It's not hard to set up a project template that has any settings you like. 
http://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation/default.aspx?Doc=SONAR X3&Lang=EN&Req=Templates_KeyBindings.2.html#1105441
 

Great! I didn't realise that templates extended to meter options. I'll get onto it.
 
All the best,
 
Lee.

Nice! Glad I could help with the templates.
 
Heads up that meter settings are unique in Console View and Track View and all Screen Sets. So when you create your template you might update the meters in Track View and Console View in screenset 1, then use ctrl+2, ctrl+3 etc to copy your screenset with settings to the other screensets before dialing those in. This will copy your meter settings to the other screensets (while also over-writing the other screensets).
 
You might want to turn on wave form preview in the master bus in track view too.
 
Some people also prefer the horizontal meters in track view.

There are peak markers too.