Letting my mind wander to fanciful thoughts of doing solo gigs over top of backing tracks and it got me thinking... does Sonar apply FX and other automation to the input? Like no recorded data, the track is not armed (necessarily). Just playing along and having say changes to guitar effects happen in real time on the input signal. I could just do an experiment but I'm feeling lazy and really should be focusing on other stuff when my DAW is fired up. Also kind of curious as to sound quality of just outputting directly from the interface to a PA so as not to have to lug and amp around (or a band... lol).
 
Just curious is all. Cheers.

I have accidentally recorded automation to an emtpy track.  Should be an easy test: turn write on, hit play, mess around with the fader, and then see what happens when you restart it and play along.  I have accidentally recorded EQ by messing around with it while testing a sound without recording.

Hi, Konradh. Yeah, I don't see why it wouldn't work but I don't think I've seen this come up before. I know we've got a few guys like Bob who use Sonar live but they mostly seem to deal with keyboard stuff. I'd be looking more at guitar oriented applications and probably using GR5 or TH2 and most patch changes/parameter control tuts revolve around a controller. I'll have to play around with it I guess. Figured I'd see what you guys thought first. Might be a cool convo anyway. Cheers.

I think its after the fact. What I mean is the data, sort of speak, is affected after its in the project. Audio is not affected at all. It is getting a real time nondestructive FX application upon playback.
 
You can automate an FX though before there is data in the track.

I would imagine even with guitar a device like the Guitar Rig Kontrol or similar MIDI controller would be the best bet for playing live with plug-ins. Many plug-ins such as GR5 and TH2 have MIDI learn capability.

Well due to physical and financial limitations I just figured it might be a cool way to get patch/parameter changes without fumbling around with my feet or buying/carrying a controller. I have a hard enough time just wrangling with my guitar these days. The idea of simply being able to walk into a club with just my guitar, interface, a few cables and a laptop is appealing to me. I've never been much for intricate effects changes live anyway (usually just a single stompbox for distortion and switching from clean to face melting) but if some of my current musical ideas come together I might want more. Definitely worth investigating and as always I love hearing you guys talk about your experiences and techniques. Gives me tons of ideas. ;-)

If thats is all you want to do yes its done all the time. 

John
If thats is all you want to do yes its done all the time. 

So that's a yes?
 
I'll give an example...
 
At home I'd record all the backing tracks, mix them and bonce them to audio (either stems for a bit of control based on the live room or a simple stereo track).
 
Then I'd record my intended guitar part and afterward use write automation to do patch and/or parameter changes to that track.
 
Then I'd delete the actual clips in that track (or mute them) so only the automation remains.
 
Now if I simply allow the track to read automation and play along those bank/parameter changes will effect my live input as the project plays?
 
That's basically what I'm looking for. Probably won't happen for quite a while but always gotta keep hope for the future. Cheers.
 
 

As long as you have monitoring on it should work just fine. 

Today zoning out at work, I was wondering the same thing. Thanks Beepster!